Look at the sunrise this AM

 

Hi, from the county!

Well, Christmas is over and done with so today I will take the decorations down. Somehow it didn't feel very Christmasy - maybe some of the white stuff would have helped. We also did not have a tree as there was no room to put it this year.
We travelled to Susan's place for Christmas dinner. The grandkids don't like to leave home on Christmas day as they like to play with all the stuff that Santa brought them, so we go there. We are going to Susan's place again on New Year's day so we can celebrate with Stephen and Caroline. They spent their Xmas with Caroline's sister and her family.
We just have a few finishing touches to complete the renovations in our bedroom. Hopefully Home Depot in Calgary will be open on New Year's Day so we can pick up some baseboards and stuff on our way to Susan's for dinner.
Sure enjoyed hearing the squirrel stories - Rocky (our squirrel) feels that the bird feeder is his private stock, too. We can see him tearing through the trees and over to the birdfeeder to chase the blue jays away when ever they come for a nibble. The little animals sure entertain us.
Well, back to work- no rest for the retired!

One more

 

Looking from the stairs

 

Top of the stairs

 

Renovating our bedroom

Yahoo, the bedroom is almost finished. Raymond has done an awesome job of laying the floor. The flooring is chocolate ash and is a beautiful contrast with the oak furniture (that Raymond also made). The red and pink painting job is also awesome (or so Cathy says). It is amazing what a few simple changes will make. We put a low flush toilet in the onsuite and Raymond will make a sink out of tiles. He is also going to finish the stairway in oak (he says sometime later). It will be awesome! Our next BIG job will be to build the garage, then onto our addition to the house. It is starting to look a lot like home.  

Moments in Life
There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real!
When the door of happiness closes, another opens; but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one, which has been opened for us.
Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile, because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.
Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be whatyou want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Renovating

I once thought that the idea of retiring meant that a person had nothing to do all day!
Well, our idea of retiring has meant that we are constantly working! We bought this place as Raymond loves to putter around the house - and we have a pile of renovating to do. So far we have painted the bedroom, gutted the half bath off the bedroom, I am pulling up the flooring in the bedroom and piles of dust have been created everywhere. Oh well, the end result will be great.
I won't drink the water here even though the water report says it is fit for drinking. It has a smell to it but it is really soft. I have had to cut down on the amount of soap I use.
So far the wildlife that have visited our place have been: a moose, 2 deer, 5 blue jays, a woodpecker, 2 birds (we don't know what they are, but were really pretty), a squirrel and little birds about the size of sparrows. The squirrel feels that he is the king of the back yard and he chases the birds off of the bird feeder. He also drives Molly and Zack mad when he comes on the porch to get his peanuts. They watch him through the sliding glass doors and he picks up a peanut, turns his back to them and proceeds to either eat his peanut there or he takes them to his stash somewhere in the trees.

Well, I have had a short break now so I guess it is back to ripping up the bedroom floor. We hope the renovations in the bedroom will be completed by Christmas. We have nowhere to put a tree so I guess we won't have one this Christmas.

Update by Emma

Good news finally.
I went to see my oncologist today and got the results for the PET scan I had on Tuesday. The scan picked up my scar from the original excision but they think it is just inflammation in there still as my margins from the pathology were clear. They can also see the lymph node that was enlarged on the ultrasound. They will be keeping an eye on it but they actually can't feel it so we are just keeping our fingers crossed.
The best news though is that nothing else showed up - my liver, brain, lungs etc are all fine. I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear that.
I am still officially "no evidence of disease" (5 months and counting)!!
I picked up my next supply of interferon but since they are running low, they could only give me 2 weeks worth. They are going to courier the rest to my pharmacy when it comes in next week. I asked how much the stuff runs and was told $450/syringe - which for me is one weeks worth!! I figured it out and the cost of my drugs alone will be $25,000! Thank goodness for the health care system - you really appreciate it in situations like this.
I want to thank you all for your emails and prayers.
They have really helped.Emma

Where Zack is on a cold day

Zack keeping warm in front of the fire place
it was -20 c, and the two dogs did not like going outside.

Settled in

We have settled in but there is much to be done. We have painted the bedroom as it was army green - yikes! Have much to fix up and it will take time.
We have dial-up internet. Quite a bit slower of course, but we are retired now, so we are moving a bit slower too!
We signed the papers at the lawyers yesterday and the new people take possession on Dec 5. Once all our stuff was moved out of the house in Calgary, it didn't look like home anymore.
We are drawing up a plan for the extension on the front of the house, to build in the summer.

Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. So they loaded up Jack's mini van and headed north. After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard. So they pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the night."I realize its terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed," she explained. "I'm afraid the neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my house."
"Don't worry," Jack said. "We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light."The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.
But about nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter f rom a lawyer. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend.He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed at on our ski holiday up North about 9 months ago?"
"Yes, I do." said Bob."Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?""Well, um, yes," Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out. "I have to admit that I did."
"And did you happen to use my name instead of telling her your name?"
Bob's face turned beet red and he said, "Yeah, look, I'm sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did. Why do you ask?"
"I got a letter from her lawyer today."

Bob's face turned white. "What was in the letter?"

"She just died and left me everything."(And you thought the ending would be different, didn't you?)


Now keep that smile for the rest of the day!!!