Fur Babies

This is Pickles, he's 3months old. I'm not a "cat" person, but I keep a cat to control the mouse population in my house. I hate setting and emptying mouse traps more that I hate cats. I did have a gorgeous long haired calico cat for the past 5 years but I think she got eaten by the cayotes this summer :( Hopefully as long as Pickles won't feel the urge to venture outside and meet the same fate. next Friday he goes for his second set of needles then its choppy choppy time when he's old enough. Pickles is Lady's new favorite toy, whereever Pickles goes Lady thinks she should go too, the table, the counter, the closets...

This is Lady. She's my silver Standard Poodle. I rescued her this time of the year about 5 years ago, she'll be 7 in January. She's a nut, mischievious, cute, cuddley, plauful, a brat and bossy. She's a clown and very smart, makes me laugh and you never know what she'll get into. Like she knows how to open most of the doors inside the house; if I have the bathroom door close she'll think I'm hiding something from her and go investigate herself often ending up locking herself in the bathroom :S Not that you can tell from this picture but poodles do have the best soulfull dogs eyes, big brown orbs of love staring back at you. I lucked out when I rescued her too, as a groomer poodles are canvass in our world ready to be turned into works of art. She's had so many hair styles, and dye jobs and expirements done to her, she's very patient whenever I groom her or try something new out on her. Once she's gone I'll seriously think about getting another standard poodle -I'm not a small dog person. (I even have a couple possible names picked out Mokey or Gobo -names from my favorite kids show the Fraggles!)

 

 

This handsome devil is the famous Finnegan. He just turned 6 earlier this month. I adopted him when I took my grooming course. He's been the best dog ever. He's part German Shepherd and part Australian Shepherd. I worked very hard with him to train him, he's a very good listener, two things that I'm incredibly proud of is that he will walk with me off leash in the heal command -I had always wanted a dog that did that and the second thing being he is an incredible Frisbee dog. Summer or Winter, rain or shine he loves his frisbee. He's also really well behaved around other dogs. Finnegan's biggest quirk (or maybe just a point to prove he really is my dog) is that he loves to watch tv, especially when there's other animals or dogs on tv, CSI and the telus commercials are his favorite shows (he even enjoys the cartoon animals on some shows).

 

 

Dogs really do enrich your lives. I can't ever imagine not owning a dog, and if I could afford it I would have a dog farm, maybe when I win my millions this friday on the Lotto Max draw. My next dog is Elvis, he's a boston or harlequin coloured(black and white) Great Dane, another breed I feel in love with. 

 



Civic Duty

A recap on my last blog entry before getting to the civic duty business. I did go help the church ladies make their pies over 200 hundred of them! It was a good time, it's like being surrounded in a room full of grandmothers, it was good for the soul.

Now on to my civic duty, I got summoned for Jury Duty! I have to report mid November to the court house for jury selection! It's not exactly the best timing with me just starting the new job, but then really when does social justice ever come at a good time?

I am nervous and excited all at the same time. I am a huge fan of John Grisham novels and have seen a few episodes of Law & Order, of course I'm not in the south or in NYC so I doubt the court case will be as interesting but it is kind of fascinating to be part of the process. The nervousness and anxiety about jury duty is from going to the court house, I've never stepped foot in the building so it's unfamilar and then the potential of sitting on the actual jury and dealing with possibly 12 other strangers and reaching a conclusion in the case, and having lawyers and the judge and court officals and police and spectators there freaks me out. Rationally I know I have nothing to worry about but the irrational side of my brain has other ideas for me.

And in today's day and age, I also wonder if one would even get picked to be on the jury after posting this blog and a little mention in my facebook status. Could it be seen as being over eager, or biased? Am I tainted? Or I can pretend that like in the John Grisham book the lawyers have teams of people going through the potential jury pool and my blogging/status update could be making me an ideal juror or maybe not?

I also had the fam jam -my parents, brother, his wife, her parents and my aunt over for liver dinner on saturday -well 5 of us had liver the others had pork. Despite my continued dislike of sister-in-law, it went well. However when I brought up my impending civic duty, sister-in-law had no clue what we were talking about! I found it disbelieving and unnerving that at 22, someone could have no clue about how our justice system works. Thinking back to my elementary school years I seem to remember doing something in either grade 7 or 8 about how the justice system works with mock trials; in fact I think we did the trials using fairy tales like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Even after explaining things I'm not sure how much she actually understood. It's little facts like that that make me question my brothers choice in a wife, sure it takes all kinds of people to make up this world, but I'm sure my parents tried their best to explain as best they could how things work in the "real" world, there is no way I could ever be with anyone so clueless about some of the most fundamental things in society.

Here's hoping that depite the unfortunate timing I get to be juror number something and the case(s) I hear are semi-interesting. Who knows maybe I could write the next great court drama play, call it, 12 semi indifferential Cochranites in a box? (title up for debate..lol)

an affirmation

Deciding the importance of things....

What makes something more important than something else?

In the grand scheme of things the new job is going well, Im certainly happier grooming full time than driving taxi.

Im still finding myself strugling to figure out what else is important to me and what else I need to do to become “happier“.

One thought thats been rolling around in my head is the idea of adoption or fostering kids, well youth...i don‘t think I want any kids under 6, 9 or 10 would be even better.

I‘m completely disapointed with my love life and social life, not entirely sure how to remedy that except perhaps finding somewhere to volunteer and what better way to get involved in things again than by giving a child a stable home? Its certainly something im contemplating.

I may start a little simpler this weekend by volunteering to help out my church make pies for their sale this weekend. I enjoyed peeling bussels of apples as a teenager, plus I dont think Im working friday volunteering for a few hours cant hurt. And even though i dont attend church on various reasons and personal struggles, I do enjoy the fellowship of the other members.

Thanksgiving for 40+

Thanksgiving Table, set for 40



one end of the tabe...

other end of the tabel...get skinny and squish together!

Cousins; Kirstie, Rose, Steve, Me, Doug, Anastasia


Thanksgiving weekend was a blast! Can't wait until next year to do it all over again!
There was 40+ people for dinner on Sunday, it was great to see an visit with everyone...I also can't beleive how much older we've all gotten. My generation of cousins (in the pic above) are all in our 20s -with me being the oldest at 30, the cousin generation above us have kids in their early teen years, there are no more babies or young kids around -the youngest is 12! Seems like they're all waiting for my generation to start having babies...hint hint guys lol.
Needless to say I didn't miss my parents and the family at 'home' this thanksgiving, they're the ones that missed out on the family gathering, in fact my parents say they want to come down for it next year...



the essence of a Rose

This photo was taken in 2009/2010 over the holidays while I was visiting my aunt Bonnie and Uncle Jack in Qatar with my parents and grandmother. Here my mom and grandma are taking the buggy for a leisure ride while dad, Uncle Jack and I take the quads into the desert on the sand dunes. While we were on this trip, this same day actually my grandma and I also went on a short camel ride. Did I mention that my grandma was in her early 80s on this trip?

My grandmother, the city girl turned northerner.

She was the youngest of 4 girls, until at the age of ten the family welcomed a new addition a baby brother. Over the years I have heard countless tales and antics of her younger years. Then in her late teens she met my grandfather, they married and my grandfather moved her away from her family and the city to this 'god forsaken middle of nowhere' northern town. One of my favorite tales is when my grandma said she spent her first year of marriage in tears nearly everyday, adjusting from city girl to rugged northerner wasn't easy. My grandfather would often come home from work curious to see what crazy antics my grandma had gotten into that day.

My grandparents had 2 boys just over a year apart in age. They would have had more children if my grandmother wouldn't have been so sick after my uncle was born. My favorite story of when my dad and uncle were younger is that my dad was bugging his little brother and I guess really annoying the shit out of him, so little jack went into my grandmothers sewing basket got a needle and poked my dad with it. LOL. instant quiet! My dad didn't like needles, still doesn't, but when he was little he used to faint when he got stuck with one. Uncle Jack sure had some smarts on how to get his older brother to be quiet. Bet at times my grandmother wished she could have poked my dad with a needle to hush him up now and then.

My Uncle and Aunt didn't have any children, and my parents just had the two of us. But fortunately my grandmas extented family -her sisters and brothers are some of my favorite cousins amoung my giant extended family. This Thanksgiving weekend I'm going south to celebrate the holiday with her sister June's family. My decision of going south this weekend was simple, why stay in town and fake it through the weekend with my family and the tension between sister-in law, Kelsie and me when I can go south to be with family that I can be myself and who are glad to see me there. Plus I really do enjoy being around Great-Aunt June's family. And if its something I've learned in the past year is that life is short, and we never have as much time as we think we do.

A year ago October 1, my grandmother passed away. It was completely unexpected, in fact the day before Kelsie and I had gone to dinner with her, then her and I went shopping, little did I know that would be the last little shopping trip I'd have with her.

My grandmother lived her life with no fear, nothing to look back on and say, I should have done this or that. If she wanted to do something she did it. She was adventurous, outgoing, the complete polar opposite of shy. She was kind, fun, generous, chatty, upbeat, friendly with a carefree spirit. Things I can only hope to strive to become more like.

My grandmother was the last of my grandparents to pass on. And though I know my grandmother patiently waited 11 years to be re-joined my my grandfather in eternity I am glad to have gotten those 11 years to fill with more memories. I was blessed in my life to have gotten to know 5 grandparents when others don't get that opportunity.  Nanna and Poppa; my mom's parents, Grandma and Grandpa; dad's parents, and Great-Grandma; my grandmother's mum.

This is That

I love my new job! When you love your job it truly does affect how well you do your job and reduces the stress in your life. Granted I've only been there 2 days so far but so far so good.

This afternoon I logged into Facebook and one of the aquaintances I went to Chile with posted this photo and saying:

 

With all the drama I've been dealing with over the last couple of years I thought it was pretty fitting. In a round about way it also perhaps explains my recent (one of my 30th birthday to me from me presents) tattoo. My tattoo is a wolf howling at the moon, I got the wolf tattoo for a couple of reasons: 1) the wolf is a member of the canine family and I love dogs, they are an amazing creature 2) though wolves are pack animals they sometimes need to leave the pack and be that lone wolf and then find themselves a new pack where they are better needed and wanted. Here's a picture of my tattoo: