Been a while.
Fall. Rain. Red and Yellow and Orange leaves. Rubber boots & Umbrellas. Snoozing. Warm Homes. Art. Inside 'Office' Time w/ iTunes or dvds. Short Phone Calls. Planning & Hoping & Dreaming & Working. efferdares.com Miss So Much. Love these biotches and they know it.
xog
gratitude: for the Canadian healthcare system allowing us to seek any kind of health-therapy we might need: dr., therapist, chinese medicine, massage, physio, shrink, etc. Accessible healthcare is important.
Travelling to Jamaica was the trip of a lifetime. We returned last night after 18 hours of driving, waiting, flying, waiting, flying and waiting twice more, and driving home. Stayed up for several hours and then spent 17 hours in bed (I think I'm coming down with something). Now it's time to crawl once more into my bed (which I'm now, more than ever, so grateful for). Here are a few photos for the time being.
Jax, in all his glory upon our visit to the beach for the first time.
All the houses in Kingston seemed to have elaborate metal fences and locked gates; not for want but for necessity due to the high crime rates and violence running rampant in the city.
The amount of hand-made corrugated metal fences intrigued and saddened me.
There are tons of independent bars, beauty salons and grocers lining the roads.
Businesses and houses are painted creatively and brightly; bursts of colour to lift the soul.
Social networking is kind of scary, I've just realized.
Maybe in a good way, maybe not.
Anyhow, I'm not here to wax political on the e-bend...not now.
Jamaica here we come!!!!!
Peace out for 2 weeks. Taking a journal and clips and staples and lots of clothes and crosswords, manaymany toiletries (longest list of every list) etc. WERD!
Have a fab couple weeks. I'm looking forward to the break from my regularly scheduled programming.
xoxog
OK. Way more than enough exposure of that horrid mug shot photo. Today's self portrait would show a glistening, glowing me - melting away in the Vancity Heat. Global Warming Insanity, at its finest. Instead, let's share a happy pretty photo of my sisters and husband. I think Aley did try to nibble on his ear a little bit. Ha!
Summer is in full swing over here and Jaxon's in his glory. His skin is getting browner every day but he's quicker than ever at escaping my camera lens. I still try. Lots. Successful, more often than not, from afar.
He seems so grown here, so peaceful, contemplating what only he knows. Staring out at the Pacific Ocean from Russell Reef on Saturna, late June.
Construction on our building is underway. In a major way. Working in construction is certainly different, and interesting, and challenging. The most challenging part is learning the ins and outs of personalities and attempting to negotiate some sort of happy medium, or at least semi-satisfied medium. I still like it.I'm up to here in Field Review Reports and Contracts and Warranties and Meeting Minutes and Summary Draws. Amazing how much paperwork this industry (and probably almost every industry) generates. My green initiative, were I to continue working in the field, would be to work towards paperless filing. I mena, in this day and age....really? Do we need 67 binders full of paper for one project? Most of it is just for record-keeping anyway. Gets read and addressed once, then, Filed. That said, I'm such a paper girl. It's easier for me to review something on paper than on-screen. It would be ea learning curve, for sure. And, I would need a fancy laptop, of course.
Speaking of paper, I MISS creating stuff like CRAZY. I've been sitting on the sidelines of the 'scrapbooking world' for a while now. A break was needed and inevitable, but I'm soooooo ready to get back into it. So many reasons/excuses (moving, broken nose, vacation, work, laziness, family issues, bad moods, etc. etc. etc.) but that's always the way. Problem=stillhaven'tunpackedartstuff. BUT yesterday I unpacked 3 boxes, and today two more. Now, I have to go to a site meeting, but afterwards I have no plans except to change into the skimpiest outfit possible (solely for the sake of the temperature - nothing exciting) and keep working. One box at a time...I have to remember this.
OK 7 minutes to get my paperwork together, smear some waterproof mascara on and get out of the house.
xoxog
We moved, everything was in boxes.
We struggled to get essentials happening:
toothbrushes
food
soap
towels
sheets
pillows
etc.
Most everything was still in boxes.
Took one weekend off the restaurant.
Didn't miss a beat @ the two M-F jobbies.
Then...
I broke my nose.
Friday afternoon, two hours before work.
Call 911!
Cute, huh?
One week after, back to the ER for fixin.
Finally feeling normal again.
I hate how often I say that.
Office still in boxes.
But I have goals and dreams....
Oh yes I do.
Here we go!
So, naturally I make updating my blog a priority even though I haven't updated it in forever and it could probably wait another day or week or month. Ahhhh, the power of procrastination.
Drinking this:
"...a sea of health giving acids and nutrients." I don't think I'll look for more images of it though because it starts out as some natural fermented pile of pancake-y grossness, apparently.
We celebrated D's 38th birthday last night. Good times. I can't believe he's 38! I don't mind getting older, but 38 still seems so far away to me at this point. Hopefully by the time I reach it I'll have my shit together. Ha! I do believe that's what I thought I'd have by 30....
But, I digress. We had a huge Indian feast - I made curry from scratch for the first time ever. We had chicken curry and cauliflower and potatoe curry and samosas and roti and those spicy mixed nuts & peas and mango chutny and pakoras...another first timer. So yummy and for all the food we made, we have hardly anything left. Now that's the sign of a good meal. Mind you, 12 adults and 4 kids ate. Good party. Hockey game was on...we lost and that sucked. Dren was given a PS3 by a whole bundh of us and was like a small child on Christmas morning. Literally - jumping up and down and clapping his hands together with a giant grin. Ridiculous and cute.
Now that the building is fully under construction and we have voted in a new board of directors and they have officially offered the Project Liaison position to me (I like to capitalize the title because it sounds super important that way) I have to remove myself from the Presidency. So endeth my Reign of Power. To be perfectly honest, I'm relieved. I was convinced to stay for an extra term, but took it more for the sake of filling a position no one else wanted to take on. Now they have no choice. Step up peeps! I find this whole building process fascinating and am certainly already learning a lot about how to deal with people. It's always amazed me how incredibly different human being personalities are. Takes all kinds, I guess. So I now have three jobs. Certainly not where I thought I would end up. Flexible though, and that is awesome. I cherish being able to spend time with Jaxon, take him to all of these appointments and school field trips.
Baby nephew is doing fabulously:
He's so teeny and he looks like a turtle. And we shall call him turtle and have all sorts of things for him that are turtle-themed and by the time he reaches a certain age he will hate any mention of the word turtle. Oh, and let's not talk about how our pleather hand-me-down couch is falling apart and how Momo is digging the stuffing out of it and eating it.
Much to do before I start to get ready for tonight's resto shift, so I'd better getonit. Huh...I miss blathering on about my life.
xog
Gratitude: For my life right now, just exactly the way it is.
All of that going on and so much more.
One of the construction workers forgot to replace the drainpipe from the roof on Thursday afternoon, so with all of the rain over the last couple of days (being deposited directly into the trench surrounding the entire building), we now have two flooded suites. Call the site supervisor (of course no one mentioned anything to me until today because they don't read signs and don't attend meetings and/or don't listen) who promptly said he would have the foreman come right over. Happy Easter!
Meanwhile, Colleen is cooking lamb in the rotisserie (sp?), the boys are busy playing (old one plugged in, smaller one "multi-tasking" with his friend, which means watching a movie, playing pokemon cards and drawing all at the same time) and I'm taking a moment for myself before I head back upstairs to help with dinner.
I've been knitting a hat, painting and not scrapbooking at all. Haven't done a Dare in ever-so long. I'm not happy about that at all. It comes, it goes, and right now I'm in a gone period. Please come back to me!
I did however accomplish designing a reservation book for Me & Julio and it's the bomb. Totally customized and it will make everyone's life easier; including mine because I get nasty when reservations get screwed up or over-booked. So there.
And Rhi skyped me this last week, which I love.
Happy Easter!
Baby X. No Name Fong. But he's soooooo cute.
Dren wanted to name him Empire.
We'll see what happens. They have 30 days.
