Happy birthday

So today is my birthday - 54 years old. It's a good time to reflect on the year/past years and how much I have been blessed. I have a beautiful daughter - who makes me very proud. I have a wonderful son in law who is the perfect match to my daughter - God has bless us/them richly. I have two beautiful grandchildren - what more could I ask for. The Lord has blessed me so much. I have an amazing husband who spoils me with love and takes very good care of me. Today was a perfect example of his love. We spent a wonderful day wondering around downtown. It was fun! We had lunch at Wvrst - yummy sausages and shopped long King Street and Queen street before going back to our room and relaxing. We spent a short time at the Eaton Center again and then went out for dinner at Maguette.

The dinner was nice and the restaurant celebrated Earth Day by turning out most of their lights. It was a cozy atmosphere with candles. We stopped at a pub called Fionn Mccools and Ralph enjoyed a nice scotch before we returned to our room It was a fun day although I am a bit tired after all the walking. Yes I will admit that I am slowing down a bit, but I still thoroughly enjoyed our day together. Ralph - I love you!! Thank you for a wonderful day.

A weekend away

What a week! This has got to have been the busiest week of the year. My cell phone rang non stop all week long and for 3 days I was out of the office facilitating a planning meeting. Don't get me wrong - I love doing those sessions, but this week just seemed to be crazy. I am so thankful that Ralph and I decided to go away for a few days just to get away and relax. I needed this. So today, I woke up with the alarm at around 6:20 and felt like I was racing to get things done. Empty the dishwasher, wipe down the counters, check the washing machine, blow dry my hair, finish packing and drop Oakley off at Teresa and Lawrence's. Before I knew it, it was time to leave and after driving halfway to Teresa's I realized I had forgotten Oakley's food. So I tured around and then realized I had forgotten to go the the bank. Finally I arrived at Teresa's only to think that I had forgotten Oakley's cookies. Thankfully Teresa calmly reassured me that she would get his cookies (or Sandra would) and it was ok to go to work. I needed to be there early to prepare for my extremely busy day. While driving there, I called Ralph and he assured me that Teresa had Oakleys cookies as they were packed with the rest of his stuff. I was able to get away on time and met Ralph downtown around 4:15. We walked to the hotel and without even thinking nicely made our way to the Sheraton Hotel. Imagine our embassassment when they told us that we weren't registered there. Here we go, with me leading the way and Ralph quietly following along. I knew we were registered at the Hilton but for some reason my feet took us to the Sheraton. No probelm - I apologized for the error and laughingly told Ralph we were at the wrong hotel. Needless to say - he wasn't too impressed. Five minutes later we were in our room at the Hilton. It's a beautiful corner room. A junior suite is what they call it with a wonderful view of the city. We enjoyed a nice glass of wine together and then headed out for a walk. We visited a few stores at the Eaton Center and I bought myself some fun earrings (Anne you might recognize them - I think I might wear them to Anne's wedding) and then went to Oliver and Bonicini for dinner. This restaurant was across from the Sony Center. A nice restaurant but very busy and therefore very noisy so the ambiance wasn't quite what we were hoping for. Oh well, we still enjoyed our meal and subsequent walk afterwards. We're now relaxing in our room - Ralph is watching sports while I update the blog. It's golng to be a nice relaxing weekend.

Another great walk

I am really enjoying our walks. Today we walked along the path across from the church. 5 of us went - Janette, Teresa, Lydia, Marian and I. We saw 7 deer at one point in time and then along our way back we saw them again. It certainly added a "highlight" to the journey. The weather was much nicer today, although we were better prepared with hats and gloves. It got dark quicker though because it was really cloudy. I'm looking forward to the next walk and curious to see what nature we come across.

A walk in the park!

In July, Arja is organizing a canoe trip with the woman - I'm not yet sure of the number, but originally 18 women expressed an interest. The numbers are dwindling, but we will still have a good amount of woman taking a "ladies" weekend away. I'm looking forward to the adventure. It's been years since I have been canoeing.

So, with the trip in mind, some of the ladies set out for a walk along the path to get ourselves in shape. I hope that this will be a regular thing where we can meet and walk for an hour. It's a great way to get ourselves conditioned for the trip. Tonight it was pretty chilly, but we dressed warm and enjoyed our first walk. We saw many Robins in the fields and what looked like "fish" possibly salmon swimming upstream in the river.

A surprise visit

I got a text at around 1:10 from Ralph this afternoon... Where are you was his message? I was just about to head home and what a surprise I received to find Laura and the girls had come for a visit for my birthday. It was a little bit early - but what a nice surprise. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon. Thank you Laura for the beautiful time we spent together.

Birthday Celebrations

How nice, a birthday celebration at work.

We were all gathered together in the kitchen where a beautiful cake was provided. Everyone sang happy birthday to a group of us celebrating our special day! What a nice surprise.

Daffodils in March

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather this month. Today my daffodils started to open. It was getting dark when I got home but I was able to take a few pictures.