Saying Goodbye.

May was such a sad month for our family. On May 2nd we said goodbye to our beloved dog Mabel.  It has taken me some time to find the words to write this.  It was too fresh, too guttural, too heartbreaking. Yet I knew I wanted to say something.

It seems unreal.  I still expect to see her outside in the backyard or lying in her favourite spot in the family room.  A spot where she could keep an eye on us and make sure we were with her.  It's the little things I miss.  The sound of her tags on her collar as she walked, the sound of her low grumble to let us know she wanted to go outside and her enthusiasm for laundry fresh and hot out of the dryer.

We speak of her often and I'm glad we do.  She's everywhere in our lives but yet the emptiness is there.  I still dread coming home knowing that I will return to an empty house with no greeting at the door.  No stretch of her legs upon my knees and no burying of her face into my chest when I picked her up.

Over the month the weather has turned warmer and we've been out gardening but there is something missing.  She loved this time of year when we spent more time outside.  She would keep close while lying on the grass with her head held high and taking in one of those lovely spring breaths.  She would wriggle on her back in the grass for that perfect satisfying back rub.

She was a quirky, loveable dog. She was loyal and protective of her family and she loved us.   Outside of her loud greeting to strangers, and even visiting family members at the door, she was a calm, gentle spirit.  In quiet moments she could even convince non-dog people to like her.

We said many times how well she fit into our family because really we're kind of quirky too.  I'm not sure if we were meant for her or if it really was that she was meant for us.  She did everything with us. Everyday she was always nearby. She traveled with us, camped, hiked and loved going up to my parent's lakeside cottage.  She was fabulous on long car trips but completely awful on short ones whining and howling as if we were going to leave her at the groomer or vet permanently.

She grew up with us.  The girls were 8 and 10 when we got her...and Al and I? Well, we were younger too. :)

We've had lots of good memories to share and so many funny Mabel-isms that we just got used to and made us love her even more.

• Mabel was afraid of hardwood floors which led to many funny situations.  
• When caught trying to pick up kitchen floor food remnants she would back out of the kitchen really slowly as if thinking we would not see her.   
• She had a weakness for paper.  Although she had mostly grown out of this one day in March we returned home to find some chewed up paper in the living room.  We didn't say anything but Mabel couldn't even look at us.  She immediately went to the corner of the front hall and gave herself a timeout.  (Something we never did or requested of her just simply something she thought she should do.) She was her own self regulator.

She did have her health issues over the years that I could certainly relate to.  At age 6 Mabel went in for surgery to remove bladder stones the same day I was going to the hospital for a follow up to my kidney stone procedure.  That is just such a strange coincidence.

She could look deep in your soul with those amazing brown eyes and I swear she understood what I was telling her.  Through the worst times or even just trying to recover from a migraine I would feel a little paw on my knee or arm just to let me know she was there for me.  I remember in February when she had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart I was upset and sitting on the floor with her.  Her little paw on my knee and those eyes looking up at me.  The dog with the biggest heart literally had the biggest heart.

Maybe looking back we can see that her death was not so unexpected but it does help us to know that not only a week earlier she was running around almost puppy-like.  She was happily running for toys and giving excited greetings at the door.

Mabel loved her family and was the most happy when we are all together. In the last few months it was a rare time when we were all home together. Erica was in London at University and Al had many business trips and Sydney's dance season was upon us.  On the Wednesday I picked Erica up from residence for her summer break.  On Thursday night Al returned home from a 5 day business trip in Florida. On the Friday morning Mabel was out chasing rabbits in the backyard and only hours later I was rushing her to the vet.  I sat with her on the floor of their office while we waited for some medication to kick in.  We were expecting it to work like it had in the past.  It took Al a couple of hours to make it home from downtown and within 20 minutes of him arriving at the vet she let in and laid down.  She gave us enough time to get the girls over to the vet and she didn't leave us with any decisions to be made.

She had her family around her just like she would want.
We knew it was her time to rest.

Mabel
Feb 12, 2005 - May 2, 2014

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Sydney made this beautiful gingerbread house in her culinary class.  All hand baked by her.   I think this might be one gingerbread house that actually tastes good and doesn't risk your dental work!

No time to waste taking the pictures as we have some eager people in this house ready to start eating this one!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

The beauty of rain.

Our camping trip this year ended on a rainy note.  Seventeen hours of straight rain that is.  Despite this it ended up to be such a fun day.  It started with a well deserved afternoon nap.  When we realized that it was not stopping we got our bathing suits on and headed to the beach (strangely there weren't many others sharing our enthusiasm for a swim!).  The air was cold but the water felt warm.  Later, back in our campsite, we played card games in our eating tent.  Two of us on each side of the picnic table squished together to avoid the rain coming in at all sides. We made coffee and hot chocolate and shared some laughs.

We went to bed in the pouring rain.  Often the sound of rain can be so soothing but not this night.  It was strangely loud and it took me a while to get to sleep.  I was hoping we would all stay dry inside (we did).  We awoke in the morning to silence except for a few lone bird calls.  Eventually, even the sun tried to peek out but was unsuccessful after a few minutes.

Our tent was soaked, our towels wet and sandy and we knew we would have heaps of laundry to do when we got home but we were still ending our trip on a happy note.  It was great for the four of us to be together with no other distractions and just ourselves to entertain each other.  I wouldn't have changed anything and I know I will always look back fondly at this trip.

While getting ready to pack up I noticed how pretty the droplets of water looked on the tent.

The girls will be returning tonight from a week with their cousins. It will be nice to have them back.  The renos are moving along pretty well.  The plumber is here now and with any luck I might just have the house to myself in the afternoon. Have a great weekend friends!

Cottage Friends

We went to visit my parents up at the lake a couple of weeks ago and we were lucky enough to have my dad's new friends drop by while we there.  Actually they are a bit of a pretentious couple as they flew in for the visit but friendly nonetheless.

Typical in a couple one of them is more social than the other. I was able to sit quietly by and watch her.  

On the second day both dropped by together.

The quiet ones are most often misunderstood.  Somewhat reserved, possibly thought of as aloof but really he's just a shy guy.  Rather sweet too as I watched him having a nice chat with the garden frog earlier.

 "Thanks Gord. See you tomorrow!"

Summer time heat.

I am sitting here in my kitchen writing this in the comfort of our air conditioned house. (Thank goodness!)  Outside it is 31° C in the shade and it's pushing 40 with the humidex.  I have been bordering on a migraine today (but I now feel like I'm winning!) so I shall not venture out today except for required drop offs and pick ups. 


Here are some refreshing pictures from our recent trip to the lake and with this I say the summer has officially begun!

We started our summer holidays with a mother-daughter pedicure last Friday.
(A lovely Mother's Day present).

We all chose our favourite shade of pink!

My artsy bubble picture!

 Fun in the lake.

Guard dog.

As the temperatures continue to rise this week I hope you have a cool place to dip your feet in.

Rehearsals, Finales and Birthdays

Hello Monday.We had another busy weekend.  I`m not sure I`ll know what to do with myself if we ever get a weekend off!

We went to two performances of Westside Story at the school.  Erica took Musical Theatre this semester and her and 60 other students have been pouring their heart and soul into the production.  It showed.  It was amazing.  We saw Westside at the Stratford Festival a couple of years ago and this show was equally as good (I think even better!).  Erica was in the pit band playing tenor sax.  These kids literally rocked this extremely difficult score.  Music, band and theatre were such a big part of my life growing up and I`m so happy my girls have been able to experience the thrill of performance and the everlasting friendships it creates.

On Saturday it was the finale of the show and also Erica`s 17th birthday.  Happy Birthday Erica.  This has been quite a year! Show Choir, Westside, Africa!!!!, ski team, working! Wow! We are so proud to you.

While we were at the show on Friday Sydney baked dozens of cupcakes for Erica.

They were delicious!

Sharks vs. Jets!

On Sunday our attention moved to dance rehearsals for Sydney`s recitals this week.  

I can`t wait to see the show!

Happy Birthday Sydney! Happy Easter!

Another post about a cake.  You would think based on my latest posts that we live on cake.  Well, sort of lately.  We try to throw in the odd vegetable now and then but we have hit the season of birthdays in our family.  We do however leave one, oh so special one for the end of the year! :)

Today is Sydney's birthday!  Wow! How did 15 years go by?!!  We knew we had a challenge for Sydney's cake as she has made some pretty impressive cakes lately for others and felt we had to put the same amount of effort in for hers.  The word around the house was that we don't make chocolate cake enough.  In fact, I don't remember the last time I did bake a chocolate cake.  So off to hunt for a chocolate cake recipe.

I found this amazing Cookies and Cream Cake recipe on one of my favourite Blogs Annie's Eats - I visit this blog regularly - beautiful photos and the recipes sound so good - very inspiring.  It was time to actually make one of these tasty creations. In fact, I had just made one of Annie's recipes Strawberry Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Butter Cream for Sydney and her friends a few days ago.  These are probably the best cupcakes I have ever made the icing is so smooth and just lightly sweet - it really tastes like creamy, strawberry ice cream.  I'm only sorry that a photo was not taken before they were eaten!

Erica and I made Sydney's cake.  It has chocolate cake layers with  whipped cream filling and chopped oreo cookie bits in the middle.  A smooth chocolate frosting with more whipped cookies on the top.  Of course we had to top it off with more oreos...because..who doesn't like oreos?  I have a funny story about oreo cookies.  When I was young my mom rarely would buy such a cookie (and funny enough as a mom myself neither do I!) but I really wanted some....I was pretty good at duplicating my mom's writing so I added oreos to her weekly grocery list.  When my mom got to the store she couldn't think of why she needed oreos but she had written it on the list so she thought she better buy them....ah, that was a good week!

Happy Birthday Sydney!

and Happy Easter!