How did you meet your spouse, significant other, partner?

Every couple has a story and when we meet new people I always wonder how they met.

My spouse and I met in High School. Now we did not get together until much later so everyone stop with the high school sweetheart awws now :)

Hubby was a year behind me, and the closest we figure to when we met for the first time had to be in October of my 11th year of high school. We had a common friend, and the three of us used to walk home together after school. Hubby and I lived a little farther then our friend, so we walked and talked longer. Truth be told, we had much more in common then our mutual friend.

At the end of high school, I moved to another much larger city 2000 km away. We always kept in touch and whenever either of us visited the city we were in, we visited with each other. After we both finished University, my spouse ended up getting a job here in the city we live in now, and so began his wooing. Now mind you I was very resistant, this was my best friend and there was no way I was going to give that up should we have split up. He persisited and here we are married with a child. I am glad he pushed for the relationship, I really cannot imagine my life without him. I could not have asked for a better life partner. We figure now we have known each other for about 23 years.

So how about it? Where did you meet your significant other?

TGIF

After a busy week, I am glad that it is the weekend and we get a rest. Currently Sunshine has a friend over and they are playing Clue at our dining room table. It is a sleepover visit and I suspect that these girls will be up late talking and will rise with the birds. These two get to see each not often enough according to the little miss, but Sunshine's friend lives about 25 minutes away by car, and the girls love each others company and pack in a whole lot of playing in a short amount of time. They are a month apart by birth, and are two peas in a pod. It is funny, her mother and I are best friends and the girls appear to be the same. My poor hubby is overrun by females! These girls love everything that glitters, sparkles and shines, not a truck in site when they are together!

So I think I am going to start my christmas baking this weekend, and then freeze it. I love baking at this time of year - makes me think of family, makes the house smell good and then try to resist all the good yummy food that we don't indulge in all year. Growing up I can remember my mom baking and we would help. I remember we would have all sorts of tarts for christmas, blueberry tarts, butter tarts and strawberry tarts. I can also remember helping mom make gingerbread cookies for her students at school. Decorating them was the best. Yum!

Question for the day

Why does all the sweet stuff go to your waist line and the stuff that is good for you not?

What is your favourite time of day?

That is the question for the day!

My favourite time of day is when I first wake up (not rushed), and it is the warmest part of spring and our bedroom window is open and you can hear the birds doing their spring mating calls. I find that so peaceful.

Life has been super busy here in the Butler did it household. Sunshine is busy with school and activities, hubby is busy with work and home stuff and I am just longing for everything to slow down just a bit. Why is it the christmas season is the busiest time of year? Done your shopping yet? Me either, but my best girlfriend is done.

Ahh, how I long for my peaceful spring morning!

I am

a yarn junkie!

I am a knitter and my current project that I am knitting is a sweater for my sister for christmas. It is a hot pink sweater with a hood and she knows she is getting it, but has not seen it. That will have to wait for christmas morning.

I love yarn, I love the colors, I love the textures and I love the different kinds of yarn that there are out there. Wool, acrylic, linen, cotton and I can't wait to try knitting with bamboo yarn. I have lots of yarn. I am sure it drives my spouse crazy cuz it is all over the place.

My grandmother was a knitter, she would knit some things for us. She would always knit 3 socks, or mittens because when we lost one of them, we always had a spare. I can remember one Christmas, my brother, sister and I each got a crochet afghan. When we opened up the packages we could smell the colt wine tipped cigars that my grandfather smoked. I can see her in my mind's eye knitting or crocheting something in front to the tv while watching Jeopardy. She always had something on the go, she was a Red Cross knitter, they would send her yarn and she would knit up hats, scarves, mitts, and afghans and they would send it up north to those in need. I can remember seeing the huge boxes in their basement, and they were full of knitted goods, ready to go.

My mother inlaw knits, and she is a beautiful knitter. Whenever I am stuck, I give her a call and she sorts me out. When my inlaws visit her and I go to the yarn shop. It is an hour of sharing a passion that we have in common. I aspire for my work to be as good as hers.


thougth for the day

Life is like knitting, you take it one stitch at a time and before you know it, you have something beautiful

First Snow

The first snow of the season is falling right now. Not the little flurries we had the other day, they don't count because they did not stick to the ground. This stuff is the big clumpy flakes that stick to the ground like green moss, and makes your hair really wet when you are not wearing a hat. All the kids at the bus stop this morning were frolicking like gazelles, leaping around in excitement of the snow.

I remember feeling the same excitement, for me it was a sign that christmas was well on its way, and that snowmen, snow angels, sliding and skating on our local lake were around the corner. My brother and sister were big into making snow forts and it was always great when the snow plow went by and left big boulders because they made the greatest walls for the fort. When we got older, snow meant skiing as a family. Lots of weekend trips to the local ski hill happened, and I remember we would meet around lunch time and sit by the fire and eat together, and then poor dad would have to drive home afterwards and typically we would fall asleep on the way home from the hill - all that fresh air would knock us out.


So how about it, what are your memories of snow, winter anyone?

Remember

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae



If you see a veteran today, thank him.

Much as I try to deny it

Winter is coming.

The trees are all bare, the flowers are dug up. No more veggies in the garden and We are having lil snowflakes in the air right now as I type.

Agh, I am NOT ready for this weather.

Meanwhile, sunshine is. This morning I got her up out of bed by saying as I pulled up her blind " Oh look hunny, I see snowflakes" Boy did she leap out of bed and look out.


Thought for the day

Where are my winter boots I wonder?

Sunshine

Our child is a bright light in our lives, a gift from god, a happy go lucky person, a person who is always game to try out new things. You know the type of person, the one that gets picked out of a crowd to pariticipate in a busker shows. She has a wide cirlcle of friends, is fun, happy and I hope not too spoiled.

Now having said that, there is one thing in her life that I know that she wants, but will never get, and that is a brother or sister.

I know that she longs for a sibling, and we tell her that it is not possible but that she is really lucky because she never has to share her toys, and she gets to do stuff that she would not get to do because if there were more children we could not afford it. I know she accepts this, but every so often it surfaces. Like today for instance, she brings home a book from school that she has written in. It is all about her and her family and there it is in plain writing, "I am an only child, it is lonely, but I don't have to share my toys".

I know that I am not the first parent to experience this, nor will I be the last. But boy does it make my heart ache..

Floating on air

Last week I wrote about working in retail and specifically working in a lingerie store. Well, after a little reflection, I have come to realize that I was destined to sell lingerie.

My mom tells a story about me of when I was a little girl and we had just moved from Halifax, NS to Saint JoHN NB. My brother was very young, and I was not much older. Now my mom had put me and my brother down for a nap and she decided to have a little rest as well. When she woke up, she went to check on us and discovered I was missing from my bed. After searching the house and not finding me, a real panic set in. Heading to the front door to check outside for me, she saw me out running jumping in the puddles out on our street. Now I was prepared, I was wearing my rainboots, but as well, I pulled on a lovely peignoir set that my dad had given my mom as a gift. Apparently it was floating behind me. My mom could not have been more mortified, me running down in the street alone, or me running in her nighty! What would the new neighbors think?

When I was a little older, my dad took me out christmas shopping to get something for my mom. Now my dad always bought my mom a nighty for christmas, it is a tradition, and he still does it to this day. Anyway, we went out to the local dept. store, and we were in the lingerie dept, when I spied something that my mom JUST had to have. Now, I Dream of Jeannie was on television at the time, so when I came across a pair of what I considered "I Dream of Jeannie" pjamas - I knew it was the gift for my mom. They were a two piece set, sheer as all get out, and the top was split open in the front. Sexy as all get out! Anyway I talked my dad into them (not that he needed much convincing) and up to the cash we went. I can remember telling the girl behind the cash that these "Jeannie" pjamas were for my mom for christmas. The cashier just smiled, well actually smirked, and I remember thinking wow, she really likes the pjs, my mom is really lucky. Anyway, flash forward to christmas morning and my mom opens her gift. I remember being really excited and remember telling her the were Jeannie pjs and she had to wear them. I don't think she ever did (wonder why), and I wonder to this day if she still has them.


Question for the day
Why do long nightgowns always wind up around your neck in the middle of the night?

Run away to ....

the circus ...

Now you ask why "Run away to the cirus"? Well, it all has to do with my brother, I call him my lil brother, thought he is taller than I and much more travelled than I.

You see, my brother is in the entertainment industry, he is not famous, well, let me re-phrase that, he is famous in our family. He is the behind the scenes guy, and is well respected in his industry.

Anyway, I always say that after he left home he ran away and joined the circus. Now this statment is a little true because he did work on a travelling circus, and hopefully one day he will recount some of his stories on his blog (http://dgcwtt.blogspot.com/). Even better would be if he published a book. I can remember being 5 months pregnant, sitting in Wendy's listening to his adventures with the circus and almost falling off my chair cuz I was laughing so hard.

My brother, sister and I are very close, but we are all very different individuals. We all have chosen different work paths, but all are creative in our own ways. My brother - theatre, my sister - the written word, and me - in knitting, pictures, cooking and colors. I love that we all have a creative side and express it in different ways, and in some respects - similarly. I love these guys very much and would do anything for them, and I know that they would do the same for me.

Our parents did a good job if I say so myself!

Question of the day:

The Monkeys did what Dave ?