Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is my Dad's birthday. I'm sure he will not sit down for a minute of it! It's planting time on the farm so it's all work work work. We did have rain yesterday so maybe that might slow down some of the planting for now, but I know he will find something else to keep him busy. 

My life was blessed when Dad came into it. He is a man of integrity and honor and I am proud to call him my Dad.

Here is a picture of him and Courtney at Courtney's wedding. He looks very happy...and I'm sure by the look on Courtney's face....he just made a smart ass comment to her about something!!!

 

I love you,

Jacqui

Loooooong weekend

I was looking forward to this past weekend to spend some time in the flower beds and hang with Jade and Joel. With Jade working in Woodstock pretty much every weekend and then the whole summer, and then going off to college in Windsor in the fall, I want to spend as much time with her as I can. So Friday morning my alarm went off at 4 AM as per usual for me to go to work.....and I had a wicked migraine. It was affecting my vision so I had to call in sick to work. I hate calling in sick. Anyhow..what can ya do? So I was in bed until about 11:30 AM. My headache was still there but not as "mean" as it was first thing in the morning. The pain was still there but the vision issues were gone. At about 12:30 pm the phone rang and it was Jade. She was crying and screaming into the phone and when I finally got her to calm down enough that I could understand what she was saying, she told me she had lost control of the van on a gravel road and she went in the ditch and the van flipped and she was hanging upside in the van and could not get out of it. INSTANT PANIC. Oh my God, it was awful. I told her I was coming and hung up the phone. I ran out to the car and called Joe to tell him what happened and where she was. A million things were running through my mind as I was driving down the road. I was praying there was no water in the ditch and that she was going to be okay. The fact that she was able to call me and then call 911 was a good sign as far as I was concerned. When I got there, Joe had already got there. What a shock to see a large Montana van upside down on it's roof in an 8 foot ditch knowing that your child is inside of it. Luckily, Jade never lost consciousness, so she was able to work with Joe to get her out of the van. She didn't want to release the seat belt when she was there by herself because all of the glass from the windshield was laying there and she would have fallen right on it and probably cut her hands. Joe assessed the situation when he got there and was able to get the seat belt released and to get her out without any problems. By the time we got her out the OPP was there and then the fire trucks and the ambulance got there shortly after. They strapped her to the backboard and checked her out. I went in my car to the hospital to be with her and Joe stayed to have CAA come and tow the van. We got it towed back to our house. We were not sure of the amount of damage when it was on its roof, but once it was flipped over we saw there was no chance of repairing it, so we got it towed back to our place.
I am very thankful that she is okay. She had a sore neck, but the x-rays came out clear and now she is very sore where the seat belt was. It is going to take her some time to get over the whole incident. It was very traumatic for her and I think her mental scars are going to take longer to heal than the physical ones.
After talking to other people who live in the area there have been others who have had problems on Coldstream Road as well. The amount of gravel they put on that road is ridiculous and the fact they they don't level it out is just plain wrong. When one person stopped by the accident they made the comment of "I'm not sure why that 2 foot pile of gravel is there". Just to give you an idea.......That's all I'm gonna say on that subject cause it gets my blood boiling.
The big thing is, she is fine, and she will heal. Things could have been sooooo much worse.
Our little joke at the hospital was "at least we didn't have to pay for a waxing". When they strap you on the back board, they put a head strap across your forehead....well that head strap is sticky - very very sticky - so when the doctor removed it.....some eyebrow came with it!!!! and not in a really even way either!! So that was our little laugh while we were stressing in the hospital. Laughter really is the best medicine.
Chow for now,
Hug your kids, life can change in an instant

Jacqui

Relay for Life

This year my daughter Jade and I put together a team for the Relay for Life in London. On June 15th we will be walking for 12 hours in honor of and in memory of loved ones with cancer. Our team is called "Army of Hope" and we will be sporting some "camo" clothes and working with a theme of "hunting down cancer" for the event. In 1997 we lost Poppa to cancer. He was the best Grandfather ever and I would not be the person I am today if it wasn't for him. I walk in memory of him. In 2008 I lost a very dear friend Janet Dallas to cancer. Janet and I didn't know each other for a very long time, but when we met we instantly clicked and it seemed like we had known each other forever. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her and wish I could just pick up the phone and call her. I walk in memory of her. This past year our community lost a young girl to cancer. Rachel Cunningham was an inspiration to everyone that knew her. She fought a hard, but lost her fight. I walk for her. My cousin Mike lost his battle with cancer at the age of 35. I walk for him. A friend of ours, Paul, lost his daughter Courtney at the age of 13. I walk for her. There are good stories too though. Back in the 60's my Granny was diagnosed with cancer. She had a radical (for that time) surgery and we are blessed to still have her with us today! She is 93 years young! I walk in honor of her.

Individually we all walk for different reasons. As a team we walk because we are confident a cure for cancer will be found in our lifetime. 

Please support me by making a donation.

You can do so by visiting our web site, or I can take donations face to face as well.

Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone who donates.

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Happy Mother's Day!!! - Yes it was!!!

I got totally spoiled this year for Mother's Day!! It was awesome!!!! Jade and Joel gave me some flowers last weekend only because they bought them when they saw them and didn't want to have to hide them for a week! So these are the beautiful orchids and miniature roses they bought me! I love the colors. And the bouquet of died Daisies too! How vibrant those colors are

Then on Sunday, Joel was gonna take me to a movie. I had not been feeling well on Saturday and was still not feeling 100% on Sunday so we are putting that off until I am feeling better. I don't want to waste a good time with Joel cause I am feeling crappy. So his great gift to me was finally making his own eggs!!! I'm sure he has been more than capable of making them on his own before this, but he's my baby and well I cater to him (I know Jade!!!) and so now he can make his own eggs and breakfast burritos!! Then when Jade got home from work, there were more surprises and gifts.

She made this AWESOME gift board - which cracked me up and she got me plants and scrap booking stuff and gardening stuff. My kids know me!!!!

So the sign board - basically - she wrote a note using certain things for words. It says:

Dear Mom:

You are such a "Fantabulous" mom. I am so "Glad" you had a "Crush" on dad and now you have 2 "Wonder" ful kids! I know Joe and I are sometimes "Smarties" pants, and drive you crazy. You would probably like to fly to "Mars" but we really did "Skor" when we got an "Excel" lent mom like you.  I know your "Always" complaining the "Maid" never comes but soon that will all be "Resolved" because I will send you to the "Ritz" or an "Oasis" resort.

How cool is that thing!!!!!! I love it!!

Then she got me some very cool plants for my garden. A pink Forget-me-not, a pink Sedum,

a Hosta, and a Lupin. I picked up this Spurge (as my free Mother's Day gift from the Flower Ranch). I also go this awesome garden package which has a planter, and a dragon fly candle thingy, some clay pots, some plant ties, gloves, a digging spade, some plant tape, fertilizer sticks, garden markers, a bag for weeds in the garden, some citronella tea lights and the pink bag at the back...I forgot to take a picture of.... but inside there were two K&Company 12 X 12 paper packs and some Martha Stewart stickers and two magazines about making great looking back yards!!!! And you can see "where's Waldo" aka Joel...peeking in the corner of the picture. I totally have to make a Where's Waldo album - cause I have so many pictures where he has got into the shot in a tiny corner or behind someone - it's quite comical.

I cut some lilacs from my lilac bush and brought them in the house. Oh my goodness when I walked into the kitchen this morning that was all I could smell. It was great!

I hope you all had a great mother's day as well.

chow for now, 

Jacqui

Homeward Bound....

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 I've always been a sucker for a good animal movie. Homeward Bound is a great one and interestingly enough the dog in the movie is the same kind as Charlie! I have no idea how they train the animals to do what they do in the movies. They must spend an incredible amount of time with them to get them to do all those stunts and tricks etc.

Last spring you might remember me posting about a litter of kittens that somehow showed up on our doorstep. There were 4 of them and we named them after candies - Nibs, Gobstopper, Licorice and Runt. They were cute. But, as life in the country goes......we now only have one cat left; Nibs. He is a great barn cat. He's a great hunter, and climbs trees like nobodies business. Some times we'll go outside and call "Nibs, here Nibs" and we look up and she is lounging in one of our big catalpa trees. Then she'll come climbing down and the minute you touch her she purrs like a little race car! It took Charlie a little while to get used to the kittens when they first came to our place. They meow really loud and have sharp little claws. But over time they became fast friends and to this day, they are still buddies. I have to try and get some video of Charlie and Nibs together in the sun. Charlie will be laying on the deck, basking in the sun and Nibs will come up and start rubbing his head against Charlie. Then he does almost like a somersault which makes him end up laying right in between Charlies front paws, where he proceeds to hold both sides of Charlies head and lick her face. It is absolutely adorable. I will do my best to get some video of it in the next little while. For now, you'll have to settle on these cute pictures Jade took the other day as she was walking out to get the mail. Nibs follows Charlie everywhere.

 

Enjoy!!

Chow for now, 

Jacqui

Victopia.....

Wow, it's been a while since I posted last. Jade informed me yesterday that it had been 50 billion years....not sure it's been that long, but it's been a while. I wanted to share some pictures from our trip to Kingston. This time of year we head to Kingston to my BFF Vicki Garrett's for what is now known as Victopia. We were so lucky this year because one of our very dear friends, Jenn, was home from BC so she was able to come with us. Unfortunately she was home due to a death in the family, but this was certainly a silver lining for us. Kim tried to work with Jenn to keep it a secret from all of us......but Jenn on Facebook is not a good combination for secrets!!!!! One of my other dear friends, Donna, took on the driving role this year. And we managed to get everything packed into her vehicle pretty well if I do say so myself.

We headed off in the AM and made our first stop at the Scrappin' Bug in Kitchener....this was after detours, SWAT teams and gravel roads....... We made it out of the Bug safely....although I think after Jenn was in the bathroom a plumber needed to be called.....for the sink people.....the sink.........

Our next stop was the Scrapping Turtle in St. Jacob's. NICE STORE...it is very large and laid out very nicely so you can see all their products. After a jaunt across the street to the candy store we were back on our way. We stopped at Mary Brown's for lunch - which was delish...I have never had Mary Browns before - it was very good. (Thanks Jenn) Then we were off to Stamping Bella in Thornhill. While in Stamping Bella I got a quick tutorial on some flower making and some colouring!! (Thanks lady at Stamping Bella!) Then off to Kingston we headed. We were hoping to get to the Frogs Whiskers, but time got away from us and we were not able to make it there before they closed. When we got to Kingston we zipped around to Timmie's for a fuel up and to Shoppers for pop for the weekend and then we made our way to Vicki's. I'm sure she thought we were never going to get there! Jon helped us carry our bags downstairs and then we were there for the long haul!!! We visited Marchant's and Michael's on Saturday (gotta use those coupons!!) I grabbed some Prisma pencils for 50% so am looking forward to using them more frequently in my colouring. Then we settled in for some stamping and laughs and food and just plain old good times. Our friends from Kingston came over too!!!! Laura, Darlene and Andreanne came to join in the festivities. I love seeing them. It's like we have known them forever and we just pick right up where we left off last time. 

Darlene gave us a tutorial on how to work these cool new punches that are out - the things are huge - but they make a cool looking 12 X 12 piece of paper when you are done with them!

Laura worked on her digi scrapbooking! I just can't seem to get into that - I like the touch of the paper - maybe it's cause I am on the computer all day at work. I might have to try it sometime...but for now....the "old fashioned" way it is for me!!! As always we had to have a "photo shoot" outside!!! This is always good for a laugh. I was doing the "Where's Waldo" thing and flying (not very gracefully I might add) through the air trying to get in a corner of a shot! Jon came out to take some shots were we could all get in together. Vicki and Donna have the fancy cameras...so I just let them take the pictures this year! Then Vicki put them all on a CD for us all to take home. We got some good shots of Jon and Darlene as well. They are so cute together. They have been friends since Jon was born and it's very sweet to watch the two of them together. How they chat and just hang out. It's great to have friends like that. I am blessed to have all of these wonderful ladies in my life. I can't even remember what my life was like before I met you all. 

 

 

  

Chow for now,
Jacqui