Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Yay! I soooo love my new blog. It is so pretty. Thank you again and again WILNA! You rock!

Tomorrow I am celebrating NSD with my SIL (sister-in-law) Linda and we are going to the annual crop at Scrapbook Centrale in Montreal. Yay! I can't wait! We went last year and loved it. However, I hope we are luckier than last year and come back with some goodies! They have lots and lots of draws... but we were really not lucky. I will try not to have a sucky face tomorrow! Last year around 7 PM, I started making a sucky face because I swear everybody but Linda and I had won at least a couple of things! We eventually won little things at the end of the day. I would be happy with just a chocolate bar (at least it would keep me quiet for a little while)!
Celebrate NSD and keep smiling!
LoveXXXX

Thanks for the wonderful week-end!

We just came back yesterday from a most wonderful week-end visiting with our great friends Kath and Tom in New York State. We had an amazing time. Everything we ate, everyone we saw, everything we did was perfect (even the flea market in the desert at noon, with not a cloud in the sky in 200 degres temperature!)

I am so thankful that Kath's sister and brother-in-law came to see us. I hope you feel better soon Brennie, you have such courage, you are in my thoughts. And thank you also to Sheri and Joe, the newlyweds who spent a good part of their Sunday with us. We are fortunate to know people who are so generous, real and so easy to talk to. Sheri, we found Lucy the travelling pinata! Beware! Lucy is a boomerang, she will come back to you.

Let me tell you Lucy's story : Lucy was a pinata who took quite a beating at Kelly's sweet 16 party. We felt sorry for her. She became a sort of mascot who finds her way everywhere! She reminds me of the garden gnome of the movie Amelie. She has driven a car, hidden in numerous beds, in a wheel well, she has been on a cruise in the Carribbean, been to Florida, Maine, New York State... and Gatineau. Her foot was covered with money and presented as a weedding gift to Sheri and Joe. She is a sorry looking paper pinata, but we sure get good laughs out of her.

Follow up from Saturday

I did it!
The information I had was perfect, I found the grave right away. It was nice to have flowers for him. It was very emotional.... I talked to my dad for a while. I also decided to get him a tombstone. It is never too late to do it right.

Later in the day, I realized that after the initial shock or upheaval, I felt very at peace and serene. I went to the funeral and focussed on the people there, instead of remembering my dad's funeral and being very upset. I may be done grieving... after 37 years. Time will tell...

Now I have to decide if I will tell my siblings about the tombstone, I may be opening a huge can of worms (no pun intended). They have mixed feelings. I guess if I were in their shoes, I would like to be informed and consulted. I think I will give them the opportunity to participate, while at the same time, I will entertain no expectations and will be prepared to do it on my own...

A Special Saturday...

Tomorrow, I will attend the funeral of the father of a friend. It’s in the city where I was born. And I added 2 cemetery visits, because I guess it wasn't enough... I will visit the grave of my grand-father, my grand-mother and my aunt. And...

I will do something I have always wanted to do : visit my dad's grave. It is in another cemetery in that city. He passed away when I was 15. My mom was very angry with him and she never took us to visit his grave, at the time we lived 2 hours away. He doesn't even have a tombstone. I have been meaning to go for ever, but I very rarely visit that city, and when I do it's very rushed.

Well, I have decided to go this week-end. So I found the cemetery and phoned to find out where the grave is and got directions. I will bring him flowers, because I think he never got any, except on the day of his funeral 37 years ago... It will be very emotional, but I think it will be a good thing. When he passed away my heart broke and that part never mended. I loved him so much and still do. The rest of the family did not care much because he was an alcoholic and was very sick. But I always saw the dad I knew and loved as a little kid, not the sick man.

I know he lives on in my heart through my love, and I talk to him often.

So I guess, it’s no use to put on any make-up tommorrow and a big box of kleenex is in order.

I don’t dread this, I feel happy and serene about it.

Daddy, here I come.

Blog under construction

This blog will be under construction for a few days. It will be redone and improved by (gasp!) the one and only Wilna Furstenberg!!!!!!!! I am so EXCITED. I can't wait to see what she will do! Isn't that cool? I promise I will post a lot more and layouts also. YAY! Back in a few days with a new and improved blog! YAY! YAY!

Were we had? Only God knows...

Yes, two posts on the same day. Don't ask!
The other day, my sister-and-law Linda and I went to Les Galeries de Hull (in Gatineau) to have a Shawarma dinner (they have the most scrumptious Shawarmas there - I am totally addicted - OK I admit, I am also addicted to chocolate and scrapbooking stuff, but I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!)

As we got out of the car we were accosted by an English-speaking young man. He was so happy because we spoke English. He proceeded to tell us that his wife was 8-months pregnant and that they did not have any food or money. He was supposed to receive a compensation cheque on the Monday. He had been to different charity organizations to get some food, but to no avail, apparently. He looked clean and drug-free. Since we did not want to give him money, we decided to take him to Market Fresh and get him some food. Linda had to give me the look, because I was on a roll and was going to fill that cart! So we loaded him with fruits, veggies, bread, juice, milk, etc., and gave him some money for meat. He was very thankful.

After, we wondered if we should tell our husbands, because they would say we were had. Those two brothers most often think alike!

We don’t know, one can never be sure. When we told the Shawarma guy what had just happened, he was full of wisdom: what counts is that we did something good for someone, and God knows about it - what the guy did with it is out of our hands and between himself and his conscience.

So we told our husbands and they both said we were had. I am still not sure. Maybe I want to believe we did something good. Were we had?

I WON! I WON!

I won I won! (Insert stupid little dance...)
I could not belive it. I won some Heidi Swapp products! She is my favoritest (I know it doesn’t exist-but it’s fun for a translator to trangress - and I know, I know, I need to get a life!) Everything she does appeals to me so much, that I could not believe my eyes when I saw I WON! I never win anything. And on top of that it’s products I wanted to buy! Yayyyyyyyy! (And yay for my wallet, since I am supposed to stop buying scrapbooking products to save for the new house!)
Thank you Stéphanie, you told me to keep trying. (Hasn’t she been winning a lot of stuff lately???) And you were RIGHT. (It's nice to be right once in a while!) Poor Steph, I e-mailed her mostly in capital letters when I saw I had won, I was quite excited!
Thanks also to Laurie (Diva Loca) for letting me know I won, that's really sweet.

Here is why I am spying on the mailman for :

2 of each of theFresh & Free papers
including the border sheet, which is my favorite! 1 of the blue/green alphabet chipboard books,1 of the Fresh and Free stickers, 1 of the black and white alphabet stickers and the purse clip.

I can't wait. I hope it's not mailed from China!