Joe

Joe
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Last week's birthday celebrations did not got exactly as I'd thought that they would.

First of all, birthday Tiffany was out of the country on her birthday. She was whooping it up in Vegas, lucky girl. This meant though that I did not get to talk to her on her birthday or wish her a happy birthday, in person, 2 days late, at Lucia's birthday party.

Speaking of Lucia's birthday party, we stayed about 45 minutes and then left. Unfortunately, Mark quit work a little early on Wednesday afternoon because he had a migraine. He still had one on Thursday morning and could not shake it. By the time I finished work on Thursday (he'd stayed home), he was feeling better, still fragile but better. We decided we would try to go to the party. It was being held at an absolutely fabulous restaurant downtown. We were the first to arrive (which surprised us). They were expecting about 25 people and it was WARM in the room already. Warm is not good for a migraine sufferer. Once folks started to arrive and order drinks, I could see Mark turning green. The perfumes, the alcohol, the kitchen smells, it was getting to be too much. We stayed long enough to have a very quick visit with Lucia's parents and her grandparents and then we left.

On the way home, we stopped off at Dong Nai for soup but even that didn't help Mark. I'd never seen him so sick and he almost never had a migraine for 2 days. Awful stuff. Friday morning, fortunately, he felt better and went back to work.

We had a pretty good weekend, did lots of stuff around the house, got some errands done. We thought a lot about Mark's dad Joe too. He passed away 3 years ago this weekend. It's really difficult for me to believe that 3 years have passed but they have. I think about Joe all of the time, sometimes at silly times, often times when Mark is cooking and I think about much Joe loved good food. We miss him, lots. 3 years, crazy.

recycling

lantern
Originally uploaded by Julep67

For our wedding, we bought a bunch of little battery operated, paper lanterns which were hung in the tents. They just offered a little splash of colour to an otherwise drab canopy. We also bought the pictured larger version of the lanterns and hung it in our gazebo (with strings of teeny tiny paper lanterns hung around the perimeter). It was simple and, I thought, pretty.

The battery operated paper lanterns should be in Alberta today I think. The lanterns will be used to decorate the site of my cousin Kelly's wedding in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta on Saturday. Her mum and dad (my lovely Auntie Karen & Uncle Mike) were transporting them to Alberta. I think it's going to be a surprise (but I also think that Kelly is too busy to read this so that's okay) for Kelly. I was just really happy to think that even though Mark and I couldn't get to Alberta for Kelly's wedding, our wedding lanterns could.

We enjoyed a nice long weekend here. Mark and I both took Friday off so we'd have a four-day break. On Friday, we spent a good sized chunk of the day running errands. We did get to visit my parents as well and pick up yet another fabulous wedding gift which had been left at their house. A family friend made us a beautiful quilt, I still cannot get over how generous and thoughtful folks have been. I'm enjoying it but it's so much more than I imagined!

Unfortunately, for the last couple of days (Monday and Tuesday), I was laid up feeling crappy. It was a combo of allergy weirdness, stomach wonkyness and my back misbehaving. I'm back at work today but am on the heating pad and am not moving much more than I absolutely have to. Tomorrow will be better than today has been. Friday will be better than Thursday, I know this because I deal with this once or twice a year. It's never fun but it always goes away, in time.

So that's the news from me for now. I will warn you though, we saw District 9 over the weekend and it's seriously the best movie I've seen since Slumdog Millionaire (and I don't usually like sci-fi movies) so I plan to rave a lot about it when I have more time. Be prepared!!

grandparents in training

Uncle Rod and Aunt Mary
Originally uploaded by Julep67

So, it's September. How awesome is that!?

There are many things to love about September:

- sunny lovely amazing weather
- tomatoes are tasting better now than they do all year
- new lunch boxes (my old one finally bit the dust after 10 years and I broke down and bought myself a snazzy new one)
- babies - a friend of mine had a baby girl yesterday (yay) and my cousin and his wife (the son of my gorgeous aunt and uncle pictured here) announced that they are expecting their first child
- long weekends and then some (taking tomorrow off and enjoying a four day weekend)
- new fences and gates at our dog park - extra safety is always a good thing

So yeah, 3 days in, September is already shaping up to be possibly the best month of the year!

happy birthday grandpa

me and my grandpa
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Today is the birthday of my grandfather, Lawrence Shanks.

I've been thinking about him a lot more than I usually do lately. Partly because today is his birthday and partly because of a review I read about the coffee shop at St Joseph's Oratory.. Thanks Ralph!

I often think about my grandfather. He was a really cool and smart guy and he was a massive Habs fan (just like my dad is) so I know he'd be happy that they're in the play offs this year. My grandfather died almost 25 years ago and I still miss him.

So yeah, before I start to water up and the screen goes all blurry, I just wanted to say Happy Birthday grandpa!

weekend update

gracie and sam
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I sure hope you like doggie photos because you can expect to see even more of them here. We have double the number of puppies at home so, it makes sense that I'll be taking double the number of photos of said puppies.

The weekend went very well. We all slept well on Friday night (Gracie in her crate, Sam on his bed) and spent Saturday all together, hanging out in the yard or in the house "bonding." Sam and Grace are doing lots of playful puppy wrestling. After they bore of that, they'll either attack rawhide chews or just lie in a sunbeam. It's really cute how well they are getting along. I love that small as Gracie is, she's scrappy.

Yesterday, I rearranged the furniture so that they'd have more open space to roar around in. They way they were tussling on Saturday, I was afraid that someone would be body checked into the furniture and get injured. It was a good excuse to clean too. I'm such a bad house keeper that unless I'm rearranging the furniture, I rarely worry about behind the sofa.

On Friday night, we had 86 kids at our door. We were down almost 50% from last year. Not sure what happened there, the weather was great but maybe because it was a Friday, more folks went to parties. Mark kept the dogs in the basement while I shelled out. Gracie was really good and sat under his desk, on his feet. Sam, on the other hand, stayed at the top of the stairs and barked every time someone came to the door.

Some of the costumes I saw were pretty cute although I was a little disturbed by the number of "pimps" I saw. I guess they are this year's "Harry Potter" because I didn't have one HP at the door all night.

This week, I'm going to see if I can work full days each day. I'm almost finished with my second course of antibiotics and am feeling a bit better. I still don't have a lot energy later in the day but I'm not too bad early in the day. It will get better, day by day, I know.

ethan

ethan
Originally uploaded by Julep67

All day yesterday, I suppose because of the anxiety I'd felt for the few days preceeding, I was exhausted. We slept in a little bit but I wanted to get up and get going with my chores because I was heading back to work.

In the mid-afternoon, chores done, Mark and I sat down to veg out and watch "The Big Lebowski." About 10 minutes into it, I fell asleep for about 5 minutes. I forced myself to wake up though because I thought that if I took a nap, I'd be up all night. I was so wrong!! I not only didn't take the nap, I didn't sleep last night. If I did, it was in 10 minute increments. Not fun.

Saturday wasn't a whole lot of fun either. My cousin's funeral was at 11 a.m. The day turned out to be sunny and warm which was nice for those of us who had to travel from out of town. The whole thing was just really really sad. I mean, I know that funerals generally are sad but there is a difference between attending the funeral of someone who lived to a ripe old age and someone who lived too short a life. My mum told me that the funeral home guessed that 700 to 800 folks visited on Friday. The church was packed on Saturday morning. I think that there very few people in the small town who didn't either know my cousin directly, or who knew her folks or brother.

The only really "good" thing I can think that came out of it was that it became a mini-family-reunion (as these things to). My 88 year old Great-Uncle Herbie (and he's not just a great uncle, he's an awesome uncle!) was there, my cousin Dave flew in from Calgary, I saw my Great-Uncle Jack and Great-Auntie Muff... I'd not seen any of these folks since 1997 when my grandmother died.

I hate how it happens that folks only gather like that during a funeral. Fortunately, next month, this same branch of the family will gather in Quebec for a wedding. It'll be good to see folks under happy circumstances. I hear that there's even going to be a dance contest with a 5lb Hershey bar as the prize for the first place couple. Hell, if the possibility of 5lbs of chocolate can't make us all feel better, nothing will!

ready for a tummy rub

ready for a tummy rub
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Today is Sam's birthday. He's had a pretty good birthday-week I think. Even though we had to slide out of town for a few hours earlier today (to attend my cousin's wake - more about that later), he had an awesome breakfast of eggs and turkey, got a gigantic raw hide bone/toy to chew on and went to the dog park twice. Not bad huh?? Between trips out of town and visits to the groomers, he's had a pretty much fun-packed 2 weeks. I must say we have too, at least up until the past couple of days.

The death of my cousin has bothered me a lot more than I thought it would. I guess I figured that because she'd been so sick, for so long, that when the time finally came, I'd be okay (or as okay as you are in these situations). Right now though, I think I feel a little bit relieved. See, this afternoon, we went to the visitation and I saw her husband and parents for the first time since she'd died. I hadn't actually seen them in a while and it was tough. See, her parents are my godparents, her dad is my mum's oldest brother and I knew that when I saw him, I'd lose it. I promised myself I wouldn't but when I hugged him, I totally lost my composure on him. He just laughed when I said, "I promised myself I wouldn't do this" because I think everyone was saying that to him. He's been a rock through all of this stuff. I hope that in a few days, he can collapse into a puddle for a while (if that's what he needs - I think it's what I would need).

There were dozens of people there when we arrived. We stood in line for about an hour waiting to get into the room. By the time we were near the door way, we heard that they had started turning folks away and asking them to come back to the evening session. It was not something I'd ever seen before. Of course, all of her mum's siblings were there, with their children and grandchildren. I'd forgotten how large their family was. It was really overwhelming. Seeing my family though, did help and I feel like I'll be able to retain some semblance of cool tomorrow and keep things together. I'm not saying that I won't have dozens of tissues in my pockets but I think I'll be a little less rattled. I hope so anyway.

the photographers

the photographers
Originally uploaded by Julep67

This photo is a few years old, I guess it's five years old now that I think about it. I took it on Easter Weekend 2003 at my Aunt Mary's home. My Aunt Karen & Uncle Mike were home from out west and as much of the family as we could muster were gathered at the Cooks' for Easter Dinner.

The story behind this photo is that everyone was taking a photo of my mum and her siblings (from left to right, the photographers are Meg - daughter of Mary - my mum's sister; Karen - wife of Mike - my mum's younger brother; Kathy - daughter of John - my mum's older brother; and my dad). I think that this was the last photo I had taken of Kathy and it's always made me smile because when I turned around, it was like looking at some paparazzi.

Kathy died earlier today. She had fought a very long battle with a malignant brain tumor. I think it was about 10 years ago now that she was first diagnosed. Kathy, her husband Jeff and her parents (my godparents) went to hell and back with this disease but the fight is now over for them.

Kathy was my first, first cousin. She was the oldest grandchild on my mum's side, I was the second oldest. This morning, I went through old family photos of us when we were kids. Looking at the pair of us in so many photos, we couldn't have looked more different: Kathy had gorgeous, long dark hair, I had my little blond pixie cuts. Most of the time, I was in a yellow dress and Kathy was in a purple dress. In a few of the photos of the two of us, we were up in a tree in our Nana's yard and I have to say, those are my best memories of my time spent with Kathy as a child... climbing Nana's tree and colouring the bark with our Crayola 64.

Tonight I talked to my cousin Meg on the phone for a while. We were talking about Kathy's love of all things purple and we've both decided to not wear black to Kathy's funeral on Saturday. We'll both be wearing purple, for Kathy, and if anyone has a problem with that, well, they can just suck it.

Meeting Austin

austin
Originally uploaded by Julep67

While I was out of town on the weekend with my mum (at the shower), I had an opportunity to finally meet my cousin Kelly's son, Austin. He's 8 and this is the first time we've met, sad or what!?

He's visiting my Aunt & Uncle (his grandparents) here in Ontario. Austin lives with his mum in Alberta and, until last September, my Aunt & Uncle lived there too. I can't imagine what a huge adjustment it was for them all to be so far away from each other. It also explains why I haven't met Austin before. I think the last time I saw his mum was in 1997 when my grandmother died.

When we saw Austin, my mum grabbed him for a hug (she's met him several times on visits out west). I introduced myself and shook his hand. I think he was a little surprised (he seemed braced for another hug) but was cool with that. After a while, we deserted the "grown ups" and went down to the basement to play a game on the computer.

I'm not sure if this is your experience or not but I kind of like how, even at the ripe old age of 41, I can still hang at the kids table.

shower ladies

shower ladies
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Over the weekend, I travelled to Smiths Falls with my folks for a bridal shower. The shower was for my cousin Tim's partner, Sarah. They are getting all hitched up in September and this shower was held by our arm of the family.

It was a much smaller shower than the last one I'd been to and that was okay with me. Games were kept to a minimum, the food was tasty and everyone was very friendly and sweet. Just like you'd expect from us!! Interestingly, it was my cousin Pat's daughter first time at an "all-girl party." She's about 4 I think and seemed to be enjoying herself and was super well behaved for someone so young.

Of course, going out of town on Saturday sort of threw a hole into the weekend and a lot of stuff I try to get out of the way early in the weekend had to be postponed until Sunday. We still managed to get Sam out to the park a few times (in between errands and rain showers) and got a shitload of stuff accomplished around the house. I'm constantly amused at how much more stuff you can get done when you're forced to do it in a shorter period of time.

So for now, at least, the yard looks good. We're on vacation next week and I suspect that we'll be back out there puttering some more but in the meantime, I'm trying to get my desk cleaned off and to not look at the clock too much.

giant sleeping fur ball

giant sleeping fur ball
Originally uploaded by Julep67

it's been a busy couple of days around here.

on Thursday, poor Sam was sick. Well, not sick so much as inconvenienced. When we went out in the morning for a poo, he was constipated and was really whiney and obviously in discomfort. Eventually, with the help of some olive oil and extra food, we were able to get things moving. The culprit was a piece of string, most likely ingested during the great living room fiasco of the day before.

Mark stayed home with him during the morning and eventually everything was okay although a bath happened in the process. Mark discovered that Sam loves baths so that's something at least.

Yesterday, poor Mark was sick. His kidney stone (the last one!) is on the move again and is causing him to experience all kinds of back pain. He's on the heating pad right now and that seems to be helping.

Anyway, we're up early this morning because Sam is finally on our work routine and that means everyone is up at 5! I'm thinking that later on, it's naps for everyone!!

Teddy

Teddy
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Today has been a very good day.

Right now, as I type this, I've got Abbey Road on the stereo and a sleeping puppy at my feet. LIfe is good.

I think it's pretty much a given that my posts will be a little puppy-centric for a while.

We had a pretty full day and it was full of firsts for Sam. Since we got him home, he's not met any new folks (although he did bark at a lady who came to the door yesterday trying to sell us a little bit of religion - it was hard to discourage him but we did).

This afternoon, my parents came over for Easter lunch. My mum always does the holiday meals but we thought that it would be a nice change for her to not have to cook or to clean up. When they arrived, Sam was really a good boy. He didn't bark too much, although he wanted to. We have been using some of the Cesar Millan tips we picked up from his show and they are working rather well. I was able to calm him down after Mark got him to sit. He was pretty nervous when they came into the house but eventually he settled down.

For whatever reason, he never really warmed up to my dad. He would go to my mum, very cautiously but even when my dad was offering him a cookie, he wouldn't go near him. I'm sure that the next time we see them, it'll be easier. Sam has had a lot of changes to experience this weekend.

He was pretty well behaved all through dinner. I gave him his kong bone with some peanut butter in it when we sat down and when he was tired of that, he had a nap on the floor in the kitchen (where we were eating).

After mum and dad left, Mark cleaned up the kitchen. We had decided that we should go out for an hour again today, like we did yesterday. I put the crate in the hallway, in, I thought, the same spot Mark and done yesterday. Sam whimpered a bit when we left but he stopped it by the time we were in the driveway. When we pulled into the driveway an hour later, guess who was smiling at us from the living room window? Yeah, Sam. He was pretty happy to see us and we realized that he had been able to get himself between the crate and the wall and therefore out of the kitchen and into the living room.

We didn't have any accidents so, no harm done this time, right? When I walked into the kitchen, Mark was holding a plate in his hand. "How many eggs were on this plate?" I looked and realized that two halves of a hard-boiled egg were missing. Mark had left them on the table. Sam also ate about a cup of cooked potato which was on the table as well. So yeah, no holistic puppy food for him tonight.

This photo is of another puppy. His name was Teddy and he was my aunt's puppy. He was a spitz pekinese and looks a lot like Sam. My mum kindly scanned her Teddy photos and I posted them with our pet photos on flickr.

christmas tree

christmas tree
Originally uploaded by Julep67

merry merry everyone!

I hope that your christmas day or, for those of you who don't celebrate a holiday today, tuesday, is going well so far.

Things are pretty chilled around our house today. We slept in a little bit which was good. Yesterday, about mid-morning, I developed some flu-like symptoms which knocked me on my ass for most of the day. Mark went out and did our cookie tray deliveries all alone while I stayed home and felt crummy.

Today is marginally better than yesterday although a lingering headache and dull muscle ache (mostly in my back and shoulders) remains. At the moment, we've got all of our parcels assembled and lined up by the door, ready to go into the van when we are ready to leave the house.

We're still schlepping around in our jammies at the moment though so I don't expect we'll be going anywhere for a couple of hours. Later today, we'll be seeing my family and we'll make a quick stop en route, to drop some gifts off to my godson and his family.

I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun once we get where we are going. On Christmas Day I'm always glad that we don't have far to travel because really, no matter what the weather, we could always make the trip.

To you and yours, all the very best for the holiday seasons, whichever way you celebrate, or don't, no pressure!

the birthday girl

the birthday girl
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Happy Birthday mum!!

Today is her birthday and we stopped by for a little visit earlier this evening. From what we heard, I think she's been having a super birthday, as she should!!

For the first time since the water main construction started, our water was turned off for a while this afternoon. I had just put a load of laundry into the machine when I heard a knock at the door. The fellow said it would be off for about an hour but it was less than that, maybe only 45 minutes.

So far, I am happy to report that the construction folks have been polite and courteous. I'm not sure if I'll be feeling this way when they get to the section of the street in front of our house and we're not able to access our driveway but so far, I can't complain.

middle of nowhere

middle of nowhere
Originally uploaded by Julep67.

We're back from the big city. We got back last night actually. It was a long day but we both felt really relieved when it was all over.

It felt good to do an unveiling for Joe because we'd promised him that we would. We were both a little surprised by how relieved we both were when it was over, I guess it had been bothering us a little more than we realized. Joe's twin, Nate, was there, as was Nate's family and a couple of Mark's friends.

Mark's friend, Jack, was supposed to do the formal part of it but (sadly) he had a funeral to go to. Another friend, Rick, stepped in at the last minute and helped us out. He did a terrific job with the actual prayers and stuff. I said a few words on behalf of Mark and I. Anyone who knows me can appreciate how tough that would be for me. There are few things I dislike more than getting up in front of folks and speaking. Add to that, talking about something as personal as a deceased family member and you just about imagine how shakey I was. I had written something out and intended to read from it but in the end, I just said the parts of it that I could remember. I worked a couple of laughs into it to break the sad mood a bit. People told me afterwards that they thought I did a good job. I think that they were just being polite because I cried through about half of it.

During the service part, both Mark and I kept one eye on the parking lot, watching for his asshole brother to show up. We hadn't told him when it was happening but we still were afraid he might be there (we had the unveiling the day before what would have been Joe's 82nd birthday). I think that getting through it without having to push his brother down and stomp on his toupee.

Afterwards, Mark's uncle took us all out for lunch. It was a really nice meal and we got to visit with Mark's cousins and their children. We hadn't seen them all winter, not since Joe's funeral. It was good to get caught up on family news with them, and to see Uncle Nate.

The rest of our day in Toronto was spent doing some errands and eventually ending up at the home of some friends who live down town and who have the most beautiful, bright 3 year old twin boys you'll ever meet. We're trying to convince them to come to Kingston for a little holiday in the summer. It didn't work last summer but I plan to be obnoxious about it this year.

So now, we're a little pooped. I think there is a nap in my immediate future. We'll get caught up eventually though. It's just incredibly nice to have all of that behind us finally.

hey dad, happy birthday!

summer sky
Originally uploaded by Julep67.

hey!!

Today is my dad's birthday. He's 65 today and, "officially" an old fart! Many folks would be retiring at 65 but dad took early retirement a few years ago so he's well practiced in the art of retirement. He often jokes that he needs to go back to work to have a day off. But I don't know if I really I believe that. I'm sure my mum would let him have a day off if he asked really nicely!

We popped by my parents' place after work for a visit and a piece of cake. It was nice to see them. On Easter weekend, we were there for lunch but I wasn't feeling all that great so we cut the visit short. I find that in the spring and summer, we tend to see them more often. It's not like they live a million miles away but in the winter, we just don't go far at all. Anyway, my dad's not one who likes to be made a fuss about but I like to at least see him face to face on his birthday, when I can.

beyond amused

table top
Originally uploaded by Julep67.

When we got home tonight, there was a message on our voice mail from Mark's brother. Given that Mark's dad is dead and buried, we never expected to hear from him again, we'd have preferred that actually. This is a man who didn't have the decency to go to his own mother's funeral. I could give you a huge long list of all of the ways that this guy has behaved in a less than honourable fashion over the years but quite frankly, it would seem like I was making it up if I did post it.

Joe was buried last year, in September. We've recently made arrangements to have the engraving on the stone finished so that we can have an unveiling. Apparently, "he can get us a deal" on the engraving. Mark was pretty pissed at the message, so was I. The last time we heard from him was via a lawyer he'd hired to find out if he was mentioned in Joe's will (he wasn't). After that, we figured that we never hear from him again.

Here is a guy who, in the five years that his father lived in Kingston, made the trip from Toronto to visit only once. At that time, he walked into Joe's room at the nursing home and made an insulting remark to him.

Anyway, I offered to call him back, explain that everything was under control and to ask him, politely, to never call here again. When I called him, I used my "work voice" on the phone, introduced myself (the two times I've been in the same room with him he refused to speak to me) and told him that we had received his message but that everything was already arranged and had been for some time.

After that, I told him that Mark would appreciate it if he didn't phone us anymore. He said, "drop dead lady" and hung up the phone. Mark was pissed. Mark took the phone, called the jerk back and, well, voices were raised, things were said and by the end of the conversation, the brother and his wife were arguing with each other on the phone. Mark bated them brilliantly. Over the years, their son has kept in touch with Mark so we've heard some pretty crazy stories about what goes on in their household. They had no idea that Mark knew some pretty sketchy stuff about them. The pair of them were both on the phone and getting really defensive. Eventually, they turned on each other. Mark held the phone up and I could hear them yelling at each other. These people are nuts.

It was really amusing. Mark's held on to a lot of anger toward his brother over the years. Last night, was able to release it because he finally saw that his brother is living in his very own, special kind of hell. I know this is schadenfreude but seriously, after the amount of pain and suffering Mark's brother inflicted on everyone in their family (not only Mark but his parents, his aunt and uncle, this guy's own children), it's comforting to know that he's miserable.

Fortunately, he's not been invited to the unveiling. He doesn't even know that we have one arranged. The best part really, about all of this is that Mark's finally been able to let go of all the venom he's felt and just laugh at the schmuck.