What a day!!

Hans and I have been making plans all winter on the renovations for the cottage. Yesterday we put in motion the first of it. Of course, before you can construct, you have to destruct. It took us only 6 hour or so.

This is what we started with. A huge wall dividing the kitchen from the living room with the fireplace in it. Because we built the cottage with scissor cathedral trusses we did not need a supporting wall at all, but at the time we built, we were strapped for cash and the fireplace we were given was a certain size, we had to make it fit. Thus we had a fireplace separating the kitchen area from the living room.

Believe it or not, this is the only picture I could find of the fireplace before, well, before we got at it. We did take a before picture, but my hand is quicker than my mind obviously, because I deleted it before I had a chance to rethink it. Then Hans and I started having some real fun:

You get the drift. We had thought that we would get down to the platform before we had to call it a day, but destruction takes half the time you think it will, while construction takes twice as long.

When we realized it was only 1:15, we decided to take it all down instead of just to the base. Soon we were on the kitchen side. First the cabinets came out, and then the rest. That big silver thing sitting in the way on the floor is the fireplace. It weighs a lot. Hopefully someone will come and take it away.

We were on a roll. Destruction is so much more fun that construction.





We were happy with the amount we got done, that's for sure. Next weekend we will take up the floor, and take out the closet walls in Hans' manroom. LOL. We have rented a truck for the week we are on holidays, May 14th so we can make many trips to the dump, but we can also bring up the materials for the construction. Watch this space for further development.

By the way. That's Ninja that Hans is holding in the above picture. This was her first trip to the cottage. She spent the entire time exploring. Well, except for the half an hour cat nap she got in right in the middle of the most noise we made all day. Silly girl.

Till next weekend - Mary

Good Morning From Ninja

Ninja gets her tushy trim

What a job! She was very quick and Ninja was very embarrassed. I had to laugh when the groomer said, hold her firmly and soothe her. LOLOL.

It's all about my Mom

This post is dedicated to my Mother. She died almost 6 years ago of small cell lung cancer, or the smoker's cancer. It was an ugly, painful death. No one should die like that.

She was born Ruth Floretta Graham in Fort MacMurray, Alberta. She had at least six siblings. Her father moved the whole family to Victoria when Mom was in elementary school. At 16 Mom quit school to stay home and look after the youngest sibling, as her Mother had just had too much and ended up in a mental hospital for a short time. My guess is that Granny was suffering from the baby blues in spades. My Mom hated school so she volunteered to stay home.
As soon as possible, Mom got work, still 16, as a taxi dispatcher. But her real dream was to join the armed forces and see the world. That's exactly what she did at 18. Below is a picture of her, at 18. I'm assuming she has just finished basic training in this picture and is getting ready for her first posting.

I love this photo. She looks like she has the world by the tail. I know that she had big dreams, travelling the world. She had no plans to marry or have children. She had spent all the years before, looking after children, doing things that she didn't enjoy. I think this is likely the most happiest time of her life. I'm so happy to have this photo.

Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out the way you want. My Mom met my father and because of the time, she took a risk and ended up pregnant. Below is a picture of my brother's baptism. My Mother is standing on the left, behind my father, who is holding my brother. When I look at this picture, it makes me sad. I know that this is not what she had planned for her life. And she had big plans. She must have been devistated.

In fact, I know she was devistated. She was able to tell me truthfully how she felt in that last 9 months of her life.

When Mom found her self pregnant, she told me she thought of every alternative. But because of the times, she was forced to continue with the pregnancy. She was also forced to give up her dream of being in the forces, as she married my father, and a married couple could not, at that time, both be in the service. Married, pregnant woman were discriminated against.

And the rest is history. She had two more children, one of them being me. When I became sexually active, or even just maybe going to be sexually active, she scurred me off to the Dr. to make sure that history did not repeat itself. I am grateful to her for that. I only wish I could have lived some of her dreams for her. But it wasn't what I wanted, and I didn't realize what dreams she had until we were able to talk about it at the end. It makes me angry to think of her giving up her whole life for us. And her life was no fairy tale. She did not live happily ever after. She was alone when she died, in that most of the men in her life had let her down. I think they were all scared. Scared of facing up to the truth, scared of listening to what she had to say. My father had been out of the picture for 16 years at that point. I won't even talk about him.

I did what I could for her, but I was angry at her for her drinking and the fact that she had literally smoked herself to death. I wish I could go back and be more compasionate. I did all I could for her physically, but I wish I could have been just nicer. Warmer. More forgiving. If there was a lesson to be learnt, it was that I need to put my judgements aside if I should ever find myself in that place again. Such a horrible way to learn a lesson.

To say my Mom was always bitter and unhappy about the way things turned out would be wrong. I'm sure she found some joy in her grandchildren and friends. Below is a picture taken maybe 18 years ago. We took a whole bunch of pictures that afternoon as Mom wanted to finish up the roll. This is one of them, all three of them had gotten giggly by the time this one was taken.

So, here's to you Mom. Your memory lives on for me. I think of you every day. Some little thing will trigger a memory. When I see something new, or have some new experience, I think, Mom, you would have loved this! Or Mom, what happened there? It's like you are living a happy, healthy life in my memory. It has to be enough. It's all that's left.

Work, work, work

I've been working full time for a long time it feels like. I'ma tired of it! The word on the street is that my co-worker who is on short term disability is going for long term disability. Hopefully this process won't take that long and the company can do all the adjusting and hiring that it needs to for me to be back on part time. I have to hand it to my boss who is very appreciative and considerate of my wants. He has arranged for me to have every Wednesday off in April. Even if it means closing the doors to the public!! This is a real possibility because the woman who is suppose to work for me on those days has been late two days out of three, really, really late one of the days, so late that I had to come in and cover until she showed up - at lunch time.

Besides working, Hans and I got another little project out of the way. We promised Jenn that we would put a cedar deck top on her balcony. So, we did that today. Isn't it beautiful?

It only took a couple of hours after we bought all the wood, drove it over in two cars (thanks Alia) and hauled all the wood up the elevator (thank gawd). HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENN!

I have taken a couple more pictures of the cats. They are getting used to each other again.

Aren't they cute. Sometimes. Poor Phoebe is still limping. We haven't taken her to the vet yet. She does not like the vet. Nope. Ninja likes to jump on Phoebe's back. Phoebe does not like Ninja jumping on her back. Nope. It's like having a big brother I think. Poor girl. We are going to the lake next Saturday if the weather holds to start the renovations there. So, we'll take Phoebe with us for the day. They will both like to have a place to themselves I think. I know Phoebe will. After all, it's where her favourite spot is.

Bring on summer! We are ready!

See? Just the one....

Summertime....and the living is easy.....

Teehee... Teehee. I cannot wait for warmer weather! This is our new fountain. On our balcony. The whole time we had the house, I wanted a fountain. But after all the renovations and work we had neither the money to waste, not the time to go look for just the right fountain. Teehee. I bought the wall decoration at my favourite store, HomeSense, yesterday. Everyone who has been to our place will tell you that I love wrought iron wall decorations. I will admit that there is possibly one piece too many. But just the one.

This is the view from inside sitting on my reading chair. It's much nicer than looking at a wall don't you think?

Life is good! Ninja thinks so. So do I.