BEFORE AND AFTER

The birthday party was a smash hit, and although most of us were tired to the bone for various reasons, it was great.

Sister Pammie made her world famous borscht which is OH SO DAMN GOOD. (thankew Pammie) and a marble cake with whipped milk chocolate icing.

There are no 'before' pics as I forgot, but here are the 'afters'. **To see my Birthday Post, see the previous one.**

I got money money money! So now I can go clothes shopping sometime. And the niece and nephews got me 2 really nice soapstone tea light holders.



And here is what's left of the cake:



And another Before/After goodie! Sister Pammie's 2 doggies, as most of you already know, are the lights of my life and I'd have to look far and wide to find any cuter little pups. Of course because I love them both to pieces I could be a bit biased.

Lady is feeling better now too by the way, and thank you to those of you who have asked after her.

The other day their Momma took them to be groomed, and you know how I adore before/after pictures so here ya go.


Heading out the door to go see their favourite groomer lady:


And after:

How damn cute are they? LOL

Here are two more, kinda fuzzy as they were both moving around so much.









On a sad note, I am so sad to see the Complimenting Commenter's blog gone. He hasn't posted for quite some time now and I have even emailed him, but he hasn't replied. Today I noticed that his blog is actually gone. So sad, it was a very popular and positive blog. I only hope all is well in his world, he did so much good here in blogland. *sniff*

Well chicks and dudes it's time to get ready to go out for groceries. I hope you all have a groovy Sunday, take care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude

CELEBRATION!

Someone I know has a birthday tomorrow. She's pretty well known around this blog, and although slightly nuts she's a good egg.

An OLDER egg though, she's over half a century old!! Yup, tomorrow she's turning 55 (FIFTY-FIVE!) years old and perhaps she doesn't really look it but she sure feels it some days.

She started out in this life in April 1952, a little white-blond fuzz head. At not quite a year old, her older sister was helping her the very moment she first learned to walk.



At 4 years old, she finally had some hair (not just fuzz) and it was always in ringlets.



I've known this gal forever. She's friendly, down to earth and definitely quirky. She's always had lots of friends because she like surrounding herself with good people. It's what makes her happy.

She's had a good life so far, a combination of joys and some really tough spots, but that's what makes her grow. She once told me that she couldn't really wish the horrible stuff away, because it's made her who she is today.

When she was little, her Dad was her hero and her Mom was her universe.

She finally became a brunette when around 11 or 12 yrs. old her blond slowly changed to brunette.

And at 14 she got her first haircut. (she hated it)



A year later at 15 she was determined to start growing it out. This is her Grade 10 school picture. High school!





At 22 yrs. old, soaking up the sun in one of the city's many parks:



And at 24 yrs. old, not long after her Dad passed away. Life changed, it became a reality.




And at almost 30, with her youngest sister.


In her 30's, she enjoyed her fun side: naughty but fun?


At 33 yrs. old:


At 34 yrs. old, houseboating in B.C. and golfing in Alberta:



(Yep, she's short! LOL)

And almost 40 now, golfing in Maui with a friend:


And the year she turned 50, it was quite a milestone.



Of course mentalpause had set in about 7 years earlier, and these "hotflashes" had become SO old news!


Have you guessed yet? Probably many of you would know who she is by the last picture of her at 50.

Yes it's yours truly.....



Older, wiser, achier and chubbier but it's still me and I don't feel any older than I did in my 30's. Well. Except for the body aches and pains.

No nips and tucks, no face lifts or hair colour out of a bottle. Just a bit of makeup, squeeze into a bra and hope for the best! I am what you see, craziness, forgetfulness and all. And I guess it's not so bad afterall.

The "numbers" of my age never really bothered me. And I always tease my older sister who is a year older than I am. But when my 2 younger sisters "age numbers" started creeping up there too, THAT'S when I started to realize just where in the Circle of Life I am! LOL

The following joke cracks me up. It reminds me of me and my sisters as we get even older. I can see it all now!

Three sisters, ages 92, 94 and 96, live in a house together. One night the
96-year-old draws a bath. She puts her foot in and pauses. She yells to the
other sisters, "Was I getting in or out of the bath?" The 94-year-old yells
back, "I don't know. I'll come up and see." She starts up the stairs and
pauses "Was I going up the stairs or down?" The 92-year-old is sitting at
the kitchen table having tea, listening to her sisters. She shakes her head
and says, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful, knock on wood." She then
yells, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the
door."

And finally, a couple of truths about growing older:

*I finally got my head together, and my body fell apart.

*Time may be a great healer, but it's also a lousy beautician.


Ah yes..... double 5's it is for me, and I can say that I'm now at an age where I don't CARE how much birthday cake I eat; I don't CARE if the skinny fashions no longer fit on my ol' bod, I'll wear what's comfy and to hell with it.

But one thing hasn't changed. My family and friends will always remain the mainstay of my happiness. It's because of all of you that I'm relatively sane (pfftt!) and still know how to laugh loud and hard. I will never lose the ability to enjoy great conversation, belly laughs and know when to speak and when to just hug someone. Love and relationships is what it's all about.

On Saturday sister Pammie will be having a family party for me. Food, cake and good conversation. All good stuff!

Thank you all for sharing your lives with me in so many ways. Please keep coming here, it keeps me young! (no pressure there huh?) HAH!



Take good care of each other, and thanks again.

PEACE!
Love Jude

DRY SKIN?

If you've got dry skin as badly as I do, you might be interested in this stuff. This little package came complete with a nail file.



It's my new favourite, and it comes in teeny tin pots for your purse or tubes for the house.

I use it for a moisturizer on my face and of course as a hand lotion. It's good!

***********************************************************************************

It's still chilly out there and very cloudy. More rain in the forecast which is good as we still need it. Hopefully no more snow though.

Sister Pammie's older doggie Lady (Bugs) gave us a good scare again 2 days ago. Blood in her urine and frequent urinating. She spent the day at the vet's getting blood and urine tested (good GAWD it's tough leaving them there!!) and they found she has a very bad urinary tract infection. She's on antibiotics, and seems to be doing a lot better although she's tired and sleeping a lot.

Dammit it's hard seeing the little darlings sick. And as she's 15 yrs. old now, every little issue is scarier than ever.

Hope you're all having a good weekend, take good care of each other and until next time........

PEACE!
Love Jude

THE UGLY SIDE OF SPRING

The more snow through the winter, and especially the longer it's on the ground, the uglier spring can look.

We had an extremely long winter this year and to boot we had a TON of snow on the ground. From October to April, to be exact! This year our area has had snow mold problems in the news, it's that bad.

Counter the ugly moldy lawns with all the sand and small gravel on the roads, alleys and parking lots from months of sanding trucks trying to keep the icy conditions down for the drivers. All of that is still sitting on the now bare pavement. And mud in a lot of places too. The tree brances are still bare, no buds yet but that will come.

To paint the entire picture in one brush stroke, it is butt ugleeee out there right now.

Proof in the puddin' here:

Our back lawn is normally nice and green in spring/summer/autumn. Then, remember our first snowfall, it was so early all the green leaves were still on the trees yet? A horrendously windy day blew them all on top of the snow. And now that the snow has melted, all of those gazillions of leaves have rotted into the lawn.

And this is all that's left of that snowpile that was almost as tall as me:

And that's a broken tree branch that fell to the snow along with all the green leaves last October.


The side yard, this taken last summer after hubby planted grass seed. Those are the bricks back to the doggy bathroom. And then another shot of the side yard now, all MUSH and mud.

Out front, here is some of the snow mold that's so bad. I was hoping that after this last snowfall and some sleety rain, that this would have been washed away.



And one of the front gardens as it looked before winter hit. And then what it looks like now.

I know that once again we'll have it looking good again. With the warm temperatures and sunny skies it won't be long before the trees will have buds turning green, and the flowering trees will have gorgeous colour on them. The street cleaners who have been waiting for the last vestiges of snow to melt will have gone around the city and cleaned up the sand and dirt, and some spring rains will help to clean everything up. The yellow/brown grass will turn green again and hubby will have to get out the mower. And first, we'll figure out how best to rid our lawns of snow mold.

But for now, we're seeing the ugly side of spring.

How is it in your area?

It is mid week as I finish typing this post, and as of tonight we've started getting rain. It's supposed to rain for the rest of the week so we'll see how much of the ugliness out there gets cleaned up.

Hope you all have a great week, take good care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude

BIG SKY

VAST




CRISS CROSS



GOOD NIGHT



And this morning:


It's a beautiful sunny morning, and I'm off to get groceries and do the usual Sunday running around. What a glorious day!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend wherever you may be. Take good care of each other and God bless.

PEACE!
Love Jude

NEW FAVOURITES FOR MY TUMMY

I often get a hankering for something and that's what I'll eat for awhile until I move on to the next hankering. Recently, I've been enjoying this for dinner:


Pollock (fake crab meat), and baby carrots dipped in 3 Cheese Ranch Dressing. And my ever present glass of skim milk mixed with chocolate Soy Milk.


And for a late night snack:



This stuff is a combination of sweet/salty popcorn. I NEVER would have thought I'd like it so much, as a matter of fact the first time I tried it I wasn't too crazy about it. I guess my taste buds just needed to acclimate because now I love it.


Today is my "do nothing" day. I have to work on Saturday (short staffed again, *sigh*) so Friday I'll be taking care of laundry, ironing, housework etc. So, that leaves my first day off this week (today) to relax, nap, chat on the phone with Trucker Bob (thanks Bob!) and maybe read and watch some TV.

Oh, and snack on some sweet popcorn.

I did head outside with my camera to look for items that have rust on them. This month's Opacity contest is "Rust". I have a few good ones, and some I won't use. Goodness knows hubby has enough CRAP out back and there are quite a few rusty pieces of it. This one isn't for the contest, but I just love this old rusting wheelbarrow.





Okay I'm heading for a nice long nap. Have a good one everyone, and take good care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude

PHOTOSHOP COMPETITION

There was a new kind of photo competition over at Opacity a couple weeks ago, and this one was hilariously fun. It was a Photoshop Competition. As I don't have such a program I didn't participate directly, but indirectly it seems I did.

This competition was to take photos of any members on the Opacity forums (and there are many hundreds of members) and photoshop their pics onto something humourous. Over there you must remember I am known as "Ma", because I'm one of the oldest females there. The joke always is that if anyone gets out of line "Ma will whup your butt with a good spankin". Okay so having said that, there were a few entries that had my pic used, and these were my 2 favourites. I thought they were well done, no matter who the subject matter was.

**Click on the pics to enlarge them for viewing**

This first one is most hilarious because of the joke that I'll whup butt when necessary. And the person who created this one happens to be a good friend over there. I got after him for giving me such pointy boobs.




Of all the entries, this next one was the actual winner of the contest. This guy put SO much work into this one, and used many forum members' pics. I actually voted for this one myself because of the great job he did. And yeah, that's ME he put in the centre. With a halo?? Hah!



Too much fun!


The weather might just be FINALLY changing for the better. I am hearing that all over it's been one very weird spring so far. It was a lovely warm and sunny day here yesterday. Hopefully the temperatures will stay this way and the rest of the snow will melt. Boy do we need some spring rains to clean everything up.

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend, take good care of each other and I'll catch you soon!

PEACE!
Love Jude

SIZE DOES MEAN SOMETHING

It sure means something in the case of this:




Measuring it's length:




Whoa!






This thing is dangerous, especially to small doggies who might walk underneath it on their way to their bathroom area which is just behind the garage to the left of that red shovel.

So after taking pics of the evidence I broke it off, and the smaller ones beside it too. Now sister Pammie's doggies are safe when they are out there.

It's stopped snowing and now it's starting to melt, which obviously is why that icicle was growing to gigantic proportions. The temps are starting to warm up, the wind from the north has changed to being from the east and I believe that WILL be the end of any more snow.

I'm anxious to see if that gross snow mold will still be there under the new snowfall from the last 2 days. Hopefully not!

Have a good Easter everyone, and take good care of each other.

PEACE!
Love Jude

FORGET THE SNOW MOLD, HOW ABOUT MORE SNOW??

I thought we were in the clear, it's April and the sunny spring weather had melted most of our snow away....... until yesterday when Old Man Winter decided he wasn't done screwing with us yet.




Before I went to work early this morning I took a few shots of the fresh layer of snow we got yesterday. We're supposed to get more before the week is out, but by the weekend the temperatures are climbing back up again and I'm sure we'll lose all of this quickly.




But for now, we've another fresh layer of the white stuff, not enough to shovel, but just enough to remind us how fickle spring can be.





The Farmer's Almanac stated that we were to have a long, snowy winter and they were right. Now, I'm hearing that they are predicting an extremely hot and dry summer. HOT being the key word here. I think I might seriously entertain the notion to move to the North Pole. :-(

In other news, I think I forgot to mention something that made me feel rather good. When I went Friday for my dentist appointment and had my teeth cleaned and checked, I was told that I have "immaculate oral hygiene". Immaculate! Wow, cool huh? LOL So go ahead, kiss me!

Well I'm off to bed in an hour or so, but first I'm popping some Sweet Corn. Yum. Never heard of it until sister Pammie told me about it not long ago, and now I'm loving it!

Have a great week everyone, and take good care of each other. Happy Easter!!

PEACE!
Love Jude