the Vision and the Reality

I have a house full of dogs.

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to have a house where I would be able to look after unwanted dogs. Give them a place to live, be sheltered from the elements, feed them well, and enjoy their company.

While in school I did a co-op at a boarding kennel and a light went off. I could do this. Have a place to spend time with many dogs and yet earn money off them. It would be a win win.

I have two of my own dogs. This week I have 6 dogs here, however the other 4 dogs are not paying clients. And I'm getting 3 or 4 more dogs tomorrow night that are also non-paying. Not quite the money earning venture I had envisioned.

However my non-paying four legged friends are special. One is a foster dog whom I've had a couple months now. And the other 3 are dogs from up the coast from a native comunity called Kashechewan (Kash). There is a group of dedicated people trying to educate the people of these native communities on owning and proper care of having a dog. Hundreds of dogs in these communitues are shot for no particular reason other than the fact that their owners don't properly care for them and the dog population sky-rockets thus ending the need to shoot and kills the animals. The other dogs I get tomorrow are also from one of these northern communities.

So though I'm not making money I feel like I'm doing my small part housing these lovely creatures on their journey to a new and better life.

Ontario's Oldest Premier Winter Carnival

That's right my home town of Cochrane Ontario is gearing up for our Winter Carnival! Ten days of winter fun to help break up the long mundaness of our long Canadian Winters. Some of the activities include: Miss Chimo Princess Pageant, Skidoo Races, Torch Light Parade, MS Fundraiser hockey game -Police vs Fireman, Ice Fishing Derby, Polar Bear Dip, Parade, Sliding, Ice Hockey 3 on 3 tournament, Bantam Blues Hockey Tournament, Demolition Derby, Thunderation Week, Ice/Snow Sculpture Contest, Vintage Snowmobile Display and Rides, Helicopter Rides, Horseshoe Tournament, Beer Tent -and night dances on the lake, Wing-a-thon, many many dinners to raise funds for local charities and organizations, plus a bunch of other activities to check it out more here's the website; www.cochranewintercarnival.com .

This year I'm finally working somewhere I can participate in thunderation week and have co-workers with a little enthusiasism. Thunderation Week is every day next week has a theme and you dress to the theme. Monday is Adventures in Wonderland, Tuesday is Tropical Vacations Day, Wednesday is Snow Sports Day, Thursday is Ugly Sweater Day, and Friday is Pajama Day. Monday at the store I'm there by myself as Sam will be out of town -so I'm thinking of doing a Mad Hatter kind of costume. Tuesday we're going to wear our beach wear and have coktails/moktails and our beach chairs to sit under our palm tree, snow sports hockey would be obvious but we feel it will be a popular go to sport so we're going to think of something else we can do, ugly sweater day is perfect since I got an ugly sweater for xmas and pajama day is pajama day! complete with bed head :)  If I remember I'll try and get pictures of us all week.

The crowd gathered on our lake, where we host many of the Carnival events.



A brave soul jumping into the chilly lake as part of the Polar Bear Dip.



One of the many trucks/floats par-taking in the parade.







Mending Fences?

Saturday was one for the books. My sister-in-law invited me to go with her to Timmins for the afternoon. This was her first attempt at mending the very broken fence between us, well maybe not the first as I guess that would have been her appology. It was weird and awkard and by no means things are back to where they were  but it was a start. We chatted about Kelsie and how lost she is in her life -and atleast it was a subject where we share the same opinions and conerns. She invited me to park my camper back at Nick property -which at this point it was nice of her to invite me back but I don't think I can go back there quite yet I don't want to spend THAT much time with her just yet.

This weekend I've also come to realization that decisions regarding the termination of affairs and friendship with A (I will not say his full name due to the nature of our relationship) was indeed the right decision. It had been a tough decision call A on his bullshit and see what kind of friend/human being he actually was, and at first it was heartbreaking and a huge disapointment that the worse was true. But now I can honestly say it was the best thing for me. Having toxic people in your life is not very healthy. In a way I miss the fun we used to have but I don't miss the drama thats for sure. There's just one more toxic person that I can say goodbye to, the rest are unfortunately family that I'll have to find other coping methods to dealing with them.

I'm also pretty pumped about the prospect of adoption, and I may move up my timeline for starting the process. I'm going to visit my best friend Liz next month, and once I break the news to her about my intention of checking out adoption I'll probably contact the local childrens aid and see what they have to say. I am a bit doubtful that my financial situation will kybosh the adoption but I won't know until I check things out.

MTV Loosing IT

Tonights the first time I‘ve seen the show in its entirely. It‘s basically a show about people telling their story about how they lost their virginity. Now i get the idea behind the show, opening up lines of communication to teens and their anxieties about loosing it and their ideas that its going to be this perfect representation of entering into the wonderful world of sex.

They have both straight and gay stories, which in this day and age is fantastic. My disbeleif is how these people can remember all the details of loosing their V-card. I do not remember all the vivid details of my loosing it story. I know who it was with and how old I was but I dont remember when/the date, or maybe whats worse is where we were.

Some random loosing it facts - The average global age that people loose their virginity is 19. The average age in North America to loose your virginity is 17. And on average women have 4 sexual partners in their life. I can see the first two facts being somewhat accurate the last certainly does not apply to me, my number is higher -but not as high as the number is the movie ‘what‘s your number‘.

Do you have a great loosing it story? Or is it more of a non-memory like mine?

I'm Not The Only One

One of my favorite lines from this song is "i may be a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" I'm always on the lookout for "others" like me.

Friday was mom's birthday. After work I joined her and some of her collegues at a local bar for some pre-dinner drinks. It was a good laugh. Teachers are people too, though lots of times as we are students we forget that. Unfortunately for the children of teachers we don't get the chance to forget they are people too. There was some great times shared tones of good laughs and head shakes.

One of the other teachers/ladies that was there is very much like me, in the sence that she is strong, independent, smart, and doesn't take bull shit from anyone, and still single. She's atleast 10 maybe 15 years older than I am, and its both depressing and reassuring that I'm not the only one. Depressing in the fact that if she still hasn't found a man I could still have a while to keep looking for mine, and reassuring that I shouldn't give up the search. It was just a nice little self reminder that I'm not the only one, even though at times it can feel like it.

Living in the Moment

Yesterday I went with my parents to visit some cousins in a nearby town -2 hour drive. We had a lovely visit, I know you're not suposed to really have favorites when it comes to family, but with my super large family these cousins are definately fall into the favorite category. Its all very weird too, finding myself and most of my cousins are now adults, we're not teenagers anymore most of us on headed into our 30s or already there, we're buying houses, living with significant others/getting married (seems like everyone but me on that one), finding jobs that suit our needs, and even some starting families and those that aren't have parents practically begging for grandkids. Which was one of the conversations that came up while visiting, I said I wasn't having biological kids and my mom and cousin said I could adopt and thought I'd make an excellent parent, so that was great to hear. Makes me think I should get the ball rolling even sooner....I have been doing more thinking on the subject and I'm thinking get things rolling in late summer, early fall. My ideal plan would be to adopt a family of kids, brothers and sisters that risk being split up to a max of 4 kids, with none of them being younger than 2. I know it would be crazy and challenging, but I think pretty rewarding in the grand scheme of things. My other plan which I'm not entire sure will work out is to keep my parents out of the loop on this, so I can be like surprise you wanted a wack of grandkids now you have them. But I'm not sure how well that'll work out cuz I know you have to have references and background checks done and show you have a support system and all that jazz when adopting through the government, but I'll see how it goes and keep updating as I go along, especially since I don't want to involve my parents in the process.

Also...on the drive home from our visit there was an acoustic verison of one of Eric Church's songs on the satelite radio, a thought crossed my mind to see if he was playing in ontario any time this year and just as luck would have it he's playing all over Canada right now and will be in Ontario next month. I first asked Rose if she wanted to come but she decided she couldn't afford it, with our Pink concert in march and her trip to Florida and a trip to New Brunswick to visit her Brother and sister in law and new niece of nephew in July. So better than Rose I'm headed to Ottawa and going with bff Liz. And as luck will have it the concert in Ottawa is on the Family Day weekend so I can make a long weekend out of the trip. It's kind of a last minute planning this trip and were up in the nose bleeds for the concert but it'll be a good time and can't go wrong with listening to a couple hours of Eric Church. Plus maybe with some Liz time I can help her get motivated and finally set a date for her wedding :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2gGXlW6wSY&list=PL8965C8040793FA3C&index=2

Baby Brains

It seems like everyone is having babies or trying to have them.

I got word on Wednesday that a close cousin and his wife are expecting in July. It's happy news. Also a big year for them, husband has a new job and they're moving out of province plus the expantant arrival of a bundle of joy.

My brother slightly pissed off his wife this week by buying camoflauge crib bedding. She's pissed cuz she's not pregnant yet, they've been trying but nothing yet. I have a few theories as to why they aren't yet, stress being a major factor.

I've been on and off the haing babies fence. I have no desire to be pregnant or give birth. I would like to skip the first 2 maybe 3 years of having a baby. However I think having kids as part of your life adds a little extra something to it. I've looked into the adoption process it doesn't sound too daunting, but it can still take a while. I'm seriously thinking about it...maybe in a year or two get the ball rolling.