Thirty five years tomorrow

Happy Sunday! We are having such beautiful weather and lots more coming this week. Perfect way to end the month of August.

Tomorrow, Russell and I will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary.  On August 28, 1982, at 11 AM, we were married at the church in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.  It was a beautiful sunny day, just like today.  We were surrounded by our parents, siblings, family and friends.  Our wedding song was "Colour my World", by Chicago. To this day, that song remains very special.

We started our married life in Edmonton and lived there for two years.  In 1984, Russell's work took us to Burlington, Ontario. That's when I started my 27 year career with Macdonald Tobacco.  In 1994, we moved to Mississauga and lived there until we moved to Huntsville in 2012. In 2016, we moved back to Quebec. We have come full circle and back to the beginning.

So, we've been around a bit. The past 35 years have been good to us but we never took any of those years for granted. Never have, never will. We travelled quite a bit, by car, plane, train and even motorcycle. Our motorcycle trip to Arizona is a memory that we will always cherish. Our trip on the Orient Express from London to Venice was most memorable. I could go on and on. Now, we look forward to going to Iceland in a couple of weeks and create new memories.

Today, we look a little different but we are the same two people who fell in love some 38 years ago when we first met. We feel truly blessed to be together. We also feel blessed to share our lives with two very special Havanese. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating with them, as a family. Happy 35th Anniversary to my darling husband!

Today's blog is short. We are leaving soon for my parents' place to celebrate their 60th with a few friends and family. I will have some photos for next week's blog.

Have a great week everyone! Labour Day weekend is just around the corner!

Love you now, forever and always!

Home Sweet Home

Happy Sunday to all! A beautiful sunny and warm day with a nice breeze.  As we are slowly approaching the end of August, I can't help but think that we didn't really have a nice Summer, weather wise,  but I'm truly hoping for many more days like today and a nice Fall.

This past week was good and ended with my mom's return home yesterday.  Dad and I picked her up at 9:30 yesterday morning. She was anxiously waiting for us, with a big smile on her face.  Two months is a long time to be in a rehab centre, although some people are there for much longer. During her time away, my parents' move took place so yesterday was the first time that mom was seeing their new apartment.  She was very pleased and so happy to be finally home.  As I was getting their lunch ready, mom was sipping her first wine in two months....a small glass went a long way!  It was nice to see my parents reunited, just in time for them to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary this coming Thursday.  It's all good!

Russell and I are good. We will also celebrate our wedding anniversary soon. More about that in next week's blog :-)  We are looking forward to our trip to Iceland. Russell is now getting daily reports on the aurora borealis and it seems that "the Norther Lights season" has started in Iceland. We have seen photos of the past few days and it is just spectacular. With any luck, we will get to see them during our trip.

Our two pooches are doing quite well. They both bring so much laughter, joy and love to our home. Each has its own personality and yet they are both alike in so many ways.  We have been going back to the park that we went to last Sunday for a few reasons. First, it is a nice place to walk, right by the water. Second, it is a good place to socialize dogs.  We have been meeting little kids, seniors and people with other dogs. Those are great opportunities for Coop and Spicy to socialize.

On the topic of socializing, we will be attending a "Havanese get together" tomorrow morning in our area with some nice people that we have met since we moved....we all have one thing in common: a Havanese dog (or two in our case).  We are looking forward to it. This get together will not be as big as the annual Talemaker Havanese Picnic that was held yesterday in Brighton. We so wished we could have gone but we had a previous engagement....our annual Ribfest dinner with my brother. I saw the photos of the picnic and a great time was had by all. As for us, we enjoyed the ribs bought at the Montreal Ribfest....no, our pooches did not get a taste of the ribs, although they wanted to...just got a little piece of the chicken.

Those are my news for this week's blog. I wish you all a great week ahead. I also want to wish my parents a happy wedding anniversary on Thursday!

Home sweet home for my Mom after two
months in rehab...Dad is very happy too!

Cheers to being home!

A rib feast fit for our king and queen...
Spicy's tongue was hanging out she was so
excited. Cooper and Spicy sampled the chicken!

Two for the road on a walk in the park.

Pssst...got treats up there, we got tricks down here and we are
oh so patient!

First cherry tomato from the VegTrug...yummy,
and many more on the way!

Fall Mums anyone?

Happy Sunday to all! We are enjoying a beautiful Summer day, nice and warm, with more of that weather this week.  We truly have to enjoy it while we can.  This morning, after I came back from visiting my dad, I stopped at Provigo on the way home....and was reminded that Fall is around the corner....sure enough, the Fall Mums were out. I couldn't believe it although it was expected....same time last year.  I like Mums but way too soon to buy them....in my book, they truly represent Fall and Thanksgiving season. I will buy some after our trip to Iceland.

All is good with us except that we both caught a truly bad Summer cold.  Mine started last Thursday and lasted until yesterday. I had to cancel two gym classes as a result...that says a lot about how I was feeling. As for Russell, who rarely catches what I get, well he got it.  He also cancelled his gym training tomorrow.  Not sure how I got this cold in the first place but I suspect from the germs that linger in the air at the rehab center. I guess no amount of hand washing will make someone immune from getting a cold.

On the topic of rehab, it looks like my mom may be coming home on the 19th. Fingers crossed.  We will know more tomorrow or Tuesday. My dad is anxiously waiting her return.  My mom will have been away for two months by the end of this week, including time at the hospital with the surgery. A long time for sure.

Our countdown to our trip has started.  This trip will not be a "beach vacation" so we need to pack very differently, for cooler and potentially wet weather.  We're getting excited. The countdown has also started for our friend's wedding.  As the best man, Russell is working on his speech. Some good stuff to look forward to in four weeks time.  Oh, and our doggies are looking forward to going to Talemaker Camp!

We had the pleasure of having Lillian and Blu-Belle (BB) over last week for an afternoon playdate. Spicy got to meet BB for the first time. The doggies had fun although they didn't play that much. Instead they thought it was better to sit on the deck with the humans. Whatever works for them works for us. It was nice to get together.

That's it for my blog today. This afternoon, we went for a nice walk in Pointe-Claire, by the waterfront. I leave you with a few pics that we took. The rest of the day will be spent relaxing. We are barbecuing swordfish tonight. It will be delicious. Have a great week everyone!

Time to relax on the park lawn with Cooper and Spicy in
Alexandre-Bourgeau Park.

Spicy says all this walking has me tired, my tongue
is hanging out - how about you Coop?

Cooper and Spicy watching the boats launch and the
Husky take a swim below on the loading ramp. They are pretty excited and wiggly!

Spicy, Blu-Bell and Cooper line up in a rare moment
of stillness for a photo op.

Cooper says, so Spicy, this is how we pose for photos...
do it right and treats follow! Lots of seasonal poses coming up my friend!

Fall Mums have arrived...can never start
the season too early!

Sure feels like August

Happy Sunday everyone! For many of my friends in other provinces, this is a holiday weekend. I hope you are enjoying it to the fullest.  When we lived in Ontario, I used to like the August Civic Holiday weekend even though it meant that Summer was slowly coming to an end. Today sure feels like August. Although it is sunny, the temperature is only 22 celsius, quite cooler, but also more comfortable than what we had last week. Either way, I will take any type of Summer weather over Winter.

This past week was good but oh so muggy at times. We went for a walk only once, on Monday, and even then, after the fact, we realized we should have stayed home. Luckily,  we were able to walk on sidewalks and grass area so Cooper & Spicy's little paws didn't feel hot but we opted for no walk for the balance of the week. It was just too humid. After the rain we had on Friday, the humidity dropped and all was good. Off on our walks we went!

Coop & Spicy are doing very well.  They follow each other all day long although, at times, each finds a place to chill alone, but not for long. Some people want to know if it's more work to have two. The answer is not at all.  Sure, Russell has two doggies to groom each day, more paws to wash after a walk if the roads/sidewalks haven't been rained on, two sets of teeth to brush each morning but once you get into a rhythm, it just becomes part of the routine. I get the meals ready, do some training (Russell does too) and do the top knots. I usually do Cooper's only once a day but Miss Spicy seems to like to mess up hers, so I find myself doing it a few times a day.  I have to tell you though that Spicy is a real pistol. She is super agile and fast. We caught her the other night jumping on one of the TV room chairs, not from the front of the chair but the side arm, which obviously makes it higher for her to jump. She just flew over the arm of the chair and landed on the seat, no problem. We do not encourage her to do this, it just happened. Now, we try to keep the chair (which swivels) facing the proper way to minimize the height of the jump. This is not to say that Cooper is not fast, he is, just in a different way. Interestingly enough though, in some ways, Cooper is calmer than Spicy. This is a bit of a surprise to us. I have to admit that Spicy is still getting used to the many noises that surround her new environment and is very alert to everything that is going on.  But those two are like two peas in a pod, truly, and we couldn't ask for better doggies.

All is good with Russell and I. We are looking forward to our trip to Iceland, five weeks tomorrow. We fly out on 9/11. Pretty hard to forget that date. Our friends Gord and Karen's wedding is also in five weeks, actually less. They are getting excited. I started wearing my shoes in order to break them in....Lise, I used your trick...I put my shoes on today, not to watch TV but to have lunch and read the news on my laptop. I could feel my feet getting used to the shoes already...will do that again every other day until the wedding. I still dread having to spend a whole day in heels but such is life.

My mom is still at rehab. We are hoping that she can go home before August 23. We should know more later this week. It would be so nice if it happened before their 60th wedding anniversary.

That's it for this week's blog. I leave you with photos of our front garden, at its peak now, with the Black-Eyed Susans in full bloom, and some pics of the Coop and Spicy....we just love to capture them together. Have a great week everyone!

Front yard bed in bloom, Black-Eyed Susans and
the Limelight Hydrangea about to show true color. 

Full on view of the Black-Eyed Susans from the
front walkway.

Spicy and Cooper chilling and staying dry on a quilt
on the back deck after the rain...precious

These guys are wondering when the rain will stop...
lots of rain last week.

Spicy and the Coop ready to go for a walk then a road-trip in the car.

Coop says, see Spicy...this is how to put your paws
on the table...never use your elbows.