“At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don’t really expect it. It’s like one day you realize that the fairy tale is slightly different than your dream. The castle, well it may not be a castle. And it’s not so important that it’s happily ever after – just that it’s happy right now. See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you. And once in a while, people may even take your breath away.”
-Dr. Meredith Grey

I'm back...a week's gone by...and feeling good!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our trip was so wonderful, 15 of us had a blast...lots to do in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, I had no idea. Lots of shopping (too much!) and lots of touristy stuff on the main drag. Had alot of fun, we took in a local dinner show called Hoot N Holler and so much fun was had when we all went to Olde Time Photos...we have the Madame's and the Floozies :-) the dressing room was a blast! I'm sure the paparazzi was in there..

the drive down was amazing, thought it was going to be long and tedious, actually it zipped by before we knew it...and the ride home was even faster..that's a first!

Thanks to all the ladies that joined us for the trip, the camaraderie was amazing, meals were fabulous and sleep was rare.

Next year, our third annual, we might try northern ontario :-) great photos at the end of september for sure....

I leave you with some evidence..

..

Only 4 more big sleeps!

and we've been counting down since the spring.

This Sunday, myself and 15 friends are headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a week of scrapbooking and sightseeing in the Smoky Mountains. All our plans are made, everything is organzied, except me! I haven't started packing my supplies yet :-(

We will be back next Sunday, Sept 30th, just in time for me to go to beggin' court on October 1st to try to get a speeding ticket reduced. Wish me luck!

Here are some pics of our 7 bedroom lodge we booked.

Habitat for Humanity - Waterloo

About 7 months ago I signed up at a Volunteer Fair to help with Habitat for Humanity when the Waterloo build was ready to start. I got the call last week and have started helping. I volunteered for Parking, Registration and Food, any of those three...right now I'm on Parking duty, it's an early start and I'm volunteering 3 days a week.

I couldn't believe the difference in the four houses from one day to the next. The first day there was only the cement foundation, day 2 each home had all the wood sticks attached! They are fast!!!

Each family that is picked to live in these homes have to contribute 500 hours (family combined) labour, if the family has a single parent they have to contribute 250 hours. Their mortgages are either interest free or very low interest and are amortized over a period the family can afford to repay. It's a great great organization and I feel honoured to be involved with it...

Sunday was Grandparents Day!

and we had no idea either! Bryan and Hiba invited us over for the day, we were looking forward to a nice visit...we were so surprised to find this on the door -

Hiba and I went for lunch and shopping in Stratford, clearly not enough time! Rick and Bryan were installing their garage door opener and watching over Layla. We had a wonderful dinner, a special dessert to compliment the special day.

Layla gave both Rick and I coffee mugs with her picture on them, they are so cute! Thanks honey!

Our new baby!

Well after many many months of admiring our baby on the store shelves, Rick took the plunge and made a big purchase. We are now proud parents to a Canon Rebel XTi, it's a digital SLR. I love it so much, it's a beautiful camera. We also got a telephoto lens. I can't wait to experiment with it. I played with it with the professional photographer at Eva's birthday party. He suggested I buy the National Geographic Field Guide to Photography...he said I'd never need another book on 'how tos'. So I have my Nikon Coolpix 5400 for sale with lots of extras. If anyone is interested please let me know.

Facebook or should I say Crackbook!

I finally broke down in the middle of August and registered with Facebook. I've added a few friends and hope to find many more...so if you are on there and we haven't connected, let me know ok? I spend alot of time on there. I've noticed I'm spending a little less time each day. I like getting growing and hatching gifts, am pretty good at Texas Hold 'Er and are ok with the TV trivia game I have. I always thought that Crackbook was for students but there are alot of us old folks on there. Even my brother Jimi is on there and he is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy old heehee!

There is a link on the left side of my blog, come around and visit.

Ricks Mom's 80th Birthday party in Fort McMurray, Alberta

yes another birthday party! Rick, Chris and Sandbox left Ontario on Tuesday eve, Aug 28th to drive across country to surprise his Mom on her 80th birthday. I flew out of Hamilton on the 30th. I got to Fort McMurray a day before Rick and the boys. I was with Chris's daughter Melissa, Rick's sister and niece Linda and Tammy. We had a good time getting all the fixin's for the party from decorations to food. We had a day of shopping and planning and before we knew it the party day was here. We made all the food and decorated the house. we all had time for an hour rest and a shower before the guests arrived. Eva was so surprised to see us and Linda and Tammy, we were the only ones that made it in from out of town for the surprise. There was a professional photographer on hand, can't wait to see the pictures. We finally gave Eva the Two Uteruses book!!!! yay!!! I handed it over after 4 years of working on it! it ended up being almost 10 lbs and 84 pages!!! definitely a coffee table book, it's a little heavy for your lap. Eva liked it alot and I'm sure she'll enjoy it more on her own time in the quiet of her own home. Rick I flew home on labour day, we got home after dinner and was totally zonked. All our visitors have gone and all our commitments are fulfilled. We are going to unwind for a few weeks!
the birthday hat sure does get around eh?

And another Dang Twang...

ha ha ha !!! Rick's brother Chris, his son Sandbox, Rick and I went to Port Rowan on Saturday August 25th for a Bluegrass Jam. It started at 2 pm and was very low key. As it turns out it was in a very small campground and the campers were the bluegrass musicians. They were all really good and a Jam it was. Everyone one was walking around with beer, cept for us of course. Around 4 o'clock the guys went into the town to get beer...we had so much fun. We ended up leaving during the supper break and coming back for the evening part. The campers gave us beer and wouldn't take anything for it. We made lots of new friends, vowed to come back next year and camp. Chris said he'd come to Ontario next year, same time :-) We left around 10 pm so we could be back to Bryan's so Sandbox could watch the Ultimate Fighting match on the free satellite. I went straight to bed and the guys ordered pizza and watch the fights. I was a little sluggish the next day but that didn't stop us all from heading to London to see Shane and his truck in the Canadian Nationals Truck Show. It was darn hot! Shane was happy to see us, some of the trucks were pretty cool...

and another dang twang....

Rick's 50th Birthday BBQ

okay, this will be the last entry about rick's birthday, heehee! it's starting to feel like everyday's rick's birthday. We had an afternoon bbq on August 18th with as many of Rick's family that could attend along with a few close friends. We had a great time, played Hillbilly Golf, Washers and Holey Board. We had a campfire in the evening. We were happy to see everyone and Rick was at a loss for words, he felt so honoured that everyone came. We made some blender drinks, had lots to eat and lots of laughs....I'll leave you with some pictures of the last birthday party of the summer.....