Tag: Gifts

The Love Smorgasbord

Happy Valentine’s Day ☺💕💌

 

 

Mike and I are the worst gift keepers ever… if we have a gift or know of a gift someone else has for us, we don’t wait well 😜

So in true ‘us’ fashion, we gave each other our gifts early 😉

 

Mike got me a sweet little charm for my Pandora bracelet.

 

 

Me. You. Forever.
With a little heart on the back and a bit of sparkle ☺💕👌🏻

 

 

I got a shirt made for him with a custom design, listing all the places we’ve traveled together and I plan to get a matching one once I find a shirt😜

 

 

 

 

We were both pleased and the heavy burden of keeping wrapped gifts, lifted 😂

 

 

In honour of love day…I am sharing a little smorgasbord of things that I’ve been loving of late 😁

Continue reading “The Love Smorgasbord”

A Multitude Of Jem Moments

I was sick in bed with a bad head cold but I was also needed to stay with the nieces for a few hours back when they were visiting.
My older niece was told not to bug Aunty unless she had to and snacks and a movie were set up for her occupancy 😏

I woke up many hours later to find out not only had she let me sleep but she’d also watched her little sister after her nap ended, changed her diaper, put her on the potty, gotten her snacks and yogurt AND checked on me a few times!

She probably did a better job of babysitting than I would have and she was just a little darling 😉💕

Next:

My husband returned from his trip home to Holland on the 16th and I happily took him back ☺️
It was nice to have him home… and the gifts he brought with him 😉😜 Continue reading “A Multitude Of Jem Moments”

Core Values Challenged

Wednesday Dec 21st –

 

I mixed up some meatballs and sauce for our supper that night and then Mother retrieved me and I went to her house for the day.

She had requested my help with a big house clean and in return she would help pay for my plane ticket to Winnipeg in January.

That’s right, start of the new year Mom, my aunts, a cousin and I will meet up in Winnipeg for some girl time!

So, if you have been or live there, please let me know some ‘must do’s’!
I believe we will be staying around the Osborne Village area.

 

So, our whole day was spent cleaning and all that entails, including one extra WEIRD thing Mom made me do.
If I hadn’t wanted to have my ticket paid off I would have refused to do the one task she requested, simply because it went against every grain in my being and maybe even my core values :p

She got me to take down clothes from her closest and re-hang them on hangers that matched her other ones…
Had this meant she started with a multi colored, plastic and velvet mixture I would understand.
But she went from plastic whites, to different shaped plastic whites…

Anyways, we had a good a time as two people can have while house cleaning and then she took me home.
I heated up a large batch of the mozzarella tomato sauce, knowing that Mike would soon be able to get more of the packaged mix when he goes to Europe 😉

 

We enjoyed our supper and spent the rest of our evening relaxing and kitten watching.
I urged Mike to take photos of them while they are still young and cute because that’ll be over soon :p Continue reading “Core Values Challenged”

Thoughtful Thursday And Fabulous Aunt Friday

Thursday May 4th –

The day began with a look at the forecast, which in turn, made the day begin on a cheerful note and then with a glance at the calendar came the realization that we’d been in Canada almost one month already 😳

Time flies when you’re home 😋

It didn’t take long for me to head outside, the sunshine calling but the whole ‘yard work’ thing already growing old 😜
I did move some rock piles and pull some weeds before taking a break to write outside in the lovely spring air 🌤🌱📱

Back inside I had chicken to make soup out of and a supper to think of, since Mike was ‘souped out’… typical guy 🙄😜
(Yes, I too can become sick of one food if it’s eaten too many times in a row, but if someone is thinking of, cooking and cleaning up from a meal, I’m not going to complain that it’s once again soup 😏)

So, wanting to try something different I made up a creamy , lemon rice and chicken soup and while that simmered, I worked on a pasta sauce for supper.

The day passed amidst sunshine soaking until Mom returned and we shared a coffee (no,we didn’t share one coffee, that would be crazy) on the deck, telling of our days events… or lack there of in my case 😋

Michiel returned from work and brought me a container of raspberries 😊💕

Which is kind of funny because just earlier I’d been thinking (due to conversations had recently etc) about what gifts I liked most from him.
Knowing flowers wasn’t up there on my priority list and then thinking food was probably the easiest to pick and the most enjoyed 🙈

Low and behold, he got the vibes 😜

Mom had returned with a gift for me as well…
Cleaning supplies! 😂 Continue reading “Thoughtful Thursday And Fabulous Aunt Friday”

Extremely Pleasant Bodily Discomfort

Sunday Dec 25th –

 

 
Merry Christmas 😊

We were up early to leave and make it to church in time for the 9:30 am service.

Feeling tired and having a one hour drive there and back wasn’t the nicest start to the day perhaps but when one stops to think of the reason of the season and how blessed we truly are, what’s a couple of hours?

We enjoyed the service and got in some quick hellos afterwords, before everyone parted ways for their family and food filled day.

Our day was filled with the same plans… but only after we ate lunch prepared by Dad and went for naps 😋👌🏻

We awoke (from that awful kind of nap that leaves you more tired than when you first lay down🙄) and got ready for our evening ahead.
Which was to be spent with our good friends the Johnson’s 😁

We got there and were greeted not only by friends but with smells of glorious proportions, telling tales to our noises of what we were about to enjoy ❤️🍴

Gramps and Granny joined us there and Grandma Ruth as well, meaning Tammy had spent her day preparing a scrumptious meal for 11 people.


We happily sat down to enjoy the meal and the conversation died with the clinking of forks being the only sound heard.

It was delicious and also extremely painful after it was all finished with 😬😜

Thank you Tammy for the extremely pleasant bodily discomfort 😏👌🏻🍴

We then relocated to various locations about the house, needing space to stretch and taking the time to actually converse with each other 😋

The Naber clan joined in on coffee and desserts later on and it was an entertaining evening spent among friends, one that left us/me feeling happy and blessed ❤️

Hoping everyone had a blessed Christmas with friends and family, remembering times past together and making new memories, thanks to our Lord, His blessings and sending His son for us.

 

 

 

Happy holidays from Mike and I 😊❤️

 

Monday Dec 26th –

 

 
Recovery day from the rich food and late night, since we are all so old 😜

I enjoyed some of moms poppy-seed roll for breakfast 😁👌🏻

Looks sick, tastes amazing 😋👌🏻

My morning was spent writing and catching up and mom was busy cleaning the house.

Mike was having a rough day, sick of being caged up with mom and I 😜
Until she made us wraps for lunch that is 😏

Mom makes the best wraps.
No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Hers are the best. I’m sorry to all you other wrap makers but it’s true😜

She puts the perfect amount of everything, nothing to thick or to thin and she puts things on them that I don’t even necessarily like but blended together with her perfect cuts, spreads and folds, they are amazing.

It’s the love she puts in them I guess… or the poison 😏😜

 

 

Ferguson, I don’t think I’ve ever introduced him to you all before, but he is a special guy in our life.

He is a our hibiscus tree 😁

We got him before Mike and I got married, thinking we would use him for a part of the wedding ceremony and then plans changed, but we still kept him.

Mom has been in charge of his survival since we left and she had done very well.
Minus the odd time she forgot him outside in the cold, the days he was forgotten and left without water etc. etc 😜

He had been doing well up until she began home renos when he was terribly neglected and forgotten in the garage, under a pile of sawdust and dirt and eventually he was used a time or two as Rolo’s litter box.

He was not doing well any longer.

He lost all his leaves and Mom gave us the sad news that Ferguson’s life was probably over.

But he turned out to be a resilient plant and just needed his mother and father around because since we’ve been here he has put out multiple blooms and flowers!

Pro did bath him once and mother gave him tender care afterwords, which was all crucial in his recovery and we thank you.

Thus, you know now the story of Ferguson the hibiscus 😏😜

Mom heated up a lasagna for supper, adding some Holland Gouda to the already deliciously cheese covered top 😁👌🏻

That evening she bestowed some gifts upon Mike and I ☺️🎁

(Bracelet from Zoe 💕… Mikes gifts not pictured 😜)
A collection of goodies were opened and enjoyed before we sat down to watch the movie ‘Sully’.
The telling of the true life event about the pilot who landed a plane on the Hudson River.

A Taxing Morning

Wednesday Dec 21st –

 

 

 

We set Mike to work that morning, getting him to prepare the dinner for that night😋
He’s that slow 😏

No, not so much slow as overly precise in his chopping/measuring and he enjoys using every counter space 😜
Hey, neither mom nor I had to cook though so really, what’s a little extra mess?

Becca had gotten him the ingredients to make the Dutch chicken dish and we would be in town throughout most of the day so we needed a readied supper for once we got back.

We enjoyed a moose meat smoke (compliments of the bro’s hunting) for lunch before we headed to town and dropped off mom so she could go enjoy a massage while we did the errands 😋
One of which was to purchase the parents some new speakers so it wouldn’t sound like some awful trumpet player was playing loudly in everything they listened to 😜🎺

In one small store Mike was giving a sales pitch for a product he doesn’t even sell yet himself and as we left the store I laughed at how he just couldn’t help himself.
He said that was true and I should be happy he hadn’t tried to sell me yet!
The turd head 😏

Town was finished with and we headed back home where mom made us some tasty Clamato juice to sip on pre Mikes supper.

Which was very good 😉

 

 

Maybe a tad too onion-ish/curry-ish for some of us, but we aren’t ones who fear trying new and for Mike to have made it for us meant it was appreciated either way ☺️

 

 

 
Thursday Dec 22nd –

 

 

 

Taxes and GST and one very aggravating phone call made up our morning.
We had to call to figure out some number stuff/give information that the government was asking for since our marriage hadn’t been reported soon enough during assessments.

No biggy right?

Wrong.

Since I’m rarely here and well taken care of by my mother, she looks after my book work and what needs to go where, therefore I didn’t know the answers to the security questions the lady was asking.
She proceeded to tell me to ‘tell your mother to stop giving me the answers, that’s illegal and I will have to hang up’. 😡
Sorry that I wasn’t aware of what tax accountant my family uses lady! 🙄

All in all, it was not a nice start to our day and we were all in a rather non delightful mood afterwords.

Our day cheered up when we got a phone call saying our niece Emily wanted to invite us over for lunch 😉

Her meal choice was shrimp and soup, a choice we think she didn’t realize the consequences of because shrimp isn’t her thing but hey, the rest of us liked it 😋

We visited there for a while and I was honoured to receive some newspaper wrapped presents (wrapped and chosen by Emily herself I’m sure😉).

I was super happy to get a set of watercolor markers, ones I truly needed and had been trying to decide which to get👌🏻🖊

Some macaroons, a photo of Emily and a few other goodies filled the bag and it seems like I’m the spoiled Aunty more so than spoiling the niece 😋💕

Once we got back to the house it was time for me to test my markers, mom to write her daily things out and Mike to complete his car drawing that will go in the kids play room here. 

They both succeeded better than I 😬

Supper was taco salad and then Mom, Dad and Mike went out for Thursday night pickle ball and I stayed at the house.

Not ready for that much excitement 😜

No, I stayed back and straightened up a little and then sat down to test my markers until they returned 😊

Upon which return we ventured downstairs to watch a movie and have a listen to what the new speakers sounded like.
The speakers worked good… the movie was about 2.5 hours too long.
Full of confusion and no point in the end 😜

Much like that mornings phone call…

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