I Have to Say it...

Bernard, you are one awesome guy.

I first met you 25 years ago in Sidney, BC at a corn roast at the Church. You and I shared many a laugh as you helped me wallpaper my newly rented home. After one of your many visits, I'd wake up Trish and we'd follow you a bit. You always went to the 7-11 to pick up a snack for the road home - we'd giggle and hurry home to our beds.

I waited and waited for you to 'pop' the question and in June of 1986 you finally did. I was both amazed and took in my stride the fact that you married me and became the father figure for my three children all on the same day.

Adjusting was hard - in fact, in some ways, we are all still adjusting but then, that's what families do as they grow. You brought a calm 'even-ness' to our family. I had tried to ride both horses at the same time and was mighty saddle sore by the time you came along. I was grateful to leave some decisions completely with you. Other ones we fought over. It seemed I was constantly choosing between you and the kids.

Because you didn't show your emotions like I did, the kids and I had a hard time 'reading' you and trying to figure things out. One time you explained - to Trish, I think - it may have been to Cristen - that although you weren't jumping up and down on the outside, you were jumping up and down on the inside.

I think once I figured that out, I supported you much better as a wife and as a mother. I knew the lives, well being and hearts of all of us were safe with you.

You have certainly gone the extra mile. You have fed us, sheltered us and clothed our mortal bodies. You have provided strength, love and encouragement to our spiritual bodies as you have held the priesthood of God with honor. You have worried with us, laughed with us and hugged us with your strong arms.

My heart swells with love each time you are called upon for advice from one of the kids and I look forward to raising the ones we lost to miscarriage in the life to come.

Happy Father's Day my 'handsome man!'

Sheesh!...(lol!)

Okay...okay...quit pushing will ya? Sheesh. A girl just can't get any rest around here, can she?

Just kidding... I'm glad there are a few of you who enjoy my blog enough to let me know I haven't been keeping up as well as you'd like me to be doing. And come to think of it, they do say that there is no rest for the wicked and as I really don't want to be seen as a wicked I guess I better start writing.

Actually it's more like speaking than writing. I have this new voice recognition software called Dragon Naturally Speaking that I'm using and it's really kind of neat. After you have the software set up all you really need to do is speak into the microphone and away it goes. It will type about 40, no sorry, it will type about 140 words a minute.

I'm using it to get my hands a rest. Some of you might know I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and am playing the doctor game until I can get surgery on them and get my life back to normal.

Anyway, the microphone on the headset that comes with the software decided it was going to work anymore. So I contacted the company through e-mail to find out what I should do about getting it replaced. If any of you dealt with tech support in any measure you will know what I've been through. They sent me a whole list of things to do including calling their helpline for my one and only free call. Before I went through any of their list of things to do, I did what I thought was smart and checked the software with another microphone I have. And lo and behold that microphone worked so that tells me that the microphone on the headset that came the software does not work.

I then went through the list of things they had sent me to do and, so I could say that I had performed all the tests, I performed all the tests. Guess what? The microphone became at the headset is dead.

I decided not to call the helpline and use my one and only free call because I'd already determined through the other tests that the microphone that came at the headset was indeed dead. I e-mailed customer support and reported that I had performed all the tasks and that the microphone was indeed dead. Let me say at this point that it was very interesting that at the end of the list, the very last of all the tests they wanted me to do was to try another microphone to see if it worked. Now why they didn't start with that test is beyond me.

Anyway, they e-mailed back suggesting I call tech support to verify that the microphone is not working. I e-mailed them back to say that I preferred to use my one and only free call on a matter that I could not resolve but, if they wanted, I would call tech support.

Their reply to me was that I have 90 days free support - so where did that come from? Does that mean every time I contact them warranty grows and grows and grows ? After all it's gone from one free phone call to 90 days free support in four e-mails.

Let's just say I'm glad I have that in an e-mail from them.

I am now off to call tech support... this should be fun... sort of like a rope burn I'm thinking.

Ah well, what else is a gal supposed to do on a hot summer day besides getting hotter under the collar?

I'll keep you informed.

Spring/Summer at last!

Last Monday, as we made our fifth trip from the rear shed to the newly remodeled front flower bed with one of many armfuls of perennials gleaned from a local garage sale, my husband stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into him. With a look of apprehension on his face he turned to me and said, "It feels so...strange today." He paused, looked slowly around and, with guarded wonder shining from his eyes, said"...it's warm out here!"

Isn't that the truth here in Alberta? When Spring finally comes, it's like summer follows so quickly on it's heels that it almost overuns it and we can scarce believe our good luck! No more parkas and mitts - it's time for flip-flops, t-shirts and all the cream bronzer we can slather on!

Why the cream bronzer you ask?

Well, on the prairies it's been known to snow in August so with that short of a summer facing us we need to get our tans in asap. Just make sure you put it on evenly. There is nothing nastier to look at than orange streaks on lily white arms and legs competing with blue sunblock on the noses that our Hollywood-style sunglasses sit on .

That is unless you count Uncle Leroy's ensemble. Plaid quilted shirt done up to the belly button, a two-hole-in-the-front-t-shirt from "I ate at May's Restaurant" underneath, with a cheap gold rope chain peeking out through a mound of salt and pepper chest hair. His grease stained khaki's are ripped off mid-calf and he wears those grey wool socks with the little red line around the top - one down around one skinny ankle and the other reaching just to the botton of a knobby knee barely covering up a bad case of exzema. Top that off with a pair of faded green alligator cowboy boots with last year's barnyard sludge still on them and a sweat stained, dust dyed Blue-Jays ball cap shoved on top of thin greasy grey hair tied in a 5 day-old ponytail and you have one sad looking camper, yes siree!

So get out there and get the sun while you can - don't worry about sunburn, the snow'll take care of that soon enough!

I'll be right back...after this station break...

Life has been it's usual mad gala social whirl...ahem. I will post again soon and I give thanks to those of you who continue to check this blog - I will post some neat things soon!

The butcher, the baker, the yummy donut maker!!!

Cristen, my Edmonton daughter, and I made donuts following a very cool recipe from http://www.instructables.com/ . Go to 'Easy Recipes' and choose 'Donuts'. The recipe uses Pillsbury refridgerator dough and takes all of 15 minutes from start to finish...unless you include the time it takes to make the tea, sit down and eat them after you've made them, too! lol!!

When we were shopping we couldn't remember which type of dough the recipe called for, so we bought Biscuit and Flaky doughs.

They fried up differently - the Flaky dough took longer to begin to puff up and slightly longer to finish cooking.

The Biscuit dough puffed quickly and, had the oil been deeper, would have turned over on it's own when the bottom halves were cooked - like the donut holes did.

It turns out that we didn't have enough sugar to completely coat each donut, so we spooned it on the top and rubbed the donut bottom into the sugar/cinnamon mix.

To avoid getting the sugar mixture full of oil and still have enough oil on the donut for the sugar mix to stick to - take the donut out of the oil, lay one side down on paper towel and quickly take it up and repeat for the other side, then dip it in the sugar mix.

Next time we'll use lots of sugar/cinnamon and put it in a paper bag, put the donut in and shake it for an all over coating.

Our taste tester, Cristen's husband, Chris, is such a good guy - like a teddy bear with moveable arms and legs - he's very poseable! Anyway, he said he couldn't taste any difference between the two and, happily, ate them both!

We could. Cristen preferred the Biscuit dough donut (L) and I preferred the Flaky dough donut (R) - especially since I could peel off the layers. Each layer had a crispy edge and a soft middle...mmm!

Next time, we'll try the Cinnamon Swirl dough and, maybe, a drizzle icing!

Until then - we're on the hunt for more dough!

Sing, sing...sing a song

I have a song to sing. You have a song to sing. It flows through your veins and is undeniably yours and yours alone. Find it and then sing it. It's okay, at first, to sing someone else's song. That's how you learn what a song is all about. Eventually, though, you need to find your own voice.

"Let other people decide who you are and you will always be their prisoner."

Think about that for a bit. You are not here to be somebody's somebody. You are not here to fulfill someone else's dreams. You are here to experience your own potential.

Finding out who you are and why you are here is a life long quest. This life truly is a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' - remember those books? I loved them. They were pretty safe - if you made the wrong choice, you could always turn back to the page where you first went wrong and choose again. Real life involves risk - but it's ALWAYS worth it - if you truly want to find and sing your song.

Something to think about - something to reach out for - now, let me hear you sing!

N-O...W-A-Y...!

I was typing in the web address for my blog and was redirected to a Google search...I found ME!!!!! How cool is that... I didn't even need a Search Engine Optimization program to get me to the top of the list!!!!!

How funny is that???!!!

My few seconds of fame...lol!