Please Vote for my dog!

He's a sweetie and so cute! Please vote for our much loved dog "Buddy" so we can spoil him with his winnings! http://calgary.virginradio.ca/Showcase/CutestPet/View.aspx?ID=168617

THANKS!!

A few words

So many things it seems have happened since my brothers surgery, I barely know where to start.

To start with the most positive. My brother is doing a lot better and recovering well. He is now back to work full time, full days and is taking his first business trip since he's been back this week. This is all good. He has to keep getting check ups to make sure the cancer doesn't return but they are keeping on top of it all including blood work done all the time watching his white cell count.

Around the same time my brother was having his fevers and feeling crappy so was my brother in law. He kept being treated for an infection that they just couldn't seem to get rid of. Finally there was a push to look further as the infection was not going away and he continued to feel worse and worse. They found an infection alright but not what they thought it was.

His bowel was attached to his bladder and a opening between them causing a massive infection in the area. They had to operate and take some of the bowel and some of the bladder. He is a Strong man for sure! I don't know how he managed all this time with this horrible infection. He has had the surgery and is recovering. It takes time but he is not one to give up, not ever. I am very proud of him. He is a great person, wonderful brother in law and has always been a good friend. I know he will be back to his old self in no time!

So given these two things happening to people so close to me in my life I have had a rethinking of how I live my life. I had decided to make changes, exercise, eat better - and so on.

My daughters birthday came and we had my Mom and brother over for cake (I made a home made chocolate mint cake - turned out pretty good). I had decided that once the rain had stopped I was going walking with Brent every time he went out. I figured that was as good a place as any to start! So everyone left and I was walking down the steps to our family room. I put my foot onto the first step and stepped on one of my dogs bones and whoosh down I went. I smacked my head on the top step and my body on the other steps and went right down to the bottom. My toe wedging into one of the side pieces. I broke my big toe in 2 places. One just under the toenail going down the side (the doc said a bad break on the side) between the toes. The other the base of the toe going into the foot itself. Painful? F*CK YES!

So here I am covered in bruises, can't walk and pretty much making advil my friend. It's ok though, I should be back to normal or so in a couple of weeks. I have a plan and I am going to stick with it! It just will take a bit longer to start it than I had hoped is all lol.

The other amazing thing that happened is my son became a man! He had his 18th birthday! WHAT a party! Must have been around 100 kids here and DJ's. The house was jumping and full of life! He has such wonderful friends and it was a 18th birthday to remember for sure. I had my friends come too - all but one who didn't show up, didn't call and still has yet to make his apologies or explain why we were blown off. I am angry for that yes I am because this particular friend has no trouble asking us for help (which we have given many times) but couldn't be bothered to come or at least phone and tell us why? Oh well - HIS loss. The party (as I said) rocked - literally! To all my sons friends - you are awesome and the door is always open for you :)

We have been spending a lot of time with a couple good friends of ours and they are great! Also the best pizza in the city is in the North end of Calgary. We went for dinner with them to one place and all I can say is - OH - MY - GOD! Best pizza! So for my daughters birthday we drove all the way to the north to get their pizza for dinner lol! I dunno but I may even consider moving just for that pizza! hehehe. Anyways, they are great friends and I feel very blessed to have such wonderful people in my life!

I just have to say, I feel lucky. I do have wonderful friends, and family and also family who are friends! In this world were it seems we are for ever on this roller coaster of ups and downs, whether it be health related, financial related, kid related or whatever - it is so good to know that there are people I love and who love me in return.

On this roller coaster I want to say I feel proud to be sharing the ride with all of you and I am buckled in and ready to keep rollin'! Love ya!

The View from here

Lately there has been a lot of people talking and opinions on various things. I wanted to share my opinion - just for the record.

I was glad to hear Obama wants to pull the troops out of Iraq I only wish he was as committed to do that in Afghanistan. I don't agree with this war at all on any level. I think it has been a tragic waste of lives on both sides.

I hear a lot of things people say about Muslims and it really makes my skin crawl. I know Muslim people and am smart enough to know that all Muslims are not terrorists, just as I am smart enough to know that not all Christians are KKK members! These types of factions take a faith and bastardize it to fit their agenda's.

I don't think forcing "Freedom" down their throats is what they seem to want at all. People up-rise for freedom and rights, when they want them. What we believe to be freedom and right in our culture isn't what other people see as freedom or right. I get really tired of western culture thinking its the be all and end all of civility. It is not. We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and should not try to make other cultures conform to western beliefs.

I understand the women are treated differently than here - and people of course find it appauling. So DON'T do that then. This is their faith, what they believe to be true. When women in the west decided we didn't want to be treated like a second class citizen we rose up and said "WE WANT MORE". You can't FORCE that, it has to happen when (and if) they are ready to do that. They may never be ready to do that. We just have to accept that is there way of life, who the heck are we to tell them differently? If you don't like the Muslim faith - then don't become one. Easy. What in the world makes people think its right to invade their country and tell THEM how they have to change to suit you? That is wrong and we told Hitler that when he did that in Poland, whats so different now?

I like living here in Canada, the freedoms I have. This is how I was raised it is what I know. How would we all feel if someone invaded our country and said its all wrong and we should believe their way? It's WRONG plain and simple. There are no WMD we established that, then it became the "war on terror". Who's terror? I am thinking it is far more terrifying for them to be invaded and forced to conform to things they do not believe it! It sure would be if it was happening to me.

That's my 2 cents on that. I am sure it will get some backlash from some people I say bring it on. There is NO way anyone can deny - if it were you sitting in your comfy easy chair watching Sunday night TV and a country invaded telling you everything you are doing and everything you believe is wrong that it would be OK and you'd be "OH I am SO glad someone came to help me". I doubt you can find me one person who would think that was a great idea. They want us out, of course they do. SO lets GET OUT.

For my Brother Kevin, With Love..

A brother is a friend given by Nature ~ ~Jean Baptiste Legouve

Kevin has always been a major part of my life. When we were kids I would want to go where ever he would go. I would cry when he would go with his friends and beg my Mom to make him take me along. Sometimes he would too! If he wanted some time with just his friends he would promise me another day, and always came through on his word. He would take me to the wading pool, or to a movie - just him and I. I recall he took me to see Charlot's Webb thinking it would be a funny good movie for me. He told me when I was older how horrible he felt when he looked over at the end of the movie and saw me crying. I remember after that movie he took me to McDonald's for dinner, even bought me a milk shake - and we sat in the big plastic train!

When I got older I envied Kevin. He got such great marks in school and even when I struggled I never reached the A's he was getting, or the honor roll. I remember bragging to my friends when he went to university and how he got to choose to either be a Doctor or a Lawyer, what a choice! When he chose Law and was accepted to University in Nova Scotia, I bragged even more but the horrible realization that he was going so far away was hard to handle.

When my 18th birthday came, Kevin was at school and unable to be there. He sent me a letter (back in those days it was all hand written, no computers and no emails). It said how he wished he could be there and wished me a happy 18th. A letter to this day I have kept.

As an adult I have to say I have even more bragging rights when it comes to my brother. Truly a man with a heart of gold. He helped to take care of my Nana when she could no longer take care of herself. He gives selflessly and fully of himself when ever family needs him. He has been there when family's health has been failing and when they need help and comfort. He is there to give a hug, and support when I have felt my lowest. I am a proud sister, he is someone I am not only proud to call brother but someone I call friend. Someone I have always aspired to be like. He is a uncle extraordinaire and my kids think the world of him and love him to pieces.

My brother was diagnosed with colorectal Cancer last week. This was a blow to my very core. I can't imagine God's plans or the reason why this would happen to my Kevin. Such a helpless feeling. His latest tests show it has not spread, which is good and his surgery is July 2nd.

I ask you all to pray for Kevin. Maybe this is a tap on my shoulder to remind me how lucky I am and what a gift he is. A wake up call I won't ignore. I will be standing by him, I will help him to fight this and to get well. I will pray, and I hope you will too.

~K

IF by Rudyard Kipling

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

~~Rudyard Kipling

It's a Karma kind of thing

I am a believer in a kind of Karma. I think if you truly do wrong by someone in this life the curse of that can follow you until you make it right. Now to some they might say that is a subconscious thing. That on some level people sabotage themselves - that is very possible. Either way, no matter which you believe to be true - they have to make amends of some kind in order to break the pattern.

I thought of this after re-watching the best scene of "The Color Purple" Where Celie says:

Celie: [lunging towards Albert with a knife] I curse you. Until you do right by
me everything you think about is gonna crumble!
Celie: Until you do right by
me, everything you even think about gonna fail!

Food for thought anways.

You DON'T Scare me anymore!

slan·der (slndr)
n.
1. Law Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation.
2. A false and malicious statement or report about someone.
v. slan·dered, slan·der·ing, slan·ders

NOTHING I HAVE SAID IS UN-TRUE

BRING IT ON TOUGH GUY - Court means the dirty little details of abuse get to be told to the world - I WELCOME IT!! Ready to get that honest?

ha·rass (h-rs, hrs)
tr.v. ha·rassed, ha·rass·ing, ha·rass·es
1. To irritate or torment persistently.
2. To wear out; exhaust.
3. To impede and exhaust (an enemy) by repeated attacks or raids

I am no longer a 17 year old girl you can bully around so don't call threatning me again.