Merry Christmas to all!

I've had two people in two days tell me that they checked in and saw that I haven't been keeping up with my blog, so I thought I would update it as a family Christmas letter and email it instead of sending out cards this year. A bit of a cop out, but I'm a product of the technological age... I even invite people to dinner by email! First, here's the card... Sara sent it to me, so sorry Sara, you're the only one getting ripped off here! Isn't this a great card? I hope you all enjoy it as much as I am... of course you're missing out on the three-dimensionality of it...

So, in the spirit of family Christmas letters, let me fill you in on our year in a nutshell...

New Year's Day is always celebrated in a most Canadian way, with a beach party at our neighbour's down the road.  Then, on January 2nd we decided to... hahahahaha, just kidding... let's fast forward to March. Lawrence (Norm's nephew) and his partner Isabelle came from New Brunswick for a visit and some good skiing... fun visit as always... I'm hoping to see you both soon... hint, hint!

In April I turned 50. Sharrie and Mark came down and we celebrated with a family dinner. I immediately started experiencing hot flashes, mood swings, itchiness, mood swings, night sweats, moments of violent insanity... Sheesh. 

Norm's bees swarmed twice this spring, and now we have 3 hives instead of one (yes, he caught them all!). Two are fairly weak and we didn't get too much honey this year as we had to leave most of it for their winter food supply.

                       This is our harvest... pretty!

In May my euchre group went to Halcyon Hot Springs for an overnight getaway with an awesome potluck dinner, soaking in the pool and many euchre games. Fun times with the girls!

Sad news for our family on May 18th... my cousin Debbie passed away suddenly. She always loved fresh tomatoes on toast at my mom's! Sob...

We went to Vernon in June for my sister Sharrie's youngest's grad. Congrats Bro... always the ladies man (proof in the photo below... thank goodness he cleaned the spaghetti sauce off his face when he graduated!). 

It was a summer of weddings in our family. My second cousin Greg (Debbie's son) married his love, Carlee down at the coast. I wish we could have been there but we had made other plans that we couldn't change... sorry Greg. Some day we'll meet Carlee! 

                                Greg and Carlee

My cousin Kevin also got married. Jen, his wife, went from living with her dog Maggie to living with Kev and his four kids. Jen, you are a saint and we all love you!

                   The beautiful sand ceremony

We had Rosa (Norm's sister-in-law) and two of her grandsons (our great nephews) spend a couple weeks at our house in July. Norm and Rosa had bad colds so I was very grateful that I'd taken time off work for the visit... I bet I could lose lots of weight if the kids were here longer!

Rosanna (Norm's neice, Rosa's daughter, mother of these beautiful boys and one more), Hassan (her husband) and Adam (the one more that I referred to) came out for a few days to pick up Noah and Jacob. We had a house full (I think we need a bigger couch).

As soon as our company left we decided to paint the house. 

Before... (we'd just started actually, so you can see the darker grey under the deck)

...and after! Although I'm still waiting for new lattice, deck rail, eaves troughs, snow dams  and flashing. Sigh... and because I wasn't exhausted enough, I decided that my crappy flower garden, which got totally ignored and therefore overgrown and ugly, needed to be redone.

                                                           Before...

Midway... the after will be finished next year. Still pretty amazing if you look at both of them. Scroll up, now down, now up again, now down...

We got a cat this summer. I name him Sunny, but Norm doesn't like that name so he calls him several other things. He's old and sweet, and kills squirrels and mice (and occasionally birds). 

In September, Joanne, Julie, Donna and I celebrated our 50th year in Vegas. What happened there, stays there, but suffice it to say we had a blast!

This fall I auditioned for and got a part in the chorus of Jesus Christ Superstar, a local production that almost sold out all 6 shows! This was the most fun I think I've ever had with 60 other people...

This is me delivering one of my two solo lines... I'm a reporter, questioning Jesus after his arrest, and I used my iPhone (that pink thing in my left hand) as a microphone. I'd taped my words on the back of the case in case I got nervous and forgot them!

Immediately following Jesus Christ Superstar I got a bad cold. A month later and I'm still unable to sing with my Wednesday night chorus, the Glacier Harmonies... 

Norm turned 65 this November, and we had a small party to celebrate. He's totally excited that the bus to town is only $2 now instead of $2.50. As far as his days are concerned, he does yoga all morning - has been for 5 years now - and then putters in the basement or in his shop or with his tractor. He also enjoys watching TV and learning about history on the computer.

Yoga

Watching Netflix on his computer...

Working on the tractor... 

Unfortunately, he's gotten a little too comfortable in his yoga pants and now they're a typical fashion accessory...

So that's our year in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed the catch-up, blog style! 

With love and best wishes for a healthy and happy 2013, Norm and Lonnie

Jenna the Hen...

My chickens have had a run of bad luck. First Momo the rooster died from a respiratory thing, and then Jenna got constipated. I always bring my sick chickens in the house so they can have peace, quiet, warmth, safety...  she got better and I took her back to the coop. Then she got sick again. Spent a week in the house getting the royal treatment. Hot water bottle, long leisurely soaks in warm water, a finger up the butt to get things moving - okay, not completely royal as far as treatment goes, but necessary. I injected olive oil into her throat and fed her grapes and she rallied for a few days... and then yesterday she was unresponsive and barely breathing. She died early this morning. Poor thing. Now Honey is the last of the 5 pullets we bought from an old farmer in Blewett several years ago. 

Jenna in her warm bath, aka my vegetable sink...

Excuse the mess in my kitchen. Not only did I have a sick chicken to look after, but I have been dealing with excruciating upper back, shoulder and neck pain for weeks. I finally gave in and started physio, but it got worse. Now I'm going to Dr. Remi Champagne, a chiropractor who my friend Bev swears by. He doesn't do treatments to fix an injury per se, but he aligns the spine which allows the central nervous system to do its thing without blockages. Hard to explain, but similar to the issues that people with MS have to deal with. I've been 4 or 5 times and I'm already noticing huge differences in many little ways. Tonight is not indicative of my feeling better. The weather - raining a-frigging-gain, is causing arthritis to flare up in several of my favourite joints, and I'm suffering big time. Of course, we've been trying to get the yard looking good while painting the house... suckers for punishment, I'd say! Here's a sneak preview of the paint job... nice, eh?! We're going to do red and white trim around the doors and windows. And if it ever stops raining, we can paint the parts that aren't covered.

Give me a BRAKE!!!!

On Thursday morning I dropped my car off at Kootenay Lake Automotive because the brakes were making a weird sound. I asked them to call me with a quote when they knew what was wrong (they did... full brake job - front and back required), and Norm and I headed off to Kelowna in our just-fixed van (oxygen sensor malfunction) to exchange our box springs for low profile box springs (plural because they now split the box springs on new beds so they're easier to get in the house, and to transport... wise invention, that!).


Stopped for gas in New Denver and suddenly the van was lurching up the highway in a most unnatural way. We turned around and went right back to the Petrocan station where we'd gassed up, and the front left wheel was smoking when we got there. 


The guy told us it looked like the calipers had seized and that we'd have to have it repaired. He wasn't sure he could do it overnight so gave me the name of a place in Nakusp that rents vehicles, and while I was on the phone with them, he talked to a service station in Nakusp that said they could tow and fix our van by the next day.

  Waiting for our rental... 

The car rental place in Nakusp not only had a van (remember, we were carrying box springs), but they agreed to drive the 45 minutes to pick us up too! Crisis averted, and off we went to Kelowna to exchange our box springs, and do a little shopping at Value Village. 


This is our rental van... we've stopped for lunch at Lost Lake.

Some of our Value Village purchases... including Norm's new hat. I'm not sure why he likes to point at his watch in photos... it's a posing thing.

Check out the buns! They're real butter croissants!

Friday we spent a short time visiting with my sister and nephew, and then headed for Nakusp to pick up our newly fixed van - which was ready and waiting for us! Talk about smooth sailing. Expensive, but smooth! Thank you SO much to the amazing folks at the New Denver Petrocan... you guys ROCK! 

We enjoy a late coffee and early supper with our 

fixed van back with us... I love our van (and wine)!

And I should also mention that today is Chicken Thursday's second birthday! Happy birthday to the namesake of this blog, and my first (and only, now that we have no rooster) grandchicken!

Our Bees Swarmed Today!

Wikipedia says that swarming is the natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies. A new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees. In the prime swarm, about 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period, depending on the locale, but occasionally swarms can happen throughout the producing season. 

 Norm grabs huge handfuls of the bees from the bush and shakes them off onto the super, with his bare hands...

Only stung twice, and not while he was grabbing them by the clumpful (is that a word?)!!

This is video of me being brave and Norm in a hurry and not his usual gentle, explaining kind of guy!

 The new hive is set up next to the old one... hopefully they'll stick around!

Halcyon With the Girls

Saturday, May 5th, 9:30 am... picked up Heather, then Patricia, and finally Deb. We are going to Halcyon Hot Springs, about 25 minutes north of Nakusp on Arrow Lake. It's my first, and their annual weekend of soaking, eating and playing Euchre. 

This is my Ford Fusion with the huge trunk. Four women, ONE NIGHT, and there's enough stuff in there to satisfy everyone in a small village for a month.

Heather has to stop and pee lots... our first stop less than an hour into the journey (and she peed before we left her house too)... But the cool thing about Heather is that she is happy and excited and doesn't care if we tease her. She's just glad to be alive and going on a little holiday with her buddies!

A quick stop for shopping and lunch in Nakusp. I love Nakusp!

 Me and Heather in front of the store where I bought a bunch of  neat stuff... Hey Isabelle, check out my sunglasses! Nice, eh?!

 Me, Deb (I think my hand was touching her butt right then, hence the expression of pure delight? disgust? Hard to say...), Heather and Patricia. We're standing in front of the Leland Hotel - nice spot for lunch with a hilarious Italian cook and a view to die for...

Nice paint job! 

Finally, we arrive!

 The view from our kitchen window in Village Chalet 11B... a perfect room with two queen beds, a hide-a-bed couch, kitchenette (only with a barbecue, fridge and microwave, mind you) and a very short walk to the pool.

Ready to go for our first soak and I didn't think to bring pool shoes. Do you have any idea how much it embarrasses me to be seen in public looking like a dork? 

Left the pool because I wanted a drink, so we played a few games of Euchre... Patricia and I are the champions!

Okay... had drinks and snacks and several games of Euchre... back to the pool till we decided it was time to cook supper.

Heather cooked the steaks, I brought salad...

Deb made scalloped potatoes and garlic toast, and Patricia did a lovely lemony cheesecake. A veritable feast with only a microwave and a barbecue!!

It was super moon night. 

After hours of food and drink, laughter and cards, we finally went to sleep. I believe the last words of the evening were, "good night, John Boy". 

Another soak before heading home... it was sunny and some of us got burnt.

                 Applying cream to sooth our hot faces.

 Late lunch in Winlaw and then home. I wanted to blog about all the funny things we said and saw, but I think you had to be there. Either that or the sun fried my brain, because I can't think of a single funny thing right now, even though my stomach muscles still hurt from laughing all weekend.

Thanks to Heather for organizing the weekend, and to all of you for making me a part of the gang!