Saturday night .....

Last night was so much fun.....I headed out for dinner with my friend Samantha - yummy dinner at Average Joes.  The Oilers were playing Calgary and the match was on so it was busy in there!!  After that we picked her Son up from work and gave him a ride home before heading to Overtime - a bar on the other side of town which has piano duelling every Friday and Saturday. 

Firstly the bouncers on the door (they probably have different name here but back home we call them bouncers) are HOT!!!  And really friendly and cute lmao!!  Secondly the atmosphere is MY kind of place!!!  I really liked it!!!  And the piano players/ singers were AMAZINGLY talented!!  And the first song they played was Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' and the girl who sang was soooo good at it!  WOW!!!!

I think I am going to be back there very soon - and definitely want to get a group of us together to go and watch the pianos again!  LOVED it :)  

Snapshots of Christmas.....

Our kitchen/ dining room:

family room:

Abigail found the Christmas pickle and is the pickle champion 2010!!

Banana in her Christmas outfit:

Me with Sam and Abby:

Christie and Sid took the children to Candy Cane Lane and to 

Maisies Christmas House one evening:

We had a fun time at the Festival of Trees in Sherwood Park:

On December 23rd I took the girls to see The Wizard of Oz at the Jubilee Auditorium:

Lazy mornings and afternoons at our place :)

Mama snowlady :)

Found this at the Butterdome Craft Sale and thought it was perfect for our first Christmas as a single parent family :)  I love it :)

Lantern festival.....Botanical gardens....

On a bitterly cold December evening, JoAnne and I headed to Devon to the Botanical Gardens to stroll around the lantern festival.  Despite the cold we had a lovely evening.  The trails through the Japanese gardens were stunning - with candles lighting up all the pathways...the freshly fallen snow on the trees adding to the magical effect.  Volunteers dressed up as Winter Wood Nymphs, and covered in dainty lights walked around giving out candy canes and having their pictures taken with people - but never speaking!!!  :)  

There were firepit areas to warm yourself by and hot apple cider!!!!  Music and a craft sale...

It really was a lovely evening and I will definitely go again - I just hope it isn't as cold next year so that I can take the children :)  

It was a perfect day as we had spent the day strolling around the Butterdome craft sale....and then we ended the day having supper out together to warm up :)  

Thank you JoAnne :)

xxx

Rosie's stocking from Santa...

Rosie's turn to open her stocking on Christmas morning :)  

My Rosie Posie girl....

I still miss her gorgeous sister just oh so much :(  

But Rosie is a darling and we just LOVE her so :)

Snapshots of me....

Farm festival field trip....

Pictures from a homeschool field trip last Semester....

Ice on Whyte...

Several weeks ago we enjoyed an afternoon at the Ice carving festival in Edmonton.  The theme this year was the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit....there were carvings of all kinds of things though.....It was a beautiful afternoon for it :)  

Admiring the view...

This picture is from my 'Winter Stories' journal.  I love it :)  

Such a simple picture but to me it speaks volumes.  Rosie loves it here as much as I do :(

Home :)

My Truth tellers....

My little feathered friends continue to visit us....many have stayed all winter long and we have been sure to keep them fed well the whole time....scraps from the kitchen as well as a mixture of seeds and nuts.  Abigail has even made them treats that she has hung out using pine cones and peanut butter :)

My Blue Jays have stayed all winter, as have the Magpies and Chickadees and a few others....the woodpeckers etc.  Slowly but surely as the weather warms up we will see some of our regular Summer visitors returning.  I love seeing familiar faces returning each year to us, to feed and to nest :)  

One of the things I love about the fact we have lived here so long now, is that we recognise the birds as they return - we know their routines and patterns....the families that next here....their foods, their habits....

I love watching the changing of the seasons from my porch :)

Friday fill ins!!

And...here we go! 

1. Why does it seem like I have no time lately to finish any of the painting jobs I want to get finished?

2.  The amazing sense of calmness I get from being in Canmore is equal to nothing.

3. My favorite breakfast includes coffee...the food part changes but there is always coffee!

4. Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah was the last book I read although No Room on the Broom was the last book I read to Sam :) 

5. I am SO glad that winter is over and it won't be long before the snow melts.
 6. Mountain air from the hot tub would make me feel better right now. I think i'll head there next time I have a weekend to myself.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening at home as Susannah is out and so is Laurence, tomorrow my plans include cheering Susannah on as she sings in the Talent show at the mall, and Sunday, I want to see what the day unfolds!

Evening out...

This evening Laurence and I checked out the new art gallery in our town...it's only a small gallery but it was sweet enough.  The present exhibit is about art created in yarn.  There were felted vases, woven wall hangings, balloons in a  kind of knitted or macrame'd design, and a whole stream of colourful mice racing across the floor.

There was also a series of hangings produced on rice paper.  

Opposite those, there was a chance for the community to get involved.  You could write your idea for peace onto a strip of paper, and then weave it into the frame on the wall to add it to the peace weaving.  

Can you guess our ideas????  They are in the lower picture so you can see them closer up :)

After the art gallery we headed to the tanning salon where I topped up my colour.  It was complete bliss in there this evening...I think I almost fell asleep :)  Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat using up another coupon I had :)  Woohoo :)  LOVE those coupon books :)  

Home again to watch Going the Distance before the children arrived home from their Dads.  

I spent this tonight making a few quick plans / notes for Spring Break.  I have the little ones booked in to a few free workshops during the week.....and have a few other free/ cheap ideas planned for the week.  We also have swimming and roller skating planned :)  It should be a good week :)  

Fun fun fun :)

Mixed feelings....

I have such mixed feelings about dating....as most of you know, I dated last year....for several months.  It was probably a complete rebound relationship.  Looking back it was completely the WRONG person for me BUT in some ways he was also the PERFECT person for me too....because he was a really sweet guy...treated me like a princess, made me feel amazing and looked after me exactly the way I needed to be looked after at the time!!

Yes, he was just what I needed at the time.  In many ways he and I were perfect together - his kids were soooo great....I LOVED hanging out at his place - he worked away every other week, he wasn't that close to his Mother, but his parents were really nice!!  So none of those Mommy/ Son issues I've had with my last two husbands.....omg what is it with boys and their Mothers??????

And D was also a great communicator...he could write and talk sooooo well....

BUT....there was a lot missing that I NEED in a  relationship.....and I knew it wasn't right.

Since then, I really haven't been interested in dating...I left the dating website I was on and gave up for a while....and then I joined another....and although I've had quite a good response on there, I've always ignored the emails I've received beyond the first or second one....

I'm not sure why.  I just have an 'I can't be bothered' attitude....

I have a couple of friends who are starting to date again and they make it sound sooooo exciting and soooo much fun....but I'm not sure that I can be bothered with any of that yet.....with making the effort....with trying so hard to impress.....having to be witty and clever and funny and smart....looking your best, smelling your best, having good hair days, being fussy about your clothes....

And even if I did go on dates, I REALLY don't know that I want to invite anyone back here....it's nothing to do with keeping them away from my children as much as I don't want any man invading MY space.....I don't want them cluttering it up.....I don't want their 'stuff' here.....

Geez how on earth did I ever share my home with a  guy???  I don't want a man putting things in places I don't want them....or me having to move my clothes over to make room for his in the closet.....or guy crap in my bathroom......

So all this tells me that I'm not ready yet to date......my hair stylist, Amber, who I also call my therapist (because she is AMAZING and literally sorts my life out - she knows EVERYTHING and she gives me a good smack and tells me what to do and how to sort things out etc....well, she says I need to just date myself for a long while and stay single.....she's right of course.  She was right about the jerk I married and she was right about the rebound.....she is 27 and gorgeous - some guy really should snap her up.  If I was a guy I'd snap her up....she makes me cry because she is THAT good at sorting out my head and my hair....if I moved to Australia I would still fly back every few weeks to get my hair done by her)!!

There was a British guy for a while...but that didn't come to much.....he worked long hours and was a bit moody anyway...lacked a sense of humour and he liked soccer a bit too much (lmao).....that's always been a no no in my books as I grew up with a Father who was obsessed with it.

Anyway.....now all of a sudden there are three guys who seem a little more interested in me than I am in them....I have to admit that they're all rather good looking.  All tall.  And they're all interesting.  One I wasn't too sure about but he seems to think we have a lot in common and he keeps asking to chat again....another lives in Saskatchewan but is still interested....and the third....well, the third seems REALLY nice....and he's the one that is confusing me...because I have sworn off of men for now...yet he might just persuade me otherwise.....he makes me smile, makes me laugh.....and he writes as he talks....more than one line...which has always been VERY important to me.....

So anyway, I'm not going to do much if anything for now......I'm just going to see what happens...and if nothing happens then so be it and I will continue enjoying my single life, dating myself ;)  And if something happens......something happens ;)