Happy Mother's Day to all mothers and women!

Although not all women have children, they all, at one time or another, give motherly advice to someone so they deserve to be celebrated today as well.  Also, moms of loving pets and canine moms (Abigail, Fiona, just to name a few) deserve well wishes also.  Last but not least, a very special and loving Mother's Day wish to my mom and Russell's mom.  We will see you both very soon.

Weather wise, today sucks.  It is cold, it has snowed and it is very windy.  Despite the weather, we went to a garden centre this afternoon and spent most of our time in the greenhouse where it was warm.   Luckily, the snow is not sticking to the ground.  Quite a change from last week but it will be short lived.

This past week turned out to be very busy.  We hired someone to remove all the brush and debris around our property.  It took Dave 4.5 days to get the work done:  8 truck loads of tree branches and old firewood that had been sitting on our property since the day we bought the lot.  Each truck load weighed 15,000 pounds for a total of 120,000 lbs of brush or 60 tons.  There is no way that Russell and I could have done this on our own.  This is a very good job done.  Now, we can see clearly through the forest and have a better sense of what we want to plant.  The next phase of this project is to regrade our driveway which will be done in a few weeks.

We also hired someone to clean all the windows and wash down the logs.  This is something that we had been meaning to get done since we moved but never got around to doing it. A crew of 3 people were in our house every day last week to do the work, one room at a time.  There is more to do this week, including the exterior windows.  Needles to say that it was a tad disruptive for us and for Cooper but we managed through it.

Last Wednesday, we went to Cooper's second Agility class.  Cooper did very well and got to use most of the agility equipment. The trainer was especially impressed when he showed no fear going up the A-frame which was almost 6 feet high. This type of training is actually more work for us than for Cooper.  There are certain things that we must do properly and certain rules that need to be followed, that is if we intend to do trials down the road.  So, it's fun but it's also work.

I had a root canal done on Thursday.  It went very well but took quite some time.  I will say though that we have a very good dentist.  He does very good work and is extremely conscientious.  I felt very relaxed through the procedure to the point that I was dozing off!  Dr. Markham called me at home Thursday night to find out how I was doing. I think that this is very impressive.  Thank you again Patricia for giving us his name.  I would not hesitate to recommend him.

My piano lessons are going well.  I have two lessons left.  I may continue in the fall/winter but for now, I feel like I have a good base and can play some nice music.

We are looking forward to this coming week for a few reasons:  weather permitting, we will be launching our new pontoon boat on Tuesday. Very exciting! Look for a video in next week's blog.  Yesterday, we bought a life jacket for Cooper.  I attach a picture that we took as he tried it on.  He doesn't seem to mind it.  Regardless, he is not going on the boat without it.  Speaking of Cooper, he will be two years old this coming Friday.  His birthday picture will be in next week's blog.

This week is leading up to the Victoria Day weekend. Huntsville will be hopping with all the cottagers and tourists.  I wish you all a great week and a nice upcoming long weekend!

Cooper styling his new PFD and thinking to himself there is no way I'll wear this thing!

Anne and Cooper share a Mother's Day snuggle...Happy Mother's Day