Christmas Day

The children didn't wake us up too early. They are supposed to open their stockings (we use pillowcases) in their rooms, that was the way we did it in my family but they all came in our room and piled on our bed. I am so glad we have a king size bed with all these people on it. After the stockings we headed downstairs.

Hugh and I even managed to get dressed before the presents were opened. Everyone was in a mad rush to open gifts. Donovan loved his new guitar for the WII guitar hero. Miles received a load of Lego and Detta had a new painting set with travel case. Plus there were some other stuff for them also.
I turned the tv on to Citytv for the fireplace but they didn't do it this year. I was so disappointed. Hugh and I got the potatoes roasting. Hugh very kindly peeled them last night after I went to bed.

Then we headed off to Anne's. Next year I think we will have to start just a little later. Twelve noon is pushing it to get all of us ready to go. There were lots of people, Anne, Al, Alex, Liz, Joan, Tom, Kath, Alan, Andrew, Sue, Aimee, Lizzie's friend (can't remember her name), Margot, Sandy (Alex and Liz's uncle) plus Hugh, me, Detta, Miles and Donovan. Nineteen people in total. As soon as I heated the bacon wrapped sausages up, people were stealing them. I had to swip a few hands.

Dinner was fabulous. There was so much food. We then opened some more presents which was mayhem. I think next year we should wait till the tables are put away.

Christmas Eve

Detta had a great birthday. Kath, Sue and Aimme came over. We all went to Pizza Hut for lunch. This was Detta's choice this year. Pizza Hut had their lunch buffet which the children loved. Then we all walked over to Dairy Queen and had dessert.

Earlier in the week, Anne and Elizabeth came over with gingerbread houses and trains. Detta, Alex (Detta's friend) and Donovan all decorated. It was lots of fun. Miles was out at karate. He now has his orange belt. Anyways back to Detta's birthday. Anne also brought a cake with her. So we had cake and ice cream.

Detta received lots of good presents. We gave her a portable DVD player. I am sure she will get lots of use of it. You can even plug in a memory stick and play movies off that.

Sue and Aimme are here in Canada for a visit. Sue is a good friend of my sister, Joan and lives in Australia. Aimme is the same age as Miles.

I managed to get the mushroom and apricot stuffing ready yesterday. It is mainly for the vegetarians since there are lots of nuts and seeds in it. But I used gluten free bread so Kath could eat it also. Plus I wrapped all the sausages with bacon, there are at least 40 of them. Then Hugh and I made two batches of German biscuits. I bought rice, potato and some other gluten free flour to use in the German biscuits.

Visit from Josee Chouinard

The Ajax Figure Skating Club had a guest visitor, Josee Chouinard. Josee has represented Canada at the World Championships and the Olympics. Josee now coaches at the Granite Club in Toronto. She came to our club to give the girls a training session. Detta was asked to demonstrate a move.


All the girls were very excited and as you can see everyone clustered around her at every opportunity. Everyone enjoyed themselves and hopefully learned something.

First Day

I had my first day at my new job. It was so quick to drive in and even nicer I don't have to pay for the parking. I am reorganizing their library. The categories and subcategories have already been designated but I am going to label all the books so that the books are easier to find. There are also all the cds, dvds and vhs to go through.

Everyone is really friendly and we all sit down together and have lunch. It is a very nice working environment.

Sychronized Skating Competition

The Ajax Ice Waves sychronized skating team had their first competition of the year called the Bill Phillips in Stratford. It was a bit early in the year and the club was trying to fit in extra practices. So Detta and I headed to Stratford after practice on Friday night. I was not very sure about driving there in the dark. I have never driven to Stratford and there was talk that there was the possibility of a big snow storm in that area.

But we made it safely. The snow just started after we past Kitchener so it wasn't too far after that. Of course I ran out of windshield wiper fluid!! We checked in and found out we were in the motel part of the 'hotel'. So we would have to bundle up everytime we went from the room to the hotel. The breakfast was good, a nice selection.

Then we headed for the arena. Detta was skating Sat and Sun. They did very well on their first skate. From the looks of it, a lot of teams hadn't removed elements that are no longer allowed. There were a lot of changes made by Skate Canada to the program this past year. But after the second skate our team was 8th out of 12.

Unfortunately all the pictures I have are taken through the netting for hockey games.

Min's Visit

Our friend Min (Munindra) was in Toronto for work from the UK. We used to go to the pub every Friday night with a large group of friends and Min was one of them. The guys used to all drink ESB which Hugh still misses. I usually had half a bitter. Everyone called the pub, the Slaughtered Lamb (after a Werewolf in London) but it was actually called the Goat House. But Min was telling us it is not there anymore, it has been torn down!!

Anyways he was over here to work on some project with Rogers. He emailed me out of the blue and said he had a few extra days. So Hugh and I made arrangements to meet him at College Park for lunch. Min is a vegetarian so we went to a Thai restaurant. I am not too particular about Thai food but in actual fact it was quite good. We had a great time chatting about old times, friends and life in general.

Afterwards Min wasn't up to much so we invited him back to our house to meet the family. As usual it was quite hectic, Miles to Tai Kwan Do, Detta to skating. But he got to see the house and meet the children. The last time he saw Detta, she was about 3 years old and Miles was 1, (Donovan wasn't even a twinkle).

It was great to see him. I didn't meet up with this group of friends when I was England. I should have made more of an effort, oh well.

New Job

I have a new job. It is part-time and only a contract till March but that's no problem. The pay is great. It was a word of mouth type job. The librarian who I worked with at Rouge Valley emailed me saying this office needed a Library Technician to sort out their library. He had been emailed from another librarian from UOIT who heard about the job.

Anyways I emailed the lady back the same day with my resume. She called back and I met with them the next day. It is a small office and a small library. They are using their own classification system but I need to come up with a numbering system to id all the books and binders (lots of binders).

They said they would get back to me in the next few days with a contract. YEAH

Cookie Exchange

Well I made 6 dozen German Biscuits for a cookie exchange. This was a first time for everyone taking part. Of course, I left making my cookies to the day before. I popped out to the grocery store to buy plum jam but there wasn't any!!! I ended up going to three different grocery stores and none of them had plum jam. I did know of a European deli/shop near where I used to live in Toronto so away I went. They had lots of plum jam!! So I headed home and started making cookies.

Hugh and I made two batches at the same time. There is so much butter in these cookies. We ended up with a assembly line of cookies. Hugh was rolling and cutting out, I was putting the plum jam between the cookies and Detta & her friend were doing the icing and cherries. Detta & her friend ended up helping with rolling and cutting out also. They had lots of fun. Did anyone notice the yellow bowl? I bought a set of those old pyrex bowls in the different colours. My Mum had a set.


We all needed a much earned break after all this so we went off to Lynde Shores Conservation Area with some bird seed. We did a short walk on the bird trail. We put seeds in our hands and the little birds would come and take some seeds. Detta's friend had never done this before and she really enjoyed it. But it was freezing!!! If you click on the picture, you can see the birds in Detta & her friends hands. Everyone had a bird in their hand at one time or another. If anyone can help identify the birds, please let me know.

My Day

Had a quiet day for my birthday. We decided to leave dinner till the weekend since Miles has robotic club till 7pm. I opened my presents. I received the DK Star Wars Lego Visual Dictionary which I love, a Star Wars Lego set, the 3D Monopoly and a box of Turtles.

We haven't had a chance to play the Monopoly game yet but it seems a little more complicated than the original one. Miles, Donovan and I have poured over the Lego Visual Dictionary. I didn't realize it has only been 10 years since Lego started making sets for Star Wars. I have it beside my bed and Miles also borrows it every night to pour over. It even comes with a unique mini figure of Luke Skywalker!

For my birthday dinner, we went to the Imperial Buffet. The children love it because they get so much choice. Actually their sushi bar is very good. And the chocolate fountain was in operation!! YUMMY!!

Zoo

We went to the Toronto Metro Zoo today. The tundra section has reopened so we had to visit the polar bears. Anne and Al met us at the front entrance. Then we went to see the polar bears. The zoo has changed the entrance to the polar bear section. Now the arctic wolves are there also so it makes quite an impression when you first walk into the section. Then you walk on to the bears. The two polar bears were play(?) fighting in the water. Unfortunately you couldn't see them in the underwater viewing. I wasn't really impressed with the new polar bear section at this point. Then we started to wander around. Once you get around the side there is another pool where there was another polar bear lounging. Then all of a sudden the other two polar bears came racing over and jumped into the pool. It was like a hot tub for polar bears but cold, of course.

The zoo has added all sorts of interest points, plus tepees. They are also going to have a section for arctic foxes but that isn't quite complete yet. In the end, I was impressed. I am looking forward to visiting during the winter.

Since Al hasn't been to the zoo before, I know, can you believe it! We toured the Americas Pavilion. I like this pavilion. The otters were swimming about and unbelievably the beavers were out also. They were trying to eat through the door to escape.

We walked around the Africa section also. By this time the children were all moaning about sore feet and being so tired. But once we got near the big stones, they were all running around and hiding on Hugh! It was a great day out.

Craigslist

Today I have been searching Craigslist for a desk. I am in the midst of redecorating my daughter's bedroom. I finally found a desk I liked so tonight we are going to Kensington Market to pick it up. Detta has a new bed and on Saturday, we are heading back to Ikea to buy the wardrobes for her. These wardrobes only have shelves in them so no more drawers. I am hoping this will help to keep her room tidier or is that just wishful thinking!!

I forgot to mention, the tacos were delicious the other night. I had a taco salad for lunch yesterday and today.

Tacos Tonight

I am so looking forward to dinner tonight. I bought a huge ground beef and cooked up 2/3's of it with taco seasoning, salsa, onions, celery and of course, the juice from a tin of pineapples. Yes, we have pineapple with our tacos. Hugh being British never had tacos at home until I introduced him to them. Hugh added the pineapple to our tacos many years ago and it has always stuck. I did add a couple of packages of soya mince to the mixture also. It just seems like too much red meat to eat at one sitting. There will be plenty of leftovers so I bought large tortilla shells. I will put together a couple of dishes of enchiladas. All this talk of Mexican food is making me hungry for Hernando's Hideaway on Yonge Street.

The other third of beef I just fried up with some onions, celery and another package of soya mince. That one is in the freezer, the in case of what do we cook for dinner.

We did manage to make up a menu this week, something we haven't done in a while. In this way we can buy the groceries we actually need for the week. I did find frozen pizzas on sale, our favourite ones, McCain Crescendo Rise 'n Crust, only $2.97. A very good deal so I bought 15. We will actually go back and buy some more. If we take them out of the boxes, we can fit more in the freezer. We have pizza every Friday night and ordering out for it, is just too expensive. But the children do like these ones.

Knitting

I must get started on some of my knitting. I am knitting mittens as presents for Christmas this year. I have only managed to make one pair so far. I can usually knit a pair of mittens in a couple of days, depending on time but I have been very lazy so fair this year. I have decided I can only make them for my sisters plus a couple for Joan's visitors from Australia. I will also need to knit a couple of hats also.

Detta had her hair cut today. About 6 inches was taken off the back. We are now going to attempt to keep it straight. I don't know how this is going to work out but I will do it. Detta's hair looks fantastic though, she is also very pleased with it.

Halloween

The big event is finally over. OMG, the trauma of it all. I told my children, next year we will NOT buy anything. All the costumes must be homemade. Miles spent over $20.00 on bits and pieces and then decided he must have horns!! Well do you think we could find horns, NO. But then this was yesterday. Detta wanted vampire teeth. I did buy some earlier in the week but they had diamonds in them. So yesterday we went to Party Packagers, these things cost over $25.00 but the queue was to the back of the store, so we said forget it!!

Anyways everyone wore what they had. Anne and Joan came over and decorated Miles' face. He looked very good. Detta went over to her friend's house. She had these boots on that made her at least 5' 10". Detta towered over me. I did find out later that after half a block, her feet were killing her. Hugh took the boys out with their friends so he had to herd 6 little rambunctious boys through the neighbourhood.
Anne and Joan popped out and bought 2 buckets of KFC. Then Al and Tom also came over. We made short work of the chicken but I managed to save some for Hugh. But by the children got home, they were starving so Miles and Detta finished off the rest.

We didn't have a lot of visitors this year. There were probably only about 25 children, if that. I don't know if it was because it was so windy or with all this H1N1 stuff going on.

Mushrooms

There recently was an interesting article in the Globe and Mail - DIY fungi. Now this is something I would love to try. Not that I am particularly a big fan of shitake or oyster mushrooms but I certainly would give it a go. My backyard is not that glamorous so a log would probably be a great focus point.

I recently borrowed a book from the library call the Knopf Mushroom Book. It was very interesting. I didn't realise that there were so many poisonous mushrooms. Not that I pick wild mushrooms, well I would pick morels. Maybe next spring I will organise an outing and find a location to pick some.

Another Interview

Had another interview today at a public library. I don't think it went well but my interview skills need improvement badly. It would be a great job, just 16 hours a week. With that and Seneca I would practically be working a full time job. The pay at Seneca needs improved though.

Tomorrow is the vote at Seneca for a union for part-time contract staff with OPSEU. I hope this will increase our wages. It would also be nice to have benefits, vacation pay and sick days. Well I certainly will be voting YES.

Today I must finish painting Detta's room. I have put on a second coat of the orange, I am just waiting to see how it turns out. I think I may have to put another coat of the purple on. I can't wait for it to be finished. Detta is sleeping in Donovan's room since we started so Donovan is sleeping with Hugh and I!!! Now it is going to be so difficult to get him back in his own bed. Donovan loves his Mummy!!

Camp Weekend

Had a weekend away at camp with the Pathfinders. It went well. The food was good. The beds could have been more comfortable but it was a Girl Guide Camp. At least we were sleeping indoors.

Detta enjoyed herself. We had 23 girls attend out of 25 which was great. We did lots of crafts and the girls enjoyed rolling on the hill. The weather was beautiful. Some of the girls went for a walk on the Brownie Trail!

Salt

I was reading some interesting articles in the Globe and Mail online - Hard to Shake. There is this really cool Salt Calculator or rather Salt-O-Meter. It really is amazing how much salt there is in processed food. I was allowing my sons to use soya sauce. I think I need to monitor this more than I was already. I do love my potato chips though.

I also had a look on the BBC website. When I was there last summer, my cousin mentioned that there was a government push to reduce the amount of salt at restaurants and prepared food. Our government should be doing the same thing, it certainly would reduce health costs

Lavenders

Well I had to finally get those lavenders I bought planted. They only cost $1.00 each. In fact, Hugh had to pop out to the grocery store so I had him buy 6 more. So in total, my front bed has 15 lavender plants in it. They are all French Lavender but 3 different varieties: Mulberry Ruffles, BoysenBerry Ruffles and Blueberry Ruffles. They look very nice. I just hope they all last being planted so late in the year. When I saw the lavenders on sale, it reminded me of when I was in England and Detta and I were visiting Ham House. The lavender gardens there were beautiful.

Well I haven't heard about the Environment Canada job. But I have an interview with Clarington Public Library. This position is only a part-time 16 hours a week but with 20 hours at Seneca, it may just be perfect.

Anne arrives home tomorrow. She has been in Italy for the past 2 weeks, touring around with a bunch of her girlfriends. Sounds like they had lots of fun. Kath and her husband are in New Zealand until December. They seem to have been having lots of rain and 2 tsunami warnings but then it is spring. Check out her blog - Kath's Blog.

I am off this weekend to camp with the Pathfinders. We are sleeping indoors, thank goodness. I am supposed to have set up some games, but this past two weeks have been crazy and I am not going to get around to it. I haven't even started to pack, well I guess that's what I am going to head off and do now. I still have to finish painting Detta's room. Just the last coat of the orange but that may have to wait till next week, I am running out of time.

Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving is past. We had a wonderful dinner. I bought a 20lb turkey and there was only 9 of us for dinner. There was roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, oh and stuffing. Though this year I didn't make the stuffing from scratch. Andrew, Lizzie and Joan were with us and Tom came later after work. Joan made a wonderful dessert, Better than pumpkin pie. At least that is what I think it is called. It had this lovely cream filling and then Joan put caramel bits on top with hot caramel sauce - mmm mmm good.









The previous week has flown by. I had a lovely dinner with Tom and Joan on Tuesday evening. The courgettes with breadcrumbs were delicious and there was carrots and beets. The pork chops also were done with breadcrumbs but I believe these were Japanese breadcrumbs. It was all very tasty.

Then on Wednesday, one of my old professors (though she isn't old), asked me if I was still looking for work. She had someone call up looking for a person who could catalogue and she thought of me. Anyways she put the two of us together and I had an interview after work at Environment Canada. It would be a temporary contract through an agency so essentially not a job with the government. But the pay was so low I just couldn't accept it. I emailed her on Thursday to tell her. Come Thursday evening she called me and said if she could get more money for the position would I still be interested. So I said yes. So the short of it is I have registered with a employment agency and will have to wait and see what happens.

Detta and Hugh went out on Saturday and bought the paint for her room. As of today, Detta and I have painted two coats of the purple and one coat of the orange, yes purple and orange. But we chose "nice" purple and orange. I still need to do one more coat of the orange paint. I think Detta wants a stripe, I really shouldn't have suggested it!!

And tonight, there was a call on our home phone from 'Laurie's Cell'. Well I wasn't going to answer the phone because I thought it was one of the children having fun. Miles answered the phone and didn't know who it was so I took it. It seems I dropped my phone while I was at the grocery store. I have a pocket on the side of my purse where I have been keeping my cell phone lately. It won't be there any more. So I drove by the person's house and picked my cell phone. I think I may write the Star about this for their section on the kindness of strangers.

Weekend at Heathers

This past weekend, I went for a girls weekend at my friend, Heathers. There were five of us all together, Kim, Heather, Lynda, Karen and me. Heather just had her kitchen and bathrooms refinished and they are beautiful. Kim and I drove down on Saturday morning which took 1.5-2 hours.

Once everyone had arrived, Heather fed us this delicious broccoli soup. I don't usually like soup but it was so good, I may try to make this at home. We then went for a tour around town and stopped at Daves for a martini. Of course, we stopped by the Liquor store and bought a few supplies.
We drank a few liquors and drinks before dinner. I suddenly didn't feel so well so ended up having a lie down but recovered enough by dinner time when I also switched to water.
Heather made this delicious, Late berry-crusted Ontario lamb rack with cheddar gnocchi and asparagus. It was delicious. And for dessert we had chocolate souffles with caramel sauce.
It was great seeing everyone. It has been a few years since we have all got together.

What a Week!!!!

What a week, last week that is! Detta was sick on Tuesday; she had a bit of a cough and felt a bit hot so she stayed home.

Then on Wednesday night, Donovan and Miles were horsing around, what’s new. But then Miles ran into the bathroom and shut the door. Donovan charged after and put his arm through one of the glass panes. At least the panes had a protective plastic coat on it so the glass just broke away from him. Donovan only ended up with a load of scratches down his arm.

Also on Wednesday night, Detta fell at skating, backwards and smacked her head on the ice, though I didn’t find this out until Thursday morning. I even picked up Detta after skating and went to Pathfinders and she didn’t say a word. Anyways Detta stayed at home on Thursday, her head was still sore and her shoulders were aching.

Now to Friday morning, Donovan and I were horsing around. I told Donovan to do some sit-ups but I guess he grabbed his head and gave it a good tug to pull himself up. Well I guess he pulled himself very hard and hurt his neck. At first he wouldn't move so I picked him up. He rested his head on my arm and then I laid him on the bed. After half an hour, Hugh tried to move but Donovan screamed and screamed. We just didn't know what to do so we called 911. The paramedics came and had a look at him but they felt no damage was done to his neck. So we kept him home. Hugh took him to the doctor later in the day and it was decided that he had pulled some muscles in his neck.

But on a good note, I made some cabbage rolls for the first time. I bought a green cabbage for 97 cents, it was huge. I used a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. The hardest part was getting the cabbage into a pot of boiling water. I had one pot which was just big enough to fit the cabbage in but it was very ackward getting the cabbage back out again. I made 6 large cabbage rolls instead of 12, the leaves were so big. I followed the recipe for this batch. For the second batch, I added a load of vegies - courgettes, peppers, mushrooms. These cabbage rolls were smaller and I made about 10. The only thing was once we had one of the big cabbage rolls, we found them somewhat bland. Next time, I would definitely add something to them.

Another Week

Another week has passed by. I didn't get the job at UOIT. And I had an interview with UofT Scarborough for a night Technician last week. Yes, they are opening their library 24/7 from Oct to Dec and then Feb to May. But I haven't heard anything yet.

But in the mean time I have been looking the the Staffordshird hoard as it is being called. The Saxon gold found in England. It sounds so interesting. You wonder why it was found in the middle of a farmer's field. Was there a building there once and someone hid it? Who knows? Maybe once the area has been excavated the public will find out.


Nothing exciting on the Rodney front. Detta is off to skating - volunteering today. Donovan is at karate and Miles is there watching. I think Miles is going to start up karate also.






I was checking facebook and I see Lisa has added a few photos. She looks so beautiful, I had to add one of them here.

Home

It is nice to be home. I slept in till nearly 11:00 but I am still on BC time. I missed everyone.

Donovan's knee looks terrible. He has a huge scab on it, I hear he knocked the first one off while I was away. Detta and I were carrying Donovan into the bathroom to cut his hair and we knocked the scab again. Lots of crying and carrying on but I did manage to trim his hair. At least Donovan looks respectable now. Hugh then put this huge bandage on his leg so he's limping around. Now I see it has fallen down.

We are heading off to Swiss Chalet for dinner. It is a lovely day here but I feel a bit out of sorts. It is probably the time change. I haven't eaten a thing all day.

Beets

Yesterday we headed over past Abbotsford to Cloverdale. It is about an hour away on the Trans Canada. We went to this farm Dad knows and picked some beets. The farmer there gives the smaller beets to another farmer to feed his cows. So we picked the small beets from the bin.

Today we needed to go get a few groceries at Loblaws so we stopped by for some pie at the local airport - I fly for pie. I had Saskatoon pie with some cream. I thought the pie would just have a blob of cream but this was covered completely. Needless to say it was delicious. See the review from the Globe and Mail for a better write up.

Bottling Beer

Today we went to the beer making place. We bottled 50 bottles of Corona beer. It only took under an hour to bottle all this beer. There was another couple there bottling beer also. The smell was very overwhelming. When we left I felt as if I had drunk a few bottles already. I am going to try some tonight. I had the chocolate raspberry port last night, it was very tasty.

The country side is very beautiful. Everywhere you turn the mountains are there. I can see why so many people move out here. We are heading out tomorrow to pick up some beets and then out for lunch.