The storms have gone, for now, and the wind & rain have reduced the mountainous snowdrifts to piddly little strips. Tyler is glad, but I think Brady would have liked it better to have snow go over her head when she walked outside. She's a nutcase like that.

My snowman hanging on the door got a first-hand look at the changes in weather the past few days. He says the wind last night was freaky. It certainly woke me up.

This is a picture of Tyler from a few days ago, when the storm was so bad. He hadn't even started blowing the laneway out, he was so snow-covered just by walking outside.


I'll put up some Christmas pictures soon... I'm just being lazy right now. It's hard not to feel lazy when you woke up at 6:00, your stomach absolutely growling with hunger.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let in snow.....

NOT!!!!!!!!!!


One of the worst snowstorms I have seen in ages is currently wreaking havoc around my home.

Snow was coming up from under the floor in our back room. Oh yeah. Snow. Through the INSULATED floor.

We had to unhook my newly-leveled washer, and pull it into the kitchen so it could thaw. We put antifreeze into the sink and toilet, so that they wouldn't crack.

We left the back room door open, so that our poor furnace could try it's darndest to get that icebox warm again.

Tyler had to get up in the middle of the night to throw more wood into the furnace, something he can normally leave for twelve hours at a time. Not only that, but the loverly wind has completely covered our wood pile with a behemoth of a drift.

And now, we're stuck at home, afraid to try to make it to work, because though my car can make it through quite a bit of snow, it can't make it through a sea of snow.

Thank Goodness we believe in God's sovereignty, or we'd be freaking out right now!

But we're not. We're okay, we're just waiting to see what happens.

I'm going to make myself a tea. Phoof.

It's Christmastime!

Brady, at least, still occupies the seat at my feet.
(See my cool pink pants? They are so comfy!)

I decorated my Christmas tree this year all by myself. Just like last year. And probably next year..... It's just not Tyler's thing. He does the cold stuff outside like putting up or taking down Christmas lights. I'm cool with that.

Besides, I'm so fussy and meticulous about my tree, I probably wouldn't even enjoy him helping me anyways! It's going to be difficult when I have kids someday.... they're going to want to put stuff on, and I'll be like "NAY, villian! Get thee away from my Christhamath Tree!"

No I won't... I'll be nice.

It's just so exciting! A Christmas tree is like a girl, waiting to get ready before her nighttime event! No makeup yet, no sparkly jewelery yet.....

Once that jewelery goes on though, she just starts to feel so pretty!

But the makeup is definitely what makes it all work. The colour, the delicate touches... ah. Such finery.

Would YOU let your two year old (or husband) put your makeup on for you? Well that's how I feel about decorating my Christmas tree! It's going to be hard to let go.


My tree is so pretty. It adds such a warm, festive feel to my home. I'm so ready for Christmas now, especially because I have all my presents wrapped now.

Feliz Navidad, everyone!

December

Oh, December, you have been crazy. Most crazy.

Here's a rundown of what you've been to me....

1. weekend working
2. mother's birthday
3. family christmas
4. poochy's birthday
5. late days shovelling
6. tree hunting
7. wood staining
8. gift purchasing
9. almost accidents
10. dance recital
11. house cleaning
12. decorating
13. little bit of whining (I want my Christmas lights up... is that too much to ask?)

So it's been busy.

I tried to write a blog for mom's birthday, but blogger was acting funny and all my words were coming out backwards. So instead of crazy words it was yzarc sdrow. And then I've just been lazy throughout the whole of December so far. Well, not lazy... just disinclined to blog.

Now I will go through my list (unlucky number 13.... ack) and explain it a wee bit, just so you think I'm putting a bit of effort in. Sheesh, picky people.

Number One: I don't like working weekends, and this past weekend was a busy one. We had a family Christmas to go to on Saturday the 6th (which meant waking up an hour earlier, and there was much rejoicing...) and on Sunday we got stuck on the work road, because the plows never fail to not plow the road. They (the plow drivers) were sleeping in on Sunday, cozy and snuggly in their nice warm beds, while I dug around our car as Tyler crawled around on his stomach looking for somewhere solid to hook a chain to so that the farmer with his tractor could pull us out. I'm not a huge fan of the snow plows in our area.

Number Two: Mom's birthday was last Saturday! Happy Birthday Mom! Heather had a party for her on Sunday, so we got to celebrate with her even though we were away all day on her real birthday.

Number Three: Tyler's Uncle Gary baked me a gluten-free pumpkin pie for the Donaldson family Christmas. Hurray, Uncle Gary! Now I know why you're Tyler's favourite Uncle. You just might be my favourite Uncle, if you keep those pies coming my way. Any Uncles that have a problem with that can send me a pie in a box, and I'll make my decision after I consume them.

Number Four: Brady's birthday was December 9th. I was going to make a cake (because anybody's birthday is a good excuse to bake a cake) but I didn't because I wasn't feeling good. Stupid getting no sleep on the weekend. Anyways, she's a year old, and officially not a puppy anymore. It's gross. She's all done that leaking now, thank goodness.

Number Five: Due to the incredible amount of snowfall we've had lately, the bosses at work had us all get up on the roof of the barn and push the snow off with shovels and great big scoops. It was fun, in a terrifying "Oh please don't let me slide off the roof" kind of way. I only slipped a few times, but never right off. Phew.

Number Six: We didn't actually hunt for a tree, I just saw that the corner store had some, so I bought one there that looked pretty good. We have to cut the bottom foot off, and the rest of it is a really nice, even tree. Hurray!

Number Seven: We're almost done our back room. All that's left is the fiddly piddly stuff, which meant we needed to stain and varnish a few more pieces of wood to finish up the trimmings. Varnish stinks. Don't varnish anything, ever. Seriously.

Number Eight: I went shopping two days ago, and I HATE shopping. Luckily I was able to escape the hordes and masses of stressed-out, barely coherent people without injury.

Number Nine: I was almost home Wednesday night, going through the intersection, following a car with a car following me, six cars in the opposite lane, when out of nowhere this MORON came running through traffic, and not running fast. I had to slam on my breaks, the guy behind me had to slam on HIS brakes, the road was SLIPPERY, and I was freaking, saying "**** **** ****" as I almost clipped the stupid's leg. It was too close for comfort, that's for sure. I was shaking all the way home. Thank you, car behind me guy, for not hitting me.

Number Ten: Emma and Becky had a practice recital Wednesday night. They were TOO cute! Tyler and I got to go even though it was supposed to be only for grandparents, because my mom is Granny to both of them, and Emma's Grandma couldn't make it, so there were some extra spots to fill. Not that there was a whole lot of extra space in the dance hall. It was so crowded I almost got clocked in the face by the dance instructor, showing the boys class how to do some hip hop moves! That was a close call, but it was worth it to see my two oldest nieces performing what they've learned. Love you, girlies!

Number Eleven: I cleaned my house on Wednesday, too. It was a busy day! Linda came over for a little while and helped me clean, and then I rewarded her by asking her to help me dig my Christmas stuff out of the spare room closet. Aren't I a nice sister?

Number Twelve: Linda helped me put my decorations up. As I type this, I can see my Christmas moose, sitting on the window sill by the computer desk. I love my moose!

Number Thirteen: I'm hoping Tyler will help me put up the Christmas lights tomorrow. I wrapped some around our bannister, but I don't do ladders, so Tyler needs to be the one to put them up on the front porch. I'll supervise.

And that's it.

I have completely neglected November.

Sorry, November.

But you have to admit, you have kept me pretty busy.

To placate you for now, here's a few pictures I've taken this week.

Brady is a winter puppy. She loves the snow! She was so excited the first morning after the big snowfall.

Weren't ya, babes.








This is the sunrise that woke me up Sunday morning. It was annoying when I was wrapped up in my blankets in bed, poking me in the eyes and all, but when I groggily came downstairs and released the hounds, I was grudgingly forced to admit that it was beautiful. I'm glad I got a picture.





In conclusion, I know I'm a lousy blogger lately, but I'm still better than Linda. Ha!

Happy Birthday Jeffie!

It's Jeffery-effery-effery's birthday today!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy BIRTHDAY dear JEEEEFF,
Happy Birthday to you!

Love, Sarah & Tyler

Disappointment

I was looking forward to my pizza date tonight.

Tyler and I went to the big city of Stratford this afternoon, because he wanted to get a few things that were on sale at Canadian Tire. I only went because he promised me pizza from Pizza Pizza.

Our dogs came with us, because they've been alone a lot lately (DANG November has been busy! And yes I said dang!) and they were pretty good, laying down in the back of the truck. When we went into the store Lucy was very naughty and jumped into the front seat... Brady was good and stayed in the back. Of course I gloated; my dog was an angel, his dog was a little bit devilish..

We were done shopping, and so we went to go to Pizza Pizza. If you don't know Stratford, and if you don't know where the Pizza Pizza is in Stratford, then you don't know what a pain in the bum it is to find a parking spot there. It is difficult. But there were a zillion spaces free, and we got one only twenty feet away from the restaurant.

We walked in, and I went up to the counter to speak to the friendly Indian man. I gave him a brilliant smile (like I always do), and ordered two gluten-free pizzas.

"So sorry, we are out of the gluten free." He said to me, unaware of how his words were to my heart like a huge chubby hippo slowly laying down upon my paralyzed body, ignoring my wretched cries.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed.

Not really.... I smiled again, said something like "Oh, it's popular?" watching him smile and nod his head.

"Yes, very poopilar, I am out of the gluten-free, I will have more tomorrow morning."
Yeah well, I won't be IN Stratford tomorrow morning! Don't you know that, friendly Indian guy??

I said "Thanks anyways!" and walked out, though what I really wanted to do was throw a temper tantrum right then and there. I'm pretty good at those, but I do have a little bit of self-restraint in public places.

Tyler and I were both extremely disappointed. We were very hungry, and we had no supper prepared waiting for us at home.

So we went to McDonalds.

That place sucks. I hate it. Especially since I was looking forward to having Pizza Pizza pizza.

Oh well.

I'm going to go hold my stomach and try to digest some of the cardboard - I mean, food that I was forced to consume tonight. I swear, I'll never eat at Mickey D's again.

That's what I always say, though......

Gasp!

It's November!!

I'm sorry, November! I have so much to say to you, I just haven't had much time lately.... in fact, I'm supposed to be in bed right now, sleeping, but I'm taking a minute to write this to you.

You have been great so far.. so sunny and warm. You can stay that way, I don't mind. Don't listen to all those weirdos who want you to snow. Tell them to go to the Arctic if they like the cold.

Don't go by too fast, like that speedy October. The month police should give him a ticket for recklessness.

I'll talk to you again soon, I promise. (I have some stories about October that I have to share with you! No, it's not gossip! They're good stories.)

HAIL!

PING, ping ping ping PING!

The sound of hail, smashing against our new steel roof, plinking off of my car.....

It was like someone dumped a bag of coarse salt on my lawn.

The dogs were freaked out by it. They kept on barking at the noise of the marble-sized hail crashing against our roof.

I'm glad I don't live in a place where the hail are as big as baseballs. That would totally suck.

Even more pictures!

Awww we're so cute!

This is the last bunch of pictures. No whining! Linda, you especially!

This is a tapir. The picture was in colour, but it was too fuzzy and difficult to see (because of the early morning rising sun glaring out over everything.... gah) So I black'd and white'd her up.

Tyler was like a little kid with the tigers. He loves them, he thinks they're the coolest animals. We kept on going back to their pen again and again! "Hey hun, let's go to see this animal, and on our way let's see the tigers!"

This is a tree kangaroo. He sleeps all day. They have a sign that says "SHHHHH" on his display.

Cute little wallaby!

This guy is a wombat. He hid behind the grass, refusing to come out. Kinda ugly, eh? But still cool.

Hungry hungry hippos!

Komodo dragons are freaky. They can kill you with a nip. Their spit is toxic. Bleck.

This is a red river hog. Isn't he cute?

Lazy African rhino. Either lazy or lonely..... which do you think?

This seagull was trying to bum some food off of us. I said no, but before that I took his picture. He was kinda cute, but I hate seagulls. Rats of the sky.

And that's it!

More Zoo pictures!

This guy was one of seven green pythons all curled up along this branch in an aquarium. See his pretty golden eyes? Bet you wouldn't want one of these guys to topple onto your head from above. That's what they do to catch their prey....

This is a lionfish. He is so pretty.

This is the friendliest moose in the world. He came right up to the fence, and followed us around as we walked by his pasture. He's taller than he looks in this picture! Definitely taller than me, and I'm 5'11!

I named him Maurice.

I like this picture of the mountain goat. I'm not sure exactly what they are called (the signs for the animals were sometimes hard to find) but his kind lives somewhere in Europe.

Lions are so lazy! These guys did not move for two days.

But they are so pretty.

Just look at how tall that giraffe is compared to the goose. Incredible, eh?

This sweetie was so gentle and quiet. Her eyes are kind.

A barbary ape. He was sunbathing, but woke up when I made kissing noises.

My favourite animals to see were the elephants. They are so gigantic, everything they do seems to be in slow motion, but they move away so quickly!

There were four elephants, but not all of them came out to see the people at the same time.

They were all girls, I think.

This one was the youngest one, also the smallest. She was such a cutie!

This one was being bugged by flies, so she kept scooping up trunkfuls of dust and throwing it over her back.

This is a Sumatran tiger, smaller than a Siberian, but more ferocious I think. Her eyes were glaring at us the entire time we stood there. This picture was taken through a wire fence, but I was able to angle the camera so that her face wasn't crossed by a wire.

More pictures later!

We went to the Zoooooo!

For our first anniversary (yay!), Tyler and I went to visit the Toronto Zoo.

Did you know it's one of the largest zoos on the planet?

Anyways, we stayed at the Delta hotel (which was hella expensive! Don't go there! Seriously!) and drove to the Zoo both Saturday and Sunday.

We really had an amazing weekend. God blessed us so much by letting us see the animals in action. So many people just see blobs of fur on a distant hill, but we saw tigers playfighting, a bear pushing a giant ball around in a pool, and other cool things!

This is a young Kudu buck. He was so close to us! He snorted when he saw me, but paused just long enough for me to snap this picture before he ran away.

This one was the big Kudu buck. I think he's the boss, man.

Canada geese are freeloaders at the Toronto Zoo. They wander about wherever they like, eating the feed put out for the other animals whenever they get the chance. It was funny to see the giraffe keeper chasing them away and cursing them.

On Saturday, we covered most of the zoo, but some of the animals were too far away to be seen properly. On Sunday we went back, and some of them -like this cheetah- were close enough to have their picture taken.

Like the Canada geese, chipmunks and squirrels run free, getting food wherever they can. This little guy kept running back and forth across the pathway, but finally he stopped long enough for me to take a picture.

This Grizzly bear was playing with this huuuuge rubber ball, just as we got to his pen. He only played with it for about two more minutes before he got tired and curled up to sleep, out of sight. It was just an incredible moment.

Splish, splash!

Warthogs are so ugly. I'm sorry, but they are.

Especially the males. Oh, so ugly face... so ugly...

This happy Indian rhino was fed up close to the fence so we could see him better.

The tigers were incredible. The Sumatran ones were in pens that were far away from the path, so that you couldn't really see them, but for the Siberian tigers there was a small balcony you could stand on in order to get a really good look at them, and good pictures if you were so inclined.

This little girl was one of two cubs born to the mommy tiger about two years ago.

She's just so darn pretty!

I think she was posing for the camera. The male cub was more camera shy, he hid behind the rocks.

This guy is the daddy tiger. He is MASSIVE. His head is as big as a pumpkin. A big pumpkin. His paws could easily crush my head. He weighed 500 lbs, and he wasn't even as big as he could get! Male Siberian tigers can weigh well over 600 lbs.

He callumphed onto the ground underneath our viewing area (we were protected only by pexiglass... we were pretty close to him, too!) and pretended we weren't there.

That's all the pictures for now! I have more, but I'm doing dishes and helping Tyler put trim on in the back room, so I may not get the rest on here very soon. But I will put more up someday!