An Extended Family 'Jigs' Evening

My sister's family was entertaining company ... one of her husband's bother & their family from Newfoundland. So last nite we headed over for a family Jigs dinner. I should have taken pictures of ALL the food that was there ... turkey, turnips, mashed potatoes, REAL salted beef from the "Rock", cooked cabbage, fried sweet potatoes, carrots, and gravy. I think I got it all :) After the early dinner we all headed out to a local arena to watch my youngest nephew play hockey.

A good slap shot that the goalie stopped.

The family in the bleachers. There were 10 of us all total.
back row to Alexander in red cap
front row ~ visiting family ~ to sister in white
bottom row brother-in-law
Oh, oh, my sister now sees me shooting pics

and now she's gone! caught you Karen!

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Where has Seventeen Years Gone?

Time seems to be slipping away ... to fast. Today my oldest nephew turns SEVENTEEN!

Me (Maureen) and Alexander

Alexander has always been a good puppy socializer

Last year's Birthday dinner ... he now towers over me ... and got his permit driver's license
(Mike, Alexander & Al)

he's into sports now ... playing goalie for his hockey team
plus plays football for two teams

Today he goes for his final driver's license!!!
Hope he's successful as today we have terrible windy, snow covered, slippery roads.

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Celebrating Mom's 80th Birthday

Saturday the family got together and went out for dinner to one of Ottawa's nicest downtown restaurants

called Hy's.

Living almost an hour now from the downtown core Mike and I don't get to the area much now. It was nice to see the streets with all their Canada Day decorations. We wanted to drive around the Parliament buildings, but it was all closed off as they were taking down the stage from the July 1st events, which included our Queen of England's visit.

You'll soon read where I'm going with this ....

It was a busy weekend here at the house, some 14 pups that are 6 wks of age and a full house of boarders we could only be gone for so long without being up till the wee hours doing dogs. All those that we could call upon to doggie sit were either out of town (and their dog's here), or had other commitments. Thus Mike & I went down in our own van, arriving a few minutes early.

Parallel parking isn't something I have to do much anymore ... I did this in one go! And with 2" to spare :)

And why were we early ???

To be there when the limo arrived with mom, her husband and my sister & her family in it. Yeah, a bit disappointing we couldn't enjoy the ride with the rest of the family, but with the dogs it would have added to much xtra time to our trip in and we certainly didn't want any surprises when we got home.

The family ... back left our nephew Alexander, sister Karen, husband Al and Mike ... back right nephew Connor, mom, me and my mom's husband Wilf.

Yes, Uncle Fred & Kathy if you're reading this the kids are growing up. Too bad we're all so far apart that we couldn't be together for this event.

The food was great, service was excellent.

Mom and her 2 grandsons beside the white limo that picked them up. And to think Alexander on the right was just tot as our ring bearer for our wedding, and Connor, he was there, but not as a 'real' person yet. (will have to dig out and scan a pic of him, Alexander that is, from our wedding) (correction from original post, Alexander if to the left in the pic, on mom's right)

Nothing fancy mom ... just special mention to the world.


Love and kisses ... Maureen & Mike

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Birthday's Bring Family Together

Our family always gets together a few weekes after Xmas to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. Well with our house here ... me, Mike & my mom .... all down with the norovirus it got postponed to this past Sunday. We had a great brunch, (think Mike got the receipt on that one!) I redid the ears on their new puppy ... hummm what breeding sheltie sisters are for :) ... enjoyed the fire & chit chat and headed home late afternoon in time to do the dogs.

Blow hard Al, you can do it!

l-r down in front, Connor & Alexander

l-r standing, my sister Karen, me, Michael, brother-in-law Al, mom & husband Wilf

middle of picture in Al's arms is Hudson

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Feeling Better Here

Thanks to all of you that sent well wishes, appreciate all our friends that are at a distance (that's where you want to be if you know of someone with this). We are ALL feeling a lot better, altho energy levels are still low. Depending on how accurate our home scales are vs the doctor's office, Mike figures he lost close to 20 lbs, and me around 5lbs. Maybe it was all water loss as I don't find my clothes fit too much different.

Mom felt well enough to head home yesterday, Mike's gone back to work. We just have to be extra careful in not over doing it and trying to get back to eating right. Mike made a nice chicken dinner last night, but after we each ate only 1/2 our plate, we looked at each other and said, 'nope that's about all'.

We are also hearing that getting this norovirus doesn't mean you can't get it again, even in another week! YIKES! Not news I wish to hear.

We're going through tons of antibacterial hand soap, hand lotion to rehydrate my washed hands and cleaning everything with either a javex solution or the doggie Quatsal-D solution that javex would ruin.

Back to catching up .....

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Norovirus Hits Us Here

A totally different topic than what I usually post .... Just Be Warned! as we have no idea how it started here.

It's been a real rough week here. Yes, as the title says, our home has been 'hit' with the norovirus. The news stations have been reporting all about it in the last 24 hrs as they are really concerned with it affecting the Olympics.

The actual details you don't want to hear. It hits NOW, with no warning. Mike was the 1st to come down with it Sunday nite, I joined in Tues evening. Neither of us could handle the dogs, so we called in one troop member, my mom. By Thursday morning, didn't she start. Once you've emptied everything, you are so weak, so sore, cold, achy, you don't want to eat and even toast after 2 days feels like fire going down. Only a bed or couch seems to be where you want to be. We've gone through several boxes of Gravol, Imodium, Zantec and are taking those Lactobacillis capsules to try and bring the gut bacteria back to normal.

Last night, chicken soup was OK for me, and I seemed to have more energy, at least enough to deal with the dogs. Mike didn't like the taste and headed back to bed.

I'm feeling better today, mom has gone back to bed, as for Mike it's been more meds for him this morning. Needless to say we aren't sending mom home for a bit, her husband has been told to Stay Away!

We're disinfecting as much as we can; tho spraying outside door handles just freezes to icicles. Thanks to friends who have been brave enough to drop of more needed medication & toilet paper supplies :)

This certainly wasn't our idea of any kind of New Year's weight loss program. TG dogs can't get it from us.

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DAAAHHH?? It's A Canadian Loon!

Kinda surprised I didn't get comments/emails from my Canadian friends that this carved duck picture I posted from Xmas is a Canadian (Common) Loon!

DAHH ... how could I have forgotten? I remember my dad teaching me how to take a long, thick blade of grass (took some doing to find the right one too), holding it just so, between the length of my thumbs, cupping my hands and then blowing to make that long, lovely call called the 'wail'. This call is mostly heard on calm lakes as the evening sun sets in the summer. If you get the grass reed calling down right (gosh do I know about practising it!), you can sometimes get the loons to answer you back. It is used to keep in contact with other loons on the lake.

If you've never heard it here is a link .... listen, think of a warm summer's evening, the sun setting on the horizon .... and other than maybe crickets, this is all you hear ....

Wail (474 K AU)

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January 1st & 2nd 2010 Adventures

We had an absolutely gorgeous New Year's Day evening. The temp was just below zero, with fluffy snow flakes falling. The trees with their dusting of snow made it SO beautiful. We also had a special visitor, Cheryl Pike of Maclaren shelties drove up to see the litter of Vista pups that are at Margaret Pratt's, Sharrow shelties. Cheryl presently has the sire, BISS Am/Cdn Ch Barwoods Jana JFK.But, THEN overnite, in less than 8 hrs, .... Boy did we go into a DEEP FREEZE with 30 km/hr winds! It went down to -28C with the windchill, crisping the air, frosting the vehicle windows, blowing snow over the roads, just a real shock to the system.

Saturday, Cheryl & I went over to Margaret's in the morning to see the pups, which we figure 3 of the 6 are ones we'd like to watch closely as to how they grow over the next several weeks.

Here's a picture Cheryl took of the 3 @ just under 6 wks of age l-r boy, girl, girl. Over all we are very pleased with the consistency of the litter.


It was a nice visit, I enjoyed the 'outside of Ottawa' doggie chit chat :)


For adventure in the afternoon Mike and I headed about 15 mins down the road to watch our nephew Alexander play at a hockey tournament. He plays goalie for his team, the Samurais.

They shoot!!! No goal. YEAH!!!!

Another try ... Alexander stops the puck!

AHHH ... guys did you see where that one went? (it's that black dot in the blue crease)

TG, no player was there to tap in for a goal. Hey defense guys where were you???

Watch that 5-hole Alexander!

Unfortunately they lost this game.

hummm better stop now ... it's time to do last potty run.

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Xmas 2009 Now Over

To family (Uncle Fred & cousins in B.C. & cousin Kathy & her family in Michigan) & friends, I hope you've all had a great xmas.

We, Mike & I spent Xmas Eve with our family at my mothers. Xmas day, we packed up presents and headed over to my sisters.

The Xmas tree in all its glory.

My mother's husband Wilf enjoys carving, creating different native ducks. Here's the one Connor received (Oh My! I can't remember what kind it is), we got a swan ... will have to take pictures of it.

The family dinner table ... l-r; Connor, Mike, Al, Alex, Wilf, Mom, Karen. A good time was had by all, with several taking a snooze after dinner .... wonder why? (smile)

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16 with a G1 License

YIKES! He's SIXTEEN already! Last nite, our family got together to celebrate our nephew's 16th birthday. He also passed his G1 Driver's License, so look OUT Ottawa!

Left - Mike, Alexander, Al & Karen; foreground my mother's husband Wilf, then me.

Back row - Connor, Mom, me and Wilf.

Alexander now has a digital camera to capture his own memories.

Gosh I remember at this age a box camera was what we wished for ... humm think I still have mine boxed away somewhere ... have times changed that quickly? Guess so. No more thick photo albums to find space for, no more negatives to keep track of, just file folders on hard drives and now LCD digital photo frames that one can hang on the wall and watch hourly if one chooses as the memories scroll by.

Now it takes a computer wiiizzzz, endless wires, electrical hook-ups, not nimble fingers that handle negatives or those black triangle sticky corners to hold the pictures in place. That was so simple, wasn't it?

A G1 license, rather than a permit we used to call it, has a whole lot more stipulations and can take 8-10 months before you pass the requirements to graduate to a G2 license. With this G1 the new driver can't drive on roads over 80 k/h (or as we call them in Canada 400 series), not drive between 12 am - 5am (think those are the hours), not carry any passengers other than the G licensed driver training them, nor ever have any alcohol. A big difference from my days, altho I can't agree more with the requirements.

Times are a changing ... just where will we see ourselves in another 20 yrs?

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Casper - Gone But Not Forgotten

It was not easy .... this evening my sister Karen, husband Al, boys Connor & Alexander had to make a selfless decision to see their boy Ch Shelamo's Heavenly Ghost, "Casper", go over the Rainbow Bridge.

January 25, 2000 - December 1, 2009

He was diagnosed just within the last few weeks with a very aggressive, rare form of a blood based tumor. This past weekend he started to decline considerably.

"Casper" was an easy going, friendly and intelligent boy, always wanting to be where his family was. He sat at many a football game, soccer game and just loved the camping trips.

He was an ambassador of our breed, to which many of our clients came to us, simply because they had seen the boys with their 'friend' playing in the neighbourhood parks.

He was a grandson of our Ch Watch Out For Black Ice, who was our 1st female with which we started our kennel.

We will deeply miss our "Friendly Ghost".

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Family Get Together Sunday - Grey Cup 2009

Go men in GREEN!!!

It's now become a yearly event at my mother & her husband's place for the families on both sides to enjoy the Grey Cup game together.

Brother-in-law Tim did up his mustache, as did my mom's husband ... never too old to have FUN!

Nephew Connor got into the act. One shouldn't do their own face painting in a mirror; you'd read it as Roughriders Saskatchewan, rather than the Saskatchewan Roughriders.. lol ...

Food was great. Pizza, chicken wings, dips - mom made our longtime fav, cheeses, crackers, choclate coated prezzles! adictive or what! apple pie, apple crisp, peacan pie and of course plenty of your choice, to drink.

Besides myself not in any of these pictures, there are another 5 people that must have been upstairs ... What a game, Montreal won in the dying second, literally!

Every family has a dog too! Tho only my side has shelties.

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New Flooring - Bit Of This Bit Of That

This past weekend was spent putting our "Canine Suite" back together. We needed extra muscles, to say the least! Besides all the computer 'stuff', filing cabinets, bookcase, a fridge and freezer, a couch, Mike & I couldn't do it ourselves ... age you know.

Here's what our living room & kitchen looked like through-out the renos.

Friday evening, Saturday & Sunday we enlisted help. Here is the start of our computer room with Travis doing the connecting under the desks. Time, nor trying to find where I'd set the camera didn't lend itself to taking many more.

Sunday our 2 nephews helped. Once done, it was puppy play time. Alexander holding the Trixie pups that were 3 wks old.My sister & her husband came out for dinner; Karen with the bi-black girl and her 'look-alike' stuffed dog. OK, the stuffed one has a bit more white!

Last night, now just over 3 wks, the pups got to christen the new floor in the puppy room. That's a back end slipping, not an 'accident' happening.

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Birthday's For Two Gentlemen On Friday

Friday our family celebrated my nephew's & stepfather's birthday. Brother-in-law Al manning the BBQ with steak & shrimp. Yum, YUM, my fav!Time for Connor & Wilf to blow out the candles. My mom made his (and mine) favourite Flapper pie.
Connor received a set of 'hats' for his drums. There were some 5 hats, Zildjian was their name and just know a lot of "oooo's' were said when the box was opened, so I'm guessing they are really good ones.

Once they were all put together, then we all headed down to the basement for a presentation of Connor's skills. He kept it somewhat on the quieter side .. hee hee ... we didn't all have ear muffs! He's pretty darn good, if I say so myself.

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