a nice surprise!

Our old neighbours stopped by my work this morning, they live in BC now but they were in town for a doctor’s appointment so they popped by to ask about a fridge and to say hi! 

Big Hugs! 

Big Smiles! 

Man, they are great people! I forgot how nice it was living beside them! They taught us how to play dice, and we had many a game of dice with them.....and many a glass of wine!

It was a great way to start my day and much needed reminder to me that things are not always as you remember them…….

 

I always think of our time in our old neighbourhood as negative and angry, when in fact it was only one person that was that way. It took up way too much of our energy dealing with him and clearly it has taken up permanent residence in my memories too. Thanks to a surprise visit today I was reminded of the good friends we made, the fun card nights we had and the laughs we shared!

From my meeting today I am reminded that we are in charge of how we feel, we are in charge of what we take away from our experiences. Instead of focusing on the negative of that situation I should be focusing on the positive!

We moved out to the country and are living in a beautiful, peaceful setting, and who knows, without that one rotten egg we may never have gotten the push we needed to get out of town!  We were able to keep our house as a rental property, have lucked out with a great renter and have a great excuse to still pop by and see some of our old neighbours that we got along with! We have met and become part of a great community of people that share the country lifestyle with us and are some of the most helpful, kind people we have known!

 

So really, I should be thanking that one bad egg for all of the good things that came as a result of his actions!

I like that!

It feels so much better!

It is so easy to focus on the bad…..why is that?

 

Are there things in your life that can be turned into positives by just taking another look……..

Fall

Fall is such a wonderful time of year! The days are warm, the sun is starting to set earlier, but still stays up long enough to provide some  brilliant sunsets! The mornings..... well, the mornings are a little too dark for my liking, just a reminder that winter is around the corner. 

 

Harvest, a time of gathering and reaping what we sow. Sometimes we have a great year and harvest is bountiful, providing us plenty of reserves for the coming winter. Other years harvest is poor, leaves us wondering how we will make it through another winter. 

 

My mom always had us do a fall and spring clean at our house, I can't say I loved doing it; washing the walls, cleaning out the closets, all the re-organizing....but now that I am older and running my own household, I totally get it! It feels so good to start a new season with a fresh outlook and a clean house! 

So along with harvesting crops and gardens, fall is a good time to take an inventory of some of the things in our lives and not just our winter clothes and the junk piled up in the basement; but also some of our relationships. It is a good time to see how what we have planted in our lives has fared through the summer, if it is going to provide us with what we need to make it through the winter. Who says New Years Eve is the only time we can re-evaluate things? 

It isn't always easy either, like a favourite pair of shoes, we all have relationships that we really liked....but they just don't fit the same anymore, you can still wear them - but they just don't make you feel the same as they did when you first got them. Just like those shoes,  some of the things we "planted" haven't done so well and as much as we wanted them to thrive and even though we have nurtured and cared for these things.....they didn't make it. So you have some choices to make - you can leave them be, let them keep taking up space in your life, you can bag them up and drop them off somewhere, making room for the new, you can give them one more season "mend some fences", see if things turn around or you can just call it a day and let them go.

Whichever way you decide to go, remember, winter is around the corner and you want to be ready - it is going to get cold..... you need to surround yourself with warmth.

mmmm homemade soup!

I love a good homemade soup, so comforting. I have made some great soups and some not so great soups...although I have to say it is really really hard not to make at least a fairly good soup. 

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler and the trees are getting thinner. Perfect time to get some soup simmering on the old stove! 

Butternut Squash it is! This is a recipe I have made a couple of times, it is super easy and a nice change from the chicken and hamburger soups I always make. Here is what I did.

Grab a container of homemade chicken stock from the freezer

Slice the squash in half length wise. 

 

Scoop out the guts, place face down on a pan and place in the oven. My oven was 350 with the convection fan on and I had it in there for about an hour.

 

While that is roasting, chop up an onion and some garlic, sautee in olive oil. 

Remove the squash from the oven and let cool. When it has reached room temperature (or if you are impatient like me use an oven mitt) scoop out the squash and place in blender.  

Add the chicken stock and onion to blender and puree. Pour the soup into your soup pot and simmer. Add water if needed. Also I alternate between curry and nutmeg. My husband likes neither - he likes it with just the garlic and onion.......so maybe if he is good, one day I will skip the nutmeg or curry.

 

animals

I grew up with a dog. Sandy. Man, she was a good dog. I loved her so much. I can remember when my dad and I went and got her. I wanted to name her Benji but my brother was learning about Dick and Jane and there was a dog named Sandy somewhere in there – so Sandy it was!  She shed like crazy, had the foulest breath you could imagine and she was the greatest little buddy a girl could ask for!  

 I couldn’t imagine my life without dogs!  I am not sure how people do it, but then again I don’t know how people have kids – to each his own I suppose! 

We are on three and four at the moment. They aren’t actually called three and four, although I could see a dog named seven somewhere in our future. No, that is just the order of their presence in our lives.  

Number one was ok…my husband was more attached to her than I was for sure – she was the girl in his life before me.  She was old, cranky and tired when I came into the picture and we said good bye to her within the first year of our relationship. Her name was Roxie. 

Number two went to the rainbow bridge this past November. Harley. Words cannot describe that dog. He was one of a kind.

This brings us to our current four leggers, Houston and Sammie. 

 

We have had Houston for five years or so and Sammie we just got in October. They are good dogs – most of the time. They make us laugh, they keep us busy and they love us.

 

Houston was a reservation dog when we rescued her; she didn’t like men and was pretty unsure of herself. We started out in a townhouse, moved into a cute little inner city house and then we settled for a year or two in the ‘burbs. The city didn’t really agree with her (or us) and when we moved out of town she was in heaven!  Running free…no fences….deer and elk to chase! She still isn’t crazy about men she doesn’t know but it is a good thing now that we live in the country! Strange men don’t stop by the house very often but during hunting season we get a few and when they do….they don’t get out of the car! Lol She is a great number three! 

Number four – Sammie! Sammie is the first dog we have gotten that isn’t in the typical breed that we go for - Rottweilers or a mixture including Rottweiler is what we have always had. Not Sammie! He is Irish Wolfhound, German Wire haired Pointer mixed with who know what else!  He is also a rescue and although we don’t have much history he is a happy, playful boy who hasn’t shown any quirks from his past life. We have been having lots of fun getting to know him. We enrolled him in an obedience class and I have to say…..he was a total rock star! Other than being skunked nine times this year;  he has been a great number four!

cabbage rolls

Food, homemade wine, love and lots of laughter.

These are the key elements of every family gathering I can recall.  Always so much food! Too much food if you ask me, but that never stops any of us from over eating!  We all have our favourites. Mine was never cabbage rolls…..but I think that is because I never actually tried one until I was in my late twenties. 

Why on earth did I wait so long?   

They are glorious! 

I made a batch for the first time awhile ago, they are incredibly easy and they turned out great! I will be making these again!

As far as cooking times - you know your oven, use your judgement. I think I did an hour, covered at around 350. I also made extra to freeze so putting in a batch frozen you'd be a good hour and a half at400 and I would uncover mine for the last half.  

Same with amounts....use your judgment - I like to cook a whole lot of something and then freeze it so most of my recipes are triple or quadruple the amount a normal batch would require.

I like to be creative with recipes so I change them up all the time, and make do with what is in my pantry. Here is a light overview of what I did.

Ingredients:

Tomato sauce – I used earthpure organic tomato sauce

Ground pork - I used lean free range ground pork from Spragg’s Meat Shop

Head of cabbage

White or yellow onion

Fresh dill

Bacon

Rice  - I cooked mine but you can also put uncooked rice in which will then expand and keep your cabbage rolls nice and tight.

Get the rice going, I like basmati but minute rice would be fine too.

While the rice is cooking, boil the cabbage and separate the leaves. I am not really sure if there is a certain technique but I just threw the whole head into my huge soup pot and boiled and peeled and boiled and peeled.

 

While that is going on fry the pork with onion, dill and bacon until cooked, add the tomato sauce and mix.  Add the rice to the mixture.

Once everything is cooked and the cabbage has cooled enough to handle without burning yourself, spoon the mixture onto the cabbage leaves and roll!  

Put rolls into a 9x13, lay a few strips of bacon on top and pour some tomato sauce over and bake. If you are making extra to freeze, I would just lay the bacon on top and leave the tomato sauce until you were half way through re-heating them in the oven.  

 

haunted house

So a girlfriend and I happened to find out about a haunted house located a few hours south of town and then we discovered that it was also a bed and breakfast! Clearly we had to go!  I called the next day to book our overnight get-a-way! The only date that was available was a Friday the Thirteenth…….spooky!  A month and a half later we were on our way to the Haunted Mansion and what is probably the strangest 24hrs of my life (thus far)

We both had to work, so we got away later in the day, planning to get to our destination by 8:00 - just enough time to get a good look around before the sun went down.  A fellow co-worker told us to try out a new restaurant he thought we might like that just opened in one of the towns along the way. The weather was beautiful, the conversation was flowing and we were sharing the road with a whole bunch of classic cars! When we got to town the streets were full of people with lawn chairs camped out to watch, what we found out later was a weekend long car show!  The cars cruise up and down the street and then race the quarter mile later and meet for a show and shine on Sunday! I tried to convince my cohort to stay and take in the show, but she was having none of it! 

The restaurant was packed (due to the car show) so we pulled up a stool at the bar, ordered a drink and ordered some food. The cute boys behind the bar kept us entertained while we waited…..and waited….and waited. I wish I could tell you the food was great at this place, but an hour later when the cute boys informed us our food would be another ten or twenty minutes we left without having eaten. At least we didn’t have to pay for our drinks!

Back on the road on our way to the haunted mansion we were in good spirits and feeling fine! Lack of dinner wasn’t going to bring us down! We had two bottles of wine in the trunk and were off to spend the night in a haunted house! Twenty minutes later we pulled into the teeny weeny little town that we would be spending the night in! Knowing that snacks were a must, we popped into the market, which is also the movie rental place, the post office, the gas station and the restaurant! All that was missing were the banjos! After we were fully stocked up on snacks and water we make the final trek to our haunted destination.

When we pull up I immediately get nervous!! What are we doing? This is a bad idea! We should go.  But we are here now so we may as well get this over with!

We walk up to the door and are just trying to decide whether or not anyone heard us knocking when this petrified albino man comes from out of nowhere looking very confused. We ask him if he works there and he is telling us that no he just went on the tour when his girlfriend pops out from behind the house looking just as scared and confused.  I immediately think that he must have got scared and ran out leaving her in there by herself and I silently judge him. Then the door flies open (think Kramer in Seinfeld) and this frazzled looking woman is standing there. She says “you must be my overnight guests” and although I feel like screaming and running away, instead I nod and say “yes we are”…..here we go! 

She tells us we are going on the tour and asks us to sign the guest book, telling us it will be easier to fill out the toe tag in the morning. I know she is joking, but when I look up at her – she isn’t smiling and again, I feel like running.  She opens the door and in we go….well in goes my girlfriend with me following closely behind holding onto her purse strap so she can’t get away from me. I am immediately anxious. Something is jumping out at me for sure….or worse something is going to grab me, and then BAM she smacks the wall and we both scream! “Jumpy hey girls” she says…..I believe this is when I dropped my first “f-bomb”. So we go through the main floor and it isn’t too bad, I can handle this, I am not enjoying how she keeps disappearing on us but so far, it isn’t too bad.

Then we come to the basement or dungeon as they call it. She says “ok ladies down you go” and my friend says “yeah right, you go first” I turn around to laugh and the lady is gone. Gone. We are standing at the top of the stairs about to go into a dungeon in a completely weird house and the lady who brought us to this stairwell is gone. Second “f-bomb” is dropped now…..followed by four or five more. I tell my friend that there is no way I am going first, I will follow her but I am also fine with leaving right now , getting a hotel and going back to the town with the car show.

No deal. Down the stairs we go. 

I think I may have blacked out most of this…..seriously it was that scary. All I remember is a lot of swearing and saying how bad of an idea this was, then we end up at four doors and the lady is back telling us we need to pick a door in order to get out. Obviously I am not touching a door, my friend tells me that I am a baby and that she is going to go back to work and tell everyone how much of a chicken I am. I am completely fine with this. In fact, if she isn’t going to try the doors I am completely fine just standing here all night.  Of course the last door she picks is the doorway into the next room. 

You would think this would be a relief….you would be wrong. The fourth doorway leads into complete darkness. Complete darkness. We make our way through the remainder of the dungeon and to a doorway, on the other side of the door…….daylight! I am very happy to be back out into the daylight and I am even happier that I haven’t wet myself!  And now I totally get why that guy ran out of there without his girlfriend - I immediately take back my prior judgment of him.

“Ok we can go now” - were the next words out of my mouth, followed by,“no seriously, we can go. I don’t think I can stay here – this may have been a bad idea”

No deal.

We grab our bags out of the car and head back into the house. It doesn’t seem as scary with the lights on, and you can actually see the beauty that this early 1900’s two-story offers. You can also see the amount of time and money these people have put into this place to make it a haunted mansion. After a quick bathroom break where we learned there was no working sink in the bathroom, we met up in the dining room for a much needed shot of tequila.

The night just gets totally weird after this.

After turning down the offer to go into town for a night at the bar where her husband is a bouncer, we were left alone in the backyard to light a bon fire while our hostess left to go pick up some random kid who was walking along the highway. While in the backyard giggling about the situation we had found ourselves in we noticed a miniature railroad complete with a grain elevator, a station and a set of tracks. When they got back the young girl took off and out of nowhere she returned with four miniature horses following her. 

As much as I was hoping one of the trains would pull out of the station with a midget dressed up as a engineer, or that a midget would come out riding one of those little horses on a little saddle with a cute little mini cowboy hat, that did not happen. (sure would have been cool though!), A lot of mosquitoes, some pretty weak ghost stories, and a ufo streaking through the sky which I guess could have been a meteor took up the rest of our time outside. Time for bed and after two bottles of wine, no supper, lots of excitement and a dress up party at 2 am we had a very sound sleep. Other than the original tour and brushing my teeth with the water from the faucet in the bathtub, the house didn’t seem that creepy. 

A beautiful morning greeted us complete with a breakfast of green eggs and ham! We thanked them for the interesting evening and got out of there! The ride home was great, filled once again with good conversation, nice weather and we even managed to stop at a few garage sales! 

It was a great adventure and I am glad I was able to share it with a great friend! As long as she will agree to go first, I look forward to our next haunted mansion adventure!

yeehaw

Everyone who lives in Calgary has an opinion on the Calgary Stampede, and most of them are more than happy to share it with you if you ask! Half of the city leaves; seeing it as a good chance to get out of town, the kids are fresh out of school, long weekend is over and work slows down. The other half stays here - enjoying ten days of paid vacation! 

Unless you are directly involved with the Stampede your work life is going to slow down! It is a time to socialize, have some fun and stroke some of those business relationships that you have. Whether your company sponsors a day at the rodeo, hosts a barbeque at your business or takes a barbeque out on the road to spread some Stampede cheer, it is a great opportunity to solidify those work relationships and make some new ones!

I did not grow up in Calgary but I have been here long enough to have both loved and loathed the Stampede.

I do really enjoy and appreciate the rodeo at the Stampede, the bull riding, the barrel racing, roping, team penning, and the chuck wagons – all of it!  All of that talent and skill in one place! One of my friends is a professional bull rider, a girl I grew up with makes a living as a professional barrel racer, even I have been on a horse a time or two and was actually pretty good at team penning (might have been the horse but we will never know for sure)!  I also like the bbq’s, the breakfasts, the visiting, everyone dressed up in their cowboy gear, hay bales all over the place and the overall feeling of goodwill the city has.

What I loathe, are the crowds, the heat, the traffic, the drunks, the line-ups, the shortage of taxis, the fights that break out, the jam packed c-trains and the lack of morals. I used to be one of the crazy people down there when I was younger! I drank too much, spent too much, ate too much and paid for it the next day! These days I do everything I can to avoid the Stampede grounds, although the Super Dogs show is tempting, I just can’t do it! I can handle the rodeo and chucks, but the rest of it turns me off enough to not even make the trek!

I think all Calgarians eventually get there, we have had our fill, we put our foot (or boot) down and stop going to the grounds. That will last for a few years and then we have kids OR we get old enough to forget about all the reasons we stopped going.

Either way, you’ll be back!

Happy 100 years Calgary Stampede. 

I will see you at the grounds in another 30 years or so -  until then I will continue watching the fireworks from the bed of my truck far away from all of your craziness!