Craziness

Since we've decided to put our house on the market we've been out looking at other people's homes. As potential buyers we look for size, the shape it's in, the location, stuff that's important to us. We've seen lots and it amazes me the amount of work people put into selling a home. Or not. Some homes are like walking into a magazine show place...oooh, ahhhh, very nice. Some, not so much. Like, you did know you were having people through your home this afternoon didn't you? Flushing toilets is always a good way to start freshening up your home. Little tip for ya.

Yesterday I THINK we saw it all! We went on a tour of homes available that meet the criteria of our wish list. Our realtor took us to see a few units that we really liked (especially the first one). AND THEN. She said, "I have one that's fabulous, the only thing is it belongs to a 95 year old lady and it's a little cluttered." No biggee we said, we can handle clutter, we like old ladies, it'll be fine.

OMG! First, the people were home. Soooo much easier viewing homes when they're not home but oh well. This odd looking man opened the door to let us in and mumbled some apology about "you know, Mother's here with us, it's not very tidy". In amongst the piles of stuff that was everywhere was a recliner with a very old fragile looking lady. We said hello to her, no problem. Then I saw the Christmas tree. With all the lights on.

We kept moving. Strange man went and sat on the couch, old lady still in the recliner as we followed our realtor into the kitchen. She climbed over some more piles of stuff and said "Watch yourself" as we followed behind. There wasn't an inch of countertop space without something on it in the kitchen. Food everywhere, old magazines, stuff on top of stuff. Cupboards open and drawers spilling over.

Went to see the patio off the kitchen. Very nice. Private little patio across from a park. We could picture ourselves having coffee out there in the morning. Not so bad. We went back inside and the realtor started heading down a hallway and a lady called out "Not yet, don't come in" So we waited patiently outside a bedroom door until we got the word to 'come on in'. OMG.

We were in the master bedroom and a lady who appeared to be the daughter of the 95 year old lady was standing there who began apologizing. She thought we were coming the day before and they "worked until 5:00 before they realized they had the wrong day". I thought to myself, what was this place like before you worked on it? The master bedroom closet had a huge rack full of clothes. Unfortunately the rack wasn't strong enough for the large burden of clothes and it all laid on the floor. Everything, all of it, on the floor on top of the 122 pairs of shoes. But her wedding dress was hung up on the doorway! Whew, wouldn't want the wedding dress to get crunched! Then she showed us the bathroom and there was a coat in the bath tub and she told us that BC Hydro had a new policy of people wearing their coats in the bath tub and not using up so much hot water. Alrighty then, that's when I was starting to get scared. She went into the shower and pulled out a nylon coat that was hanging there and began to tell us this story that the coat was lined with possums when she got it and wasn't it beautiful. Well, really what can you say to that? "No crazy lady, your nylon coat isn't lined with possums?" I wasn't about to argue with her as I couldn't remember exactly where the nearest exit was at this point.

It just went downhill after that. By this time Chris was breaking out into a sweat and look of panic went across her face - that look that says "Get me out of here now"
Oh yeah, I can read her.

After the laundry room tour that included her telling us how she had painted it pink to make it nice (it wasn't pink at all)(and it wasn't nice) to showing us the second bedroom and all the tables in it because her husband can't see the clock at night and wakes her up to know what time it is. (Maybe that's her problem? Not enough sleep?) I don't know. I just know that by this time we were ready to scream and high tail it out of there. Our realtor was in stitches when we finally got ourselves out.

As we walked around the front of the building the crazy lady was standing on the patio waving to us saying "Have a nice day". Oh we will lady, now that we're not in your crazy house.

The sad thing is when we got home we looked up the listing and saw that it was a beautiful home, not cluttered at all when it got listed over a year ago. The clutter's happened since then and the poor old lady's probably slept through most of it while the crazy ones took over. It's been on the market for over a year. Nice place, just needed a little work. Oh, and the crazy people removed.

Happy Birthday John. Today would've been John's 56th birthday. I can't imagine. He was sick for so long and hung onto life by his toe nails so many times. I remember one year he told me he had been in emergency 79 times in one year. More than once he'd had a mild heart attack, someone called an ambulance. En route to the hospital he had a more serious one and he was told "if you hadn't been in an ambulance you wouldn't have made it". It wasn't his time to go then. When it was his time to leave us he did it peacefully at home on his couch. I still miss him a lot. I miss his big voice and his quiet gentle spirit that loved the Lord so much. He was one of a kind.

Family Day

A glorious day. All of John's kids were able to join my Mom and me for brunch in White Rock. Every April we all try and get together but this is the first year that everyone could make it. It's wonderful to see the kids and the darling great granddaughter Alaia, what a doll.




Derek's looking good. I haven't seen him for a few years. He's the bartender at the most expensive hotel in Vancouver and loving it. He moves jobs a lot and can't seem to quite settle down anywhere or with anyone but that's Derek.


Josh and his wife are expecting their first child in June. Just last week Gina had to go for her yearly check-up at her cancer doctor's. He wanted her to walk with him on the cancer ward and introduce her to others who had the same cancer she had 5 years ago. He said it was to show them hope. Here she is, working full time and pregnant! They are both so excited.



Josh is launching out on his own as a graphic artist after working full time for years and free-lancing. Good for him. He's talented, hard-working and very creative. He's like his dad in so many ways.



Niki is always the sweetheart and brings her Oma flowers. She's a great Mom and it's hard to believe that Alaia will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Wow!~ Where does the time go? Alaia was off to dance class in the afternoon and pretty excited about that.

Happy Easter

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and He talks with me
Along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives:
He lives within my heart.

It has been GORGEOUS weather these past few days, wow! After a horrible winter (we didn't think the pile of snow in the mall parking lot would ever melt) we finally have some sunshine!

Sometimes I feel like I have the best job in the world. Today on a beautiful sunny afternoon I drove a bus load of seniors from a Care facility around White Rock and Crescent Beach. Just because that's what they wanted. Their faces lit up when we got close to the beach and they could see the ocean from the bus. They talked about the cottages at Crescent Beach and what they remembered about going to White Rock when they were younger.

It's been a little crazy around here with purging and painting and cleaning and all of that but it's happening! We saw a few places on the weekend that we both really liked and felt like we could call home. But we don't know. So much is unknown right now, so we'll wait and see in the next few months what will happen. In the meantime we know that God is in control and as we trust Him for the big picture the little things will take care of themselves.

It's Been Awhile

since Bad Betty and I went to Hawaii so we're looking forward to going in May. It'll be Mother's Day and my birthday all rolled up into one nice weekend celebration. We are such creatures of habit. We like to stay at the same place - done. Contact the same people - done. Plan the same menus - done. same activities - done. Why? Because it's what we love. It's what we enjoy. We are people who enjoy doing things over and over again, making wonderful memories and enjoying the time we have together.

This May marks what would've been my parents 60th Wedding Anniversary. So that means it's 20 years since my dad went to be with the Lord. We like to remember those times and as my mom ages I feel it's important to spend that time with her, remembering.

To All My Fans

If I haven't been around much it could be because there's been lots of cleaning and sorting and painting and trimming going on around here. We're putting our townhouse on the market and not sure what we're doing after that. We are looking for something that will meet our need for space while living closer to town making Chris's commute easier.


Oh, and in the meantime we've decided to sell the cottage so we're putting that up for sale as well. We just have to get ourselves up there to get things ready to do that.

Then, there's the cat who needs to have his stitches out today because of the biopsy they took 2 weeks ago to see what's wrong with his sweet little self.

The only one ho hum around here is sweet little Benson. He just runs into the nearest closet and hides. Maybe he's onto something.

look what I found

My mom and I are going to get together on Saturday to have a picture day. She has lots of family pics and I am trying to put together a heritage album for our family. We have very few family photos as there were a lot of years members of my family didn't speak to each other for whatever reason.

This is Summer 1977 after my nephew Derek was dedicated. I was home from Hawaii and John and Lynne had bought their first home. I can't remember if Ralph and Lani were together or not or had just come for the dedication. There are a few years that are rather hazy on their relationship. John and Lynne separated many years later.

It's not hard to see why Chris is my mom's favorite daughter-in-law.

Maggie

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

Helen Keller




Today Maggie went to live in happier hunting grounds. I hope she's chasing lots of balls and eating lots of snausages and sleeping by lots of fireplaces. Those are the things that made her happy. Her health concerns just became too great for her and for us and after talking to our Vet we all came to the decision that it was Maggie's time to go.



We had Maggie for 4 years and she brought a lot of love into our home with her gentle quiet nature.
We'll miss you Maggs.

Friends

Last night we went out to our local community theatre and saw a delightful play called "Marion Bridge". The story of 3 sisters who return home to see their mother before she passes away. It was interesting on many levels to see the different roles the sisters took in their family and how we relate to those roles.

The oldest daughter was very artsy, lived in the 'big city' but was very lonely and drank to escape loneliness and lack of success. The story unfolded of how she'd had gotten pregnant as a teenager and was forced to give the baby up for adoption. She reconnects with the daughter and although you don't see a visible reconnection the emotions are there in the dialogue.

The middle daughter is the 'good one' who grows up to be a nun because she wants to serve God with her whole self but in the meantime loses sight of God and wonders just to whom she is loyal when she tries so hard to be so very good.

The youngest daughter is the 'funny one' and yet gets overlooked and dismissed because she's crazy. On a memorable trip to Marion Bridge as children the 2 older sisters have vivid memories of the day yet don't remember that the youngest had to stay home because she had chicken pox.

It was a good story and well done. There was quite a crowd of us that went from church and afterwards we enjoyed meeting at a friend's house for dessert. Good times.

It's great to have friends in the midst of all of life's changes. As I get older I find myself appreciating my friends more. Maybe because neither Chris nor I have a sister we find ourselves connecting with other women around us and enlarging our group of friends.

We All Need a Laugh So Here's Yours

What Religion is Your Bra?



A man walked into the ladies department of a Macy 's and shyly walked up to the woman behind the counter and said, "I'd like to buy a bra for my wife."

"What type of bra?" asked the clerk.

"Type?" inquires the man. "There's more than one type?"

"Look around," said the saleslady as she showed a sea of bras in every shape, size, color and material imaginable. "Actually, even with all of this variety, there are really only four types of bras to choose from."

Relieved, the man asked about the types.

The saleslady replied: "There are the Catholic, the Salvation Army, the Presbyterian, and the Baptist types. Which one would you prefer?"

Now totally befuddled, the man asked about the differences between them.

The Saleslady responded, "It is all really quite simple ... the Catholic type supports the masses; the Salvation Army type lifts the fallen; the Presbyterian type keeps them staunch and upright; and the Baptist type makes mountains out of mole hills."

Have you ever wondered why A, B, C, D, DD, E, F, G, and H are the letters used to define bra sizes? If you have wondered why, but couldn't figure out what the letters stood for, it is about time you became informed!

{A} Almost Boobs...

{B} Barely there...
{C} Can't Complain!...

{D} Dang!...
{DD} Double dang!...

{E} Enormous!...
{F} Fake...

{G} Get a Reduction...
{H} Help me, I've fallen And I can't get up!...

They forgot the German bra. Holtzemfromfloppen

Random Act of Kindness

Last winter when I was working nights all the time I told our night dispatch N. (who's a sweetheart) that while she was away in Mexico suntanning a memo had come out saying that from now on during the cold weather drivers would leave their car keys on her desk and when they called in at the end of the shift to say they were clear and coming in, she could then pick up their keys, go out to the bus yard, scrape the ice off and warm up their car for them. I thought it was a wonderful suggestion. Don't you think? She just laughed and told me how funny I was. After she told me she hadn't gotten the memo of course. I told her to keep looking.

Last week it was really really cold and I was working a night shift. After driving through a blizzard and hazardous road conditions I was more than ready to come in after clearing my last client. I called in and said I was on my way in. A few minutes later N. called and said it sounded like we were all heading in and she was just going to go outside and warm up her car. Niiiiiiice. So I reminded her of the memo. After a big guffaw she asked me where I had parked my car. I told her. "Out in the bus yard beside a big yellow bus." Another guffaw and then a hearty 'seeya when you get here'. Big laughs.

I pulled into the yard and waved at N. as she was scraping the ice off her car and warming it up, kept going to the far end of the lot where I had left my car, jumped into my car and started warming it up. Lots of snow, lots of ice, very cold car. About 10 minutes later after I had parked the bus and my car was all warm and toasty I drove up to the office to drop off my keys. N. was standing there in amazement. She asked me where I had parked my car and I told her, 'at the end of the lot'.

"OH NO" she said, I've cleaned the wrong car! What she didn't realize that one of the other night drivers has EXACTLY the same car as me and so sweet N. being kind went and scraped off his car for him! I bet he was surprised.

Moral of the story, when you're being kind to someone, make sure you've got the right person. You'd hate to be kind to the wrong person. LOL.

I Been Churchified

Yesterday was the day for all things churchy. In the morning we went to witness my friend Christine get baptized in the Baptist church, the full dunk kind. Christine and I have been friends for many years and this was a big step for her. She's more like how I used to be. I'm not sure if that's bad or good but going back to the Baptist church made me so much more aware of how my view of God has changed over the years. I'd forgotten just how much guilt gets heaped in an everyday sermon. Whew! I was glad that was over, especially when the Pastor started talking about the church finances being $14,000 in the hole and they were going to be looking for where the 'sin was in the church'. Oh my.

I guess it's been awhile since I've been in a guilt-ridden church, you know, attending the one we do now is really low on guilt so I'd forgotten just how much of a worm I am.

Then, last night we went to church AGAIN but this time back to the church where it all began for Chris and I as a couple. It was nice to see our old buds again and enjoy worshipping with them. The Pastor and I go back many many years to a ministry team in a Pentecostal church. He lost his credentials with the denomination when they found out his roommate meant more to him than just someone who helped pay the rent. After reconciling his faith with his sexuality and more years of ministry at other GLBT churches he began this one. I reconnected with him there and met Chris.

It's all been such a journey for all of us. From the guilt ridden conservative church to the liberal "anything goes" church. In between a healing balm for restoration of soul and spirit. It's all part of the journey.

Won't it be great when we get to heaven and we're accepted into His Kingdom just as we are? There sure will be some surprises. For everyone.

9 years smoke free

Today marks 9 years since my last cigarette. Oh the poundage! But the poundage is still better than the bondage. The best thing I ever did. Well, one of the best things anyways.

Speaking of the Good Ole Days

I think I'm about 3 here...........aren't I cute?

The Good Ole Days

Today I picked up a young guy from his place of employment. His client info reads that he is 'mentally challenged' so that's how I'd describe him. He was friendly and started a conversation with me. He asked me my name and how long I'd been driving the DART and so on. I would've guessed him to be about 25 at the very most. But he looks more like 18.

We talked about his work and how the guys bug him and I gave him some advice as to how to handle them..............'shake it off'. I'm big on advice, ya that's me all right.

Just before I reach his house he leans forward, puts his head in his hands and says "J. I miss the good ole days". I wanted to chuckle.....can you imagine? So I asked him what he missed and he said. "oh you know, running and playing and riding my bike", stuff like that.

After I told him that I too miss the 'good ole days' sometimes as well I asked him how old he was. "23". So I said...'yeah, by 23 you really start missing the good ole days.'

It made me smile for the rest of the day.

Actually this should say "proud DRIVER of the short bus"

What a night! First one of my clients was (as they say in the group home) incontinent on his seat...........ya, translate that for yourself. The other word we used to have to write in our daily log was "void". To this day, whenever I write a "void" cheque for PAC I still think of that and shudder.

I asked all of my clients at my next stop "Please don't sit in this seat, it's wet". Of course somebody had to ask "How did the seat get so wet?" I replied.,"How does your seat get wet when you sit down"? Yup, she got it. Smarty pants.

THEN.....it started snowing. Big ole chunks of the white stuff coming down. Of course it was my night to drive the guy out to timbucktoo in the blizzard. Of course! Along the way, big chunks of ice were forming on my windshield and I could hardly see. But good ole R. He kept encouraging me.........'i'm goin' home, i'm goin' home,' Yup, you sure are R. just as soon as this freakin' blizzard lets up. BUT we got him home. Safety first. Always.

So.....................then it was time to head back to the Hospital for dialysis clients (essential services don'tcha know) and along the way..........well, apparently SOME people didn't notice it was just a wee bit slippery and they crashed into each other. Go figure. So there went my last break of the evening, but I got to the hospital and they all got on board and I'm here to tell you they all got home safe.

What is with this winter anyhow?

Can I go to Hawaii soon? Puhleeze??????????????

I'm So Dutch and I Have the Pictures to Prove It

I have been to the small town of Volendam (Netherlands) three times and every time I've had my picture taken in Dutch costume. It's a fun memory, dressing up in Dutch costumes and getting the pics done, usually in a hurry, and away we go. Years later it's fun to look back and remember the trips by the photos taken.

The first time I was there was 1974. I was 16 and my brother John was 21. We were trying to ditch our parents at the time and do a little travelling on our own, you know, because we were all grown up. We got our picture taken in Volendam for the first time. John's hair was longer than mine 'cause he was still in the hippie stage. He had the VW bus to go along with it, only thing was he never did the drugs that went along with the lifestyle. He just always had the look.

Then when I was in Bible College in Hawaii my friends Brian and Linda and I signed up to work in a church planting team in Belgium for the summer of 1981. Afterwards we went to Holland for a week, mooched off my relatives and did some travelling of our own and once again, landed in Volendam.


In 2004 my mom and John, Chris and I went to Holland for a cousin reunion and Chris and I did some travelling on our own and went to Volendam. Back to the same photo shop and here we are, huffing and puffing, squeezing ourselves into costumes. They didn't seem so tight before.

Celibacy

Celibacy can be a choice in life, or a condition imposed by circumstances.


While attending a Marriage Weekend, Walter and his wife Ann, listened to the instructor declare,

'It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other.'

He addressed the men, 'Can you name and describe your wife's favorite flower?'

Walter leaned over, touched Ann's arm gently and whispered, 'Robin Hood-All-purpose, isn't it?'

And thus began Walter's life of celibacy

You Gotta Love It.............

The Medical Profession Speaks out on the Financial Bail-Out Package

The allergists voted to scratch it, and the dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.

The ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted; the pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the pediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!" The psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the radiologists could see right through it, and the surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.

The internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the plastic surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.
The anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas; and the cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

In the end, the proctologists left the decision up to the assholes in Washington.