20 years later.........

 So this photo is out of focus on purpose; before anyone says something.

These are my money boxes.  I put money in each one each week.  The largest box is my Christmas box and $20 goes into that one.  The smallest one is the birthday box, and $20 goes into that one each week.

The one in the middle has our daughter's name on it and the word birthday.  I set these boxes up 20 years ago to save money for Christmas and birthday's, and as our daughter was turning 21 the following year I put money away each week in the middle sized box to give her money on her 21st birthday to set up an RRSP account.  Our daughter turns 40 this year in November, so I have had these boxes in my drawer doing the same old thing each week for 20 years now.  I have never bothered to change the name on the middle box.  I still save money in it each week and it generally gets used as spending money for our vacation, or if we need cash for something.  For example we had our driveway sealed a couple of weeks ago and they wanted cash, in fact $220 worth of cash, which to my mind was expensive?  However it looks good!

We do have a son and we gave him money also for his 21st birthday for RRSP's.  In the UK 18th and 21st birthday's are a big deal.  I know we gave the kids money also for their 18th birthday.  

Last year our son turned 40 and this year, our daughter-in-law, son-in-law and daughter all turn 40.  It just seems like yesterday that they were all teenagers.  Our son-in-law has been "in the family" since he was in his early teens, as has our daughter-in-law.  Looking back time has certainly flown by fast.

As for the grand-kids, the youngest one turned 4 in June and the oldest one will be 12 in November.  It just seems like yesterday when they were new born's in our arms.

A stroll down memory lane for me today!

Gosh it's been nearly 3 months.......

Where has the time gone too?  The older I get the faster time flies by I find.

When I last posted our son and daughter-in-law had just moved in with us while their house was being renovated.  On May 27th our daughter-in-law gave birth to their first child a little boy called Liam John.  Here he is on his 1 month "anniversary."  The red hair comes from my dad's side of the family and I think he resembles his mum.

We were so lucky to have them at our home for another three weeks after he was born.  It's a once in a lifetime thing to have your newborn grandson live with you.  They moved out after three weeks, as their home was "livable," at that point.

A month on the contractor is still at their house and still busy working.  It's a family joke now, that we think he'll still be there when Liam starts school! 

Our other big news is that we put the house on the market this week (Tuesday).  So far we have had one real estate agent look round for their client.  We have high hopes we will have some people looking over the house this weekend.  As we live in an "Active Adult Community," and we pay condo fees, our home will not appeal to everyone.  The real estate market has been slow so far this year, so we are not sure if we will find a buyer or not.  We don't HAVE to move, but we would LIKE to move.  If we have to stay here another year it's no problem.

There are many reasons we want to move; too many to go into here.  We have no idea where we are going, as we want to see if we get sell.  Dh, is thinking about retiring, but is still not 100% sure, so that also makes it difficult to figure out how much to spend and where we should live.  However, we have plans drawn up for either scenario; plus financially we have been planning for both options for a couple of years now.  It's always good to get your "ducks in a row," as they say when it comes to life decisions that involve money!

Summer is upon us here, so I have been hibernating, as the hot flashes along with the heat are not my friends.  Been busy knitting and sewing.  Just sent off a birthday box to a little girl in Nunavut; will tell you more about that in another post.

The two "N's" both finished junior kindergarten at the end of June and both got excellent report cards.  They move up to senior kindergarten in September and Sammy will also start junior kindergarten in September.  It just seems like yesterday that Sammy was born???

Jeina and Paige both turned 2 in May and June respectively.  Both had birthday parties with numerous other little ones attending.  Both had bouncy castles in their back yards and lots of screaming and shouting!  Came home with a present from Paige's birthday party; both dh and I ended up with nasty summer colds.  Not sure which one of the little darlings was sick😕 I swear toddlers are walking germ factories!

Looking forward to hearing what you have been up too?

Our Little Munchkin........

We're going to see her today along with both kids and partners as it may or may not be someones birthday today (wink, wink!!)

Since both kids have their own houses I am pleased to say we split up hosting duties for special occasions.  Dd is hosting my birthday, I am hosting ds birthday and Easter as they are both on April 4th.  Ds is going to host Father's Day, maybe Mother's Day not sure which one, as he is a whiz with the BBQ and it should be BBQ weather by then.

So back to our little Munchkin.  She has had a cold again.  It could be due to more teeth coming in, or just because someone else at school has cold again.  This time dd was super organized and as soon as she started having signs of a cold and a cough, out came the Vicks Vapour Rub and the cold water Humidifier.  She managed not to get an ear infection or bronchitis this time so that was good.

I haven't shared any photos of her in the past couple of weeks.  I had to go back over my blog to see what I have shown you.  If you are one of my Facebook friends you will be groaning now as I often post photos of her on there.

They went to a 50's themed party at the end of February for her other Grampa.  Dd made the felt poodle and pinned it onto her skirt.

Here she is at school sitting under the table playing peek-a-boo.  Why, because she can!!  Love the highlighter pink dungarees.

It turns out she loves to do crafts; thank goodness, as you all know dd is a Martha Stewart wannabe!!!!  She loves to paint and crayon and put stickers on paper.  Must admit when I saw this photo all I could think of, is "Why didn't they put an apron on her, that's a brand new outfit she has on!!"

She loves school/daycare and gets an awful lot from it.  Her move to the toddler room has been put off for a couple of weeks; there is a reason but too long of a boring story to explain.  When she is well she is a happy camper and they love her in the baby room, as she is easy going and feeds herself.  The only issue is that if she doesn't get enough sleep, she is miserable and with some new babies arriving in the room who don't know the routine, it's been tough making sure she gets enough sleep.

Looking forward to spending time with them all today.

Oh and finally if you are at the other side of the "pond" a Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's there including mine.  Mine is a lucky duck as she gets two Mother's Day's per year, in March and in May when we celebrate Mother's Day in Canada.

Babysitting Miss Nora............

Here is the little cherub:

Doesn't that face say "I am so sweet!!"

It was our son's 30th birthday on April 4th and dd decided to throw him a surprise party, which by all accounts was a success.  We were invited, but as it didn't start until 9pm and that is our bedtime we decided to pass and babysit our little cherub!!

Nora's parent left just after 6 pm and I had a list of instructions on what to do and what not to do and when.  So as per the instructions we could feed her, her squash and pears (in that order) around 6:30 pm.  So I put her in the high chair and she DID NOT like that one bit and was very vocal about it.  So fine we took her out and decided to calm her down, but that didn't really work.  So figured as per the list she had to have a bath around 7 pm.  Well she has this fold up thing like this which was perfectly fine when Miss Nora was tiny but at 16 lbs, she is squished in there.  Again suffice to say she wasn't happy about having a bath either and the way she arched her back I was surprised she didn't escape.  Miss Nora's parents are buying another bigger bath for her, but hadn't got it before the weekend.

So got her all dried and dressed and she still isn't happy.  Walked her up and down and she stops wailing and even manages to smile at us.  By this point we are heading towards to 8 pm mark, and we still haven't fed her.  Oh and by this point the bloody list has been thrown out.  Managed to get her fed, by giving her the pear first and then slipping in the squash.  She wouldn't take the bottle for love or money though and starts wailing again.  

To cut a long story short I finally got her in the crib at 11 pm.  Poor dh had to be up at 3:30 am to go to work.  There is a footpath in the living room carpet now where we/I walked her back and forward.  Dh and I were exhausted.  We couldn't get over how someone so small can cause so much chaos!!!  Dd and son-in-law came home around 1:30 pm and went to bed.  Miss Nora got up for a feed around 5:30 am and then slept to 8:30 am.  She was back to sleep by 10 am until after 12 noon as she was that tired..........I wonder why!!!

It's when she turns at you and smiles and talks to you your heart just melts, then she has a hissy fit a minute later.  Despite her mother telling me she has strawberry blonde hair I reckon it's more red and she has the temper to go with it.  I told dd and son-in-law to please feel free to ask his mother to babysit next time!!!  I don't think it's fair that I should have all the fun, do you?

Miss Nora had been out of sorts and the change of house, plus everything else must have effected her.  We will of course babysit anytime they ask, as we wouldn't want to miss out.  However dh must make sure he's not working the next day as we need a day or two to recover.

Birthday weekend over with thank goodness...

was treat very well by my loved ones, but overall glad it's all over with.  I'd be quite happy if it was just forgotten about.  I don't think it has anything to do with age it's just that I think there are more important things in life than me.

Or maybe the older I am getting the more set in my ways and crotchety I am getting?

crotch·et·y (krch-t)

adj.

Capriciously stubborn or eccentric; perverse

 

Anyhow today is the start of a new week, so onwards and upwards as they say.

 

By the way I love celebrating other people's birthday's, just not my own!

I have just published a book review here.

Year in Review for the "Home's of the Week,"

Toronto Life has put together their 10 best Home's, Condos and Cottages for sale in 2012.  Lets just say I don't agree with them, and I can bet you won't either.  However if you are a fan of this feature it will be fun to go back and look at some of the lovely places and cringe at some of the eye sores again!!

So here we go; "The 10 Best Home's of 2012."  Number 3 was my favourite, and absolutely hated number 9 and 7.

"The 10 Best Condos of 2012."  Loved number 4, but honestly the rest I can live without, they're all over priced for what they are.

"The 5 Best Cottages of 2012." For some reason they only come up with five cottages instead of ten?   The five that they picked all leave a lot to be desired.  Also the word "cottage" used for some of these places is so wrong, they're bloody mansions!  Still if you have a favourite let me know I'll take a second look at them.

Have managed to cash in for 4 $5 Amazon e-cards through Swagbucks so far this month.  Working towards that fifth one you who are on the computer a lot, you could be earning Swagbucks at the same time?  If you do sign up please would you use my referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Appleby

It's my older of my two brother's birthday's today.  Happy 40 something Birthday our Nick!!!  Often wondered if its a good thing having a birthday around Christmas time?  Before Christmas people are busy with Christmas itself and you're getting presents for Christmas anyway, so I bet a lot of people combine presents which must suck?  Then just after Christmas people have no money, though the sales are on, so I guess you may get a great gift because it was on sale?

Does anyone have a birthday either in December of January?  Also in Canada, the school year intake date is January 1st.  So January birthday's are the oldest in the year and December birthday's are the youngest.  I know two cousins, one birthday was November of one year and the other was Janaury of the next.  The one in November started school in September of 2012, but the other one had to wait until Spetember of 2013, despite only being two months apart in age.

I told poor "R" that she should try to have another baby by December of 2014, as although there would be nearly apart in age, they would only be a year apart in school.  As she pointed out it would be helpful to have this baby first.....LOL

Yes, she's still pregnant and although the baby isn't big 5 + lbs both are healthy.  She finishes work today to go on maternity leave, so I will probably see her next week sometime.  Her due date is the 18th, so two more weeks to go.

Ds birthday and a book review

It's ds birthday today, he is the grand old age of 27 today.  We went out for lunch with him and dd and fiance on Sunday, to a place in Barrie called Big Chris BBQ Smokehouse Now I have to say we all walked out of that place stuffed to the gills.  We all had the half pulled pork sandwich with fries, baked beans and coleslaw.  There was no way we could have eaten the full pork sandwich as there was so much food.  I of course forgot to take my camera but there are some photos here of the food.

They also have something called the Ultimate Dirty Burger. 

 "Last Friday of the month we dare you to eat the ultimate DIRTY BURGER!!!!! .. Its 7,,, yes that's SEVEN lbs of prime rib burger so six 8oz prime rib patties,cause we only use the biggest and the best, 2lbs of of our finest pulled pork covered with a poutine in a 12 inch bun of goodness.. Oh YA each patty is covered in Medium Cheddar and at least three strips of bacon per pattie.( do the math )..As far as we know its is the biggest best and BADDEST burger in all of CANADA.. It is SIX of our normal dirty burgers and of course 3 of our double dirty's..NO ONE has a burger like this and so far, and as of today, It is UNDEFEATED.....( closest to finish,,, left 1.5lbs on the table ...thanks Randy)...See you next month ..Only for the brave..lol.. PS.. you have to finish it in a hour..good luck "

If you are ever travelling up or down Highway 400 it is only five minutes off the highway, if that.  I would like to try the chicken next time, as I did find the pork not as tender as I would have liked, but it was good.  As it was ds birthday they brought over a corn bread muffin with a candle stuck in it, so we could sing happy birthday to him.  Dd also brought us mini cheesecakes as a dessert.  She called ahead to see if that was alright, as there are no desserts on the menu.

Ds discovered it when he was doing an audit at a company close by and has been a few times with his friends.  It is very well priced and no one leaves the place hungry.  We went for opening for 12 noon and including us there was 17 people there during the first hour, so its pretty popular.

After we left there we popped into Tim Hortons for a coffee.   I actually had one of their new fruit smoothies, I just love them.  I am also in love with the strawberry banana doughnuts, and the sooner they take them off the menu the better, other wise I will be the size of a house soon!!!

"Lady in the Mist," by Laurie Alice Eakes

"By virtue of her profession as a midwife, Tabitha Eckles is the keeper of many secrets. Dominick Cherrett is a man with his own secret to keep: namely, why he, a British aristocrat, is on American soil working as an indentured servant.

In a time when relations between America and England rest on the edge of a knife, Tabitha and Dominick cross paths, leading them on a journey of intrigue, threats, public disgrace, and . . . love. But can Tabitha trust Dominick? Finding true love seems impossible in a world set against them.

With stirring writing that draws you directly into the story, Lady in the Mist takes you on the thrilling ride of love's discovery."

Well I have to say I enjoyed this book despite it not being an easy read.  I found it a bit slow to get into, but when I did I wanted to know what was going to happen next.  The love story  is such that you are not sure if they will or will not get together, right up until the end.  Also I liked the mystery side of the book, as for once I didn't guess "who did it," which is always a plus.  I also liked the fact there could be a sequel to this book....infact I hope there is a sequel as there is a lot more that can be told from this book.

I loved the history of the book and I loved that I learned new things in this book.

Stars out of 5: a resounding 4.  It was a bit of a slow start but once it got going it was good.  A good book to buy, or to borrow from the library.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

Belated Happy Birthday, a recipe and other stuff....

It's come to my attention, namely through my other brother Nick, that I didn't wish him a happy birthday on his birthday.  So to stop him accusing me of favouritism, could you all pop over to his blog and wish him a belated Happy Birthday, it was on January 4th and he was 42.......oops wasn't sure if I was supposed to mention his age ;0)

I had planned on doing aanother post today but have other things to talk about.  It's also come to my attention that my laptop battery is not lasting any length of time any more.  When I am using my webcam I only get about an hours usage on it.  Not sure if that's a normal thing or not?

I made a couple of Sour Cream Lemon Cakes on Tuesday, below is a photo of them.

The recipe is from here

Ingredients:


2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

grated zest of 1 large lemon

1 cup sour cream

.

Lemon Glaze:

1/4 cup melted butter

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°. Generously butter and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.



In a mixing bowl with hand-held electric mixer, cream 1 cup butter and granulated sugar; beat at high speed until mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl frequently. Blend in lemon zest. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, adding each in 3 additions. Scrape sides of bowl frequently. Pour batter into prepared cake pan; bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden pick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine lemon glaze ingredients in a bowl, blending until smooth. Carefully turn cake out onto a platter; drizzle evenly with glaze.

Serves 12 or more, depending on size of servings.

****Now this makes a heavy cake, almost like a pound cake.  Personally I would only make a half quantity of the icing, using all the lemon juice though.  It makes an awful lot of icing if you use the suggested recipe.  It also took the full 65 minutes to cook, and you need a large bundt pan****

This recipe though is a keeper!!

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Keep your hands clean. This one’s simple – just wash your hands thoroughly each time you use the bathroom or handle raw foods. You’ll keep yourself from acquiring all kinds of viruses and bacteria, saving you on medical bills and medicine costs and lost productivity. That’s not to say you shouldn’t explore the world and get your hands dirty sometimes – that’s good for you, too – but basic sanitation does help keep the medical bills away.

Don't you think that's a good tip, makes sense when you think about it.....

Sunday morning......

Didn't get around to preparing a post last night like I normally do. Had a busy day on Saturday. The kids came over and worked around the place in the morning. We then went out for lunch to celebrate future son-in-law's (no they're not engaged yet, but if I call him that often enough maybe they'll get the hint!!) and dh's birthdays. Future son-in-law's was this past Tuesday and dh's is today.

We went to the Mono Cliff's Inn and it was really nice, especially the desserts. Also the kids paid, which was super nice of them and totally unexpected. As ds pointed out, they are working now, so it was their treat!!! When we got back home we were so stuffed we just sat about and let dh open his gifts from them. Ds got him gift cards for Home Depot and Tim Hortons. Dd and future son-in-law got him gift cards for Tim Hortons and Mark's Work Wearhouse. So all useful gifts. Me and the kids them played the "Worst Case Scenario, Game of Surviving Life Game," for a while, which was interesting.

Then me and the kids took Molly for a walk down the back field, which was really nice. Molly bounded down the field (on a leash) on the way down, but was just strolling like we all were on the way up!!

I started the fire and according to dd smothered it, so ds showed us how to start a fire correctly. It's a case of feeling old when the kids know more than you do, isn't it!! By this time it was close to 6:30pm, so we all felt a bit peckish but couldn't decide what we wanted to eat, so we ended up going to a Tim Hortons/Wendy's restaurant, where the two boys managed to eat a full burger and fries meal, washed down with a huge pop, I have no idea where they put it!! Dd had a salad, and me and dh had a snack wrap from Tim Hortons each, as we weren't that hungry.

The kids went straight home from the restaurant as did we. Overall it was a wonderful day with great company.

As it's dh's birthday today we are going out for the day, not sure where to. Do know we have to call in at Home Depot and Rona though at some point, as dh got a light for the living room there, its really nice, but the lamp shade won't fit on with light bulbs in it????? Also the whipper snipper we got at Rona last week, is leaking oil and is had it?????