Christmas Cactus

My Christmas Cactus is blooming...

It looks wonderful with all the blooms on it. But I'm afraid they won't stick around for Christmas.

Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband, and thanks so much for the flowers. So pretty!

Damn racoons!

The racoons tried to get into our deck again on Friday night. They like to nest under the bench, but we've put chicken wire all along the back edge, so they can't get in anymore.

Although, it looks like they tried to chew their way in through the front this time. We pulled it apart to make sure nothing was sleeping inside. Then nailed it all back together. Again. I can't wait to get our deck replaced!

Gone!

We caught Mickey last night. In one of the snap traps. Gone. And I don't feel bad about it all. I only hope he was the only one.

getting stuff done

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get our house organized this year. With the finding of a mouse in our house (which by the way hasn't been back since we first discovered him/her), I decided we needed to clean up this year.
Remember that big wind storm in December? Well, all the branches that came down during the storm were just lying in a big pile in the yard. We had hoped that the recycling guys would take them with all the Christmas trees. But they didn't. I guess the pile was just too large. So today, we got out the chain saw and bucked up all the branches.
And then, we had a couple of guys come by and take away some old tires, and our old freezer...

 

Hubby found them on our facebook community group, and all it took was a text and a small fee, and the side of our house is now junk free!

Wind Storm and power outages

Our power was out all night from the wind storm yesterday. I woke up this morning, had a shower by flashlight, and got dressed in the dark. It was cold, I couldn't wash my hair (because I couldn't use the hairdryer), and I had to wait until I got to Tim Horton's to have a hot cup of tea.
I was stressed out today. I tried to keep myself busy with work stuff (my last day before my 2 week vacation), but it was hard. I kept hoping and praying that the lights would be back on before the end of the day.
And just like that, I got a text from hubby. He got home from work, and the power was back on!
I'm grateful! And happy! Although, I do feel sorry for the 60,000 or more that are still without.

Wind Storm damage

There was a wind storm today. I was at work, in the Boardroom, chairing a meeting for our HR department. It was so windy it was rattling the skylights in the office. I then heard about the White Rock pier that was destroyed in the wind...

...and the rescue of one guy who was stranded on the other side of the pier. He was ok, but had to be rescued by helicopter.
Our power went out too, along with a bunch of other people. In our neighbourhood, they had closed the main road by the school going into our subdivision. A tree had come over on a power pole. I drove home in the darkness -- it was so weird going over the Alex Fraser Bridge in the dark. And seeing all the tree branches and stuff lying around the road, and yards. I'm glad I was at work for the worst of it (the wind apparently wasn't as bad at work). And hoping our power comes back on in a couple of days!

Dining Room Table

Today, we got rid of the dining room table. We are planning to redo our floors, and a few small renovations around the house. And one of the stipulations I had was that if we moved the dining room table out of the dining room, it wasn't going back in again. It's a big table, and too big for the space we have. So, we found someone who wanted it, and they picked it up today.

Catching up

I spent the long weekend cleaning house, and organizing my life. After working stupid hours all summer, I needed 4 days just to catch up.
Then I spent 2 days in a whirlwind trip to Chicago for work.
I came home, and spent the one day unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning the downstairs suite.
Then my father-in-law came to stay.
What followed was 5 days of eating, drinking, laughing, talking, cooking and doing dishes. I also got the flu during this time, so I wasn't feeling 100%.
I went back to work for a couple of days to organize and enter the final budget changes (as per our meetings in Chicago).
And now it's the weekend.
I'm so tired! And still feeling sick from the flu. So, I'm taking a sick day today, even if it is Saturday. I have spent the first part of the day on the couch watching TV. And I don't plan to move any time soon.

Tree Trimming

We got the trees in the front of the house trimmed today. We had planned to get it done at the end of last year, but it got delayed because of the snow and freezing weather. And while we did have snow in the forecast today, it did not materialize, so the guys were able to get the work done without incident.
The only problem... I was working from home, didn't have anything for lunch, and the truck was blocking the driveway...

so I wasn't able to get out. I ended up making a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, which was actually pretty good...

reno bug

The new owners on the left of our house are renovating before they move in. The new owners on the right of us are now renovating. New flooring, new kitchen cabinets, new appliances. Dumpsters come and go, and appliance delivery vans come up and down the hill. With all the activity, I now have the reno bug!! I would love new flooring, paint, windows, and a new kitchen. But alas... my chequebook does not agree with me. Although, we might try and do a few small projects this year.

dream office

A recent trip to Ikea, and I found my dream office. I want to do up our office like this. With the cute little reading nook in the corner, and lots of shelves for all my books. Looks so cozy! If I was working from home full time, I would so do this!

Father's Day prep

We are having a bunch of family over for dinner tomorrow night as an early celebration of Father's Day (and my Mom's and Dad's Birthdays too). So, I took the day off to power clean the house. I spent most of the day cleaning, organizing, and putting things away!
One: I'm tired and sore!
Two: we have too much stuff!

The view

While working from home yesterday, I was reminded of how wonderful my view is. Working in the living room, on the couch, and looking at this all day (and it was a beautiful day). Can't be beat...

Fireplace

The stone guys came today. Below is a picture of what I think we are going to go with, as far as our new fireplace. I do have some work to do... like arrange the flooring before we go a head with things... but for now, I'm just dreaming of my new fireplace that may or may not look like this...

Car stuff

It's hard to be mad at my husband for smoking because when he needs cigarettes on the weekend, he usually takes my car, puts gas in it, checks the tires, and sometimes will even run it through the car wash. I can't complain about him when he does sh*t like that! Although, I still wish he would quit smoking.

Power outage

For the last few days, we've been dealing with a power outage. The power went out around Noon on Saturday, and didn't come back on again until 1:30 - 2:00 on Monday. That's over 49 hours without power.
We managed ok though. We are pretty self sufficient, because we have the gas BBQ that we can cook on, and boil a kettle of water for tea and coffee. Our freezer is old and we were not able to save much of the stuff that was stored there. After 49 hours, things got very squishy. But, we continually put ice in the fridge to keep it cold and we managed to save most of the stuff in the fridge. And, my brother had power, so we went over there to charge all our electronics. And steal more ice.

On this vacation day...

I have lamb chops marinating in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and fresh rosemary from the garden...

I have beans from the garden, and fresh corn from the local farm market (Chilliwack corn!)...

I got the dinner stuff ready this morning, so I wouldn't have to do it later. We had a few chores to do today, including hanging up a new glass shelf in my ensuite...

And now all hubby has to do (sometime before dinner time), is to throw the stuff on the BBQ. Meanwhile, I'll be in the pool floating around, reading my new e-book on my Kobo e-reader...

...and drinking a mojito. And relaxing on a beautiful sunny, warm, vacation day.

Spring Clean Up

Next week, the city does it's Spring Clean Up. This is when we can throw out anything into the garbage and the city will pick it up. Anything from old furniture, to regular garbage and recyclables. There are some things they won't take (old tires, paint cans, propane tanks). But there is no limit to how much you can put out.

So, this weekend, we got busy!
We cleaned out the garage, cleaned out the garden shed, threw away the old pool cover, and a ton of other "crap" we had lying around the house. It was a wonderful weekend to work in the yard, and a wonderful feeling to get rid of lots of garbage.

new stuff

We bought a new lawn mower today.

Actually, hubby bought it. It is his "toy", but I still like to get new stuff, even if I will never actually use it.