I Often Wonder Woman

Life's Good.....

2011-07-20T14:21:00.003-04:00

Hey all.,,
I have been a busy beaver lately and things will only get busier here. The changes that have happened in our lives in the span of one year is astonishing. There's a lot of news to report..some big, some not so big,
First of all, NAI Hubby just got his realty license and is starting with a very up and coming company. I cannot express how proud of him I am, By nature, he is a very cautious guy, and for him to make such a huge career change was a big leap of faith. I am fully confident that he is going to do well. I know that he feels like it's a fresh start and is really looking forward to delving into his new career. Way to go, honey!!
As for me, yesterday was my birthday and it was the best birthday ever! I got my acceptance letter from a Christian University. I have decided to go for my PHD in Christian Counselling. Of course, first I need to get my Bachelors and Masters, which they offer as a combined course. So, I'm all signed up and ready to go. I am so excited about this, I could spit up!! I'm going to be a doctor....hahaha. That could scare anyone! Actually, Holly and I have a running joke...we look at each other and exclaim, "I'm going to be a Dr.", and then we make these weird fish faces and laugh our heads off. However, Holly is not good at making a fish face and I keep telling her that if she doesn't get better at it, she will only become a weatherman. Mother knows how these things work!! Hilarious.
Also, for my special day, NIA Hubby bought me a beautiful pearl pendent and matching earrings. I am crazy about pearls. And then he took me for dinner at a nice European restaurant. All in all, it was truly a lovely day. Later this week we will be having a b-day bar-b-que with the kids.
Holly is doing very well. She's plugging away at school and has made some friends and is out and about a lot. I actually miss the little brat sometimes, but I'm very happy that she is becoming more independent. As much as I'd like to keep her forever, it is time for her to get out in the world a bit. Sob.....lol.
The only bad news has been my health. My kidneys are not in good shape and I will soon be on dialysis, and on the doner list. My fibromyalgia has progressed to the point where I must use a wheelchair if I want to shop or do anything that entails walking or standing too long. Whatever! Blah, blah, blah. I don't even care! I am such a happy little puppy these days, I take the health crap in stride. If I have to council from a wheelchair, so what, I can do that. Sometimes I feel like I can do anything...and my family says I can.

Geez, it's Always Something....

2011-03-22T21:23:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it's a pain being me...
I went to see the kidney Dr. yesterday and my kidneys are totally mad at me. I have only 16% kidney function left. I'm so dumb sometimes...when the Dr. first said that to me I almost burst out with...'16% out of what?!' OMG, thank goodness I didn't...lol.
Anyway, she said they are going to try and keep what functions I still have but if it should go down to 10%, I have to go on dialysis. Yikes!
They gave me the, 'you are now living with kidney disease' speech and gave me a bunch of pamphlets. I have an appointment to see a special kidney dietician on the 31st of March. Apparently, you can't eat so many things when your kidneys are compromised..crap. Even stuff that's good for you..like tomatoes and beans of any kind. Kind of wierd.
So, I did something today that no non-medical person should ever do. I did some research at the Kidney Assoc. of Canada website. I wish I hadn't now...this is going to really suck, I think. Sigh....
Ah, well, life goes on...
So, I don't need a chrystal ball to know what's ahead for me in the next while...Drs., Drs, and more Drs. Sorry people, my dance card is full..lol.
Anyhoo, aside from that, life is good..it really is. I'm enjoying my life as it stands and will continue to do so no matter what's going on. This crap never really stops me from enjoying stuff, and I have a pretty good attitude about these things. Possibly I'm just too dense to comprehend it all, but whatever.
Take care,

Make No Mistake.....

2011-03-21T01:33:00.005-04:00

Well, one could certainly become discouraged by watching the news these days. So much terrible news from every corner of the globe.

I am constantly finding myself praying for the people of Japan. They are saying that there are like 9,000 people dead and 12,000 people still missing. They seem like biblical numbers to me. We have donated to the Red Cross and I would encourage everyone to give, but if you can't give, think of and pray for them. It's not going to be o.k. there for a very long time. Make no mistake, anything we can do is a help and we must not forget about them in a month or two when it's not a top news story anymore.

Then there is the mess going on in the Middle East. Those poor people in Libya are going through hell. Their lives will never be the same again either, I'm sure.

France, Spain, U.S., the Emirates, Britain etc..are sending all their best weapons and aircraft to overthrow this brutal regime. I am sort of wondering what Canada is sending over??
Above is a picture of our Navy, at the ready to assist the allies...sigh....

The media has gone to great pains to avoid using the word 'war' in connection to this campaign against Libya, but make no mistake, this indeed is a war. There, I said it. It may even turn into a world war when all is said and done.

Keep praying....

Take care

I'm O.K....

2011-03-18T19:44:00.002-04:00

So, I'm O.K. for now. My creatnine levels are pretty high and getting higher by the minute. I have an early appointment to see a Nepherologist (or something like that) who is a kidney Dr. and with and endocrinologist which is a diabetic Dr. They let me go from emerg so I thought my Dr. over-reacted, but as he told me, it fast-tracked me to see these specialists. Otherwise, I would have had a very long wait and by then I could be in serious trouble.
I'm a mess, but I'm not dying this week...good thing cause I have laundry. Besides, my house is really messy right now and there's just no room to die!!
One time I had a Dr. ask me, after looking at my blood sugar levels, if I was trying to kill myself...and without missing a beat I replied, "Yes, but I'm not very pro-active...a bit lazy, maybe.." He thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard...I was pretty serious though. Good news is, I don't feel that way anymore, and I am striving everyday to try and take control of my health for my family's sake and my own. I'm too happy to die right now.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. It worked!!
Take care,

News and Views...

2011-03-09T21:33:00.003-05:00

Well, I know it's been awhile again..
I have been so busy lately. I am happily doing the 'grandma thing' and am crocheting hexagon blankets for my precious little people. They are a lot of work, I must say, but worth the effort. They are looking good.
Also, for Christmas I received a Kindle. OMG...I'm in love. I have not been able to read a book for about 2 years because of my eyesight and now I can read again. Believe it or not, I'm reading War and Peace. Boy, what a good book. I love my Kindle.
Have not been feeling very energetic lately and just feel blah in general. I was not able to get a family doctor in this area until last month finally. So on Monday I went for my blood test as I have a full physical scheduled for next Monday. However, my Dr. phoned me tonight with the results of my blood and urine tests and he wasn't a happy camper. Apparently, my kidneys are failing. He wanted me to go right to the hospital and get admitted but I talked him out of it. But NIA hubby is insisting I go in tomorrow. Old poop! But I don't wanna.....sigh.
Apparently I'm in pretty bad shape...snort....who knew?? Actually, I really suspected something was wrong with my kidney functions but I figured as long as I was peeing, what could be wrong? I thought if my kidneys failed, I would stop peeing and then I'd go into the hospital. But the Dr. says I'm not peeing the right stuff and I am full of toxins. I wonder what would happen if I spit on someone??? Kidney cooties I suppose....
Guess who's taking their Kindle to the hospital??
So, I'll keep you posted as soon as I get back. Please send prayers and kind thoughts my way...I may need them.
I will put up some pics of the new animals we have now.
Take care,

Happy New Year All!!

2011-01-14T20:18:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been fun around here lately. We have all had the flu since basically Christmas Eve. I was really looking forward to this Christmas as it was the first one here with my grandbabies. Then the challenge just became to survive making all the food. Ugh!! However, even with the challenges, we had a great time together, as a whole family. Even on Christmas night, poor Rob had to leave right after dinner as he was feeling terrible. However, in spite of it all, it was still a great Christmas altogether.
Holly, Ashley, Rob and I all chipped in together and bought NIA Hubby a beautiful fish aquarium, including all the trimmings. We got a great deal on it from the classified ads and it even came with a beautiful hand-made cabinet and a lot of fish accessories such as bridges, plants, castles etc... Don't tell him I told you this, but he actually cried when he saw what it was. He loved it and had always wanted one. It was so nice to see him so happy. God bless his heart, he will kill me for writing this, but it was a beautiful sight to me. I just love that man so much!! I honestly don't know how long we've been married, but we've been together for 10 years and I still feel so in love with him. I don't think I'll ever tire of loving this man. And he spoiled me this Christmas with the most beautiful camera ever. It's one of those new ones....the Canon Rebel. I really wanted it, but in a million years, I never thought I'd own one. And Holly bought me the greatest thing. It is a picture frame that....how do I explain it....it shows a slide show of pictures. You actually have to plug it in! I have no idea of how to use it, but it's going to be great when I take some great pics with my camera and then put them in the frame. What will they think of next?? I asked Holly how we would push the pictures into the frame and she said you have to push them in manually. I believed her until NAI Hubby said she was making fun of me and it wasn't true. Whatever...brat!
We only had one sad spot over Christmas, and that was the death of Poppy. I miss her and all her badness. Poor Bailey. But he's doing fine.
I have been wanting to go to the bird sanctuary ever since getting my camera, but as I've said, been sick on an unbelievably consistent basis. I hope I get there soon, and will post some pics on my photo blog a.s.a.p.
Now for some 'things you hardly ever get to say'....
1) I discovered that I love the smell of Ozenol. I cut my arm and when NIA Hubby put some on my cut, I noticed how clean it smelled. So, every once in awhile, Hubby would catch me sniffing my arm. Somewhere in between all this, Hubby said he was going to make me some coffee and I asked him if I could have a glass of water too. Without batting an eye, he had the nerve to call me an..'arm sniffing, double drinker'! Well, I never....At first I thought..'sticks and stones..etc' but then I thought...'Cool, how often do you get to say that?'
2) Me, talking earnestly to Holly...'Do you realize that we don't have a long distance plan on our phone?? What if I wanted to call Peru or even Romania. Well, I just couldn't could I??' I really hate it when she gives me one of her blank stares.
3) 'The sharks have been hiding in the trees for 2 days now.' (Me noticing the aquarium.)
4) 'I think I am actually Eastern European because all I ever feel like eating these days are black bread and liverwurst.'
5) 'I think the dog peed in my shoe....again!'
6) 'Look, even the animals are in the Christmas spirit...the cat has tinsel sticking out of her butt!'
Anyhoo, I'd like to wish you all a very good 2011. May God bless you all and make this the best year ever!

Oh dear, Oh dear......sorry, with an explanation.

2010-11-15T19:15:00.003-05:00

I am finally back. I know, it's been too long, but I was having some trouble with my computer and could not see any colour in my blog, therefore making it impossible to write anything. I have finally had my computer fixed and I'm ready to go. I've missed writing on here.

So, lets catch u all up on what's new around here! In the obituary section....we lost Bunny and had to have her put down. She was a very sick girl so we let her go. Our poor baby. We now have two other dogs and 3 cats in addition to the others. What a petting zoo!

I am living right next door to my wonderful grandbabies and I love it. I don't miss anything now. I will be putting up new pics a.s.a.p. of both kids and animals.I have loved my life since moving here. I've made some great friends and enjoying my family.

Next Thursday, Holly is taking Ashley on a her dream 4 day holiday to New York City. Ashley has always wanted to go there so they are heading out on a bus tour and will be back Sunday. Ashley is so excited as they will be seeing the Rockettes Christmas Extravaganza and dining at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants. I'll be making sure that the babies are being fed and Rob isn't going crazy.

I will be going back to school for my BA in Christian Counseling so I'm excited. Keeps me out of the pool halls..ha, ha.

Holly is doing great, but she's the worst driver ever! Worries me sometimes, but she doesn't go far, thank goodness. She's doing well in school and is keeping at it.

That's all for now, but don't worry, I'll be back!

Tory

Happy New Year!!! O.k. I'm back....

2010-03-05T02:41:00.001-05:00

I bet you guys thought I fell off the face of the earth by now. I didn't, but what a ride it has been.
So, I left the job at the shelter, as they wouldn't let me get involved at all except to cook all day. I went in to the directors office and told her exaclty how I felt and she offered me a job there. I said no and left that day.
I then went on to enjoy the rest of the summer at the lovenest and had the grandkids up. We had a ball at the beach together. I realized how much I'm really hating it being so far away from them and missing so much of their growing up.
You know, I'm not one of those 'kid people'; I just don't like little kids that much, but my grandkids totally have my heart and I really love spending time with them. Even after a week of a messy and noisy house, I still don't want them to go.
So, at the end of the summer we had to make a discision as to where we wanted to live. We ended up back in Toronto, not far from NAi Hubby's mother. Which was handy. We were able to have her over all the time for dinner and now that Holly was driving, she would take her shopping and she loved having a 'grand daughter' as much as Holly liked having a grandmother. Mom spoiled Holly silly and even paid her tuition into pastoral college. I was floored. That was so generous of her. Anyway, Holly was definately her favourite person on the planet.
So, Ashley, Rob and the kidlets came down for the Chistmas holidays and Holly went back with them to spend some time with her sister. She ended up staying there for nearly all of January and kept phoning and saying that she wished that we would move back to our old area to be near Ashley and the kids. I didn't think Holly would ever want to go back there again. I was telling NAI Hubby this and he suddenly said, 'O.k., let's move there.' I was stunned. I would never want to live in this scuzzy little town again but the area is gorgeous and I actually missed it.
So, Holly and Ashley were thrilled that we would live close together finally, as that's what we had planned all along, but Rob is a small town boy and Toronto just wasn't for him.(and I didn't blame him!) So, Holly came back home to help pack and I went out to Ashley's house to look for a place to live. I was there for about two weeks when Hubby called and said that they had to take his mother into the hospital with stomach pain. I was quite worried, but not overly as she was a pretty healthy 72 year old woman. She was still living in her own house and was very indepenent.
The next day Hubby called to say that her bowels were leaking and she was toxic and they would need to go in and repair the leak. I knew then it was very serious. I told Hubby I should come home and he said not to because the Dr.'s felt they could fix it.
After the operation, she had one good day then one bad, and it went on that way for a few days. She began to have respiratory distress and very quickly things went downhill from there. My poor Hubby called me in hysterics last monday pleading for me to get home a.s.a.p. I have never heard Hubby like that before and it really freaked me out. I felt desperately helpless. I grabbed my insulin, a few meds and Ashley and I hit the road. I was so afraid I would not get there in time. And I really didn't want my Hubby to have to go through this alone. Plus, I wanted to see this precious lady one more time. She was so good to me. I just felt sick when we started on our journey home.
Ashley doesn't have her full liscence yet, so she is not allowed to drive on major hiways, so we had to take a slower secondary highway from just outside Ottawa to Toronto. On a regular highway, it would take about 5 hours. It was all good going up until Kingston, the halfway point. We suddenly were hit by a blizzard so bad, we had to drive at a crawl. Ashley is a good driver, so neither of us was worried, but we knew this was going to be a very looooong drive home. I was praying for two things, 1- We would get there safely and 2- We would get there in time.
Then it got dark and Ashley was having a terrible time seeing. She couldn't tell what part of the road was the part we should be driving on. It was not busy, but there were still some cars coming towards us on the other side. I could tell Ashley was a bit nervous. And with my eyes, I could barely see Ashley, never mind the road. There were two cars coming towards us and Ashley turned the wheel just slightly to make sure we were on our own side when we suddenly spun out in front of the two oncoming cars. And just as suddenly, the car spins around and we end up in the ditch on our side of the street, with our front tires totally in the ditch. We were missed by just a hair by these two cars. When we finally came to a stop. Ashley was completely unhinged. She was shaking so badly I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Nof one of those two cars stopped to see if we were alright; they just kept on driving. Great, out in the middle of nowhere, blizzard conditions, no clue where we even were, and my kid's falling apart beside me. Hmmm, what to do. Finally I asked Ashley if the car was a front wheel drive. She was still in a panic and said she couldn't remember. Finally, a guy that was behind us stopped and came over to the car. I asked him if he knew if our car was a front wheel drive and he said yes. I asked him where we were and he mentioned a Native Reserve. He said he'd go back to his car and call for help. I'm thinking tow trucks and hassles etc. so I told Ashley to just floor it and we'd get out of there. She did and voila, we were out. What really had her shaken up was that she's afraid of the airbags in the car. She is a very tiny girl and has to sit pretty close to the wheel to reach the pedals. She has heard so many stories about the airbags going off on small people and really injuring them.
O.K. Back on the road....30 K/H....sometimes 20 K/H...poor Ashley, and the weather was getting worse with every kilometer. And she was very freaked out because she had barely touched the wheel and wasn't even near the break and we spun so bad. It freightened her that it could happen again at any time for no reason.
So, we're crawling and up ahead we see a bunch of cop cars etc. and there was an officer standing in the middle of the road stopping cars. We thought it might be a R.I.D.E. program so we stopped and the officer said there was a huge accident just ahead and we'd have to take the major highway past the accident. So we turned around and Ashley is freaking because she isn't even liscenced for the big highway. But we have no choice. I tell her she'll do fine, just go slower and just make it to the very first cut-off which shouldn't be too far away. It sounded good in theory but I didn't think of one thing. The trucks!! They were zooming by at well past the speed limit and it was blowing us (at 30k/h on a 100k/h road) Everytime a truck or any other vehicle could be seen in her rearview mirror, Ashley would immediately pull over until the coast was clear. Sometimes it was every 20 feet. Then she'd pull over and cry. She was so scared. It took us nearly an hour to get to the next cut-off. And the weather was just getting worse. I felt terrible I had got Ashley into this mess. She was a wreck.
We finally got to a gas station in the middle of nowhere and called home. Poor Hubby was worried sick. He had even called Ashley's house just after we left to say don't leave, there's a storm coming. So, I promised to phone every two hours or so. Altogether, it took us 16 hours to do a five hour drive. We then went straight to the hospital.
Mom was in a private room and she was asleep most of the time, as they had her on a morphine drip. She seemed happy to see me and I told her I loved her.
Very long story, just a little shorter....Mom died on Saturday. I was the only one there when she took her last breath. God Rest her soul...
The memorial will be on this coming Saturday. And I have no underwear...
So, we are staying in her house right now until everything is done and then we are gone for good. Hoooray!!! I really hate the city and will be glad to see the back of it.
Well, I'm exhausted and have a cold, the second one this new year!? So I'll write after the memorial on Saturday.
Again, forgive my lengthy absence. I'll try to do better. Lots of new things up ahead for us, so I'll keep you posted.
Forsythia, thank you for your patience with me. I hope you're good.

Life At The Youth Shelter...

2009-08-21T21:39:00.002-04:00

Well, it has been an interesting week! Didn't get many hours in this week at the shelter, and to be honest, I felt like walking out on the first day.
I only worked for 4 hours on Monday and it felt like an eternity. What did they have for me to do?? Supervise lunch, make sure the kids did their chores...then nothing really. I just wandered around basically asking if I could help out. Sure, I could clean out a large room full of donated goods, which would only take about 3 weeks if I hurried. I was very dissappointed to say the least. I did not pay $14,000 for an education to be the lunch lady or the cleaner. Not to mention, morning is not my friend and to be there by 8 or 8:30 a.m. was a fate worse than death. I've been used to the afternoon shift for years. And to make matters worse, they only wanted me to come in that early to make breakfast!! No way...this is a 24 - 7 shelter and I decided to talk to her (the administrator) about doing afternoon shifts. After all, I'm free help and they can take advantage of that to a point, but I should be able to make my own hours. I decided to talk to the lady about it the next day.
When I got there Tuesday morning, one of the kids was standing outside, looking like 'ordered but not picked up', so to speak. She informed me that the shelter was completely on lock-down until 5p.m. and nobody could get in until then. It would have been nice to have been told this, but I wasn't. The poor girl was stuck standing outside for the rest of the day, and it was hot. We ended up driving her to a friends house. I realized that this was probably breaking some kind of rule, but too bad. I couldn't just leave her out there.
Now I was really annoyed.
I didn't go in on Wednesday, but gave them a call. She apologized for not informing me of the meeting. I told her that I would be busy until Friday, because frankly, I was pissed off. I said I would give her a schedule and would she mind if I worked the afternoon shift. She said, (thankfully) that would be fine. O.K. I was happy with that.
I decided I would work from 1 to 7p.m., Monday to Friday and a few times a week, go and help out in the various programs they have in the evening, such as Anger Management, AA and NA. That would fill in the rest of my hours. She is fine with that. Praise the Lord!!
Today I went in with some trepidation, as I did not want to be stuck in the kitchen all day again. I was thinking as I walked in, 'Be assertive, Tory. Insist on them teaching you the ropes!!' O.K. So, after I made the evening snacks, (a fruitbowl and dip), and being told I would be resposible for them every day, (crap!) I went to the front line and told one of the women, 'O.K., teach me about the intake process!' And she did!! I then read some of the residents files and spent some time talking to the kids themselves, one on one, in a casual kind of way. It was great! They were so willing to tell me about themselves, which I was surprised at. I thought they would be hesitant to speak to a newcomer. But, for each and every one I spoke to, my heart broke for them. Sad, sad, sad.
But all in all, it was a really good day. I'm so glad, as I really thought I would have to look for another placement. Something usefull, but today I believe was useful and I'm very happy.
I'm tired tonight, because I was getting used to my life of leisure at the 'love nest.' I don't work tomorrow, but on Sunday evening I'm going to help out at the NA (narcotics anonymous) meeting. I'm really looking forward to that. It is an open meeting and is mostly made of people from the community, not too many kids from the shelter go there. It will be a great learning experience.
Other than that, not much else is new. I'm still waiting to hear from the interview I did on Tuesday to see if they want me to do counseling for them. I hope they do.
That's it for now.
Take care.

2009-08-17T20:54:00.004-04:00

Well, hello all. Been so busy this summer, but no excuses for not blogging. But I'm back. A lot has happened, so it may be a long read.
We're up at the love nest, and are having a wonderful time. I was supposed to have found my co-op before June 9th but it was impossible in such a small town, so it took me awhile and today I have started working in a youth shelter run by the Salvation Army. Not the area I'm looking to work in full time, but perfect for experience, you know how unpredictable kids can be. They are between the ages of 16 - 25. Should be interesting.
Tomorrow I have a interview to do Christian Counseling at the Salvation Army Church, part-time. That's going to be fun. So, my dreams seem to be coming true and by the time we get back to Toronto, in the fall, I will be ready to take a full-time post somewhere. Yay!!
Ashley and the grandbabies came up for a week 2 weeks ago. They are getting so big and I miss them so. Would you believe Scarlett is 2 already? And yesterday was Ariel's 7th birthday. We had a lot of fun and spent most of the time at the beach.
Beach, Beach and more Beach seems to be the theme this summer. NAI hubby had 2 weeks vacation and he, Holly and I went to a terrific beach about an hour from here. It was so beautiful but even with sun block, we all got a little too much sun. However, the next day while we were in the food store, Holly suddenly exclaimed, 'OMG, what's wrong with you?' I was going to tell her, 'My mother had DID, I'm riddled with anxiety, my ex screwed me around for 20 years and my feet hurt.', however that's not what she meant. My face had swollen to twice it's size around my forehead and nose. Holly, being the compassionate and loving daughter that I raised her to be, then started yelling, 'You're the Elephant Man!, which made NIA hubby walk away from us. Sigh....
We were going to go back to the beach the next day, but when I woke up I was still very swollen. Plus, just to top it all off, poor hubby had the beginnings of cellulitis which is quite serious. So, off to the hospital hubby and I went, hoping for a group rate. Poor hubby had to go back to the hospital for 3 days straight for I.V. antibiotics. As for me, they think it's an allergy, but have put me on antibiotics for a sore on my head. What a way to end poor hubby's holidays. Plus, we had made a big picnic for the beach for nothing. We ate macaroni salad, tomato salad and sandwiches for 4 days. Ugh..
I had my 51st birthday in July, (don't tell anyone) and I think it was the best birthday I've ever had. It was perfect in every way. NIA hubby and Holly outdid themselves this year and I felt very special..and old..
Anyway, it was wonderful and I must be getting old because I find myself reflecting on how great my life is these days. I really do. I'm overly blessed and soooo happy. All my relationships are excellent and satisfying. No stress in my life at all even with my new 'elephant man' look. Actually, it's getting better. At least my new boss didn't run screaming from the office, which could have been fun.
So, (I know I always say this, but) I will be blogging more often from now on as I would like to keep a journal, of sorts, about the early days of my new career, so I can look back and laugh at myself and how unsure I am at this point. And to see how much I learn and grow. But don't worry, I won't make it too boring, I promise.
Gosh, I've missed writing this blog. It has been great having it to just jot down the crap that goes through my head. I guess you all know that.
I'll write again tomorrow and let you know how I made out at work and at the interview.
Take care and thanks for hanging in with me.
Love,

P.S. I will post new pics of grandbabies on photo blog.

An Homage To A Great Teacher!

2009-05-15T19:20:00.002-04:00

Well folks, it's all over but the crying. I am finished school, and after my practicum, I will be officially graduated. I'm even getting a graduation picture, just like a real person!
Today I went by my school to sign off on my marks and I wanted to bring my wonderful Professor some sort of gift for all her efforts. I was going to get her a plant, but that just wasn't good enough for this wonderful lady, so I ended up getting her a ginormous slow cooker. She loves food, and she is probably one of the busiest people on the planet, so I thought that would be a good idea especially since she has growing teens to feed. We must have hugged and kissed each other a hundred times. It was like we missed each other all ready! But she was gracious enough to give me her personal cell # and e-mail address, promising to remain good pals forever. And I will be keeping in touch with her, as she has single-handedly changed my life. You know how you can pick out just a few people in your life that you know changed the course of your future? Well, she's one of those people for me, and believe me there hasn't been many in my life. I could sing her praises all day long. She really cared about our success, and her job is completely thankless. Some of the stranger types seem to give her a hard time, for no reason, but, if you show up, listen to her and do as she teaches, you can't lose. She is also very musically talented and gave me one of her CD's, on which she wrote all her own music. Her voice is smooth and beautiful. Holly and I were floored. God Bless You, Doc....Don't stop doing what you do. You made me believe I could actually do it and you will forever be my mentor, my model and now, my friend! Love you!

How Time Flies...

2009-05-01T16:48:00.002-04:00

Has it really been that long since I wrote?? Wow!
O.k. All the latest that's fit to report. I will be finished school on Friday, May 7th and then have my big exam the following Monday, May 11th. From the 12th until July 3rd, I do my practicum and that's it, I'm done!! I am on the honour roll, can you believe it?? It was a shock to learn that. I never did well in school before, but I really enjoyed this course. I've learned a lot.
Now for the fun part...we have given up our apartment for July 1st and will be living up at the 'love nest' for the summer. I really wanted to get out of this town, as I hate it here as does Holly. We are so excited to be up north we've already started packing. I really shouldn't say 'we' as it is Holly who is getting us ready to go. She has been so helpful to us, while I've been at school. She's kept the house clean and made some great meals. I'm very proud of her. She is finally done with high school and is really looking forward to going to a bible school in Toronto in the fall. So, we will be moving to Toronto in September and I know I will be able to find a job there. I know of one place in particular that works with Native men who are alcoholics and since I'm native, I would do well there. They are a new agency and are always looking for people, so that would be great. But there are so many opportunities in Toronto, I'm sure I will find something I like.
Holly has also been working on getting her driving license and should have it by July.
Life is very exciting right now, and there's a lot of pressure for this final exam. Please say a prayer for me to remember everything as it's worth 70% of my mark. Whew!!
Right now my mood is very positive, excited even, and everything is going so well. I feel like we will be starting fresh and living a new life, which always excites me. We all have 'Jazz Wings' over this! I think I'm a gypsy at heart. I have never stayed in one place very long except when the kids were growing up and going to school. I didn't want them to have to adjust to a new school all the time, so we stayed put all through their school years. It was a good decision as now they have friends who will probably be lifelong, BFF's!
Everyone in my 'petting zoo' is doing fine except for one fatality. My sweet Heffalump died about a month ago. He first got something called 'Bumblefoot' and lost weight rapidly. Holly began to hand feed him smoothies and oatmeal and we even took him to the vet for some antibiotics. He seemed to rally a bit and gain a bit of weight. But the next week he again lost more weight. I looked in on him one day, and he looked just awful. I picked him up and held him for about an hour. He died in my arms, being petted and talked to which he loved. He tried to squeak for me but barely got it out. I know he was only a hefalump, but I was truly sad to see him go. I loved him very much and if I was feeling down, I would pet him and he'd talk to me and give me wet little kisses. I really miss him. Sleep well, my little sweetheart! I have him in the freezer so I can bury him up at the love nest.
Anyhoo, you may or may not be glad to hear I have quit smoking for nearly 2 months. My life is really not worth living anymore, and I still crave it terribly. Everyday I say to my family, 'I'm smoking tomorrow and you can't stop me!', and everyday they reply, 'O.K. Go ahead'. And every day I don't, but I haven't got a clue why not?! Can anyone give me just one good reason why I shouldn't smoke, cause I can't think of one. Everyone says, 'So you won't die.' That's it, that's the reason. Are you kidding me? Do I really want to live longer and be this miserable?? I really can't see any good reason why I can't smoke. But I tell you what...if my Doctor ever says, 'Tory, you have terminal cancer.', I will leave his office, go to the store and get the biggest pack of smokes ever. And I will enjoy every puff...so there! Sigh....
Actually, I think it would be so hypocritical of me to counsel addicts while smelling of cigarettes. That is honestly the only reason I quit. Plus Holly kept nagging about some crazy second hand smoke stuff...whatever...brat...sigh...why doesn't she move out?...sigh..
O.K. I'm over it...
Anyway, I will be able to write more often once I'm up at the love nest, as my summer will be my own. Boy, I really can't wait. Holly and I are going to be alone for a lot of the time as NIA Hubby will be staying with his mother on work days and just coming up on the weekends until his holidays kick in. So, Holly and I are going to go to garage sales, fishing, lots of swimming at the beach and in the pool after dinner. We will be going to the driving range, the farmers market, reading, I will work on my book, and she will continue with her Hebrew lessons. Not to mention I have some books pertaining to different therapeutic measures that I'd like to read before I start a job in the field. I also have several books I want to read for pleasure as I have read nothing but psych books, reports and other technical things for so many months now, I have to get caught up on the Twilight series, at least that's what my girls tell me. Actually, I read the first one and it was really good.
Anyway, Holly and I are also looking forward to experimenting with food this summer. She has become very interested in cooking lately, and has learned a lot. We watch the food network together a lot and I answer her questions. So, we've gotten together a bunch of recipes to try out. NIA hubby is mostly a meat and potato's man, so we're going to cook with recipes I don't think he'd like.
Well, this was a long post, but I have a lot of stuff happening right now.
I hope you are all well. Yes, Forsythia, I will be blogging once again starting in July. Hi Andrew, I hope you're doing good. I will catch up on all your blogs tonight.
Take care

Still at school....So just a quick note...

2009-02-17T19:54:00.006-05:00

Whew~been so busy with tests, tests and more tests..I feel like a lab rat. But I'm doing fine as far as marks go. I just got my mid-term marks and my average was 90%. Not bad for an old lady when there's so much memory work. I have thought and thought about the kind of counseling I'll be doing. I started out wanting to counsel abusive men, and I still may do that, but I'm leaning more on Christian counseling at a church. Well, it could all change again before I'm done, so I'll keep you posted on that.
Holly is doing fine, trying to finish up her high school and then off to pastor's college. Hey, maybe she'd let me be a counselor at her church. Oh boy, mayhem....I can see it now.
Other than that, there is so much not new around here right now. Except, once I get my degree, we will be moving into the city, (Toronto) to be closer to my wonderful mommy-in-law. And work will be better there as well. Sometime in the next few years we will be moving back to the Ottawa area as I miss it so much. I absolutely hate where I live now and I've been here for nearly 6 years and have never warmed up to it.
Holly has been learning to speak, read and write Hebrew. It's hilarious to hear her. She tells me that she is actually dreaming in Hebrew at this point, which is really good. It's funny when I go past her room and she has a Hebrew radio station on...Shalom, you crazy kid!! Actually, she will need it for pastor college and this will put her ahead of the others as it is usually one of the courses you take in order to study the bible.
All the animals are doing well. Lumpy is as fat as ever and the birds are still evil, but we love them. Poppy has 6 eggs on the go right now, but she's not sitting on them much. Maybe she's fed up! Oh well, who has the time for 6 babies right now? Not me, if I can help it. And poor Bunny has lost 2 or 3 teeth in the last few months or so. I think she's older than we think.
Anyway, consider yourselves up to date on my boring life. So sorry I'm posting so little lately. Maybe once I get a job, I'll be able to post all day, every day...lol.
NAI hubby is doing just fine. He's busy at work and managing just fine without me, which is great. I love that about him....I think.
By the way, I seem to have lost my Title Header and no matter what I do, I can't get it back. Any suggestions??? This has been a problem for months and it's driving me crazy. Oh, well.
By the way, I'll be posting new pics of the grandbabies in the next few days. You won't believe how they've grown. You'll find them on my photo/video blog.
Take care

Merry Christmas and Pass the Vodka...

2008-12-20T12:04:00.003-05:00

Well, it's that time again people. Christmas cheer, family, birds 'banging', me falling...oh wait...that's just a Friday for me, I forgot.
I hope you are all readier for Christmas than I am!! Nope, not in the least bit ready...sigh. And we're getting the tree today....where did I put those decorations??? I believe they're under a my small mountain of small kitchen appliances in the storage closet. You know, the one that's so crammed full of junk you can't close the door anymore...sigh.
Holly had her surgery on Tuesday. She's doing very well, but has a mouthful of cankers that are causing her more pain than her teeth. Poor Holly! But she has found some solice in swigging vodka every once in awhile. Either it helps the pain or she just doesn't care anymore!! Merry Christmas Holly!
Well, some good news. Ashley, Rob and the grandbabies came on Monday. The kids are getting so big! and so are the grandbabies..lol. I love having them here; I just want to keep them forever..all of them. Somehow, we'll pull this mess together and make a beautiful Christmas of it because I have all the main elements for the best Christmas ever. I have my loving family here all together for the first time in a long time and that's all the Christmas I need.
So, now for 'Adventures in Toryland'. Ashley, Ariel and I go for a simple trip of grocery shopping yesterday, but it was snowing like blazes. We took our bundle buggy with us and when we came back we got stuck with the buggy in the deep snow. Ashley and I are pulling and pulling until I (of course) fell down. That was it. I could not get up no matter how we tried. I was about ready to get out my blackberry to phone Rob to come and get me, as everytime Ashley tried to help me, I would fall again and spin. We look up, and there's a man shoveling snow. Ashley asked him to help us and he came over and helped me up and even pulled our cart for us into the building. It was then I realized it was my next door neighbour! Embarrassing! Ashley couldn't stop laughing long enough to be of any help to me at all...the rotten kid. She's just like her sister...sigh.
Anyway, school is going great and keeping me busy. Homework and more homework, but I'm enjoying it.
Just in case I don't write again before Christmas, may I extend God's Richest Blessings to you all from my family to yours.
Take care

2008-12-09T01:54:00.001-05:00

School, School And More School...

2008-12-09T01:09:00.002-05:00

I know, it's been awhile..the title says it all. Lots of homework but my grade average is about 95%, so I'm happy with that.
I am so enjoying school, I love learning, it turns out and by the time I'm done, I will have a college diploma as an addictions counselor and community service worker, another words, a social worker. It seems so hard to believe at my age that I will get this diploma and I'm really looking forward to being a help to people. It will make my life worth something, you know?
NIA Hubby and Holly have been so supportive. They have both managed to take care of most of Christmas for me and getting the house ready.
Now for some really fun news! Ashley, Rob and my grandbabies will be down for Christmas this year, for the first time in at least 4 years. I'm so excited to see their little faces making ginger bread houses and cookies etc...So fun.
Poor Holly has to have surgery on Dec. 16, to have her wisdom teeth out...ouch. They have not been able to push through the gums because there is not enough room, so they will have to go after them. I will take the day off school because she has never had an operation before and I know she will be anxious about it.
Tomorrow I go for more laser surgery on my eyes. They have found more bleeding in my eyes and aren't sure they can save my sight, but oh well, life happens. My school is really good about letting me take Holly there to do my notes when I have my laser surgery, so she will go to school with me tomorrow. She's a good kid.
That's all the news for now. I'm not that interesting really right now because my life revolves around school, But I miss you all and a special thanks to Forsythia for hanging in with me.
God Bless you all this Christmas season! May you and yours stay close and warm.
I'll write again soon-er!
Take care

School Days...

2008-10-18T13:11:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm back. I've been so busy with homework for this particular module at school. It was body, mind and health and it was very interesting. I really enjoyed it. There was quite a lot of work to do but i loved it. We had 2 tests, an essay and a presentation. I am really convinced that God has truly been directing my ways these days. I can actually get up in front of my class and do a presentation without any signs of a panic attack or anything. I'm getting quite comfortable up there and that's just not me.
We are starting to get some practical teaching on how to practice therapy and I find it very exciting.
In this module and the last, (psychology) my overall mark was 88%. Now before you start thinking about how brilliant I am, I should tell you about our phenomenal teacher. She has her Doctorate, so she's actually a professor. But she's very low key about that and asks us to just call her by her first name. That's actually very helpful to me as, if I had to keep being reminded of how smart she is, I could be intimidated by her. Her manner is not intimidating and she's a lot of fun. But the main thing I appreciate about her, is that, she sets us, her students, up for success. She teaches in such a way that it's really hard not to pass. The way she prepares us for tests is actually the main reason I'm getting decent marks. I really believe this and I thank God for her every day. Each module has ridiculous amounts of information that we have to absorb and at first it doesn't seem humanly possible, but she manages to get it pounded into our silly little heads and with just a little effort on the students part, it works out somehow. For example, the textbooks from which we study can be very convoluted in their definitions. Often, the definition makes no sense at all to me, but Teacher explains it so much simpler and makes it very understandable. She is also brilliant at getting you to retain what you've learned, which was something I was particularly worried about at my 'old age'.
So, yes, school is great and I'm loving it.
In other news...I take Holly to school on the days I have a test because once we write the test, we are able to leave. So, it's company for me and we usually go out for lunch after. Good bonding time for us....er..most of the time. So, yesterday, Holly came to school with me and afterwards went to Wendy's for lunch. We had a good time and went outside to sit on the curb in the parking lot while we were waiting for NAI Hubby to pick us up. He forgot we were at Wendy's and drove by us to go to the school. I started to get up from the curb when I saw him coming and Holly held out her hand to help me up. Good kid, right?? Noooo! She yanks my arm out of the socket, I go flying on my face in the parking lot, landed on my elbow and knee, did some sort of weird 'break dancing' move, (break dancing was never my strong point), my shoe goes flying across the parking lot probably nearly putting Holly's eye out. Suddenly she lets go of me and I'm spinning on my fat belly uncontrollably. When I finally stopped, I look up and she's got her phone in her hand calling Hubby to tell him where we are. She then hangs up the phone and looks down at me. 'What are you doing?' she asks innocently. Urgh, kids. I told her I was practicing my hip-hop moves. How could she have missed that entire theatrical program I put on in the parking lot? I hope no one from school was driving by!
More news of schools and fools to come.
Take care all.

2008-09-20T10:14:00.002-04:00

Yes, yes, yes, I know I suck. I am so sorry about the long lull in my blog. I have actually been really busy and have a good excuse for not being here.
I stayed up at the love nest for 5 whole weeks! As you know, one of those weeks were with the grandkids. We had such a wonderful time in spite of the fact that the weather wasn't co-operating a lot. We went fishing and I watched my babies catch their first fish. Yay, a milestone I didn't miss. Scarlett started walking the day she arrived and was walking like a little soldier by the time she left. It was so cute.
I spent the rest of the time relaxing and enjoying my time up there.
Now for the big news! I started school last Monday! Yes, I actually did it, even though I didn't think I could. I am in college for the Addictions and Community Service course. I'm loving it, I really am. The teachers are fantastic and the students are wonderful as well. So far, so good as far as understanding and retaining. This was a concern for me being a 'mature' (nice word for ancient) student.
I had a couple of mishaps at school though. I fell down 2 days in a row. Embarrassing, but I'm used to that! But the second time I fell, on Thursday, I actually sprained my arm. My wrist, fingers and shoulder were throbbing and I couldn't really write very well on Friday, but it worked out. I'm so excited, as on Monday we start psychology. I am very interested in that subject, but I hope I can retain all the facts. I'll just try my hardest and pray.
So, I was thinking...what should I do about my blog as I don't want to just let it go, as I have done for the last couple of months. I have decided to leave it until the weekend, and make an effort to let you all know how it's going. That's better than nothing, right?
So, I'll meet you here next weekend to let you know how my week went.
I have missed you all, and will try not to neglect you through my schooling.
Take care all..

The Love Nest With Perks!!

2008-07-26T10:44:00.002-04:00

I have been neglecting my blog for awhile, so sorry! I am still at the love nest but with perks...Ashley, Rob and the grand kids are up for a visit. We are having a great time with them, except Holly and I have colds for some reason.
The kids have had fun going to the beach and the pool, and Scarlett is now walking like a little soldier! She's only been walking for 6 days, but she gets around really great. It's so cute to see her older brother and sister interact with her. Most of the time, they are really good with her and she tries to play with them. So cute!!
Stephon woke up and asked his mother this morning, 'Why do we keep sleeping here, Mom?' Too funny. Ariel is getting so big now and is smart as anything. Nothing gets past her.
Of course, I will be sad when they have to leave again, but hopefully it won't be too long before we see them again. And yes, I will probably cry when they leave, as I always do. Sigh....
NAI Hubby finished his holidays Monday and had to go back to work, so we were alone all week. However, we are anticipating his arrival late this afternoon. We've missed him. The love nest just isn't the same without him around.
The kids will be taking their 3 baby lovebirds home with them, and I know Holly and I will miss them too as we have gotten a little attached to them. We have to stop that if we are going to be able to sell them the next time Poppy has a batch...sigh...
We have had really bad weather for them being up. It seems we had thunder storms just about every day. They have managed to pop out to the beach in between storms. It has been thundering all morning again today....sigh....
Anyway, more news as soon as it comes in.
Take care

Holiday Time At the Love Nest!!

2008-07-08T12:05:00.004-04:00

Well I know that's it's been a long time since the last post, but we are up at the love nest and are having a wonderful time. It seems like we've been pretty busy, but there's been a lot of relaxing going on too. It's just the best place to be in the world, especially if you want a break from the city.
We set up our new patio set, and have eaten many meals out there. Right now it's pretty hot and humid, so we will stay in until it cools down a bit, which it should tomorrow. But that's ok, it gives me time to catch up on posting and reading my fave blogs. Hubby just went out to pick up a few things we need and Holly is listening to music. We are all bonding pretty well as a family and it's been so good for all of us being up here.
This year I have had a bad case of psoriasis, all along my right arm from my elbow to my fingers. Very itchy and annoying. When I unpacked, I found what I thought was Hubby's psoriasis ointment in my bag. I used it faithfully every day since I got here. It didn't seem to be helping much, but at least it didn't feel as itchy. Holly was sitting on the couch and she noticed the cream. She asked me if I had been using it for my psoriasis, and I replied proudly, yes, every day. She picked it up and then just looked at me like I was crazy. Now what did I do?? 'Mom, this isn't psoriasis cream.' 'Of course it is!' I replied. 'No Mom, this is vaginal cream for a yeast infection!' I was floored! 'Are you kidding???' I replied, shocked. Sure enough, that's what it was. Gosh, I'm such a dork. Of course, Holly laughed for a full 10 minutes and has mentioned it about 100 times since. What a brat! All I had to say in my defence was, 'I told you I can't see!'
Since I've been here at the love nest, I have been having some really bad coughing fits and I've almost lost my voice. (Much to the thrill of my family!) Also, my glands under my neck have swollen up, but they don't hurt. I've also had a lot of dizzy spells. So we decided to hop over to the nearest town, to see if I could get some cough meds. I told the Dr. all the symptoms, focusing on my throat and glands. I thought the dizzy spells could be from a possible ear infection or something like that. It was all good up until I told her of the dizzy spells, which were bad enough that Hubby had to hold my hand when walking from the car to anywhere. I was actually afraid that I would pass out in front of people and embarrass myself....yeah, like that would be something new for me..
Anyway, she said she was concerned about my dizziness. She layed me down and took my blood pressure, which I've never had a problem with. Of course, it was normal. Then she asked me to stand up. My blood pressure plummeted to the point that she and Hubby had to hold on to me, I was so wobbly. She thought that I was dehydrated, but was not sure why my blood pressure was doing this, so she took some blood and urine tests and I should hear by Friday. I'm fine, just a bit dizzy.
Ashley, Rob and the kids will be coming up around July 20th and I'm so looking forward to that. We'll have a great time and I've bought the kids some fun toys to play outside with. I can't wait!
After they've gone, I will be inviting Bambi out for a rest. Just a girls weekend. I'm looking forward to that a lot.
Just as I've been writing this post, a big storm has developed. There is no nicer sound than the rain on the tin roof, it's so relaxing and somehow comforting.
Saturday night the trailer park had Canada Day fireworks. We all took our lawn chairs to the center of the park where there is a big park. It was a beautiful night and they really do a good job of the fireworks. It lasts about 40 minutes or so. Would you believe I fell asleep in my lawn chair?! Even through all those pops and bangs, I managed to have a lovely nap. Hubby and Holly laughed at me, of course. They're just jealous of me...
Anyway, happy holidays all.
Take care

Our Pets...

2008-06-28T10:47:00.002-04:00

Click to enlarge.

Holidays and Jazz Wings....

2008-06-27T13:42:00.008-04:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last real post. Time got away from me and I didn't realize how long it had been until I got a comment from Forsythia. Thank you Forsythia. I have my wonder woman gear on and I'm ready to go! So, last week I was doing some exercises which were intended to strengthen my back. I did all of them with relative ease, although there was a lot of huffing and puffing. Holly sat there instructing me and counting me down as I did them. I was quite proud that I made it through all of them. On the last exercise, I was having some difficulty because it's a partial push up and I'm not easy to push up. On the last one, I suddenly got a terrific headache and a pain in my left eye. Oops! I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting for a long time because it can blow the veins that they are operating on in my eye. Considering I am heavier than the fridge, it was very unwise to do this exercise. I called the eye surgeon and they said they would check it out when I went in for my last operation, which was in 2 days. Crap!! Well it turns out, I did actually cause some bleeding in there, but they fixed it during the surgery. It wasn't too bad, but I'm glad it's over with. Now I have to go back in August to see if any of this has done any good. Sometimes it just doesn't work, but they won't be able to tell until then, so we'll see. I guess the alternative is that if it didn't work, I will go blind after all. Here's hoping it worked. I'm not worried. I just don't worry about this stuff. If I go blind, I know I will adjust to it and carry on being my crazy self...nothing can stop me!

Then on Monday, we had a major family crisis. The whole house was in an uproar. NAI Hubby went out to do a cleaning of our deck. He left the door open as he was dealing with some boxes that we hadn't taken down to the bin outside our apartment. Holly took the boxes and were putting them by the front door for him. Tequila's cage is near the door and the boxes startled him. He flew into the living room and right out the balcony door and was gone. Holly and I freaked, got our shoes on and went outside to see if we could find him. We have a lot of trees around and we called him for over an hour. We were heartsick and didn't want to go inside, but I knew he was long gone or he would have answered us if he heard my voice. Hesitantly, we decided to go in. There was a lot of crying and making deals with God. We knew he must have been very afraid, as Tequila is quite a big suck. We knew he could be prey for anything, and we figured he would probably die a horrible death since he had no idea how to take care of himself. On top of that, we were getting severe thunderstorm warnings for our area. Needless to say, we were in bits over it. I put flyer's in the building right away hoping someone would see him, but I didn't have much hope since I was sure he was long gone. Now get ready for the miraculous part of the story. Holly put Queenie and Gus's cage out on the balcony, hoping that Tequila may hear them and come back because they are so noisy. Four and a half hours after he was gone, we suddenly heard him outside. We'd know his peep anywhere! Holly ran downstairs to the front yard and I went out on the balcony. (we are 7 floors up) When she got there, a man was looking up a tall tree in the front yard. He pointed Tequila out to her. There he was!! Hubby and I ran downstairs. He was sitting very high on a branch and I certainly couldn't see him, but I could hear him. Now how to get him down. A lady who lived on the first floor joined us. She had actually put her cockatiel cage out to attract him and Tequila had landed on the cage but she couldn't grab him. How nice of her. Finally, the man that was there threw a stick and Tequila took off to the side of the building into a clump of trees. By then, a boy had joined us in the search. We all ran to the side of the building and looked in every tree we could but didn't see him. The lady started walking back to the front of the building and suddenly saw him sitting on a branch just out of reach. Hubby grabbed a stick and Tequila jumped on it. He carefully pulled the stick in and I grabbed him for dear life. We were so happy! Talk about finding a needle in a haystack! Thank you Jesus! We have bought a thank you card for that kind lady who did so much to help us find him. And we've learned our lesson: from now on, Tequila's wings are going to be clipped for the rest of his life! As I type this, he is sitting on the computer desk and every time I look at him I'm so grateful he's back and o.k. That was such an emotionally draining day for all of us. It just felt like the day would never end, and I can't remember crying so much for a very long time. Talk about answered prayer!

In other news, Hubby starts holidays on Saturday, which also happens to be his birthday. We will be spending it up at the love nest and Ashley, Rob and the kids will be coming up to the love nest around the 20th of July, so I'll be staying up there longer as Hubby's holidays end on the 21st. Hopefully, after that, I can talk Bambi into coming up for a weekend. She is the hardest working person I know, and this would do her good. The love nest has a way of taking away all your stresses and cares. You absolutely forget anything that may be bothering you in every day life. I love it! But, much to my excitement, we are taking my computer up there this year so I will be able to keep in touch with you all and give you a daily account of my adventures! I'm excited.

In other, other news, I am considering going back to school to be a community service worker, which is something like a social worker but the course is only about 8 months rather than 2 years. I have been talking to the people at Everett College, and things sound very hopeful. I'm just praying my fybromyalgia will co-operate as I want this with all my heart. I'm just going to put my mind to it and get it done. I have always wanted to be a counsellor and I'm good at it already. Everyone says so. Ashley has tried to get me to take the social work program ever since she started, as she says I already know most of what she's learning. I have helped her many times with her homework and she says I'm a natural at it. I feel very passionate about having a job that does some good for people, but I don't have any credentials to back me up. This would give me the credentials I need. My main area of interest is to work with abusive men and trying to make changes in them. I have experience of being an abuse victim and I could use this experience to make them see the victims side of it. Please send good thoughts or prayers that this works out and that I will be physically able to handle it. I will be going to the interview when I get back from holidays and I'm really excited about that too.

Awww, I just looked at Tequila and he is sitting there asleep with his beak tucked into his back. I'm so grateful he's safe.

Speaking of birds, when we take Queenie and Gus out for their exercises, they get so excited, they will sit on your finger and hold on tight and flap their wings for about a second. It's so cute, it's like 'jazz hands', but Holly and I call them 'jazz wings'. I have jazz wings right now for all the things I have to look forward to...holidays, seeing my grand babies and hopefully going to school.

I'm feeling very happy right now and I hope you all have Jazz Wings too!

Take care

2008-06-25T22:44:00.006-04:00

This is something you can do at wordle.com and is a lot of fun. Try it out!
Click to enlarge.

Ramblings....

2008-06-11T11:54:00.003-04:00

Well, I must be getting old!! I find myself falling a lot for no particular reason these days. Just last week, I went over to put on the corner table lamp and for some reason lost my balance. I was aware of Holly standing there watching me as I (in slow motion) began to tip over and couldn't stop myself. I ended up sliding my butt down the cd holder, positive I was breaking each one as I went down and finally landed sitting in the dog bed in the corner. I looked up and Holly was looking at me like, 'What the hell are you doing?' She came right over to help me up, but because of my fybromyalgia, you just can't tug on my arms to pull me up. I'm far too heavy for that. She managed to get me on my (then, aching) knees in front of the couch where I struggled like a beached whale until she (surprisingly) just pretty well picked me up and stood me on my feet. (She's like the Hulk!) To make it worse, we were both laughing so that just made the whole thing impossible, really. Thank goodness she was home as I really don't think I could have gotten up on my own. Imagine everyone is out and they come home to find me in the corner, sitting in Bunny's bed. Yeah, that's not my best look.
It's not just the falling, it's other little things that I'm noticing. I tried to do some of Holly's exercises with her, and I was laying on the floor, trying to lift both my legs up at the same time in order to do some sort of belly crunch. I could not lift my legs up. So, Holly held them up while I attempted to do the crunches. The whole time I was thinking...how long has it been since I couldn't hold my legs up??? When did I lose this ability?? It kind of freaked me out...sigh!
I know I've talked about the fact that I can't open anything anymore. Hubby has to break my Popsicle and open the package for me like I'm a 2 year old. Holly opens all my bottles of water, pop, mayonnaise etc...ugh. I figure the next phase for me will be strings on my mittens and my name and phone # on my book bag...sigh...and yes, I will have to use a book bag because I am constantly forgetting my purse everywhere, to the point that I've stopped using a purse. (but I haven't stopped buying them!)
Anyhoo, the baby birdies are ready to be hand fed. They are actually trying to leave the nesting box on their own, so today we will take them out and start feeding them. Holly and I are not really looking forward to it as much this time, as it's a lot of work, especially for 3, but it's time. I have some new video of them from the other day on my photo/video blog. They are going to be beautiful. Ashley has informed me that she wants 2 of them, so I really only have one to sell. Let's see how that goes.
There's not much else new around here to report, but I'll post again soon.
Take care

An Original Poem By Me...

2008-06-10T11:19:00.006-04:00

The Feather

Today I found a feather,

In a most curious way,

It landed right in front of me,

From where, I cannot say.

Large and white and perfect,

no blemish nor a mark,

And it was such a mystery,

Imagination, caused a spark.

Gracefully, it lilted,

descending from on high,

perhaps a white-winged Pegasus,

A myth who happened by.

But no, I have the answer,

I feel it in my soul,

The Master of the Universe,

reminding me I know.

That angels camp about me,

close by me day and night,

The feather a reminder,

I'm always in God's sight.

Tory 1997

Same old, Same old....

2008-06-06T09:32:00.004-04:00

Hi all. Well, yesterday was Thursday, time for the old gouging out of the eye with a laser...ugh! It hurt more than ever but I think it's because I had iritis in this eye not so long ago and it may be more sensitive. I only have one session left on the same eye in two weeks time and I will be done...wooohoooo! Again, I left the room and had to make my way down the elevator and out of the hospital while crying like a big baby. How embarrassing. I'm standing in the elevator with like 6 other people, sobbing in my corner. Nobody knew where to look...including me. Gosh, what a suck I am. I'm usually very good with pain, but this just doesn't seem to be working for me.
Today I'm having quite a hard time seeing very clearly. Thank goodness I don't really need to see in order to type. Hopefully, it's readable.
The three new babies are getting so big. It looks like Marie may actually be white!..'You are not the father'! Strange, isn't it? Maybe there's something Poppy needs to tell Bailey..not that I think he'd care, really. I will get some new video of them today and put it on my photo/video blog. They are adorable.
Now for 'Things You Hardly ever get to say in real life:

1) 'If you do that for too long, will my eyeball explode?'
2) 'I have no children.' (That was for Forsythia!)
3) '(To my bewildered NAI Hubby) - I'm not going for my eye surgery unless your mother makes me egg salad sandwiches.'
4) 'I have a floater that's the shape of a seahorse still in my eye, can you blast it with the laser.' (Yes I said this to my surgeon, even though I knew that seahorses are on the endangered species list!) Btw, he wouldn't...bastard!
5) 'Gee I hope we can sell some of these baby birds...I feel like I'm in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.'
These may be things that one hardly ever gets to say, but I managed to say all that within the last 48 hours or so...sigh.
Anyway, in other news..and on a more serious note..I have stumbled across some pretty amazing blogs in the last week or so. They are blogs written by people who have what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder, now called Dissociative Identity Disorder.(DID) The reason I am so interested in this disorder is because 'the mother unit', (my mother) had it. (I realize now how insensitive I was with her..even calling her Sybil all the time! She never caught on.) It was very stressful, to say the least, growing up with her, but reading these blogs has really given me some empathy for what 'the mother unit' was going through. She never sought any help for it, as every time she went near a psychiatrist, they would lock her up for various lengths of time. I really realize, after reading these blogs, that 'the mother unit' did the absolute best she could with what she had. It was not her fault that some of her 'people' hated me and she was not aware of what terrible things they did to me. She, to this day, does not remember anything she ever did that was traumatic to me. I once confronted her a few years ago with some of the things she did that still keep me up at night. The look on her face said it all! She said simply, 'That didn't happen.' I could tell from her reaction that she had no memory of it. I knew she wasn't lying. I dropped it, as I wasn't talking to the right person who actually would know what happened. I was frustrated, but I also realized that the woman I was speaking to just didn't know what was going on half the time. She was not aware of what the others inside her did and just had spaces of no memory all her life.
I digress!
I just want to thank these brave people who blog about this disorder. It can't be easy, actually, for them, life is very hard and I appreciate that they share with us how it is for them. I never thought of it from the other side before, and I've learned a lot from reading their and all their 'personalities' postings. God bless you for helping me to understand what I may not of considered before. Bringing awareness to DID will help to combat some of the stigma and misconceptions about it. May God grant you all some peace.
Anyhoo, have a great weekend all and I'll write again asap.
Take care

My Blog is Getting Soooo Boring....

2008-05-31T11:40:00.002-04:00

My blog has gotten so boring lately that I don't even want to read it. I think I'm going through a dry spell and I apologize for that. It's just that nothing is happening in my life right now and it makes for poor fodder for writing.
Anyhoo, I went on Thursday for my eye op and it went pretty good! Not as painful as it has been before and it seemed to go quite fast. Whew! Only 3 more to go. I'll be glad when they're done. The only thing I've noticed is that after each one, my eyesight is even dimmer than before. This procedure is not intended to improve my sight, but only to keep blindness at bey. However, the Dr. said it will diminish my sight a bit. Well, it's time for real (as apposed to reading) glasses. Maybe I'll get the big clown ones with the nose attached and feather eyebrows...could be fun!
The three babies are becoming enormous, all bums and bellies. So cute. Holly and I will be taking video of them and I'll post them. You'll all be shocked at their size. Their eyes are actually open now and they look like ugly little vultures at this point. But we love them anyway. However, we will be selling them. Just with the birds we have, there are times when you can't hear yourself think...our house is pretty loud. I wouldn't be able to handle anymore 'peeping'. I called Bambi the other day and she was busy so she put me on speaker phone so she could continue her work and talk at the same time..she said it sounded like I was calling from the rainforest. The blessing to all this is that, come night time, they are dead silent...except for Tequila who gets excited when his dad comes home from work. Tequila is so funny. When he sees his Dad walk down the hall to go to bed, he will screech to be put to bed too. He is free all day to sit on top of his cage or come out to the living room to visit us, but when dad goes to bed, he screams and gets into his cage waiting for us to close his door and cover him for the night. Spoiled bugger! Funny thing is about Tequila, he loves his dad and likes to sit on him, but dad is not allowed to touch him or he will bite. He's not the friendliest of birds and will only let me touch him or kiss him, although Holly can sometimes get a kiss if he's on his cage. So temperamental. Up at the love nest, the neighbours have a cockatiel that I sometimes visit. He's over 33 years old!! What!? Better get used to Holly, Tequila, cause I doubt I'll be around that long.
In other new....let's talk 'penis plugs'. Oh c'mon, you were all wondering about it for years and now I will explain it. (don't act like you weren't) Lumpy, (our guinea pig) was out playing on the floor the other day, when Holly noticed something hanging out of his back end. She freaked and brought him to me in a blanket, on his back, legs spread. I saw there was something there and I pulled on it thinking it was some debris from his cage. Out came this long, (about an inch) white rubbery thing. I dropped it on his blanket in horror. OMG, he's got worms. I had never heard of Lumpy's having worms before. I was horrified. Holly quickly dumped him back in his cage. She was even more freaked out than I was. I looked it up on the web and read it was highly unusual for a Lumpy to get worms but if they did it was serious. I kept searching. Something didn't seem quite right about it. I was almost positive that it wasn't coming from his bottom, but from his penis area. I finally found a vet blog that talked about 'penis plugs'. It turned out that he had been in heat, and sperm had collected and jelled. All you had to do was pull them out. So, I did...ugh...and he's fine. My poor little lumpy. He complained the whole time that it was very close to rape and he was feeling violated but we ignored him. He said he felt much better afterwards and thanked us. Boy, the things we do for our loved ones. I'm not sure I would even do that for my Hubby, as much as I love him. O.k. enough about that...I'm feeling kind of sick now....
We have joined a new church recently and it is wonderful. We all really enjoy it. The actual church building isn't all that big, but the congregation is big enough that they have 3 separate, but identical services on the weekends. Their first one being on Saturday nights. We love that fact, as Sunday is really the only day Hubby has off, so it's perfect. The music and the sermon are fantastic and the pastor is quite a young guy and very interesting. It is a very vibrant and active church and Holly is planning to go on a young adult retreat in July. It lasts 3 days and I think it will be good for her.
Well that's all there is to post about. Have a great weekend everyone.
Take care

This and That...

2008-05-28T18:50:00.004-04:00

I just realized that the last post I made was my 100th..I didn't know! I'm so stupid..didn't even have one streamer or one balloon! For that matter not even one kazoo or one of those things you blow into and they unroll and make and annoying noise, thingys..sigh..oh well. The above balloons is my feeble attempt to celebrate. Yay....

I don't really have anything much to report as my life is pretty boring right now, but I wanted to at least post something.

Tomorrow I'm back at the eye surgeon...God help me. Not looking forward to that!!!! Oh well, only 3 more sessions to go I think. I have noticed that with each session, my eyesight has dimmed noticeably, but it's better than losing my sight. I have an appt. with my regular eye Dr. in July, so I'll be ready for glasses by then, I'm sure.

That's all for now, but I'll report back soon.

Take care

Sorry it took me so long....

2008-05-23T09:45:00.004-04:00

So sorry it took me so long to get back to post. I was having major anxiety attacks yesterday morning before going for my eye op. Took a few minutes to do some deep breathing exercises, or as I call it...hyperventilate while frantically looking for my anxiety meds! Whatever. I talked Holly into coming with me. She was a good kid and came. She seemed more scared than I was. It turned out it wasn't as painful as it was last week, so that was a relief. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. It worked.
Bambi and I have had a couple of (one in particular) really good conversations about the state of our mental health these days. She's going through big changes in her life right now and I'm just my usual basketcase. One thing about Bambi and I is, we really 'get' each other. We know each other through and through. You don't find a friend like that every day and you're lucky to find one really true friend in your life. We used to say we were started in the same petrie dish and then separated at birth. I still believe that! Our deepest conversations usually consist of each of us talking over each other about our problems, while still being able to really hear each other and help each other. It may sound like we aren't listening to each other, but we really are! We also seem to have a constant stream of mental telepathy going between us that only true sisters could. Like twins. If we are together, we both notice the same things going on around us and we only have to look at each other to 'point it out.' Best of all, our friendship has the wonderful addition of both our faiths, which are exactly the same, which means that we both come from the same direction in every way. The root of our faith puts us both on the same level playing field. The ground beneath us is strong, even though neither of us feel very strong right now. How we didn't talk for so long, I now don't know. I have missed her so much, but I will never miss her again! I'm never going to let her go missing from my life again and she's stuck with me until I die. Sorry Bambi, but I love you dearly and you're all mine again. I'm going to love you and kiss you and call you 'Bambi.' Together we'll laugh our way through this life. We'll especially laugh at the most inappropriate times and nobody else will 'get' us and we won't care. Because we know and love each other, nothing else will matter when we talk. We'll even cry and laugh at the same time, cause that's how we roll...
Hold on tight to your best friends, kids...they make life so much better.
You may now officially call me 'Ghandi.'
One more thing, good thoughts please for Forsythia who is having a procedure at the dentist at 12 p.m. today. Thanks all.
Take care

Good Thoughts for Me Today..Please..

2008-05-22T10:12:00.002-04:00

Please think of me today. Right now I'm busy hyperventilating because I go for my next eye surgery this afternoon..I don't want to go. I'm sick to my stomach and my legs are shaking with fear. It has been so painful the last two times, I'm just a wreck. I'm not afraid of pain, but this is hell. Now the accompanying anxiety attack is making it seem much worse than it is. UUrrrggg! I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.
Take care.

They Just Keep Hatching....

2008-05-16T12:18:00.002-04:00

NAI Hubby woke up this morning, not feeling so well..feverish and his leg was looking a little red. Of course he's going to get cellulitis just when we're getting set to go away. He's at the Dr.'s right now for some antibiotics. Poor guy.
Well, yesterday we found a new hatchling, dubbed Donny. I am beginning to get an inkling as to how Mrs. Osmond felt. O.k. that's 3 now...god help us. They are pink and healthy looking, big black bug eyes...really quite ugly if you think too much about it. What makes them cute is their size. I've taken some video, but darned if I can get it to upload. That's been frustrating.
Lumpy has found a new passion. Soy milk. He gets a little bowl of it every day, ever since Holly gave him a bit and he went crazy for it...what a nut house I live in...but you knew that.
Not much else new. I'll keep you posted, actually you probably won't hear from me again until Monday, so in the meantime, I wish all of you a great weekend.
Take care

Good News and Some Whining...(you've been warned)

2008-05-14T12:24:00.007-04:00

Hi folks..I trust all is well in Blogistan.
Well, the good (good?!) news is Poppy has had another baby hatch. Holly calls it Marie. She says she's going for an Osmond theme. (She's such a freak, obviously you should start with Alan.) But no, it's Jimmy and Marie. I can't figure her out, and I've quite trying. She is, after all, my kid...sigh. I told her not to count on the big teeth and she actually looked a little disappointed. To make her feel better, I promised we would raise them Mormon. That put a smile on her funny little face! Gee, the stuff moms have to do just to make their kids happy.
Anyhoo..this is where the whining comes in. I'm a little upset and kind of shell shocked about something that I'd like to share with all of you. (I thought of saying y'all, but I'm Canadian and it would sound really stupid coming from me!)
Since I've been on Google reader, I have found some new blogs to read. There was one in particular that I found good reading. The writer is an RN in an emergency ward. She often has funny stories about life in the ER, and even some sad ones. She's always interesting. Monday I read her post. It was a short one and it was on the fact that it was Fybromyalgia Awareness Day. My ears perked up when I read the title. I've only been told fairly recently that this was one of my problems and I'm still trying to get used to it. This RN went on to say she was tired of having people with Fybromyalgia show up at the ER with their 'pretend' disease so they can get narcotics and use up medicaide and have an excuse for not working. I was shocked. (first of all, I didn't know I could wait at the ER for 8 hours to get some 'good' drugs!!)
I digress...she then had about 30 responses, and all but 3 including mine, were making fun of fibromyagics. She asked in her post how you would be celebrating FMD. There were 2 funny responses, by the way. One said they were having a pin the tail on the pressure point party, and the other said they were getting each pressure point tattooed so they could show every one.
One RN response was, when I see a chart that says Fybromyalgia Pain, I put it on the bottom. It's not life threatening, is it? True, but if someone has come into ER with that kind of pain, please relieve it asap. It would take 2 minutes. Now, I know that there are some people who would be called 'drug seekers', but they can come in with any ailment, (migraine, back pain) and use that as an excuse. But some of us truly suffer, and have gone a long period of time getting tested for this, that and the next thing before coming to the dx of fybromyalgia. Fibromyalgics just want to know why their lives are a shell of what they were. And finally getting the diagnoses does not make us throw a party, but at least we don't feel like fakers anymore.
One of the comments was from another RN, who said she always felt the same way about people with fybromyalgia, that is until she herself got it. Now she regrets her treatment of those people. She asked her Rhumatologist how it can be proved that she has it? He said, 'How can you prove a headache?'
O.k., no more lectures from me. But this post and the comments really made me feel bad. I started thinking, maybe mentally I've just given up...(or worse) I'm just lazy. But how to explain the pain and the complete exhaustion..I couldn't. I didn't realize that this disease was considered 'pretend' by so many medical professionals. But both comments on the positive side, were also from medical professionals.
Oh well, I think I will stay away from her blog from now on. For a nurse, she has very little empathy.
Take care all
Hugs

By The Way....

2008-05-13T16:06:00.002-04:00

New pics on my photo/video blog. Alsto look for new pics of the new baby, who Holly calls Jimmy...o.k...

It's Just Me...or is it just me?

2008-05-13T00:24:00.003-04:00

This is the kind of antics my poor Hubby has to put up with. Too funny! These are our big kids now, Gus and Queenie. (Gussie is the one with the yellow on his head) Aren't they beautiful? But, as usual, they are love birds and they are bad, bad, bad. They're lucky they're so cute! They're a lot of fun though. We take them out every morning and they chase each other around the living room, tear up every piece of paper they can find, sit on the windowsill looking out which is really cute. And constantly fight with each other. Even when they're cuddling. But we love them anyway, even when they're dangling off of our nose rings or when they're dangling off Hubby's glasses. Little buggers!
One of Poppy's babies has hatched...here we go again. Naked with big black closed eyes with his head stuck between the other eggs. At this point, he, of course, cannot lift his head by himself, not for about 6 weeks. So, I'm sure we'll see a new one hatch if not every day, every second day. Poppy's going to be busy.
The plan is to sell them, and gosh I pray I can because plan B is to basically stand on a corner in a trench coat, cigarette hanging out of my mouth, going...'Pssssst...wanna buy a love bird cheap, Bud?' at which point I flash open my coat and have all five of the little buggers hanging in a row on strings. No, of course I wouldn't do that....that's what I had kids for. When my girls were little, I thought I had them so they could get the t.v. remote for me. They're older now...
Ashley phoned me tonight. She had gone to see her father's new house. (you remember Fang, the ex?!) She said, 'Mom, his house is gorgeous.' I sniffed and tried not to sound interested. 'Really?' Ashley responded, 'Well, yeah, because it has all of your furniture in it!' I could have cried. My beautiful furniture. And it really was beautiful. All of my beautiful new appliances, my huge solid oak, hand made dining room with matching candle table and huge corner cabinet...waaaaah. And then it hit me, I'm free from him and it was worth it and more...I'm happy...and...lol..he's 50 and just had a baby over Christmas! One poor child that neither he nor his girlfriend, also close to 50, didn't want. That's just so sad for that baby, especially since he was a terrible father the first time around. I will pray for that baby all it's life, I suspect. He was very abusive to my 2 girls, and would have been physically except I could kick his ass and he knew it. (read, crazy native woman) But that's the only reason why he didn't. He was scared for his life and for good reason. He knew not to ever cross that point, cause I promised him great pain if he did. I had to in order to keep the girls safe. But he did a lot more damage on all of us mentally and emotionally. He only physically went after Ashley once. They were in the car and I was in the house. I heard them pull in and within seconds, Ashley was in the door, up the stairs and screaming for help. She jumped from the stairs into my lap. (She was like 14 then) He came flying up after her. I stood up, pushed her behind me and faced him. 'What the hell do you think your going to do?' I asked him, shaking. He turned to Ashley and said, 'You're going to pay for that!' I felt that was a serious threat, and that was pretty well the night I started staying awake all night to keep the kids safe. He was capable of murder and he was terribly jealous of the kids. Other than that, things were pretty hunky Dory around there. So, he can have all I ever owned, but I have things he'll never have in his life. How did I get into all this?? Sorry...I'm so emotional lately...menopause?? Did you notice anything bad starts with the word 'men'? Menopause, Menstruation, Mental Illness, Menial Jobs...Just kidding you guys. I love men.
Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print.
Take care
Tory

Happy Mother's Day To All....

2008-05-12T01:35:00.002-04:00

I hope you all had a great weekend. I didn't realize I hadn't posted for so long, so I apologize as I have absolutley no excuse for my lack of ideas on subjects to post about.
I went for my eye surgery on Thursday, as usual. All went well, a little more painful thanI was hoping for but that was probably because I had just got over the iritis in that eye. But I lived. I do have to admit I'm not looking forward to the next five sessions.
Next weekend we may be going up to open the love nest..I can't wait for the peace and quiet. We'll get our fishing licenses and see if we can find some muskie. Heaven on the grill. Oh, and to hear all those beautiful birds. Paradise, and it's just in time. I could use a break right now, as you can all tell by now.
None of the eggs have hatched yet, but when they do, Hubby and I will take them up to the Love Nest and hand feed them up there. Holly may not want to come and 5 babies are just too much for one person.
That's all I have for now, kids, but I will make a concerted effort to post again tomorrow or Tuesday.
Take care
Tory

I'm Back And Feeling Better...

2008-05-05T11:08:00.002-04:00

First of all, I want to apologize for my whining in the last 2 posts. I had a bad couple of days, but I'm much better now. I was taking some Tylenol 3's for the pain for my iritis, and I find the codeine seems to depress me. I only take them when I absolutely have to. It also constipates me, so I can't poop and I feel down...that could be a deadly combination. But I'm done with them for now, and feeling much better, including my eye.
I went for my weekly eye surgery on Thursday. They were supposed to do the left eye this week, but of course, it was the one with iritis, so they gave me medicine for it and did the right eye again. It was not fun! It really hurt this time and I was not impressed. But if I want to keep my eyesight, this is the only way. The Dr. was very nice, and I was just holding onto the hand grips on the machine for dear life. I was surprised I didn't actually pull the suckers right off! But I'm sure the machine was worth a billion dollars and I didn't want to have to pay for a new one as I didn't have my billfold on me at the time. There goes my lunch money...
Anyhoo, now I know I seem to whine a lot on here, but in actual fact, I am very good with pain and weird procedures. I'm not afraid of pain, and lets face it, I have been in chronic pain for a couple of years. But I manage just fine. But this eye thing was so painful this time, as soon as I left the Dr.'s office which is in this huge hospital in Toronto, I began to cry. I don't think it was really the pain, but I could hardly see to find my way out of the hospital, and then I found the car only because Hubby parks in the exact same place. He took one look at me and was upset. He said he hates to see me cry. I wasn't really crying from the pain, because that was all over, I think I was just feeling a bit frustrated over the whole thing. If you're wondering why Hubby didn't come up with me, I told him not to because it's like $12 to park and there's a free parking area if you stay with the car. He said next time he was coming up, but there's no point. I'm fine by myself and there is nothing he can do about the pain and frustration. I made it out of the hospital just fine. So, being the true fat couple we are...he bought me lunch and I had a smile from ear to ear within five minutes! He does know what to do, my wonderful man. My eye was fine after that, it does not hurt after the operation at all. Enough about that, I just wanted to keep you all up to date.
Poppy still has 5 eggs (5!). What a circus it will be to hand feed all of them. It was busy enough with Gus and Queenie but 5?! Help me....so Holly, the cheerful little monster she can be, announced that including the eggs if they hatch, we will have a grand total of 10 birds...eeeeek! Gosh, I hope I can sell them or we're screwed. We love our birds, but they are noisy at times. Gus and Queenie have their fierce talking time between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. They are actually asleep beside each other the whole time, but they are screaming in each others ears, while sleeping. But I do love them to pieces. I have absolutely no idea why they are called 'love birds' except they will cuddle with each other, when they're not fighting and biting each other on the feet. They are little war birds really, but can be so sweet at times. Not often though. We take them out every day for fun and games and it's us against them. They have this terrible habit of grabbing my nose ring and twisting it, which brings tears to my eyes. They do the same with Holly. Now with Hubby, I laugh until I almost pee. They head right for his glasses and stand on his face to do it. He'll say..'Ow..ow!' and I'll look over and there's a bird sitting on each lens. You have to see it. I'm going to get a picture of it for you because it is truly slapstick comedy at it's best! They are so lucky we love them.
Anyway, that's pretty well all for now.
Take care everyone and have a great Monday.
Tory

Thanks Friends...

2008-04-29T17:32:00.003-04:00

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments. I felt kind of stupid admitting some of my problems, and for some reason, I feel very ashamed of it all. But, the comments you've left me have made me feel not quite so bad about myself.
I have my iritis back, and have slept a lot the last couple of days because of the pain meds. I feel absolutely drugged out all the time, it's kind of annoying, but I have no choice because of the terrible pain iritis causes. I had to cancel my surgery last week because of it, and they probably won't be able to operate on my left eye because of it, but they will be able to do my right eye if they want, as long as they cover my left eye. Any light is so painful, and of course, we are having sunny mornings here. I have one eye closed all the time, and my underwear on my head. It's a bit uncomfortable, but what can you do. As I've said before, the band from my underwear makes my forehead itchy..lol.
In other news, there isn't any really. So, I'll close for now and post when I have something the least bit interesting to say.
Love u all
Take care
Tory

Lucy...You have some 'splainin to do..(think Cuban accent)

2008-04-27T13:46:00.002-04:00

I don't talk a lot about certain things on this blog. I do sometimes hold back on some things, however, I feel I need to explain why I'm sometimes inconsistent with my posts.
Of course, I've whined (I know that's supposed to be spelt 'whinged' but it looks weird) about my eyes until you are all ready to poke your own eyes out. Sorry about that, btw. I have several health issues going on at once here, (you know how I love to multi-task!) and I thought it only fair to come clean with some of it so you can understand why sometimes I can be hilarious and sometimes I just suck at it.
I finally went to see the rhumatologist. He confirmed that I have both Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fybromyalgia, which I suspected for over a year but my family Dr. insisted was my diabetes which is not fully under control. It wasn't until my endocrinologist said that it definitely was not my diabetes that was causing my problems, that my family Dr. sent me to the rhumatologist. Believe me, before that I felt like a total hypochondriac, like nobody believed me. Except for my family. They have seen me go from an active working and useful member of society, just over a year ago, to someone who can now not leave the house, can't clean the house, can't make meals or any other useful thing. I'm so frustrated some days and I feel pretty useless to everyone around me. The only thing I'm good at is sleeping. Most days it try not to let it get to me, but some days (like today) I get depressed at how small and useless my world is. Hubby and Holly have been so understanding, it just makes me feel guiltier. And the pain...constant, persistent and annoying. My arms and shoulders are in so much pain, I find it hard to dress and shower, or even brush my hair. Showering is an adventure in exhaustion and pain. I actually have a seat I use in the shower for when I just can's seem to stand anymore. If I have to go somewhere, I have to shower the previous night, because if I wait until the day I'm going, I will be too tired to go after my shower. It sounds ridiculous, but it's true.
I feel very vulnerable telling you all this, I don't know why. I like people to think I'm strong, but I am realizing I'm just not anymore..and that scares me..a lot.
The good news is, most days I am coping just fine, and these are the happiest days of my life really, because I am so secure with all the relationships in my life. Hubby and I are still very much in love and I have great relationships with my kids and grandkids. I don't think very many people can honestly say that, so I do know how very blessed I am. I guess we all have days when we have ourselves a little pity party, right?
So, friends, when I fail to post, it's usually because I am just too tired either physically or mentally.
There, I've said it, and that's all I have to say about that.
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Take care
Tory

Twitter..

2008-04-26T13:40:00.001-04:00

Just a note: I had to remove twitter from my blog. I just couldn't get it to work for some reason. Sorry about that.
Take care
Tory

Family + Me = FUN..

2008-04-24T16:00:00.004-04:00

After NAI Hubby and I got married, we received our marriage certificate in the mail. I was so happy to be married to this man, I put it in a frame and hung it on our bedroom wall. A few days later, I noticed it had slipped in the frame and one half of the document had slipped down to the bottom of the frame on one side. (the frame was a little too big and I just centered it) I have never fixed it, because it really said a lot about our marriage. Nice normal guy, meets slightly loonie and cock-eyed woman. It was a perfect description of our marriage. He and I never, ever fight..not even a little. He has pretty well learned how to say, 'Yes, dear' in all the right spots, even though he's not really listening. And even though I'm aware of his tactics, I'm quite happy with things this way. So, I'm happy and I let him be happy..perfect match.
Once in a while, I find out he's not completely perfect, and that's o.k, because I would totally lose in the Olympic discipline of 'Are You Perfect?', myself.
Now, I'm going to let you all in on how not perfect he is...are you ready?....Here it comes...and..
He never puts a new roll on the toilet paper. Actually, neither does Holly. I remember one day, Hubby and Holly were watching t.v. and I came out of the bathroom. I actually had a roll of toilet paper and the roller in my hands. I yelled, 'Could I please have every one's attention for 2 seconds and then you can go back to your scheduled viewing!' I thus demonstrated, with visual aids, how to simply slide the toilet paper on the roll. I then screeched, 'Taaa Daaa! And at no time did my fingers leave my hands!! You may now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.' You know what's weird? They both actually sat there and watched me do this! I turned and marched my way back to the bathroom, giggling all the way. They really must be scared of me..tee hee.
Having that issue settled, I thought all was well in the house, until I ran to the bathroom and peed with the light off as is my usual habit. Oh, yes, the tissue was on the roll, but there was no tail left hanging down. By the time I finally found the start of the roll, I had practically air-dried. Hmmph...doesn't anybody have any bathroom etiquette? On my way out, I stopped in Holly's room. She was laying on her bed, and looked up at me when I yelled, 'Were born in a barn? If you don't leave a tail for me, I will so forbid you to use any toilet paper for 2 weeks!' I then told my hubby the same thing. I then spent the next week or so yelling, 'Don't forget to leave a tail,' every time they went into the bathroom.
When Ashley, Rob and the kids were down, I would announce the bathroom rules, about every second day or so. Ashley laughed at me and said, 'Mom, you're a loser.' True, but what does that have to do with my bathroom woes. It's like living with animals!!! Some people's Kids...and two of them are mine!
All this brings us to today. I have a bathroom mat that fits right in front of the toilet and goes to the wall. Every single time I go in, I have to straighten it out! So, I ran around here like a raving lunatic, (that's probably in my profile, Female, Mother, Raving Lunatic..etc) saying that, 'all bathroom privileges have been suspended until further notice!' Signed 'The Bathroom Prefect.' Ha, and they think I'm kidding!
Time for 'fun with hearing loss', kids. Yesterday I thought I heard the news anchor say, 'One man sent to hospital last night after a brutal flashing.'
You can imagine what I was thinking when I heard that! Was it so big someone put an eye out?
Apparently what she actually said was, 'a brutal slashing..' Whatever, mine was much more entertaining...and cheerful.
Conversations: Me: 'I have a huge floater in my eye that looks a lot like a sea horse. I even think it's almost life size.'
Hubby: 'Well, at least it's not a sperm!'
Me: 'Yeah, that's true.'
That's all for now.
Take care
Tory

Me Again..Ugh...

2008-04-22T12:10:00.004-04:00

Well, I had a terrible weekend. I got Iritis (again!), in the eye that didn't have surgery, but that I'm supposed to have surgery in on Thursday. I doubt they could do any surgery on it while I have iritis as it is so painful and sensitive to light. But we'll see. I can hardly see a darned thing. It's so annoying. Thank goodness I don't need to see to type. Every one's first clue that I had it was the fact I was on the computer with a pair of black underwear on my head...dead giveaway! I bring the word dork to an actual art form...sigh.
Well, Poppy has 3 eggs again! Do these two ever do anything else? Let's see if they make it to hatching, you never know with Poppy.
Ok, kids, it's time for 'Things you hardly ever get to say.'
I said to the eye Dr.: 'Are you going to poke my eyes with sharp sticks?' He said no..no fun at all.
Me: The band on my underwear is giving me a rash on my forehead! Actually, I get to say that more often than you'd think!
Me: 'I think my underwear is giving me an 'ear wedgie', is that possible? Holly: With your ears, yes, it's possible.'
Me: 'Must I constantly have bird poop in my hair??' Holly: 'Yes.'
I have a really good 'fun with hearing loss' that I want to relate to you all. Yesterday Holly was doing exercises in the living room. I sat here and watched her, of course, laughing and making fun of her. She's so funny. Anyway, she was doing some kind of push-up and had her face almost buried in the carpet. I heard her say, 'I'm breaking into a slut!' I looked at her like she was crazy, 'What??'. She said, 'I'm breaking into a sweat.'
Take care all.
Tory

What An Interesting Day!

2008-04-17T19:07:00.003-04:00

Well, I sure had a long day today. I had an appointment with my eye specialist at the hospital. I had missed two other appointments because both times we had a snow storm and couldn't get into the city during rush hour. Anyway, in order to get there today, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Left in plenty of time, and took and alternate route, however, it was even slower than the busy route. I was nearly 15 minutes late and was afraid they wouldn't see me. But thankfully they did, and a good thing too. My eyes are a mess because of my diabetes. I must have had 10 different tests, including being shot up with dye to take pictures of my eyeballs. After all that, the Dr. said things were serious with my eyes, but he could probably save my sight if I have (get this!) 8 laser surgeries! What??? Not only that, he wanted to do the first one today...o.k...sounds like fun. So he sent me away for some lunch and when I came back I went right into surgery. No, of course I didn't have the luxury of being put to sleep. No bullet to bite on even...actually, I exaggerate. I asked him if it would hurt, and he said yes. Fair enough, at least he was honest. All in all, the surgery took about 20 minutes, and wasn't all that painful. I think I'll live through the next 7...whatever. My eye doesn't really hurt too much, but it did give me a headache. C'est la vie! So, now I go for surgery every Thursday for the next 7 weeks. I'll be glad when it's done.
Well, it's over Sens fans. We just couldn't remember how to play hockey. We sucked and now we are gone till next fall. Boo hoo...go Calgary! You have to be flexible as a fan, don't you think?
In other news, Poppy has an egg again. She gets way more action than I do. We'll have to see how this one turns out, if it does.
Holly got her hair cut very short yesterday. It looks very cute. She started out wanting to shave herself bald...eek! I said, 'o.k. Brittany!! But don't blame me if you end up under suicide watch at the hospital!' After she had time to examine her new 'do' she told me that she looks like a 'Doodlebop', whatever that is. I disagreed. She still looks human. Anyway, she went to the trouble of finding the Doodlebops on-line, which is some sort of kids show. Huh, she was right! But she still looks cute.
Well, that's all the news that's fit to print. I'll write again soon.
Take care All
Tory

2008-04-12T17:46:00.003-04:00

So, it's hockey fever around here. I know I keep mentioning it, but I really love hockey. My poor team, the Ottawa Senators are getting their butts kicked by Pittsburgh, but they're back at home tonight so maybe that will help...at least I hope so.

Ashley was saying that she had a friend over from school the other day, and baby boy said to her, 'Guess what's under my skin?' The girl replied, 'What?' Baby boy, 'My wiener!' at which point he was going to show her until she called for Ashley. He has just discovered that his wiener is different from his dad's as he was not circumcised. So now, he has a total fascination of it. Ashley was pretty embarrassed. Ah, kids!

I am going to start a new thing on my blog called, (taaa daaa!) 'Things You Hardly Ever Get To Say In Real Life'. This could be a lot of fun and feel free to join in.

1) 'Pass the scalpel, stat!'

2) 'Honey, did you milk the platypus?'

3) 'You regressed me last night, didn't you? I've asked you not to do that!' (I heard this line in an old horror movie)

4) 'Well knock me down and stomp me flat!' (from an old western)

5) 'Are you're wife and daughter also alien lifeforms Mr. Cruise?'

6) 'Shall we let Barney run things today, Mr. President?'

Well, you get my point...actually, I admit I don't have one, I'm just not able to think of a lot to write about these days. My life is kind of....eventless. Is that a word? Well, it is now.

I am expanding my blogroll all the time now, and I encourage you to check some of them out. People are so interesting. It's like a little snap shot into other peoples lives.

Anyway, that's all for now, folks.

Take care

Tory

Updates and Blessings!...

2008-04-11T10:00:00.003-04:00

Good Morning all..It's pretty dark and cloudy here this morning but it's a beautiful day anyway.
Have you ever had a moment when you look at your partner and you are overwhelmed with the sense of how much you love them and what a blessing they are to your life? Last night, after NAI (new and improved) Hubby came home from work, we watched t.v. together as he relaxed. It's playoff time again, and we enjoy watching all the games as playoff hockey is so much better than regular season hockey.
I digress.
Watching the game, or anytime we spend together, we laugh so much and Holly was out watching t.v. with us, too. They always amuse themselves by making fun of me, and then Hubby and I will make fun of Holly, and we laughed so much my sides hurt.
Holly went to bed, and as usual, Hubby goes to bed before me. He gave me a kiss, and told me he loved me, and as I watched him walk away, I was overwhelmed with love for him. I realized how blessed I am. Life with Fang was hell and chaotic, but the peace and security I have with this man just overwhelms me sometimes. Thank you God, you saved the best for last in my life. I am truly,madly, deeply in love with this man, and I will never take him for granted.
Pretty sappy, eh?
Poppy lost all her eggs this time...she broke them all or something. But the good news is, it didn't take more than five minutes before she and Bailey we at it again! Nymphos.
Holly went out driving on Sunday for the first time and did pretty well according to Hubby. She had fun. Got in the car and the first question she asked was, which one is the gas and which one is the brake?! Scary!
O.K., it's time for fun with hearing loss...watching the game last night, I could have sworn the commentator said,..'Anne Murray takes the puck down the ice'..I looked at hubby..'Anne Murray plays hockey too?'..Hubby looked at me funny..'No, he said,..and Murray takes the puck down the ice'..Me: Oh..
Take care, peeps, and remember to appreciate your loved ones.
Tory

Ahh...nostalgia...

2008-04-03T20:50:00.004-04:00

It's beginning to look a lot like spring all of a sudden. Next month we will be able to go up and open the Love Nest...Woohoo! I miss it when it's winter.
This time of year also reminds me of times when Fang and I would take the kids camping when they were little. They had their own tent and we usually had a good time. The only thing was, once night fell, I found it very boring after the kids went to bed, just sitting there watching our campfire all evening. I loved waking up in the morning, with all the smells of people making breakfast and campfires. I loved sitting on the picnic bench after breakfast with a cup of coffee just listening to the birds sing. The kids would get busy swimming and playing. We would go on nature walks and see a rabbit or two, porcupines and chipmunks. Fang was very good at camping, a natural bushman and he made us all very comfortable.
The last time I went camping, It was just the girls and I with Bambi and her family. It was the most miserable trip of my life. The first night, the girls and I just didn't have enough blankets, so I wrapped the girls up in whatever I had and nearly froze to death. I don't think I slept at all the first night. Luckily, Fang came by and dropped off more sleeping bags for us. It rained quite a bit, and it was so chilly at night, nothing seemed to help. The blankets constantly felt wet and sandy...ugh..
I knew it would be the last time I would ever go camping in a tent. I was just getting too old for that. Now I like to camp at the love nest, or the Holiday Inn.
Oh, and the car rides from hell. Fang seemed to be a nervous driver and would constantly have road rage, swearing and carrying on every 2 seconds. Then he'd yell to the girls in the back seat, 'Stop kicking my seat!' I remember one time on the highway in the middle of nowhere, Ashley piped up, 'Mom, Holly threw her shoe out of the window!' Veins popping in my forehead, I yelled, 'Holly, why did you do that?' Holly looked sheepish...'I don't know.' I screeched, 'Did she just throw it out now?', thinking maybe we could find it. Ashley said, 'No, it was a long time ago.' 'Why didn't you tell me then?', I cried, sweat running down my face. Ashley replied calmly, 'I forgot.' Aaaarrrggg! It's funny now, but it wasn't at the time.
So for those of you who still enjoy the camping trips with the kids, have a cup of camp coffee for me, 'cause there isn't a chance in hell of me ever camping again!
I'll stick to the love nest, where 'roughing it' is one ply toilet paper and running out of ice for our cocktails, which never happens!
Take care all,
Tory

Let's Be Serious For A Moment...

2008-04-01T21:55:00.004-04:00

I was just reading through my favorite blogs, and Yobeeone has a very scary video on her site that makes you really think. If you get the chance, I think you should watch it. It's an eye-opener. You can find it at Fairy Odd World

Tory...The Rebel...

2008-04-01T10:06:00.003-04:00

I remember 'the Mother Unit', (er,that would be my mother), saying when I was around 5 years old, 'There is no God!'. I have no recollection as to the circumstances surrounding this statement, and as far as I know, that was the first time she ever mentioned God to me. I remember, on occasion, parroting this phrase to people, having no idea what I was talking about. But, that's what 'mother unit' said, so it must be true.
Funnily enough, at 17, I found God. Actually, He wasn't lost, I was! Overnight there was a profound change in my attitude and outlook on life. When I told 'mother unit' about my experience, I will never forget the look on her face. She was absolutely horrified! You would have thought I had just told her I ate one of my younger siblings.
I would laugh to myself when I would hear her on the phone with one of her friends saying, 'I don't know where I went wrong with her, maybe it's just a rebellious stage or something. At least I hope so!' I never, ever preached to her, but she was constantly asking me questions about my faith and I would tell her, only because she asked. In a way, it seemed so personal to me at the time, I really didn't want to talk to her about it much. It was a profound experience for me, and she made it sound like a disease. But I didn't back down, or I simply couldn't back down from her questions.
After awhile, she sort of came to terms with it, when she realized that it wasn't going away. But really, she just made allowances for my 'retardedness'. lol...
A few years later, her mother was very ill with cancer. I spoke to my Grandma often, and prayed with her. She herself had found her faith through the horrendous experience of being so ill. Finally, in January, we got the call that Grandma had been hospitalized and she was not going to be around very much longer. My mother picked me up at work, and we went by car from Toronto to Montreal. It was a terrible day for driving and we came into a major snowstorm. We couldn't see a foot in front of us and it was so bad, we couldn't see to even pull over. I wasn't really worried to be honest as my 'mother unit' was an excellent driver. But I looked over at her and she was sweating bullets, clutching the wheel and leaning forward in her seat straining to try and see where she was going. The only other traffic on the road were 18 wheelers, who because of their weight, felt secure enough and experienced enough to drive at full speed. Every time one of them would go by, it would blow our car all over the road. This was the reason that it would have been unsafe to just park on the side of the highway. They would never have seen us and would have plowed right into us.
Another tuck went whizzing by us and our car spun around and landed right on top of a median at a cut-off. All of our 4 wheels were lifted off of the ground, and there we sat, sideways on the highway, teetering back and forth. The 'mother unit' freaked. A truck came roaring by, just missing our bumper and there was nothing we could do. Mother unit, in a panic told me to get out of the car, then she changed her mind and said I'd better stay in the car. She tried and tried to get 2 wheels to touch the ground to get some traction, but it didn't work. Finally, as another truck was barreling down on us, she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, 'Tory, pray.' For some reason, I was totally calm and I smiled and said, 'O.K.' And pray I did. I closed my eyes and thanked the Lord for sending us an angel to get us out of this mess. As I was praying, It felt as if someone lifted the car up from the back end and put our two front wheels onto the road. Mother unit gunned it and we were free. Shortly after, the snow stopped. Mother unit was very quiet for the longest time. Finally, she broke her silence and said, 'Did you feel someone lift up the car?' 'Ya,' I said, 'I prayed for an angel to come and help us. They're pretty strong.' 'But I felt it, I really did!' She said. Dead silence...but I could hear her mind turning...lol. Finally after a long silence, she said to me, 'What if we don't get there on time and she dies.' I replied, in all earnestness, 'I'll see her again one day..I'm not worried.' Mother unit began to cry...'I guess that's what's bugging me, I don't think I will see her again.' We had a very long talk after that, about God and His impact on our lives. She actually listened!
Grandma died a day or two after we got there. When it came time to make the arrangement for the funeral service, the family met with my Grandma's Pastor. He asked us which songs, and scriptures we would like. The whole family just sat there, at a total loss. They didn't know any scriptures to be able to choose them. I piped up, with some scriptures, suggestions and songs. I was the youngest one there and I didn't want to impose my ideas into it, but there was a very awkward silence in the room when he asked that. I could see the relief on every one's faces that I was able to come up with something so we didn't look like complete heathens. I looked at the mother unit, and for the first time, I saw she was proud. After that, if there were any questions, Mother unit would say, 'Oh, let's ask Tory, she'll know.'
That day, my Aunt asked if I would sing at the service and I did. It was a very sad day indeed, but I felt satisfied that I had been vindicated for my faith. I'll never forget it.
In other news, Holly went for her beginners driver's licence, and flunked...teehee! She went back and rewrote it and passed. We are never going to let her live this down, and I'm sure she'll be pleased I made that announcement here! My poor wiener kid!! lol...
I just have one more thing to talk about. I finally figured out what google reader is, and now that I have it, I love it. The only thing is, there is no place for putting comments there..at least, I can't find it. Anyway, I've noticed that my comments have dwindled to nil. Is that because we all have google reader and we can't be bothered? Please people, comments are what bloggers live for...don't forget to post comments on your favorite blogs. I know it's a little more trouble, but it means so much to the blogger.
Take care
Tory

Lunch With The Whole Fam Damily.....

2008-03-30T18:15:00.008-04:00

Well, I've been on some new meds that haven't been totally agreeing with me and have felt flu-like for a couple of weeks now. I started to take half doses and today I felt better. So, new and improved Hubby took Holly and I out to our local Chinese buffet. I decided to bring you all along with us...and took pictures of all the crap we ate. We ate ourselves sick and then went shopping. All in all, a fun day!

Will post more tomorrow, looks like it's time for a nap..oh, and the pictures are a bit mixed up, but you get the idea.

Take care

Tory

Let's Talk Art...

2008-03-28T13:03:00.010-04:00

1 & 2) Trisha Romance

3) Renoir ~ Banks of the Seine at Champrosay
4) Renoir ~ The Garden in Montmartre

We haven't talked about this before, have we? I love art. If I were rich, I'd be one of those people at the big art auctions. My favorite style is impressionism, especially Renoir or Monet. I also like Rubens. There's something about looking
at these beautiful works that just makes the whole world seem like a wonderful place to be in, suddenly. Of the more recent artists, I really love this Canadian artist, Trisha Romance. She is absolutely amazing. The detail in her painting are incredible. I don't know how she does it! I have been to her studio/museum a few times at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and felt as if I was standing on hallowed ground, almost. She has an inoperable brain tumor, and it scares me to think that we may lose this unique talent.
I, myself, have tried to paint, but it is harder than it looks. I paint the equivalent of 'stick men.' This really sucks because I really love doing it...sigh. I keep promising myself that I will get painting lessons one day. That should have gone on my life list, actually..or is it there? I can't remember.
In other news...
Lumpy complained, 'Mom, I just got my cage the way I like it and Holly came along and cleaned it while I was out!'
Holly replied, 'Shut up, Lumpy, you smell.'
Lumpy whined, 'Mom, she's calling me names.'
Poppy replied from the pantry, 'As soon as I get off the nest, I'm going to renew my efforts to kill you all!'
Take care all,
Tory

So...What do ya think...?

2008-03-27T00:18:00.002-04:00

One thing about blogging, you can always find something new you want to do. I noticed that Andrew at http://www.4thavenueblues.blogspot.com had something called a twitter, which was really fun to read. Now I wanted one too. I had no idea how to get one..so off to search for it all day yesterday. It seems to take me all day to do stuff other people can do in 5 minutes. Oh well, it kept me out of the pool halls..
I digress...
I finally figured it out and got to twittering, but didn't like the way it looked on my site...what to do?!
Today I realized that you could have 3 columns on a web page..Aha! I tried to figure out all that template jibberish and then Holly walked by. Aha, again!
I said, 'Holly, I love you.' She replied, 'Whatever it is...no!' I'm not beyond pleading and whining, she should know that by now. Finally, she sat down at my computer and found a new template for me, with 3 columns. For a second, she was my hero, that is until I realized that all my pictures and widgets were gone. But I managed to get them back up, for the most part, and I am so happy with how it all turned out. That Holly is a good kid sometimes, so I don't plan on selling her yet. I was going to put her up on EBay, but maybe I'll wait a bit.
Poppy has only one egg now,as the other one is broken. She is so mean to Bailey, I'm considering getting him his own cage while she's on the nest. Tonight she bit him very hard on the foot and made it bleed. Holly and I were mortified, and felt terrible for him. I'll have to call my bird supplier and see what he thinks. Poor Bailey. We should have known because Poppy has all the earmarks of a serial killer. We'll have to keep our eye on the situation.
Queenie and Gus are doing great. I'll have to take some video of them in the next day or two and put it on my photo/video blog, so keep checking back.
Fun with hearing loss...I heard the announcer on t.v. say, (about a serial killer) 'Tears from a kitten, but not for his victims.'
I think he must have said, 'Tears from a killer....
That's all for now, group.
Take care
Tory

My Mind is Blown...

2008-03-24T22:45:00.002-04:00

Well, peeps, I am flabbergasted! Just checking out some of my comments and found a very disturbing one under..'Heaven..I'm In Heaven'. I really can't quite get my head around it...this sounds like a very disturbed person indeed. I do realize this is an open forum for back and forth communication, but when I read this...well, it really gave me the creeps. Take a look yourself if you don't believe me!! Does he sound like the next school shooter to you? And there is nothing I can do to stop him as he posted anonymously.
I'm not afraid for myself,of course, but he really does sound very dangerous to others and possibly himself. Don't waste your time reading the whole thing, but just have a look and tell me what you think? Of course, I had to make a joke out of it, but....yikes!!
I will pray for Mr. Anonymous tonight, as I fear he is someone who has fallen between the mental health cracks and he really needs help.
Take care, guys!
Tory

Oooh...I'm So Mad...

2008-03-22T15:10:00.001-04:00

I was going to give my site a new look and somehow I totally lost everything. Holly tried to get it all back, but no luck. I will have to work on it to restore what I've lost...so be patient with me.
I'm soooo stupid!!
Take care
Tory

Happy Easter All...

2008-03-21T21:38:00.004-04:00

By The Way....

2008-03-21T11:25:00.001-04:00

I Almost forgot to tell you all....Poppy has two more eggs!! Here we go again.
Take care
Tory

Empty Nest Syndrome....

2008-03-19T08:36:00.003-04:00

Well, I've been abandoned...my grandbabies are gone. Apparently, Ariel cried for her Nanny half of the way home ...sigh. Of course, I cried when they left and felt heartsick to see them go...sigh. We had a wonderful time, the house was busy and loud and I loved it. They grow so fast and I feel like I'm missing so much. It's hard to believe that Ariel is 5 and in school already. She's so smart, and drew me a million pictures while she was here. Most of us had ice skates on in the pictures...so cute. Baby Boy is getting so big as well. He has the cutest little face and says the funniest things. He thinks baby Scarlett is a boy even though his mother keeps telling him she's not. He also thinks Scarlett is the family pet. He pats her on the head and says, 'Cute little animal!' One day Ashley noticed that his jeans were bulky, so she asked him, 'Stephon, what do you have in your pants?' He replied, 'My testicles!'. (Do you ever write a word that you're almost 100 percent sure you've never written before? Testicles would be one of those words for me...and now I've written it twice in one post! The 'testicle word elves' will be very pleased with me.)
Last but not least, baby Scarlett. She is so beautiful with her deep blue eyes. She is such a happy baby and smiles constantly.
...Sigh.... We were so busy, I didn't get around to taking any pictures, so the morning they left, I thought I'd better get some...the battery was dead in my camera..but not to worry, I gave them a new camera for their computer and Ashley promised to send some soon.
In other news...the baby birdies are real birds now, In a cage and eating seed. They are fully weaned. I was afraid to stop feeding them their formula, in case they went hungry, but they're doing great. They've been weaned for a week now. Too cute..I will take some videos of them soon. They fly so gently, almost like hummingbirds. So, just for fun, I checked out their pelvis's to get a clue as to their gender. Gus is definitely a Gus...but Leonard definitely feels like a female. So, we changed her name to Queenie. Because their bones are still soft, it is hard to tell for sure until they are about 5 months old...but I'm almost positive. If not, too bad...we will force Queenie into dresses and heels and insist she remain a girl, for our amusement..(I put the word 'fun' back in dysfunctional, don't I?)
I have to tell you that I found Forsythia's blog http://lifeinmerlin.blogspot.com/ and read the whole thing in one sitting. She is so funny. One of the things she writes about is what she calls, 'Fun With Hearing Loss'. I hope you don't mind, Forsythia, if I borrow this idea. It's so funny.
Yesterday, I heard the news anchor on t.v. say, 'It's going to take a lot of pigeons for your commute home today!'
What she actually said (I assume) was, it's going to take a lot of PATIENCE...
Have a great week, everyone!
Take care
Tory

Heaven..I'm In Heaven...

2008-03-11T20:50:00.002-04:00

Well, peeps, I am in 'Nanny Heaven' right now. I have Ashley, Rob and my three special grandchildren with me for the week. I am loving every moment of it. My baby Scarlett has grown into a little sweetheart, and Ariel and Stephon are getting big as well. I wish I could keep them forever. But no, their mother is selfish and won't give them to me. I just want to borrow them until they're 20 or so...what's the problem. I wish they lived closer...I want to be with them so much more than this. However, It does tend to make this time sweeter and maybe I wouldn't appreciate them as much if they were around all the time. Good news is...once Ashley is finished school, they will be moving back around here and I will never take my grandchildren for granted...ever! I don't want to even think about the time for them to go home...I'm going to just enjoy the moment.
That's why I haven't been doing much on my site lately..however, there will be new pictures coming soon on the photo/video blog, of course of my wonderful, beautiful family.
I hope you all have the best week, like I am.
Take care
Tory

Some Sad News and Some Glad News!

2008-03-03T19:42:00.003-05:00

Well people, I'm devastated to hear that Jeff Healey, a popular Canadian singer, songwriter, and fabulous blues guitar man, died yesterday at only 41, succumbing to cancer. I have loved him for a long time, and he has a blues bar here in Toronto that Hubby and I kept saying we would go to, to hear him play. Unfortunately, Jeff only played on Thursday nights and Hubby works evenings during the week, so we never made it there. The amazing thing about Healey was that he lost both eyes to cancer at a year old, and fought various types of cancer all his life. He picked up a guitar at the age of 3, learned to play sitting it flat on his lap and the rest is history. My condolences to his wife and children. May he rest in peace.....sigh.
Now I have a story for you all called 'Adventures In Toryland'. In the last year or so, I've noticed a growth on my face. It kept getting bigger and uglier. I was pretty sure it was a wart, but it began to look like some sort of sea urchin/fern. So the last time I went to the Dr.'s, I asked him about it and he confirmed it was in fact a wart. He said next time I came in he would burn it off for me, or he said if I didn't want to wait, I could tie a string around it very tight and it would fall off in a couple of days. Well, I forgot about it for awhile, until one day I noticed that it had grown to the size of a basketball and began winking and waving to strangers. I called him 'Shorty'. Finally it was time to get rid of my conjoined twin, so I happened to be in the bathroom, admiring my awesome beauty...stop laughing!...when I noticed the dental floss on the counter. It was the minty, waxed kind...whatever. I actually thought that could be a good thing if poor Shorty was going to rot to death on my face. Minty is definitely good in this case. Anyhoo...I tied it tight around Shorty, yes, he did put up a bit of a struggle but I subdued him...first a body slam..then a kick in the fronds. Pretty hard to do in our little bathroom, but subdue him I did. (Think rodeo, where they chase the little cows and tie up their little feet!) I then wrapped the floss around him and tied it as tight as I could. Yes, I did hear a little whimper from Shorty...but I remained cold hearted about it and moved forward with the plan. I cut the floss as close to Shorty as I could, but you could still see it. So, a haircut was definitely out of the question for awhile. Plus I have this terrible habit of putting my hair behind my ear without thinking about it. When I did this, it showed poor Shorty with his tongue sticking out, strangling to death and the suspicious ends of dental floss sticking out. I was constantly doing this in public until one of my family members noticed and whispered, 'We see Shorty!' I would of course, quickly put my hair back over him. Anyway, I had a Dr.'s Appt. today and he cut Shorty off. Hooray!!! I have a only a little scab where he was and then it'll look fine.
Good-bye Shorty...sob..I'll miss you...NOT!
One other thing before I go, I've decided not to edit my comment section. It's a pain in the neck to anyone wanting to leave me a comment. I will just delete any unwanted comments from whoever it is doing that.
Take care
Tory

Ugh....some People!!!

2008-03-02T21:23:00.003-05:00

I don't know about any of you guys, but I am literally being stalked by someone who is filling up all my comment boxes with advertising. I went to his website and told him to cut it out, so now he's doing it anonymously. So, for now, I will have to approve comments before I post them. Just for now. I don't plan on giving this guy any space on my blog, so hopefully, he'll just give up. Thanks for understanding and please don't let this stop you from all your great comments. I hope this will rectify the situation quickly and we can get back to normal around here.
Take care all
Tory

Oh Yeah, I Forgot To Mention....

2008-02-19T20:30:00.002-05:00

O.K. I'm gonna come clean about the quitting smoking thing....I didn't quit. I know, I know...I suck. Holly is really bugging me about it. I was practically hysterical the night before just thinking about it. I will again set a quit date and try again. Just one catch, the quit date will probably be around January 2028...just kidding...sort of...AARRGG!!! I just don't feel like going through all the pain and anxiety of it. If I could just wake up tomorrow and just never thought of it again, that would be great. But it doesn't happen that way.
I'll keep you all posted about the situation.
Take care
Tory

Family Day ~ Woo Hoo!!

2008-02-18T14:24:00.004-05:00

Today is the very first, newly appointed 'Family Day' in Canada. I think they were just looking for an excuse for another long week-end. As with other national holidays, banks, stores, government offices and other businesses are closed. Should you have to work, you will be getting paid time and a half on your wages. Since this is the first one, ever, I am at a loss as to protocol for this holiday. Some of my questions, if I should happen to get a call from the Prime Minister today, will be as follows...
1) Do you have to spend it with your own family, or can you force yourself into the family photo's of strangers?
2) Will you get arrested for this and have a restraining order posted against you, or in the spirit of family day, will this unknown family, (unknown until today, that is..) have to simply call me Aunt Edna and put up with my shinanigans? (such as get drunk, tell stories about their grandmother's foray into the golden days of burlesque...in which her act included a can opener...and a garden gnome...) I digress!
3) Define 'Family'!! Would it count if I decided my family would be Bunny and a handful of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches...with sombreros and Nike sneakers? (actually, some of them wouldn't be caught dead in Nike...the whole child labour thing...)
Now, to call it family day was a pretty good idea, but not very creative. What good is a national holiday if we can't exclude and segregate people and groups of people? The following would have been good choices, in my opinion, for names for the new national holiday....
1) National Name That Dustbunny Day!
2) Have Your Yak Spade or Neutered Day!
3) Does This Look Infected To You Day!
4) National Smile At A Whore Day!
5) Rough And Scaley Elbow Day!
6) Tell Everyone You're Going To Quit Smoking, Then Don't Day!
7) Name this national holiday, Day!

Feel free to make up your own, folks.

Now, in other news, please check out my photo/video blog for new videos of Leonard and Gus. Today we took them from Poppy and they were hand fed for the first time. They did very well. We thought Poppy would be upset that they were gone, especially since she took such good care of them. She couldn't care less!!! Not a bit, and the baby's don't seem to mind that they are away from mom. It was all much less painful than I thought it would be. We expected screaming and crying...from me, of course..but it was all good.
Talk to you soon, Kids.
Take care
Tory

Updates...

2008-02-09T13:44:00.000-05:00

For those who care, I have added new video of the baby birds. Also, I've started a food blog at the request of my kids.
Not much happening in my life right now, but will make a proper post as soon as something happens!
Take care, gang.
Tory

3rd Anniversary Saturday

2008-02-05T19:48:00.000-05:00

Saturday was mine and Hubby's 3rd Anniversary. We were going to go out, but since our two hockey teams were playing against each other, we decided to spend the evening at home and we will go out for Valentine's Day, somewhere special. So, we had a quiet night, but it was nice. And look at the beautiful roses he bought for me. For some reason, I just couldn't stay still enough to get a good pic. Could have been the magnum of champagne...

Anyhoo, Leonard and Gus are doing so great. You can actually see growth in them from the night before, in the morning. I say they're cute, but really...they are quite ugly. What makes them cute is their size. Other than that, they are rather alien-esk. But they look good and healthy. Poppy must actually be doing a good job! I don't know about you guys, but I'm shocked.

Take care

Tory

And Another New Birdie Baby ~ Gus!

2008-02-02T16:29:00.000-05:00

Just a short post to let you all know that another of Poppy's eggs have hatched, sometime Thursday. I will be putting up a video of the two on my video blog a.s.a.p. Both seem very healthy and move around a lot more than you would think, being so small and all.
Holly and I are so thrilled and even the New and improved Hubby had to admit they were cute. The second one was actually peeping while still half-way in the egg. So cute!!
I'll keep you posted.
Take care
Tory

WWC ~ Round and Pride

2008-01-31T16:28:00.000-05:00

Round ~ A little candle in a round bowl, a tiny round pill bottle, a small roundish bean-bag doll, and finally, a Powder Puff Girl and her big round head.

Pride ~ My Children and Grandbabies, of course. The proud new parents, Poppy and (finally) a picture of Bailey. Not a good pic of Poppy, but a pretty good one of Bailey. And finally, my little lighthouse lamp (I collect lighthouses). It was such a find for me and was only three bucks!! I didn't realize there were lighthouses in the shade until I lit it up. It was a great surprise.

A New Member to Our Petting Zoo!!!

2008-01-31T14:41:00.000-05:00

A grand announcment from us...one of Poppy's babies has hatched somewhere between 5p.m. and Midnight, last night. Holly went in to check the nesting box, as she does every night before putting the birds to bed. At first, she thought that the egg had broken and it was no good. Then it moved! I was in the washroom (of course!) and she's shouting at me, 'Mom, something happened!'. I hurry up to go and see what was going on and sure enough, there was Baby Leonard! (We named him after the man who sells us all of our birds.) However, we may have to adjust the name once we actually find out if it's male or female. We're so exited! It's so small that I actually had to go and get my glasses to make out which end was which! He's only between 1 and 2 cm. We took pictures, but were having a hard time since he is so small, but check out my Picture/Video Blog for video and pics. He is so adorable that Holly and I just want to touch him, dress him up in something fetching and put sunglasses on him for photo ops...but we're really trying not to. He probably wouldn't enjoy it. Poor Bailey sits by himself all day while Poppy sits on her clutch. He looks so lonely, but will still tear off into the nesting box if we get too close. But I'm determined to get some pics of him today, to show you all how beautiful he is.
I will also be looking around for the WWC for this week. I can't remember what they were, so I'll have to check again.
Talk to you later, Kids!
Take care
Tory

Please, Somebody Kill Me...

2008-01-24T13:42:00.000-05:00

Do you all see that horrible countdown clock I've added to my page??? I am going to quit smoking on Feb. 3. Yes, Holly forced me to watch Oprah, and it was about quitting smoking. Bastard Kid!! I've already decided that if I don't know what to do with myself when I quit, I have several options:
1) Cry
2) Kick Holly's butt!
3) Smoke one of the animals
4) Sleep for months at a time
Wish me luck, Kids and I will say sorry in advance for anything I may write on this blog after Feb. 3. The opinions of Tory, at that time, are not necessarily those of management!
Take care
Tory

WWC ~ Envy

2008-01-23T14:32:00.000-05:00

Who wouldn't envy a cottage in God's country? Or a lovely cruise? I miss my love nest!

WWC ~ Triangles

2008-01-23T14:26:00.000-05:00

It was a challenge to find triangles in my house, but this is what I came up with.

The first pic is a tiangular serving bowl, the second is a heart, but it's still a triangular shape...right? The third is the top off of my lava lamp.

That was fun!

WWC..O.K...I'll join in!!

2008-01-23T11:11:00.000-05:00

O.k. I'm in. I'll try the WWC. Let's see..this weeks words are triangle and envy...hmmm..I'll be back in a few..

From Keith..and Little Wing...

2008-01-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

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Tory..The Sex Machine...

2008-01-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

I'm one of those people who falls...a lot! I can think of so many times when, in public, I've found myself spread-eagle in places where you shouldn't really be 'spread-eagle'.
I will never really get over the trauma of the time in high school, my parents drove me one morning. It was winter, and I was soo cool with my long, poncho-type coat. (Popular at the time. O.k. so it was a hundred years ago) That is until they stopped in front of my school, and while trying to maneuver my way out of the back seat of the two-door, I tripped over my coat and landed face first in the middle of the road. I could not get up immediately because my arms were pinned under me when I fell. What did my parents do? My mother laughed so loud she caught the attention of all the other students walking within 3 miles of the school. She then pushed my feet and the rest of my coat out of the car, slammed the door and they took off, leaving me in the middle of the road, struggling to find the slits in the coat so I could get up. I could hear her laughing all the way down the street. I thought I would die of embarrassment. Yes, she was always that 'thoughtful'.
I remember the time, in my mid-teens, walking in the mall. As I walked past a fruit and veg stand, I slipped on a piece of rotten lettuce. I did the splits so well, let's just say, 'watch out all you crazy, gymnastic experts...I have arrived!' Of course, the problems were,
1.) Previous to this, I'd never done any gymnastics.
2.) I didn't know how to un-gymnastic myself either gracefully or ungracefully from this position.
3.) Did I have to be in public for this??
That's when I actually channeled James Brown. You remember when James Brown did the splits and then was suddenly able to pull himself upright? Yup, I was so embarrassed I actually did that!! (Yes, and James Brown's voice came into my head...'Get on up..Hgh..Hgh..') It's then I realized that I had been channeling James Brown for years...note the 'cape' in the previous story. At that moment, I became afraid of myself and have since refused to be alone with myself for any length of time unless armed with food...or shoes..nice purses..
Anyhoo...cut to years later. Fang, the kids and me going into Walmart after church one Sunday. Yes, I had on heels..and if I recall correctly, a big, ugly, puffy, pink dress. (Every time I wore this dress, somebody would always ask if I was pregnant!! Hated that dress.) Somewhere between 'women's wear' and 'children's wear' I again did the lovely 'James Brown' splits. In a dress, people!! Fang grabbed the kids and left me there. ('get on up..Hgh...Hgh..like a sex machine') Everyone I know is an insensitive bastard!
One year for Christmas, Fang bought me a pair of slippers. Were they lovely furry mules, comfy cozy pull on's?? No, of course not. It was Fang. They were 'chicken' slipper?! I have to describe these things in detail for you. They were over a foot wide, each. Bright yellow with big red toenails on the end of each 5 toes. Oh, and then there was the battery pack!! Every step I took, these things would, 'cock-a-doodle-doo'! Loudly and often. I remember picking up the phone and whoever I was talking to could actually hear them. I tried to be gracious about it and told Fang I loved them...yeah..(my nose is growing just thinking about it!!)
The breaking point for me was when I ran up the stairs, our dog chased my slippers, I fell 'up' the stairs, dog barking and biting my slippers, slippers crowing in alarm...ow..ow..Then I fell down the stairs, dog barking and biting my feet, slippers crowing in alarm..ow..ow..
The next day, I was first in line at the 'Returns' department of the store. Without looking up, the lady asked me what the problem was with the merchandise. I simply shook the slippers, they crowed, she looked at them and promptly returned my money. No further questions asked.
Take care
Tory

A Blah Kind of Day...

2008-01-17T22:35:00.000-05:00

Gee, it's just one of those days when I feel like bitching. I think I'm getting the winter blues. The days always seem so dim and dark outside, especially when it's not snowing. I love the snow and it perks me up, but to just have dark clouds all the time...well it's just not working for me. At least not today.
Poor Ashley..she's going through hell right now. Everyone in the house has chicken pox, including herself and Scarlett. It started with Ariel, who probably caught it in school, then Rob and Baby Boy got it. They are in pretty rough shape right now. Yesterday, Ashley noticed a few dots on Scarlett, but nothing very noticeable. Then, Ariel and Ashley got bad colds. Ashley got an ear-ache and a sore throat. Ariel has a terrible cough. So, Ashley called me this morning and said that Ariel had coughed so much during the night, she woke Ashley up at about 3 a.m. and had vomited in her bed. So, Ashley goes to clean it up and notices that Ariel had broken blood vessels in her eyes and on her face from coughing and vomiting. Tonight, Ashley gave me a call...Ariel was complaining that her eyes hurt. She asked me if she should take her to the hospital to get it checked out. I thought she should, because chicken pox can get into your eyes and make you blind. I told her to call me back when she got home. Ariel called me and told me she has pink eye. In both eyes!! Arrrrgggg! Of all things! Poor Ashley! She was at the hospital for only 3 hours, but when she got home, Scarlett had cried the whole time she was gone and was completely covered in chicken pox. What a terrible day for her! And the next few days will be a challenge trying to make sure Ariel doesn't spread her pink eye around. She will probably have to take Scarlett to the Dr. because I don't know how chicken pox effects young babies. Poor Ashley!
I worry about Ashley and the kids. She could use some extra help right now, and I wish she lived closer. I could take the baby or Ariel or even just go over and help her during the day, doing what-ever. Rob is so sick right now, he's having a hard time being any help. Anyway, I instructed her to keep at Ariel to wash her hands and only use her own towel etc. Maybe it will help to keep it from spreading. I hope so. Poor Baby Boy has his chicken pox so bad and especially around his genitals. Prayers and good thoughts for them.
In other news, have you heard all the hype about Tom Cruise and Scientology. In case you don't know, scientologist's believe that we are originally from aliens and they are waiting for the mother ship to return. It's a very odd 'religion'. They believe that we simply have lost the memory of our origins, but the 'church' can help you to remember. They also believe that there are actual aliens already in the American government who are getting ready to take over and enlighten the rest of us...or something along those lines. O.k...what?? I can't believe they actually manage to take seemingly intelligent and normal people, successful people, and convince them of all this. It seems to me to be a slow brainwashing technique or something. And by the time you find out you're an alien, you are already heavily invested in it.
And you guys thought I was an oddball! Even I wouldn't fall for that!...I..don't...think. Well, if I did, I certainly wouldn't tell anyone!!
Anyway, Poppy is still sitting on her eggs. Nothing hatched yet. Is she ever mean to Bailey sometimes. We have to keep an eye on her, she is like a woman in labour. Moody, cranky, mean and just miserable. Actually, she's always been that way...to be honest. She really is not a nice little Poppy, but we love her anyway. She has such a cute and innocent face as she plans every one's death...sigh.
I bribed Holly into cleaning the house for me. Hoooray!! I just don't have the energy to do it myself these days, but I can't stand the mess anymore. In February, I go to a rhumatologist to find out if I have fybromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. I am exhausted all day long and in so much pain all over my body. I sleep quite a bit and so I haven't been able to work for the last year. However, I may have found a place for on-line jobs for people with disabilities. That would be good to be bringing in some money to help out the new and improved Hubby. But, he never complains about anything with me and is so good to me, I wonder about him sometimes???!
Hubby just saw this and said for me to stop wondering....o.k...
Well, I feel much better now that I've written all my crap down and whined about it until you guys probably thought you wanted Poppy to actually kill me in my sleep! Thanks for listening, guys!
Take care Kids
Tory
By the way, does anyone know where Tunisia is??

Just a Short Note...

2008-01-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

Since putting the video feeds, and other widgets on my blog, I noticed that it takes a few seconds longer to load. Please be patient.
Thanks!
Take Care
Tory

The Stalker...

2008-01-16T14:23:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I'm trying to make some changes and improvements on my blog. I have found so many new widgets to keep track of people, I actually think I'm beginning to stalk all of you. I'm lonely!
But now I can tell where everyone is from that happens upon this crazy blog, even if by accident. I used to have a map that had little red dots on it for every hit I got, which showed where in the world the hit came from. O.k. I must confess, when it comes to geography, I suck. I was getting hits on the map but didn't know what country it was from...duh. So, that didn't really work for me. Besides that, there were so many hits in North America, it turned into one big red dot. So, I got rid of that pretty quickly. Anyway, I'll just keep working at it so that it looks fresh for my regular readers.
In other news, my nose! I just discovered that I hate it. It is a really weird shape and gives me a kind of 'Charlie Brown' profile. I should have had a nose job years ago, but I didn't know it. Actually, when I think about it, I should have had a complete overhaul by now. I don't have much in the 'boob' department, if you know what I mean. My own Dr. once said to me that my breasts are so small, 'If you feel anything, you must have a lump'!! A breast implant op would be nice. And you already know about my large ears...I'm so depressed...
But we've all seen the shows about plastic surgery gone bad. Have you see Kenny Rogers lately? Is he the same man?? I would never have recognized him in a million years. And what's up with Wayne Newton? Is that his face or is it novelty night? He looks like a stand-in for the wax museum. And these are people who can afford the very best medical experts! All I could really afford would be a 'backstreet' plastic surgeon, you know, a guy with a Ginsu knife and Barbie parts...sigh. You know he would probably offer a free toaster for every nose job, for a limited time.
I will be the big '50' this year, and it's too late to do anything about my funny nose, big ears, small boobs etc..so I'll just have to live with it.
In spite of all this, I have a hubby who loves me and that's good enough for me.
Take care, Kids
Tory

A Wonderful Day Had By All...

2008-01-15T00:45:00.000-05:00

Well, Sunday was a wonderful day all around. New and improved Hubby and I went to visit Bambi and all four of her Kids. I call them kids, but they are all full grown. The eldest is Flopsy who is almost 30 yrs. old and just recently got married. Her husband wasn't there, but he sounds like a wonderful guy and I can't wait to meet him. Second eldest is Mopsy, who lives with his girlfriend, Muffin who was also there. The youngest are the twins, a boy and girl, named Stanny and Franny, who are 26. It was so great to see everyone, as it's been over three years since we lost touch and I've known these kids since they were shorter than I am.
(of course that's not their names...come on guys..keep up with me!)
When Bambi and I first saw each other, we both almost started crying. It was great. The rest of the time was spent laughing and revisiting old times. I can't wait to see them again!
And in other news, Poppy and Bailey now have 3 eggs in the nesting box. I still haven't been able to get Bailey to stay outside the box when I'm in the room. I feel at this point, that Poppy has put ideas in his head about us. I can tell by the way he looks at us. Is it possible that he is even more suspicious of us than Poppy is? But, as I mentioned, we don't know what Poppy is telling him. Lumpy thinks that they are very unfriendly and won't give him the time of day. Oh, I can't wait until they hatch! Hubby says we can sell them once they're old enough...and of course, I totally agree..(wink!) Poor Hubby doesn't really know what's going on in my world at the best of times. He probably prefers it that way.
That's all for now.
Take care Kids
Tory

Bits and Pieces...

2008-01-11T02:51:00.001-05:00

I am trying to stay true to one of my New Year's resolutions, which is to keep blogging and not leaving long empty spaces of time in between. So, here I am, not sure what to write about though, so you know it's probably going to be a weird one. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!
One of the most fascinating diseases on earth has to be 'Ebola Zaire'. If you haven't heard of it before, it is named thus because it originated in Zaire, deep in the jungle. I saw a documentary on it once, and I was totally horrified and fascinated at the same time. Apparently, what it does is cause your body (squeamish please avert your eyes!) to hemorrhage and clot at the same time. It is absolutely horrific! I loved it! No, don't get me wrong, I hated to hear about the suffering of the poor people who caught this dreaded disease, and I wish they could find something to save them, but once you get it, you are soooo screwed. No cure. And from start to finish, the average patient only lasts about three days with it. I'm sure they must be in agony.
O.K. but what I found fascinating about it was the fact that your body does two separate and opposite things all at once. It's the disease for the multi-tasker.
One day, I had the flu, not long after seeing the documentary, and went to my Dr. I felt like I was going to die. After a few minutes, the Dr. came into the room and took one look at me and said sarcastically, 'Boy, you look wonderful.' I coughed for about 10 minutes straight and looked pathetically up at her. 'I believe it's Ebola, Doc.' Without skipping a beat the Dr. replied, 'No it's not. Your eyes aren't bleeding!' Well, o.k. she was right about that. Anyway, I just thought I would talk to you about one of the most fascinating diseases I know. Now you are all informed, you can watch out for the symptoms.
Now I will make a list of things I'd like to change about myself, and you readers can remind me to try and do them...
1: Stop talking to myself out loud when there's people in the room.
2: Stop getting annoyed if they answer.
3: Stop talking to myself in the car.
4: Stop getting annoyed when Hubby answers.
5: Stop getting annoyed with Holly when we are the only ones in the house and she comes out of her room to find out who I'm talking to.
6: Find somebody to talk to.
7: Stop being so forgetful. One time I went into the kitchen for a drink and I actually made a large salad and forgot my drink! I have no idea why I made the salad.
8: Stop worrying about getting Alzheimer's.
8: Stop worrying about getting Alzheimer's.
9: I once put my reading glasses in the fridge and couldn't find them for 3 days.
10: Do you think I have Alzheimer's?
Oh well, kids. That's all I could come up with from my very exciting day.
Take care
Tory

2008-01-08T22:53:00.000-05:00

Just a short note to let you all know that I will be removing a lot of the pictures from this site and moving them to my 'Tory's photo/video Blog'. I just want to unclutter my blogsite and keep all the photo's in the same place. It will be much easier to read without all the distractions, such as beautiful babies and tots all over the place.

A Blast From the Past!

2008-01-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

First, I will henceforth be writing any further blogs in bold, as it makes it easier for me to see...and I just discovered the button...duh.
Well, I had an interesting day. Ashley called, and as some of you may know, she is taking the Social Worker Program at college. She is actually in her last semester. She is my personal hero, as she does school with tons of homework, takes care of 3 kids under 5 years old, and is a real go getter. And to his credit, her hubby, Rob, is a terrific father and watches the kids while she's at school, working around her hours as much as possible. They are very plugged in to their kids. Did I mention that Ariel has started school? She absolutely loves it and the kids and teachers love her back. She's a big girl now, and is saving all her pictures she paints at school for nanny to frame. I'm telling you, she's brilliant!!
Anyway, I often help Ashley out a bit with her homework. Today I wrote an essay on post-traumatic stress disorder for her, and e-mailed it to her. She needed a patients perspective on it for her big project and I fit the bill. (Come on, you guys knew I was a freak when you met me...!)
I went into my e-mails and found a note from an old friend, which really made my day. We go back a long way, Bambi and I. (Of course Bambi isn't her real name...do I look like Walt Disney to you?? Actually, in profile I do, mustache and all...sigh!) We've been through a great deal together, including my divorce from Fang and me meeting my new and improved hubby. We lost touch a few years ago. I didn't realize how much I'd missed her until I saw her e-mail. So, I grabbed the phone and gave her a call...it was like we never paused...just picked up where we left off, more or less. She's as crazy as I am, and we have spent a lot of time together laughing when we should have been crying and crying when we probably should have been laughing. We really truly 'get' each other and that means a lot. Both our lives have changed a lot since we last spoke and we have a lot of catching up to do. Hubby and I will go visit her on Sunday. That will be fun.
Did I mention to you all that Hubby quit smoking on New Year's Eve? He's doing great! I'm so proud of him.
That's all for now, kids.
Take care
Tory

2008-01-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

http://freerice.com

I'm Back!!

2007-10-14T18:21:00.000-04:00

So sorry...no, I haven't forgotten you all. I have been very neglectful of all of my friends here at blogger. I don't really have much in the way of excuses..some health issues, holidays, etc...
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with family and friends and laughter. Mine was nice and quiet, but still very good all arounds.
I'll get you up to speed on my exciting and wonderful life...zzzzzz!
Actually, the most exciting thing I must tell you about is the addition to our family. Poppy has a new husband! We are trying to breed her and we went to our 'bird man' and he had a 2 year old male lovebird, a good breeder. We picked him up the week before Christmas. I must admit, I was a little nervous about putting another male in with Poppy, considering her record. But our 'bird man' assured us that he could hold his own with her. Within a very short time, they were cuddling and kissing! Holly and I were shocked. What's up with our little 'war' bird? Was she lonely all this time? Maybe even rehabilitated?! She is totally in love with him. We named him Bailey, the same name as her late husband. Why, you may wonder, would we call him this? Well, the poor late Bailey wasn't alive long enough for us to get this name out of our system and we have absolutely no imagination. Besides, we are continuously told to recycle and we wanted to do our part. Anyway, Bailey is absolutely gorgeous! He's a deep emerald green with a deep red head, face and chest. On his tail, he has a gorgeous peacock blue colour with some red and black streaks. He still doesn't trust us, so I haven't been able to get any pictures of him yet to put on the blog, but I will as soon as I can. Before Bailey, Poppy would make so much noise, well, some days I thought she'd look good on the rotisserie...but since Bailey's arrival, they are very quiet. They whisper into each other's ears. I think they are both planning our deaths at this point. Since we are very anxious to have babies, every time I walked by the cage, I'd tell them to get 'banging'...if you know what I mean. Holly and I were toying with the idea of taking pictures of Tequila in some compromising positions and hanging them in Poppy and Bailey's cage...you know...a little birdie porn to give them an incentive. Tequila refused to participate, saying he wasn't just a piece of meat. Killjoy!
Anyway, Christmas Eve, Holly is walking by the pantry and she says, 'Mom, the birds are banging! I jumped out of my chair and so did hubby. So, there we were, the three of us, watching the poor birds going at it hot and heavy. I thought to myself...nothing says Happy Holidays quite like spying on your birds mating! Since then, we've caught them a few times at it. Hubby says they've turned into nymphos...I say Hubby's just jealous! He agrees!
The result? There's an egg! I'm so excited. But Poppy isn't spending a lot of time sitting on it, so I'm a bit worried. I'll keep you posted... Also, if it hatches, I promise to take lots of pictures of the little tyke as it grows.
New pictures of Scarlett, for all of you that are interested. She is so beautiful! I miss her so much. She has 2 teeth now and is working on her next one.
I've been having a lot of problems with my eyes. Went to my eye specialist and he's sending me to another specialist. I think I have detached retinas, which will mean operations to try to save my sight. But, not to worry folks, that won't stop me from posting on here. I am an expert typist and don't need to see the keyboard. But my eyes always feel strained and I have a blank spot in my right eye and huge 'floaters' in my left eye. The biggest floater started out looking like a dragon...so I was complaining about the dragon in my eye for weeks...then it began to look more like the 'road runner' and I complained about that for awhile...now, it looks like a sperm. I don't believe it's a viable sperm, but it's a sperm, non the less. Now I complain about the sperm in my eye...nobody listens anymore...sigh...
I asked Hubby, if I go blind, does this mean I can have a big dog? He said no, that we would have 'Stevie' fitted for a halter and he can be my seeing eye bunny. That's all well and good, but Stevie is blind! He will probably lead me right into a ditch. Could be fun!
Well, that's all the news that's fit to print, folks. I'll keep you posted on all news.

Tory and the Seven Dwarfs....

As you can tell from the title of this particular blog, today's subject is of a sensitive nature...namely, hemorrhoids. I know, I know...you've read so much on the subject lately, it's like they're the new 'Brittany'! But it's an important subject that should be talked about more often. On the list of important subjects, it should be somewhere between...'Are Micheal and Janet Jackson really the same person?' and 'if we combine all the wax, collectively, from all of our ears, could it be used as a fossil fuel?'
A few years ago, I had hemorrhoids. OMG...painful!!! It's not something that one can complain about, out loud, like a cold or a headache. I had to suffer in silence when in public. Of course, at home I moaned constantly about them, sitting on only one of my two cheeks, knees crossed to give 'the seven dwarfs' more room to elbow their way around. It was like sitting on a very lumpy whoopee cushion, sans noise...well, except for the moaning. Not from the '7 dwarfs', but from me.
It's not like I could tap someone on the shoulder, sitting in front of me at church and say, 'Pray for me, when I 'pass wind', I cry!'
Some days were worse than others, but at the end, I just could hardly take the pain from them anymore. Laying on your side, cheeks spread, praying that they may be able to help take the pain away. Then I gave up on my friends and went to the Dr. about it. Then to the surgeon. They say that a hemorrhoid operation is one of the most painful operations you can have, but the post-op pain was nothing compared to the pain pre-op! I'm glad I had it done.
There, now I've brought the subject out into the open, feel free to talk amongst yourselves about it.
You're welcome!!
Take care,
Tory

A Thanksgiving Disappointment....

2007-10-07T12:05:00.000-04:00

Well, the bad news is that Ashley called on Monday and said they were having transmission trouble and couldn't come down. Hubby was very disappointed as he has not seen Scarlett yet. Sigh... I miss all my babies, including the adult ones.
On top of that, It has been extremely hot in our apartment because of the warm fall we're having. Far too hot to cook a turkey, so we are having pizza for our Thanksgiving dinner. Sigh...
Just one of those weeks, where you'd like to just stay in bed and eat bon-bons, er..if I had bon-bons...but I don't...sigh...
To top it off, I have a hole in my ankle about the size of a dime that's been there for about 3 months, which is a bummer for a diabetic. Used the cream the Dr. gave me, but nothings helping it. It's getting bigger...sigh...Well, if I end up having to get my leg cut off, I will get a hollow prosthesis so I don't have to carry a purse anymore. I could fill it with everything I would need for an outing (like Vodka!) and I would decorate it with..I don't know...stickers? Maybe fly tape..or how about lovely wallpaper? Ooh, I know, pictures of my grandchildren!!! Let me know if you guys have any suggestions.
OMG, hubby has put on an Elvis movie...sigh. Could the week get any worse?
Hope your week has been better, friends.
Take care
Tory

Back Again...

2007-09-22T12:34:00.000-04:00

I really suck at posting lately. Just not much happening these days.
Had my eye operation yesterday morning. It went fine. I feel fine today. You would never know they cut a piece of my eyeball out. I was actually thinking that if she cut too deep all the jelly would shoot out of my eye and my eyeball would deflate like a grape, but no. Nothing that exciting happened. Now to wait for the results. I can't say I worry about this stuff, cause I just don't. I'm either really cool or just really dense.
So, is it me, or has the world gone crazy lately?? O.J., Paris, Brittany, ('Leave Brittany alone...sob, sob.') I'm sorry, but I just don't care. Is the world so short of real life stories that we have to tolerate all this crap all the time. I haven't heard Darfur mentioned in awhile. Did they get over all the problems there already? The elections in the U.S. aren't going to be done for another year, but we have to listen to Hilary Clinton endlessly...why?
Anyway, did you hear that Brittany is fighting to keep her kids by going out to the nearest bar she can find, even though the judge told her to stop her boozing and carousing. Did anyone ever think that they may be holding parenting classes in these establishments?? No, we insist on judging her. Again...'Leave Brittany alone!!!..sob.' And, Holy Cow, did you catch her big 'comeback' on the VMA awards?? I did, but honestly I don't know why I did, since I don't even know what 'VMA' stands for!!
Ya, I need a life...why am I enjoying O.J's recent problems so much. Why do I sit with my popcorn, screaming at the T.V., 'Hang the bastard!!'? I really want to be on the jury for his trial and when nobody is looking, make a throat cutting gesture to him every time he looks at me. Then deny it if anyone asks. Is his next book going to be titled, 'If I Did Break Into A Hotel Room And Hold Someone At Gunpoint, This Is How I'd Do It.'
I don't even know what to say about Lindsey Lohan, except maybe, please put on some underwear! Or is that Brittany? Whatever!
Anyway, have a great week-end everyone!
Take Care
Tory

Ow....my eye!!

2007-09-07T11:36:00.000-04:00

Well, my iritis is back with a vengence! That makes it hard for me to be on the computer, but I wanted to post anyway. I've missed you guys.
Not really anything earthshattering to report. My eye operation has been postponed until the 27th of Sept., so I have that to looke forward to. I'm not concerned about it at all though.
Paverotti has died this week. I hope it won't sound too crass if I mention that they will probably have to bury his eye brows seperately. They seemed to have a life of their own!
Poppy laid 4 eggs while I was on holiday and we left her to sit on her 'dead kids' as Holly so nicely puts it, for 3 weeks. If we took them out too soon she would feel compelled to lay more. I imagine Poppy suddenly regretted killing her husband while contimplating this as she sat on those 'dud' eggs. See Poppy, men can be useful for some things! Anyway, I finally took them out of the cage yesterday. She looked for them for awhile, and gave up. I thought she would be very upset, but she got over it in less than 10 minutes. She is cold hearted. I still plan on breeding her, but I will keep the male in his own seperate cage most of the time. Can't take chances with her.
So how are you all doing? Leave me a comment and let me know.
Take care!
Tory

Happy Labour Day, All!!

2007-09-01T14:59:00.000-04:00

It's the long week-end folks, and off to the love nest till Tuesday or Wednesday. I will let you know how it goes.
I hope you all have a fantastic week-end and you all find your own 'love nests' with your loved ones!
Take care till then.
Tory

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!!!

2007-08-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

I'm finally back. So sorry it took me so long. I've been so busy. Holidays were blissfully non eventful. Just hung out at the Love Nest with my hunny. We didn't do much, just spent a lot of time together. laughing, bonding and singing along. O.K. maybe there was no singing, but I think that would have been nice, don't you?
Anyway, I had a birthday back in July, and I am so totally freaked out about it!!! I turned 49 years old. It didn't bother me when I turned 40 or 45, but 49?? One year away from 50!! Which Holly so kindly reminds me of every 10 minutes. Ooooh, kids!! That's O.K., Holly is anorexic, so to get her back I call her fat. Not to worry people, she's much better now.
To make matters worse, my Dr. changed the type of insulin I've been using. This stuff makes me ravenous. If you hear anything stirring in the night, it's me rifling through the fridge finding things to eat at 3 a.m. So, since starting this insulin, I have been gaining weight. And believe me, I wasn't exactly slim to start out with. My underwear have gotten so tight, my hips are numb.
It all came to a head last night when I stepped out of the shower and saw my reflection in the mirror. I have the profile of Alfred Hitchcock....don't laugh, it's true. I have a beard growing suddenly that could compare to any Mennonite. It's not that my hair is falling out and getting thin, it's just that it's being redirected to my chin. So, I've taken to plucking constantly. However, I swear that when I pull one hair out of my chin, three disappear from the top of my head. My stomach has turned into an apron and my knees have grown together!
Diet and exercise is out the question because I hate both. Exercise, for me, is to sit in the tub, pull the plug and fight the current. I see all those crazies who jog. If I'm jogging, it means someone is chasing me with a knife.
Ah well, life goes on.
Talk to you all soon, I promise.
Take Care
Tory

Holiday Time At the Love Nest!!

2007-08-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

Hubby is off for his holidays now for 2 weeks and we are leaving today for the love nest until Tuesday or so. I'll miss you all until then, but I will take lots of pictures of our adventures. Take care and be good!
Love Tory!

I Have Been A Bad Blogger!!!

2007-07-23T18:07:00.000-04:00

I have been very lackadaisical with my blog lately. I must apologize for my long stretches with nothing written. Do you ever feel like you simply don't have anything to write about? That's been me lately. Nothing new, nothing exciting...nothing. That's my life these days...boring. Therefore I am a boring person. I feel boring..and bored. Just one of those things I guess. Hopefully, this little stage will soon pass and I'll be back to my old blogging self. Maybe something exciting will happen this week in my life...like, Paris Hilton will give me a buzz and ask me to go partying with her. Hopefully we won't wear the same outfit..or..the Pope will call for some spiritual advise. Maybe Lumpy will learn to read this week or Tequila will learn french. Anything!
I'll keep you all posted, should any of this happen.
Take Care!
Tory

I've Been Tagged....Thank You Abbagirl.

2007-07-13T19:06:00.000-04:00

Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Fact #1: I used to teach a woman's bible study group once a week and the adult Sunday school at my church.

Fact #2: If you're a guy and you think you can get away with hitting one of my daughters, you'll find this old lady is pretty good at kicking ass. (Been there, done that, broke my foot on his stupid ass! But when I was through with him, he ran away like a little girl and never came back..lol)

Fact #3: I love to sing. Took lessons for years but too shy to sing in front of anyone except at church with a group.

Fact #4: I'm very proud of my kids. Ashley is half way through her social work program at college and once Holly is done school, she's going into the seminary to become a pastor. (Mind you, a crazy pastor with piercings!! I love it..)

Fact #5: Did not find true love until I was 43 years old, even though I was married to Fang for nearly 20 years before that.

Fact #6: I'm writing a book about my crazy, mixed up life and I'm nearly done with the rough draft.

Fact #7: I have never been interested or tried drugs until my mother talked me into it a few times when I was young. I hated it and haven't done any since.

Fact #8: I would have to say that right now is the happiest time in my life so far.

O.k. Now it's time to tag 8 people...I tag Keith, Newt, Moonrat, Michgib, Tink, Bubbles, Pipe Tobacco, and Andrew. Have fun people and I look forward to reading your facts.

Tomorrow we leave for the 'Love Nest' so I will be back to my blog by Tuesday. Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm Finally Back...thanks for your patience!!

2007-07-12T10:13:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. So sorry I was gone for so long. At the last minute I decided to stay at the 'love nest' on my own for a few days. I kind of enjoyed being on my own for a change but that quickly got old and I missed my hubby being there. It's almost too quiet when you're by yourself. Sigh...the love nest just isn't the same without my love being there with me.
I put some garbage outside to put in the shed and a little while later I noticed something moving outside on the lawn. It was a gopher and he kept standing up and sniffing in the direction of the garbage. 'Oh no you don't'. He was so cute and must have stayed in the yard for a full 15 minutes, giving me time to have a good look at him. We also have some little red squirrels that are so adorable. I broke up some white bread and threw it around the deck for them. A little while later I heard a knock on the door and one of the squirrels was standing there with the bread in his hand. He demanded that from now on I need to put out multigrain bread, as he is trying to watch his figure. Fine. Ungrateful..so and so...
Hubby finally showed up on Sunday and I was so happy to see him. Let's face it, gophers are not generally known for their conversational skills. They tend to only want to talk about themselves. It gets tiresome.
We piled into the car and went for dinner in a nearby town. We had a great time, and dinner was excellent.
I was especially grateful that Hubby was there that night as a huge storm came up, the most severe storm I had ever witnessed since I was 4 years old and was in a hurricane. It was very close to tornado speed winds. There was a clap of thunder so loud that it shook the whole trailer. I knew something close had been hit. We were watching it out of the patio door and I noticed that the tree directly in front of the deck, which is at least 200 ft. tall, was swaying back and forth! No, not the branches, the actual trunk! If it fell, it could possibly crush our trailer. We decided to get into the car and head out to the front of the park where there weren't as many trees. We sat at the front for awhile and it seemed to be easing off, but on the drive back, the wind picked up again and it began to hail. I was afraid that it would come through the windshield! While driving, we found the source of the big crack of lightening. A huge tree had been hit a street behind our trailer and was laying on the ground. It took a long time for the wind to settle down enough for us to go back in the trailer. I was so grateful Hubby was there and I didn't have to go through that alone. I don't know what I would have done as the trailer park is almost empty on a Sunday night.
I see that Holly hi-jacked my blog while I was away. Actually, I told her to let you all know that I was staying for the week. Thank you for your patience...you know..the Darren Hayes pix! She's crazy about him and it was a thrill for her to see him in concert.
Thanks for all of your comments while I was gone. Abbagirl, thanks for the tag and I will work on it this afternoon.
Take care all and I'm glad to be back.

2007-07-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone!
I'm Holly. My mom just wanted me to come on and tell everyone that she decided to stay at the trailer for a few extra days. She says she will be home on tuesday.
Since she isn't here (and can't do anything about it!) i should take over her blog and write something....hmmm......... I can't think of anything to say.

A few weeks ago, I went to see a Darren Hayes concert. You may know him better as the led singer of the group Savage Garden (yes, he is still around!). I'm such a loser but HE TOUCHED MY HAND!! Anyways, I'll post some pix of the concert.

I guess that's all I have to say. My mom will be on next week to tell you guys what's new with her. (and will hopefully have more interesting stories!) Bye!

Sorry For The Lull...

2007-06-29T20:56:00.000-04:00

So sorry guys, I know you all must feel neglected I haven't posted in so long. I have had an eye infection and it makes it impossible to look at the puter screen. I go for an operation at the end of August to remove a lump from my left eye. Not to worry, I'm sure it will be fine.
Tomorrow we go to the love nest until Tuesday. I'm looking forward to the peace and quiet.
I promise I will do a proper post either Tuesday or Wednesday. I wish you all a happy Canada Day and a great long weekend.

I'm Back!!

2007-06-16T10:09:00.001-04:00

Well we finally made it back. Our train arrived yesterday in Toronto at around 4p.m. Holly and I were glad to be back as neither of us likes to travel too much, but we had a wonderful time at Ashley's. Scarlett is such an easy baby to take care of, she's no trouble at all. I miss them already and cried all the way to the train station. I'm such a sap. I can't tell you how much I hated to leave that precious baby knowing that the next time I see her she will be a different kid.
But we'll be going up in August and I can't wait to hold her again.
Of course, I had a great time with my other two grandchildren. They are so smart and so much fun. Such good kids, but that doesn't happen by accident. Ashley and Rob are wonderful parents, very involved and present. I'm so proud of them.
We will be going up to our love nest tomorrow for a rest. I feel like I need it. It will be relaxing.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all my readers for the lovely comments while I was away. I appreciate each and every one of them. You guys are the best!
Talk to you later.
Tory

She's Finally Here!!!

2007-06-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

Let me introduce you all to the new addition to our family...Scarlett Asia..5lbs. 10oz. Healthy and wonderful...born at 12:30p.m. Monday June 11, 2007. Mother and baby doing fine. Ashley was so brave through it all; I was so proud of her. She went through hell, but Scarlett is gorgeous. She has a very deep cleft on her chin al la Kirk Douglas and is very bright and alert. Nanny's in love with this little bundle.
Thanks for all the encouragement guys, it's been wonderful. Will put pictures up so you can see her a.s.a.p.
Take care all.
Tory

We've Arrived!!

2007-06-08T09:56:00.001-04:00

We're here and have found my daughter well and still pregnant. Thank goodness we didn't miss the event. We have been enjoying our time together and we're having a grand time with the kids.
We had a great train ride up. Bought a coffee and spilled it all down my new white shirt, of course. Holly says it's like traveling with a 2 year old.
I'll keep you all posted, pardon the pun!!
Take care all.

Around the World in 80 Days...well..not really.

2007-06-04T08:09:00.000-04:00

So, on Saturday night I get a tearful call from my eldest daughter, Ashley. 'Mom, I think I'm in labour!' 'Nooo!' I yell into the phone. 'You can't do that yet, I'm not there!' My heart dropped. Oh Lord, don't let it happen without me. I have already missed the birth of my first grandchild and saw the birth of my second. I do not want to miss another. I then learned she had overdone it cleaning during the day. I told her to sit and put her feet up and don't move. Let's see what happens. I then called her every forty-five minutes to check on her. Thank goodness, the pain went away..just that rascal 'Taylor Hicks' again! However, she says it doesn't feel like she can hold out for too much longer, so Holly and I change our plans and are leaving tomorrow. I can't wait to see my babies, daughter and wonderful son-in-law. He and I have planned some fishing trips together. That is..in between seeing babies being born.
So, I have a lot to do today, but I can still keep you posted while I'm away.
God Bless you all and take care
Tory

This One's For You Mitchgib!

2007-06-02T10:02:00.001-04:00

I love it so much when you guys leave me comments. I guess as bloggers, that's what we live for. Knowing that someone took time out of their day to read our ramblings and then took more time to write a comment, well, let's just say it makes our day, doesn't it?

Yesterday mitchgib asked about the 'love nest'. I would be happy to tell you all about it as it is my 'special' place. We live in a city just outside of Toronto. As a matter of fact, I can see the CN Tower outside my window. It would take us maybe 15 - 20 minutes to get there. I was used to living in the country for 20 years and never thought I'd ever move to a city again. But after I left Fang, I had to move to the city as I didn't drive...well, if you've read my blog you know they just won't let me drive. Anyway, when I met my new and improved hubby about 5 years ago, he owned a trailer up north, about 1 and 1/2 hours drive away. It's in a wonderful trailer park practically in the middle of nowhere. When we were dating, we would go there often and it was like a piece of heaven to me. I hate living in the city and still can't get used to it. I'm absolutely OCD about the noises, the smells, the pollution and too many people around! So when hubby and I go up north, I can actually feel the stress melting from me on the drive up. It just so happens that the park is right across the street from a golf course, with a restaurant where we go for breakfast. The trailer park itself has a beautiful in ground pool and a club house where every Saturday night one of the people at the park dj's a dance, which is a lot of fun. They provide snacks and you bring your own bottle. The park itself is a co-op and is run by the members themselves. They also have bingo night and coffee time. Once a year the members have a big garage sale which is great and mostly everyone participates. A lot of the people who are in the park have been there for like 20 or 30 years! Hubby knows most of the people there because he's been there over 20 years himself. Each member owns the property their trailer is on.

Now for our trailer itself. Most times when you think of a trailer, you think small, cramped and tacky. Some of the trailers at our park are gorgeous. Big and beautiful. Our trailer is nice too. Just the right size. It has two good sized bedrooms and a full bathroom with tub. The kitchen and the dining room and living room are one big room. Enough counter space to cook anything, full size fridge and stove. And, my favorite feature...air conditioning! It's light and airy with lots of windows. A very cheerful atmosphere. When I wake in the morning to the sounds of the of all the beautiful birds I could cry. I miss this type of thing so much. I have a raccoon that I leave an egg for on the deck in front of the patio doors and I watch as he comes for it. Sometimes I look out and see bunnies sitting in the yard! I have actually been known to wake up hubby at 6 in the morning to look at an unusual bird! He doesn't care for some reason, but he always humours me, and never gets mad.

And to top it all off, we're a stone's throw from the beach, and great fishing.

So I hope you get a picture of my little peace of heaven on earth. It's all about the quiet, the peace I get from being surrounded by nature and spending some good quality time with my favorite hubby.

So, Michelle, I hope you get a place like this of your own. It makes life just that much better.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

2007-06-01T08:01:00.000-04:00

Apparently my life as a domestic goddess is over. I'm sitting here in the middle of what could only be described as a really bad garage sale. My house is a mess! Even the fruit flies are complaining! How did this happen? Oh, it's been so hot here and our air conditioning doesn't get turned on in the building until today. I have done nothing in the house for days. I'm leaving next Friday or Saturday to go to my daughter's and I have so much to do, so I decided to write on my blog for as long as possible to avoid stuff.
The dust bunnies have turned into tumbleweeds, and the dishes are crying out in the sink. Trust me people, you don't want to have to listen to your dishes crying out. It's a sad sound.
I caught Heffer reading the newspaper in the bottom of his cage the other day. When I went over to see what he was reading, he ran to the other end of his cage. It's then that I noticed he was looking in the classified section under 'furnished cages for rent.'
This is something new for me. My house was always spotless when I was with Fang. Fang was very neat...so neat it really made me wonder of he was gay. My current, new and improved hubby is kind of messy. It's probably his only flaw.
So before I leave for my trip, I must clean the house, get my hair and nails done, figure out what hubby will be eating while I'm gone....but first I'd better have a nap.

Of This and That

2007-05-30T19:05:00.000-04:00

So, I'm back from our 'love nest'. Had a great time, so lovely and quiet there.
Some sad news...we lost a member of our little family. Poor Lucy suddenly had large lumps all over her body and she died. I believe it was cancer. They were everywhere. She will be sadly missed by all of us. Poor Holly was very sad about it, so I told her we'd get another one after the summer. She agreed. We loved you Lucy! Now, what is protocol here? Do I leave her pictures up? Take them down?? Maybe I'll leave them and write a memoriam to her. And of course, when we get a new hamster, I will introduce you to him/her.
As I do on every trip home from the love nest, I say good-bye to everything as we pass it in the car. (Like a 2 year old!) It usually goes, 'Good bye trailer, good bye pool that's not open yet, good bye golf club, good bye golf carts, good bye golf club restaurant....and so on. My husband must have the patience of a saint, as this can go on for quite awhile before I'm not amused anymore. He sits there quietly listening for the longest time, and today, he suddenly quips, 'good bye freshly paved driveway', as we drove by one. I was surprised that he's as big a freak as I am. He used to be the sane one in the family. After that, it was just huge fields on either side of the car, so I started...'good bye blade of grass!' Hubby says, 'This will take awhile.' 'Good bye blade of grass,...good bye blade of grass,' then I fell silent. Hubby looked over at me, 'You're only saying good bye to 3 blades of grass?' 'Yes,' I pouted, 'I'm not speaking to the rest of them. I'm mad at them,...they know who they are! You can never truly trust grass.'
Sometimes it just floors me how well my hubby puts up with my nonsense. It's not like it's something I do just once in awhile..It's constant. I think if it were anyone else, they would have bitch slapped me by now. I'm so lucky.

Away Away....

2007-05-27T12:26:00.000-04:00

Leaving tomorrow for the love nest. So, no postings for a few days. However, the minute I get back I will be blogging...blogging is my life...
I'll miss u all
Take Care
Tory

A Meme From Abbagirl From Her Blog: Wheel

2007-05-25T08:03:00.000-04:00

I've never been 'tagged' for a meme before, actually never heard of it until a few days ago while reading other blogs. As soon as I discovered them, I was envious....no, downright jealous! I can meme. Nobody ever asked me to meme for them. Why God...why?
This morning, reading Abbagirl's blog, which is the best blog ever, she had a meme which she passed on to anyone that wanted it. I grabbed it with both hands and ran out of that blog as fast as my fat legs could carry me. Thanks Abbagirl!

1 ) What time is it?
8:09 a.m.

2 ) What was the last thing you had to eat?
Watermelon

3 ) What is your favorite television program?
House and Dr. Phil

4) You can travel anywhere in the world; one destination per day from Friday through Monday; where do you go?
Friday- England
Saturday - Hawaii
Sunday- Egypt
Monday - Australia

5 ) Who's your favorite character from a cartoon or comic strip?
Pinky and the Brain

6 ) What would you like for breakfast?
Coffee and eggs benedict

7 ) Who is the first public figure that comes to mind that you think is attractive.
Jason Morgan from 'Days of our Lives'. Don't know his real name.

8 ) Who, outside your family and God, has had the greatest impact on your life?
A pastor I used to have named Willard. He taught me so much about myself, and about God.

9 ) You retrieve a bottle from the water. What does the message say that you find inside.
'Do you want fries with that?' signed by a young whipper-snapper who works at McDonald's.

10) What movies do you select (limit of six) for a one day film festival.
Gone with the Wind, Dances with Wolves, Mrs. Miniver, From Here to Eternity, Dark Victory and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

11) Do you have a hobby? If so, what is it? If not, what do you think would be of interest to you?
Blogging, painting, reading, crocheting, and I'd like to get into photography...if I could figure out how to use the digital camera.

12) Given the opportunity to travel back in time, when would your destination be?
About 30 a.d. Jerusalem or there abouts. Following Jesus around like a stalker!

13) Vietnam gave us China Beach. M.A.S.H came from the Korean War. What will the name of the television series be that results from our current state of military affairs?
Jihad Jubilee

14) What is the last book you read?
Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy

15) What 5 people do you meet in heaven?
Jesus, Moses, my grandma, Paul and Churchill (how do u spell that??)

16) What 5 people do you visit in hell?
The ex..Fang, my mother, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden. (only I wouldn't visit them)

17) What's the first thing that come to mind when you see the word pleasure?
I would have to agree with Abbagirl on this one. Estee Lauder's 'Pleasure' is my absolute favorite. My husband's too!

18) Eliminating price and availability as considerations, what 6 things do you put on your list when you go grocery shopping?
Milk, whole grain bread, water, veggies, meat and chicken.

19) What's your favorite non-blog related link?
Forward Motion writers site.

20) What will the title of your life story be?
I'm actually working on my memoirs right now and the working title is..'When Angels Have Wings'. But I'm not sure yet.

21) What 3 people alive today would you like to have join you for dinner?
President G. Bush and his wife Laura, Don Cherry.

22) What candle scent do you find most pleasing?
Ginger citrus

23) What question would you suggest I include the next time we play this game.
I'm with Abbagirl again on this one...5 favorite blogs to read.

I will also leave this open to anyone who's inclined to do it. Thanks abbagirl! That was fun.