Sunday thoughts...

I had such good intentions on Saturday, I made myself a list of what to do on Sunday. One of the things was I was going to do was to sleep in till 8a.m. Well I don't know what happened to my mentally challenged cat but he decided it was time to get up at 6:30 a.m. and shutting him outside my bedroom door did not stop him. Once I was up and he had his teaspoon of milk, he went back to bed, and I look like something the cat woke up. I tried to go back to sleep but then my husbands alarm with his "word" for the day went off. So I got up, started breakfast and lunch and supper did the dishes and headed off to mass. I volunteer at our church one Sunday a month, and that was today, so I didn't come home until 3p.m. and then I crashed. Now after sleeping through Columbo, I'm up and making supper for tomorrow. I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest! I had planned on playing with paper. Now I'm deciding what to wear to the annual "freshly squeezed boob" examination. And then I'm sure nothing will fit my body so I'll just go to sleep not having accomplished all that much, nothing to check off my list that I made yesterday. Sometimes I feel like a hamster on a wheel.

Postcard Friendship Friday

I know one of my posts last week I talked about treating myself to a trip to Ottawa St. before my visits to my mother. Well for those of you who do not know Ottawa St. it's a street filled with fabric shops and notions for sewing. Of late they have also gotten quite a few antique shops included in the strip. So I not only have been scouring the shops for antique postcards, I've also been looking for lace, much like what's in my card today. No luck yet. But I'm still looking and finding an amazing number of other things I don't really need but love. Happy PFF

Take a tour of your home town...

I think we should all take a formal tour of our home towns. I'm one of those people that quite probably support public transit single handedly. I get off the bus usually downtown by the "old city hall" of Hamilton, Ontario. It seems the world has turned upside down. Most designers are pushing granite, and marble on their clients, all except Hamilton it seems. The photo shown is a pile of marble. The city hall in Hamilton, Ontario is being renovated, and they've dumped all that marble in a heap with no effort to recycle or conserve this very expensive stone. What a waste. We so often hear from our elected officials how homeowners should conserve, heat, hydro, water and the ever popular waste control, recycle everything. How about it City Hall, Do YOU do as you would like us to do? That pile of marble sure doesn't sell the bill for me. I might add that Hamilton is not a thriving metropolis of late. Can they afford a new City Hall.

So I thought maybe I should go on one of those tours of Hamilton, it might explain this insane decision. I doubt it, but then again one never knows. P.S. I don't live in Hamilton anymore, but I'm a frequent visitor, and I have to say downtown does not invite tourism.

He's back!

You know how I did the little quiz on ten things you like about the letter, and my letter was "D" Daniel was the ten things I did. Well the little pain is back in action. Schools out for summer and he's ready to come home and "work on his car" Yes the one in the picture is all in bits an pieces all over the yard and now entirely, (except for the T roof, which is in his room)in the garage. He called. Now that is scary in itself, Daniel only calls when he needs something. Well this call was to let me know he'll be coming home to work on his car. For most of Daniels life I've been moving around my house to make way for his adventures. That's why I needed a hidey hole. Well today I did it. I've made a hidey hole big enough to keep all those tubs, large tubs, well labelled, 14 of them, with all the lego, transformers, ninja turtles etc. I'm absolutely brilliant. I could put a chaise in there and hide myself. Now on to finding a space for my messy husband's office, you know so I could close the door and never know that crap is in there. I just told my husband that if it's his space he gets to clean it. Huh! On with the purge.

Brenda's Photo Challenge...doorways

Brenda's Photo Challenge is hosted this week by Annie of Annie's Blog





This weeks challenge is ...Doorways...

This is a home newly renovated, we watched it change from a little falling down bungalow to this REALLY Nice house, it's in a very desirable location. In my favorite "town".













Across the street from it is this "Century home" The property is now undergoing "naturalization" I think in this town (my favorite) Century homes must comply to some rules as to paint colours etc. I think I must have stumbled upon a cheating husband/wife. As I was trespassing on the property, a door opened( I suppose to shoo me away) and a window shade got pulled. I snapped and ran.



















This is a home down the street from mine, a not very nice lady and her two daughters live here, reminds me of Cinderella's evil stepmother. I was expecting her to come running out and hit me. She's always hustling around her garden in her mini skirt and cleavage, all made up and manicured. But nice entry. It wasn't until I took on this challenge that I realize what an ugly doorway I have.














I played it safe and stood across the street for this one. Who knew this would be a life threatening adventure.










When I took on this challenge I wondered who thought of doors, I suppose it was first intended to keep the elements out like, cold or rain. So these are twin DANGER doors.













... and then there are unusual doors. This was a "hotel/motel" kinda of accommodation I stayed in while I was on vacation in Poland. I must also say that I've taken on these challenges because, I have such a hard time taking a photo without anyone in them. So the next few are with people, after all doors do lead people into things, like sleeping chambers...











...life commitments.












...and noticing that the grass is always greener. This photo was taken at our next door neighbors home on my wedding day. I love that house if I had a million dollars I'd buy it, I'd move it to my favorite town, Oh no then I'd need two million. Anyway love this doorway.











I had to include this photo of my niece in her fabulous wedding dress, looking awesome in front of all those doors. (they are closed if you notice)is this a subliminal message? One door opens...







I must also confess to something only a "natural blonde" would do. There are three things I don't do at my house. 1) I don't shovel snow, 2) I don't cut the grass, 3) I don't replace batteries. Well ever since Annie announced the challenge I've been scoping out fabulous doors. I particularly liked the ones that said welcome but then had a multitude of gates and locks on them, so I wrote down all the locations and felt I'd take one day and capture them all. Well I took my very long bus ride to the first location, set myself up on "James St. with a lot of left over drunks from the night before" (again risking my life) and low and behold my husband thought I might need a new battery, took it out and never replaced it. I was wild. So needless to say my doorways challenge was quite that. So this year after 30 years of marriage and three men in the house I have shovelled snow, I need to cut the grass because I'm not happy with their work, and now I HAVE to learn to replace my own batteries. I'm not sure what I will need them for now, other than round out my loads in the washing machine.

Postcard Friendship Friday

Postcardy's Scavenger hunt theme for the month of May is fish! I'm not really too sure what that means but this is the closest to fish I have in my collection. It looks to me like he's going to sweet talk his lady into letting him go fishing. Happy Friendship Friday.

It's been a full year, happy anniversary

Well it's been a year since I started my blog. Thank you to all who visit and comment regularly. I've made many blogging friends, and learned many new tools to use on the computer and camera. Of coarse my sons can never move far away because I'm sure to run into some difficulties. They keep telling me to figure out things myself, before I ask them and they don't usually help until I flip out. However, having said all that, their help is quite rare now. Now I bother my blogging friends, with "how did you do that"? Thank you for your responses.

Patience, is a vurtue?

I don't know how some people do it, I certainly don't know how my mother in law does it. I spent Monday with my mom at her long term care facility. She was in a reasonably good mood, except that she thinks she's special and staff should drop everything and everyone and tend to her. It really doesn't matter how many times you explain to her that she is not "all that needy" and she needs to be a little more patient. Anyway, when my patience started to run out I left. It was almost her bed time and I thought that was a good time, since next she would want me to spend the night. As my mother in law lives close by, I thought I would save myself a very costly bus trip and spend the night at her house, since I was returning the next morning. Well Mother's Day is not enough for some mothers. My mother in law tends to her youngest son who is severely disabled. There is no doubt in my mind she will be in Heaven. I didn't get much sleep, and I thought she does this everyday/night and for the last 40 years. She's 78years old. So just when you get pissed off at your kids, thank your lucky stars that they are what and who they are, it could always be worse. Then I went to see my mother again, I was feeling guilty for her wearing my patience thin, and she did again to me all over again the next day. Then I decided she's not doing "it" to me, this is the price of dementia. I'm not much company for her all frustrated and impatient, I need to let her be who she has become, and I need to step away if I wearing out. I need to stop feeling "Guilty". I'm doing all I can, and so is she. I also think I need to appreciate the fact that she can still try my patience, that means she's still got some personality it may be all too soon that she will be completely too docile. So while I'm exhausted from the ordeal, I sat back today and thought I'm going to be doing this to my kids, so maybe I should set a better example so they visit me at least once a year.

this week has been so windy here, that my lovely pink tulip opened and then blew away.












And the beautiful Magnolia. It's such a short bloom time for Magnolias.

Postcard Friendship Friday

Yesterday I was in a classroom, I had not been at the head of a class for a few years, but as one of my favorite young ladies asked for some help, I said yes. The students were amazing. Some of them completed the task at hand in a very short period of time and then continued by helping others. It reminded me of "an apple for the teacher". I think this vintage postcard says that well. Happy Friendship Friday.

Haven't gotten any postcards from Barbados, I'd like vintage if you please.

Barbados Beware

Well my sisters are off on their beach vacation. I wanted to send the Barbados Ambassador a heads up. You see the last time the Nowak sisters went on a trip we gave a memorable send off to our tour guide. We were off to Calgary, at a scrapbooking convention. We booked a bus tour to see Banff. It happened to be our tour guides last trip,before retirement, he was very good, he took us all over the place with in depth explanations and information, and then Barb got a headache, as Alice and I got on and off the various stops Barb laid down on the bus. When we got to Banff for the shopping part of our tour, we thought we would get a bite to eat and Barb would feel better, we thought the driver said we should be back to our stop at 5:30 and no Alice remembered that he said 4:30, no we thought who would send you off shopping for 1/2hr. So we did our lunch, and Barb started to feel better so we started to wander around. Well when 5:30 rolled around and we had rushed back to our rendevous point, there was no bus driver, so we started ask around, and we became known as, "Oh you're the three sisters who missed the bus". Apparently the driver had driven around Banff looking for us, he even checked the hospital thinking Barb had gotten sicker. Well, this poor man, retired with a tarnished record, he had never lost or left anyone behind before. We had a great time, we gained an additional 3 hrs. of touring Banff, spent some serious $$$$$$$$$$. And returned to our hotel with some spirits to relax with. Well if we could do that in such a small slice of the world, imagine what the 3 sisters are doing to Barbados, a whole island to have an adventure in.

Happy Mother's Day

One of my followers (blog followers) posted this lovely poem
I hope she doesn't mind if I share her lovely post.


I know my mother and mother-in-law always gives me grief when I buy them something, they are always telling me to save my money, but I always feel they won't know that I've sent them flowers to their funeral, so why not enjoy them now? I enjoy giving them. Just as I enjoy treating my friends to something special the pleasure is all mine.
Now having said all that, I watch "Ghost Whisper" you know with Jennifer Love-Hewitt. I believe in ghosts. So if you don't get to tell me now, I'll come by later. I once saw a episode a clever one of "Sliders" where everyone thought this hotel was haunted and it's was quite a different explanation, I liked that explanation.

Brenda's Photo challenge.

Brenda's photo challenge this week is circles. I hope you enjoy my circles. Thanks



some for fun,











Some to make a statement, or send a message.



and some just to keep you warm.

Postcard Friendship Friday

I'd like to think this couple is returning from the flower market, preparing to bring their beloved mother some lovely flowers for Mother's Day. And I just randomly selected this postcard from my collection, which is not in any particular order, when I flipped over is said this was the "dress-up" costume from the area my mother was raised in. Talk about a happy co-oincidence, I couldn't have chosen more appropriately. Happy Friendship Friday y'all.

Happy Anniversary

Well I was so busy celebrating Ruby Tuesday I forgot about the real celebration. My sister and her husband are celebrating 36years of wedded bliss. I was the maid of honor at that wedding. It was very windy, our hats kept blowing off. We had a great time. Alice said she didn't eat any dinner because she was so nervous, all she ate was cucumbers and sour cream. I don't remember being nervous, I don't remember dancing, and I don't think I even had one drink. They went to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. Niagara Falls is about 45 minute drive from our home. But they've been celebrating since...


In those days the couples that we knew of didn't pick their first song, it just was the Anniversary Waltz.
I remember how extravagant our mother thought we were when I bought those milky white bud vases for $.99, yes 99 cents for all tables. Now I'm sure some of the table arrangements are 100s of dollars. good times though.

Ruby Tuesday

Apparently it's Ruby Tuesday. Today was to have been a day of cleaning. Then I got a phone call. Well since my husband was sleeping,(night shift) I felt I didn't need much of an excuse to go help someone else. It was an enjoyable morning. And then I discovered it was Ruby Tuesday. The best thing about Tuesday has got to be these great little cloths my friends mother knit for me. I'm good for cleaning for a year or so. And as I now see in my side bar a really good yarn also is celebrating Ruby Tuesday. Enjoy.

Postcard Friendship Friday

Well if I was anygood at Photo shop I could put my husbands face on this guy. He didn't pose for this postcard, but he could have. Many, many years ago when Andy and I danced with a Polish Folk group he did this exact move, Chester. I imagine that Chester has the same back issues my husband does. I came across this postcard in my mother's stash of stuff, and thought it would be a good one to post. Have a great Friday.