Rain Blah....

Well, Monday is over already, the weekend went by way too fast...it seems that this year has flwon by way too quickly! I am hoping that all of my American friends had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving holiday with their family and friends!
The forcast here for the next few days is rain...yuck! Than possibly snow :P i know we have lucked out so far this November, it's been relatively mild with only a few really chilly days but I am sure not looking forward to seeing white stuff.
I was forutunate to have the house to myself on Saturday, hubby took the kids to the inlaws for the day since he was helping his dad put up siding on their new home. Although it was peaceful, it became kind of boring... I look forward to some quiet time without the kids but it ends up feeling strange not having to hear them bickering or pestering me every second for this or that. I must sound lame, lol. Oh well, I did manage to put the Christmas tree up minus the decorations. I am waiting for Autumn the kitty and Roxy the beagle to get used to the tree since this is their first Christmas. I am so glad I did that because the tree has been knocked down a few times with the branches pulled out ( thank goodness for artificial trees!) and Roxy is stealing scented bowl fillers and my Christmas picks that I have places in my crocks and chews them, especially the pinecones, lol. I can honestly say this is going to be an interesting holiday season :)
Little by little I will pull out the decorations and get them set up. I am almost finished my Christmas shopping...yippee, and its not even December yet!! Kaedyn is being a bugger and sneaking peaks at the presents and contantly searching for them. I think I will wrap them up and store them at grandmas ( well I already told the kids daddy took them there, lol) ...uggh, there always has to be one kid that tries to spoil it :(
my daugher Alexis finally got her first job and is working at the Durham farmers Co-Op, she started 3 weeks ago. She is so happy and works hard and the pay cheque is good! she has also been responsible enough to pay me back for some of the money she has borrowed lately and is excited to be able to buy Christmas presents with her own money. I am so very proud of her and things have been so much better between us lately :)

Well, I guess I should go put some more wood on the stove and try and get some sleep, listening to the rain fall on this old tin roof...it is comforting :) I am hoping to be back on here to post again this week if all goes well!

Have a blessed week everyone and take care,

Hugs, Trish

Hello my friends, it's been awhile! I have been without a computer and have not been able to catch up on everyone's blogs. I have a laptop now that my daughter told me was really really slow but I am finding it to be working not to badly so here I am :) I hope everyone is doing well and I have really missed being able to read everyones blogs. Things here have been busy for me and I seem to never have enough time. We had our first taste of snow Friday and I did not like it one bit!! It has all melted now but I am really looking forward to winter at all. Our doggy Roxy is adjusting well and being a typical beagle...it's like having another child in the house, lol always runing around to see what she is into. She likes garbage and we have had to do some hiding of the garbage can and she can jump a 3 and a half foot wooden half door gate to get into the woodstove room to get to the kids back packs with food in them. She loves to snuggle though and give loads of kisses, we just have to know what she has eaten before we let her kiss us since she loves the litterbox and mice :P Our kittens are growing fast and are ready for new homes already. We have found a nice home for 2 of them. I would love to keep at least one of them but they are male and we have all female cats so that would mean getting a male fixed...we shall see.
The big final NASCAR race is on Sunday and my boys will be glued to the t.v. hoping Tony Stewart will win! I may just have to watch some of the race even though I'm not into NASCAR too much, lol.
I have been getting to some auctions lately, every Friday evening at 5 there is one just 10 mins away from us. It's a bit of a scramble for me as I have to dinner ready early and I have to take 3 kids with me since James isn't home from work yet but we have fun! I have gotten some more enamel/graniteware and some primitive wooden bowls and mashers etc. I even got a wood jam cupboard that I am going to put our stereo system in to hide it, all I need to do is cut out some holes in the back for the cords. Much nicer than the ugly black cabinet with icky glass doors that I hate so much.

Well it's late here and I should be off to bed. Just wanted to post to say that I am still alive!
Hoping you are all having a fabulous weekend and take care!

Hugs, Trish :)

Good rainy Wednesday morning :)

Can't forget our beloved Zoe! She looks a little wild, lol
P.J., Indigo, Dragon and Wiggles...don't ask about those names, it was the kids idea, lol
Our new family member...Roxy
Hello all, I have been away for a bit, not having much computer tome. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers on the passing of our dear Sam. He is buried in a nice spot with fall hardy mums planted by his grave and a rock which I am going to paint his name on it and my 13 yr old son Noah made a cross out of sticks and tied together with vines. We had a nice funeral with the kids each saying something nice and than we had a salute to Sam. He will be dearly missed but always remembered.
So with that being said, the week after we found our kitty Autumn, our cat Spyder gave birth to 4 healthy kittens! Oh my, we have 8 cats in the house!! They are now 1 month old, 3 boys and 1 girl. Oh they are sweet :) but no, we are not keeping any of them, lol. And last week, the kids and we so sad about losing Sam, and I was just browsing on kijiji and saw the sweetest beagle girl, 10 months old being given away as the owners didn't have enough time for her and not a big enough yard. I had showed the ad to James, fully expecting a firm "no" since he said earlier no more dogs once we were down to 1. Well, he took one look and said surprisingly "yes". I told him that could be my anniversary present from him since our 10th anniversary is tomorrow :) Anyhow, we went to see "Roxy", and couldn't help but bring her home. She's a handful for sure, being a beagle and getting into everything her nose can smell out, lol. But the first thing she did when we went to bed the first night we had her was smother us with kisses, and I mean there was not one part of our head that wasn't covered, lol, than she burrowed under our blankets and slept between us keeping us warm. Oh how I was missing that from Sam. So I have been busy with her, getting her trained to go out to the bathroom instead of on the floor, I know she is still a pup, so it takes time, and our Aussie sheppard Zoe is showing her who is boss and where not to go in the house but in no time they will be great friends!
And you know what cheered me up greatly the week Sam had passed away? I got my pumpkins that I had won from Melissa when she had her contest back in August, I think. Oh they are sweet and arrived just in time for Halloween!

So James and mine 10 th wedding anniversary is this Thursday, we did it, we made it!! Oh how that first year was difficult with us being in the hospital with Rhys and being so stressed out with him almost losing his job because of the long hospital stay, and all the medical stuff that Rhys went through. We sure did have our share of spats and could have easily given up on each other, but we didn't, we stuck together and were each others rock. I couldn't have married a more perfect man, he showed me what real love was and took my 2 oldest kids under his wing and raised them like they were his own. We had 3 more beautiful children together and I know that we can make it through anything! Since he lost his wedding band a few years ago at work, I decided for our 10th anniversary to replace it. I have finally been able to spend the money on him like has for me in the past. I hope he likes it and doesn't lose it, lol.

Well, that's it for now, I know I was babbling alot. I will try to post pics of the kittens and Roxy if my computer co-operates! I hope you are all having a blessed week!

Take care, hugs, Trish

R.I.P. Sam Boyd

I am so sad to post that our beloved Sam passed away overnight :( He had started to make a comeback last week and was actually eating and walking around pretty good. On Thursday he stopped eating again and by Friday he could no longer walk. I had him by my side at all times since he whimpered for me when I was not in his sight and when I would sit down beside him, he would put his front paws on my hand and give me the look like he knew he was not going to be with us much longer. I told him how brave he had been and that we loved him and that it was okay to let go. When I went to bed last night, I put him in our room and wrapped him up in a warm blanket and he quietly passed away while we slept. I am devastated, he was my "baby"and was always by my side. I am missing his wonderful hound howl that he would let out when we came home and the snuggles he gave as he buried himself under all our blankets at night to keep me warm on chilly nights. He will always be loved and remembered and he wouldn't want us to be sad, but right now it is all I can do to hold back tears. Of all the dogs we have had, Sam was mine, and I am blessed to have had him in our lives for 7 of his 10 yrs of life. If ever we get another dog, it will have to be another beagle as they have the best personalities! So the sun shined this morning long enough for us to bury him, and than it got cold and windy and rainy. My son Rhys wants to have a funeral for him so we are going to place a rock on Sam's site with his name on it and plant some flowers. We miss you dear Sam, Love MOM ,xoxo

I have some happier news from last week, but I will share them in a bit. Hope you are all having a good weekend and staying warm!
Hugs and blessings, Trish

Chilly, wet night and update on Sam and Autumn

Well, it's a rainy, windy, chilly night here, down to 8 degrees so far, brrrr. Not cold enough to start the woodstove yet though! I want to thank you all for your kinds and uplifting comments for Sam and Autumn. They cheered me up greatly and I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful, kind blogger friends :) We had a rather rough week with Sam. He is still here with us, surprising, he doesn't want to give in! I did some internet research to see what I could possibly find and thought I would try some holistic remedies first. I know it could be anything with him being a senior dog and vets charge so very much.... I decided to try some turmeric mixed with water to help his tummy and it stopped the throwing up thanks goodness. Since he lost so much weight in just a week, I had a suspicion that he may have worms (eww) and the kind that are unseen, even vets have to use a microscope to see and diagnose. So with that in mind, I found that using DE ( dianthemicus (sp?) earth) food grade of course, is a non toxic way to get rid of them. You can use it for mites, worms, fleas etc. and it won't hurt humans or animals. I also started giving him Pedialite childrens replacement fluid to help with his electrolytes and give him back some strength. I was doing all this through a medicine syringe( without the needle) and I can tell you, that despite his weakness, he was not too happy with me prying his mouth open for any of this, lol. I am even spoon feeding him wet dog food. Today, he has been the most brightest that he has been all week, he is now drinking lots of water on his own and he even ate pepperoni eagerly. Last night was my son Noah's 13 th birthday, and we had pizza and chicken wings, and Sam actually sniffed the chicken wing with interest, so I cut the chicken up and he ate it! Noah was so worried that Sam would die on his birthday :( But he is happy now that Sam is still here with us. So, I now have Sam in cloth diapers( I knew I had kept them from when my kids were babies for a reason), and because Sam is still weak and can't get up in time to go out to the bathroom, I have put these on him and it is much easier to change them instead of cleaning up a massive mess of poop and pee, hehe, I don't know why it took me all week to come up with this idea, lol. I carry Sam upstairs at night and when I have a rest since he wants to be upstairs with me and climbing 13 steps is too hard for him right now...Can you tell I love my dogggy bunches?? :D
So this week has been busy...my oldest daughter turned 16 on Tuesday, and I took her 45 minutes away to get her G1 licence( that's the first written test), and we drove all that way just to find out she need another piece of identification with a picture and her signature. Ugh, what 16yr old has all this I.D. on them? We didn't have to have it when we took our drivers test. So now, I will have to take her back again since she had to have a form filled out by her principal at school stating that they have known her for 2 yrs and that they confirm who she is. What a pain, lol. Oh well, on her birthday, she took in a resume at our local Co-op country feed store, and they called her the next day for an interview! She is just waiting for them to call her back with news of a job, but it would be perfect for her, as she can take the school bus there after school and get picked up when they close and work Saturdays as well, and it's less than 10 mins away from home!! Keeping our fingers crossed that she gets the job :)
And now onto Autumn...I think she has found her home...here :) Although James was adamant about having no more pets, she is winning his heart over and she even sleeps with him... I told him tonight how our 5 yr old son Kaedyn had said to me one day..." you know mom, if we don't say anything to dad about keeping Autumn, maybe in awhile he won't notice that she is still here". I had to smile about that! She is such a sweetie, typical kitten getting into everything, but she is standing her ground with our older cats and letting them know that they are not going to boss her around. I'm just happy that we found her in time and that she has a warm, safe home and I love her when she cuddles up under my neck and purrs loudly while she sleeps.
Well, I guess I'd better go, hoping to once again catch upon everyone since I have not been able to all week. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!!

Hugs and blessings, Trish

Autmun, our stray kitten and some goodies from Kristine over at APP :)

Towels that go so well with my kitchen!!
YUM! They smell wonderful!!

Meet Autumn, the stray kitten we found on the first day of "autumn", :)


It's Friday! Not sure the time has gone but the week has just flown by! Luckily we have had some summer like weather but today it's a little cool and rainy with spurts of sun poking through...sleepy weather! On the first day of autumn, we had a little stray kitten show up, she can't be more than 8 or 9 weeks old. Poor thing was hiding in the raspberry cane bushes but my daughter went in, prickles and all and rescued her. We named her Autumn , isn't she sweet? She was covered in dried dirt and oil(well that's what it smelt like), someone must have dropped her off around here and she found her way up to the house. This occurs just days after my kids begging for another kitten and my husband saying flat out "NO MORE PETS!!", so just imagine what he was thinking when he found out about this little sweetie, lol. Of course we are just taking care of her until we find her a good home, we already have 3 cats and one is pregnant :P For now, Autumn is staying in Alexis's room until she gets bigger and can manage escaping from our aussie shepperd dog Zoe who likes to terrorize the cats...

On Tuesday after checking the mailbox, I found a surprise...and no bills! lol. I couldn't wait to open it, it was from Kristine over at APP magazine. She sent me a Random Act Of Kindness package, how sweet of her to think of me! Inside the box were 3 prim dishtowels and a prim dish cloth, and a very nice package of potpourri bowl fillers...yum, do they ever smell nice and just in time for my autumn decorations! I have to find a special place to put my dish towels, they are too nice to use! I can honestly say, this surprise brightened my week as it has been wishy washy to say the least. Thank you so much Kristine for thinking of me and cheering me up :)
Okay for the wishy wash stuff, I've had to go into the highschool and deal with my daughters principal...not a fun thing to do at all! Ugh, they way they run the school it's no wonder kids want to drop out and I can't get my girl outta there soon enough! Next week she turns 16 and than she can transfer to a school where she will actually get help for the subjects that she is having a rough time in without being made to feel intimidated and stupid... And now for the next thing...our 10 yr old beagle Sam has not been eating and is getting weak, I think he is sadly on his way off to a better place soon. He is my baby, I picked him out from The Peterborough Humane Society 7 years ago, and he has always snuggled in my bed when it's cold, howled when I come home and wagged his tailed so happily..He's just not the same now, he still follows me from room to room, and lies down by my feet, but he's not even stealing food like he always does..So I am bracing myself for the inevitable :( Okay I am about to cry just thinking of it...
Well, I must get some lunch and go snuggle with my Sam, hope you are having a wonderful Friday,

Take care!
Hugs, Trish

Auction finds....

Thermometer for $1
My no sew make do burlap curtains....

Wooden crates...need ideas what to do with them, lol
Large crock on the far left $6
Crock jug for $1 and large flour sieve for $2

Well, it's Monday again, where is the time going? It's the middle of September and fall will be officially here in just a few days! I like fall, but the way time has being going by so quickly, I don't like what is just around the corner after... I shudder at the thought of it...
This weekend I went to another auction. I tried to get hubby to come with me but he told me to go on my own :P Luckily my 8 yr old daughter Brynn wanted to come and we had fun but it was alot of standing and our feet and backs were getting sore! I did score some nice things and only spent about $28 dollars total... The jug crock was covered in black/brown gooey oil substance and nobody wanted it so I grabbed it for a dollar...with a little elbow grease it came out fairly clean even though it has some faint cracks on the sides, I don't mind. The huge crock has a bigger crack in it but I just turn it around so you can't see it. I was happy to win the flour sieve, I have been wanting one for awhile now!
About a month ago, I went into our local Co-op feed store and found some burlap sacks for $2.99 each and decided to try and make some curtains with them. Since I don't sew very well, I carefully picked the seams out and than placed rusty safety pins on them and hung them up with jute twine. I think they turned out quite well :) I want to do the same for our living room windows, but the sacks are not long enough, so I have to figure out how to attach the sacks together to make them longer but not have them look goofy, lol. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!!
Well, I think I'm going to go curl up in bed, it's a rainy night and I have the sniffles and we are holding off on starting the woodstove up, it's been quite chilly here at night! Hope everyone had a fabulous day!!
Hugs, Trish