Long Weekend and Stuff

Well the long weekend is over and it was a great one! The weather was almost perfect. We did have a bit of rain, but overall it was sunny and very warm.
We did get a lot accomplished as well. My brother made another trip here and took back a truckload and trailer load of furniture and boxes. Our home is really getting cleared out.
The garages are almost cleaned out and will be soon when our friend and neighbour Ron comes with his truck and takes our final load to the dump.
Speaking of garages why is it that things always break when you are just about to pack up and move out of your home?
We were about to open our garage door last Friday and the Spring above had split in two, so $250 later we got it fixed. At least the new owner won't have to worry about that again for another 20 years.

We got our pool open as well yesterday. That is a chore in itself especially taking that gross tarp off and cleaning it..There is no nicer smell!! lol
Don kindly gave me that chore to do, as he said it was important that he deal with the 'workings' of the pool to make sure he got it opened properly.
Uh huh!! :)
Anyway it's open and it's a brilliant, sparkling blue now. No more gross and smelly cover to look at.

 

Opened May 23rd, 2011

Did any of you happen to see the beautiful double rainbow last night? 

I had not seen one quite so beautiful before and can't remember ever seening a double one.

It stayed around for a good 20 minutes or so as well. Something spectacular for sure.

Well we have 22 days left and we will be driving out of this driveway away from the home that I love so much.
We have only been here not quite six years but we have almost gutted this house and put a lot of energy in it making it the home that it is today.
We will miss the times that we have had sitting on one of our decks overlooking the pool, laughing and having a drink or two.
I will surely miss it but I need to keep in mind what our future holds for us.
On June 16th, we will go to my Brother's and in the early morning will begin our trek to Fort Lauderdale to visit with relatives for 3 days and then aboard the plane that will take us to our own piece of Paradise and the beginning of the rest of our lives.
You can't even begin to imagine how exciting this is for me. Don and I have always been adventurous!
We have friends and acquaintances who think we are nuts for just picking up and moving to a strange country but we also have just as many wishing they could do the same thing.
I know it's an old cliche, but our life is short and we need to do the things that we want to do before it's too late.
We dead for a long time and I will NOT be on my deathbead saying " I wish I had of..".
What I am looking forward to the most is the warmth of course, but also the fact that 24/7 there will be flowers blooming! I will not have to take in my patio furniture in the fall and there will be fresh fish/veggies available at all times and who can forget the BEER for $.35?
That is the one and only reason Don is moving, lol
Does it get any better than this? I think not!
They now have a street vendor in our beautiful town of Pedasi and a newly opened burger place as well.
It's all good friends!! :)

Well I have to now go and cut the grass. It's not really a chore as all I do is ride around on the John Deere.
It's only 11:25 so I must refrain from the beer while cutting, so perhaps I should hold off for a bit, I mean cutting the grass in the sun without a liquid refreshment? It should be against the law!!! :)

Have a wonderful day my friends an remember to always "Stay in the Light".

 
 

Gosling/Rain/Clearing Home

Well my beautiful gosling didn't make it. After all of our efforts the poor thing succombed to it's injuries. I think that it ended up drowning in the water as it was stuck in the weeds below it's nest but Don thinks that it was a sick gosling from the getgo. I want to believe Don's theory but I still can't help feeling bad that I didn't try earlier to rescue him. Anyway the other two eggs are now hatched so I look forward to seeing the babies tomorrow. I am unable to go for my daily walk today as its pouring out and will continue to do so for another 5 days so the lovely weather people are telling us.
Yesterday it went up to 28 degrees here with humidity. It was lovely!
Now because of this weather I am forced to do some more packing! Don is really busy with real estate here and he usually does it all so unfortunately I have to do it. Boy oh boy, what has this world come to:)
Our trip to my sisters yesterday was eventful and we got rid of a lot of other things from my cupboards.
We actually only have my storage room and my pantry to pack up now, with the exception of the kitchen cupboards and fridge which we can't pack until the final days.
Speaking of final days we have only THIRTY THREE days remaining until we say goodbye to my beautiful home here and take our trip down I95 to Florida.
I am so looking forward to the drive although Don says he wants to bring his cell phone and still take calls. I can guarantee we will not be answering any cell phones or doing any emails for at least the week we are holidaying. I want at least a week of email free, and cell phone free time. Sometimes I want to take them both and heave them off of a cliff somewhere, lol.
Well better go and do something productive. It's so dark and gloomy here though, it just makes you want to go back to bed.
I must say though that all of the rain we have had in April and May have made everything so green. All of the leaves are out in the trees and flowers up and blooming. Our pear tree which is in it's fifth year finally has blossoms on it, so the new owners will have some fresh pears to eat at the end of August.
I will take a picture when they get in full bloom.

Have a great weekend and as my good friend always says, "Stay in the Light"

  

Spring wildlife saving a gosling and stuff:)

Well we are finally getting our Spring that we have all been so waiting for. I went for my regular walk this morning up by the lake by our home and saw two geese with their two young ones following behind. There is nothing as cute as this. There are also two eggs still remaining in her nest (pic's following) so I expect to see four goslings tomorrow. Unfortunately it makes me so sad to see that there is one gosling caught in the vegetation below the nest and it looks like she won't make it. I am surprised that her Mom or Dad doesn't go to his/her rescue. I wish I could get close enough to the little one to free it but am not able to. I hope that something happens to loosen her. It is so sad to see this, and then I look at the little ones following their Mom and it makes me smile and marvel at nature. I love my walks in the Spring. Yesterday I saw a turtle crossing the road but I didn't have my camera with me. There are also hundreds of fish spawning in the lake as well. Spring is here for sure!!!

Goose nest with 2 eggs still remaining

Following Mommie and Daddy

Well I had my Mother's Day and it was a very nice and eventful day. My daughter and her boyfriend came and we bbq'd and had a great time eating and laughing. We loaded up a truck that a friend of ours so kindly lent to us and got rid of a bed, some dressers and a lot of other things that our daughter took to her place.
I got closets almost cleaned up now too. Tomorrow we are taking a drive to my Sister and her husband's house and taking some more stuff.
By the end of the weekend we will have almost all packed and taken where it's going to be taken and then it's just packing up the things we want to come with us.
It's very hard when we are only taking suitcases and perhaps one box to decide what really is important and what is not.
What is important is my one huge bathroom cabinet full of my moisturizers, lol. Don always says that I could open my own pharmacy with all of my skin care products...It's not really helping my "skin tone" nor the promise to make me look like Anjelina Jolie, but I will continue trying:)

"UPDATE"

Don and I just went over to the lake and with our pool skimmer rescued the gosling from the water. I wish I had of thought of this earlier in the day. It doesn't look too healthy, but we put it on the river's edge so her mom and dad could come and hopefully take care of him/her.
Pic's:

Trying to fish it out

Had to go into the water but got the beautiful gosling

I pray it will be ok!

Well this has been quite a day so far.  I will go back to the lake this afternoon and hopefully see that our efforts were not in vain!  

Well off to shower now. The surrounding land around the lake where we were standing was covered in red ants which bit us a few times. Don's legs were covered with them, and I didn't tell him at first as I didn't want him to abort his rescue efforts:) He just yelled down at me after getting out of the shower and said that he can see why they call them 'fire ants' as his feet and legs feel like they are on fire.
Then as we left and drove away Don looks up in the rear view mirror and sees his blackberry case fly off of the top of the car. I look ahead and see the camera on the road..Oh this is just great. He backs up to get the blackberry case, and runs over the camera battery that had bounced out when it hit the ground.
At least the camera is ok and I got the pic's but this impromtu trip cost us a battery, but was worth it if the gosling lives

All in a days work!

We have had such wonderful weather in the past 3 days...just beautiful with sun, breeze, and really mild weather. We need to enjoy though as the forecast calls for rain for the next 6 or 7 days. Yecccchhhh!

Good time to finish our packing.

Enjoy your day folks, and I will update tomorrow re: my gorgeous gosling:)

My Gosh!! I am so sick and tired of this nasty/cold/dark/damp weather!! Sigh!!

I know we should not celebrate anyone's death but this case is an exception. There are people out there this morning saying that he really isn't dead as there are no pictures of him. Some saying it's just a ploy by Obama to raise his ratings. What the??? 
One of Osama's sons I just heard, held a woman in front of him as a shield.
I hope that this will be the beginning of more peace in the world and I hope it will ease the pain of all of the people who lost loved ones in 911.

Well back to the weekend!
Saturday was glorious!! An absolute picture perfect day with light winds, brilliant sunshine and 20 degree weather.
My brother was here for the weekend loading up his truck and trailer with things that we needed to get rid of that he could use such as patio furniture/dressers/ tools etc.
Our back yard looks barren with all of our chairs/umbrella's all gone. We do have one patio that is off of our kitchen with a chair and table that is staying with the house so at least we have a nice place to sit until we leave on JUNE 17TH :) (but I am not counting)
Well that was our 'one' day that we sometimes get once a month as yesterday the 'doom and gloom' set back in...Don't forget we had our ONE day of sunshine..that is all we deserve apparently. Today it's raining again, and tomorrow the same, and Wednesday now they are saying a bit of sun...and then rain again. I tell you I'm about ready to hide! Stay in bed all day!
I have never been so depressed as I have been this April that we said goodbye to. I was hoping May would give us more to smile about but the forecast for the first week is looking like more of the same.
Today we will go into the both garages and clean up the remaing things. Put them in boxes and either keep for my brother or take to the dump.
Our home is getting cleared out. I can't believe that it's only 6 weeks before we actually are out of Ontario and into the beautiful town of Pedasi, Panama.


Our only problem is getting Sadie used to her cage with the door closed. She loves her cage when we are here, but as soon as we leave and close the door she barks and claws at the door and makes her paws bleed.
We are trying to calm her with a small dose of a dog anti anxiety drug so will see how that works.
My brother has bought a new Grand Caravan with all bucket seats for our drive to Fort Lauderdale. I am so looking forward to spending time with both of them on the trip and then getting to see Don's family in Florida.
His uncle has a condo right on the beach which he is giving us to stay in for the 3 days that we will be there.
Fun, Fun, Fun!!
Then on June 22nd we will be boarding at 8:20am to fly into Panama City for our first day in our new life in one of the most beautiful places in world.
I feel so fortunate to be able to do what we are doing. I guess all of the hard work over the years has finally paid off for us. It's been a long haul but as the days grow nearer the reality of it all is setting in and the excitement growing. I know I will miss my beautiful house here but I won't miss our horrible weather and the idea of being able to walk out of my home and take a walk the beach on the Pacific Ocean for hours whenever I desire, makes it all the more exciting.
Also to have flowers blooming 24/7 and to never have to bring my patio furniture in ever again for the winter is another blessing! It only gets better:) 
Well I'm off to do some packing as I can't walk Sadie as guess what? IT'S RAINING AGAIN!!!
Maybe I will just have a glass of wine. Is 8:29 am too early:)

Have a great day and I'll see you soon.

4 AM is way too early!

Wow...4 am up and having coffee and wearing joggers and sweatshirt but I did put a hat on :),  watching the parade of Royals and Royal watchers. It's now 10 am and it feels like it should be 10 at night.
That was some spectacle for sure. It reminds me of just how much money that is associated with that family. The money in just the cars alone would be enough for me to buy an island of my own in some tropical place with maids and all of the 20 year old pool boys I could ever want.
She did look beautiful and they make for the cutest of couples, but in my opinion the dress was nice, but wasn't really 'regal'.
Perhaps because of her upbringing that was the look she was going for, but nonetheless they  both looked so happy and 'cute'.
Did you hear what Willy said to Harry while he was standing at the alter?
He said 'I thought we were having a small family wedding', lol
I am also wondering how all of those hats stayed on their heads. Especiall Victoria Beckham, and what the heck was up with the hat on the one of Sarah Ferguson's daughters head?
It looked like some kind of television, cell phone ,or WiFi antennae, lol

Anyway after 5 hours of Royal watching I am kind of royaled out, so off to other ventures.

Finally we are getting some sunshine. I just got back from my walk and actually had to take my sunglasses out of storage. It's getting really nice out and I can see or at least anticipate sitting out on the deck this afternoon to take in some sun and get a bit of Vitamin D that we lack during the winter.
I do need to get some work done around here though and do some grocery shopping as I have my brother and Sister in Law coming tomorrow for a visit to help declutter our home of some of our furnishings.
As I said we left most of our furniture with our home but they will take most of our patio furniture, bed, a couple of dressers etc.

Once they leave we will then know what we are left with and it will make things/packing a lot easier.

It saddens me that we can't take a lot of things that I really wanted to take but it was going to cost $8K to ship those things and we do figure that we can replace everything for less than that.

I am taking a couple of boxes with pictures etc, things that are important, and Don is taking his screwdriver!! LOL

The sales of the lots in Costa Pedasi are going great. Most of the waterfronts are sold now. I sure wish we could have afforded to buy one, but with being a partner in the hotel we just couldn't afford to.

The hotel area is being cleared (video attached, and will need audio) and things are looking up there too. It's going to such a nice Boutique hotel. Just 6 rooms with indoor outdoor restaurant, gym, spa, and a 90 foot infinity pool directly on the Pacific Ocean.

I will be running it, and as I have never attempted this kind of work experience before, I think I had better take an online crash course in Hotel Management or you all will get free rooms, meals and drinks, lol

Gotta run and do some grocery shopping for my guests tomorrow.

Looking forward to 17 degrees and complete sun tomorrow as Ribs on the BBQ are on the menu. The weather 'experts' better not be wrong.

Have a great weekend all and TGIF.



My toes are becoming webbed!



Don and Sadie draining water from the pool!

Well another day of doom and gloom. I have decided though, much to my shagrin, that I will now embrace the rain. As the old saying goes "if you can't beat them, join them", so I must succomb to the elements and at least pretend that all is well.
It looks like rain, and more rain until Saturday and then it's going to be nice and sunny.
Above is what my poor hubby had to do today even in the rain.  He's a trooper for sure:)
Better him than me though lol. Found a huge frog as well, but fortunately that is all that we found. Usually there are all kinds of critters in the water that didn't make it through the winter's harsh grip.
We did manage to get the main coat closet cleaned and things thrown away. It's amazing how many boots/shoes that one collects. I had two pairs of high heels that were at least 4 inches high. What was I thinking?
They were from my 'Victoria Secret' days....those and the sexy back baring dresses are all long gone ...Sigh!!!!!!!!
I will pass them on to my daughter but she is kind of a 'klutz' so worried that she may break a leg. (sorry Beej)
Example:
One day she and her dad were in a store returning a 6 X 8 foot carpet. They were at the check-out and Bobbi had the carpet on her shoulder. Her dad asked her something and she turned to answer him and knocked a few articles  off of the counter with one fell swoop, and when she turned around to see what all of the commotion was about she knocked the remaining items off of the counter.
That is just one...there are many, so you may understand why I am reluctant about giving her the VS high heels.
Maybe I will give her my flip flops instead, lol.


Well we booked our flights today to Panama City from Miami.
It brings our flight time that would have been 5 1/2 hours from Toronto  to just a little under 3 hours so it will be easier for Sadie.
We are having this huge problem with Sadie though. She has never been cage trained, so we have been getting her used to being in it for the past couple of months and she is actually liking it UNTIL we close the gate and leave her in it while we go out for an hour or so.
She barks the whole time we are away. We left today for an hour, snuck home, and she was still barking.
I'm not sure what to do so any help on this matter would be appreciated. We can't have her barking the whole time in the belly of the plane, even though we will have her sedated slightly.


We have the appraiser coming through the house tomorrow so poor Don will have to get up extra early to get the house spic and span:)
No, I will NOT clone him but have had many requests to do so from my friends. He's too good and precious to share. You will have to find your own! lol


Well better go and get my chicken cooked. The menu tonight is Ceasar Salad with Chicken and home made bread.
There may be a glass of wine thrown in there too. I just might!!
It is raining sooo hard right now and so dark that I need lights to type this.
I would take a pic to show you but it's even too dark to do that.
But hey....I'm embracing it..right?
This is harder than I thought:)


Have a great night and let's hope that tomorrow the weather man will get it wrong and the sun will shine.

My beach in 7 weeks!

Weather/Packing, Etc.



What our Windows have looked like almost every day in April!



I must start out by saying that I don't think in any of my 38 years (ok....42 years) lol, have I ever experienced an April like the one we are currently encountering! The above picture pretty much sums it up. Rain, rain, fog, dismal and COLD...Who teleported me to England anyway?
Yesterday started out just like it always does so hubby decides he wants to pack. Ugggghhhhhh!! I was NOT supposed to pack....it was supposed to be the one job that I was immuned from but I guess Don is starting to think that it really shouldn't be all up to him to do. Ok then. I will help a BIT..but just a bit!
So we have this sofa table in our entry way with a few of my precious family pictures and he wants to pack them. What? We are not moving until June 17th and you need to take my family pic's and stick them in a dark, gloomy place for no reason?
Well he won! My nice table is now barren from any life form. All I see now is a couple of speakers and dust!! Damn!!

Then Don says we need to tackle our closets. Oh boy. Now that was some fun.
I started in my main bedroom closet as was shocked to find that someone must have entered our home while we were away. There were a lot of pants and skirts in there in a size 8! I even found a pair of pants in a size 6!
What the??? Who wears those size clothes?
Do those people even exist?
Are they some kind of foreign beings..some kind of aliens?
I am not sure, but I got rid of them quickly. I ended up having two large bags of these strange articles of clothing. 
This whole thing reminds me of the joke where a person gets a call from a charity, asking them to donate all of their used clothes to the starving Africans. They told them that if they could fit into THEIR clothes they surely were not starving:)
Anyway we got through all 4 closets and my goodness we ended up having 6 bags of clothes that we haven't even looked at in years. Why do we keep stuff like this anyway? Do we really think that by some magic way we are even get close to the size we were years ago?
We took them all down to the used clothes drop off bin, and as most of my clothes were in really good shape so I do hope that some young girl in her teens will be able to get some use out of them:)
We packed a few more things and then something miraculous happened! This strange bright glow from the sky came down and lit up the outside. It was from heaven!
It got so beautiful out. We quickly cleaned up from packing, set up our patio chairs and plunked ourselves down to take in some well needed rays and indulge in a well deserved coctail or two.
Around 6:30 when the sun was starting to fade we went in and bbq'd some delicious home made burgers. Yummy!!
Watched the Habs get beat (YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH) and then stumbled off to bed.

Had my walk this morning with Sadie. It's not sunny but not too bad and at least not raining, but still wearing the mitts and scarf. One day I will be burning them and that day better come sooner than later.
They (whoever THEY really are) are calling for some sun this afternoon but after that wonderful surprise yesterday I am not putting much faith in their predicition for today. Really..Could they be right two days in a row? I think not.
I told my friend Jan who I see on my walk a lot that I would mention her in my blog....Hi Jan....I'm working on our 'patent' :):)

Well I hear Don out in the garage banging around. He wants to clean that out today. Really does that man never stop? Sometimes he annoys me beyond belief, lol
He just came in, looked at me and gave me the 'stare'. I guess I had better to and at least pretend to help. I may have a episode of 'bad back syndrome' coming on any minute:)

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday friends.
I am cooking a prime rib roast, baked taters, asparagus, Yorkshire pudding for dinner. Pic attached:)

Oh yes, and tons of horseradish! Can't have prime rib without it.

"Stay in the Light" as a very wise and good friend of mine always says.

Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone:)
I hope your Easter is wonderful, full of fun, food and laughter with your family and loved ones:)
It's really too bad that the weather will not be cooperating more. At least here. They are calling for rain, rain and more rain the whole weekend. Maybe Easter Monday a bit of sun might peek out.
Oh well...at least there is wine!

Well yesterday we finalized our plans to drive to Fort Lauderdale after we close our home here in June. My wonderful brother and sister in law are going to drive us making it a much shorter flight, (3 hours) to Panama so it will help with our dog not being in the belly of the plane too long.
We have to fly before July 1st as they say the tarmac is too hot to put dogs or any animals in the belly....But you can fly on June 30th.  So what happens in one day? Does it turn from 60 degrees to 100 degrees in one 24 hour period?
I can't wrap my head around this persons thinking at all. 
I'm looking forward to the drive though. It will be fun and also nice to see Grandma and all of our aunts and uncles and Don's mom also.
We will stay there 3 nights and hopefully fly to Panam on June 25th.
Then off to Pedasi.....our new home for hopefully the rest of our lives.
Our home isn't slated to be finished until late November or Decmber so we are renting a home from a friend of ours in Pedasi who does fishing charters.
I love going out on the Ocean and look forward to going with him and helping him with the fish cleaning....It's fun...:)
The last time we went with him we caught 4 Mackerels and a Bluenose Dolphin (seen in my pic), all of which we had for dinner. If you have never had fresh fish right out of the ocean you really must one day. There is nothing like it.
You can go right to the docks in Pedasi where the locals fish and buy your fish daily for approximately $5 and have it for your lunch/dinner..ahhhhh...now this is living!!!
Our friend Kevin from whom we will be renting also has a pet 'sloth' named Suzie.
She is just the cutest thing. I am hoping that Sadie feels the same way, lol.
Suzie moves at a snails pace so it won't be hard for Sadie to sneak up on her.
Should prove intersting to say the least.

They are progressing very well with the construction of our home. It will be nice to get there and oversee things to make sure everything is done to our satisfaction. The builder is amazing and keeping us informed of everything that he is doing as well.

Well have a great long weekend everyone. I hope that everyone has fun and eats lots of turkey. Myself, seeing as there will be only Don and I, plan on having ribs/baked potato/asparagus for our Easter Dinner.
This just reminds me that the stores are closed Friday and Sunday...Better get out to the store and liquor store to stock up.

Have a good one!!
Write later:)

Weather!!

Well I have never ever seen an April like this one. Honeslty!
Last week I sat outside on our deck and actually got a sunburn. Last night there was a weather warning saying WInter storm. We got downpours with hail and today now it's pouring and sooo cold and windy.
Geez!!!
Panama can't come soon enough.

We decided to drive down to Fort Lauderdale with my brother and sister in law so that Don can see his grandma and other relatives. We were going to rent a van to do this and just checked this morning to see how much, and find out it will cost close to $2000.00 to do this.
We should have stuck with our original plan of flying to Panama from here. Now to re-book our flight here through Copa Airlines it will cost us another $300.00.
What to do?  I'm stumped, lol
If it were up to me I would stick with the original plan but like most, it's always up to the man to make the decisions regarding this kind of thing.

Well anyway I had better go and buy some new lightbulbs as we don't want any burning out as we need EVERY ONE OF THEM ON TODAY, it's so dark out!

Picture of wamth below:)

Spring in Ontario!

Well yesterday was a total washout! It absolutley poured all day and sooo windy it took our power out from 12 pm to 5 pm.
We do have a generator but it hasn't been used in 2 years so we could not get it started! We were without any computer, water, or heat for 5 hours. Fortunately we have 2 gas fireplaces so we had those both on and it kept us fairly warm.
It sure would have been nice if it had of been warm outside but unfortunatley we had to sit inside, but it was just fine.
As I have mentioned before it is so difficult having to take our small dog out of the country. So much paperwork, etc, and the worst part is that we have to put her in the 'belly' of the plane for 6 to 7 hours and that is an immense worry for me. 

Yesterday though we mentioned to my brother that it would be great if someone could drive us to Miami as that would cut the flight time down to 3 hours for Sadie. We have family in Fort Lauderdale, including our Grandma who we want to see before we move and our aunts and uncles who we haven't seen for quite a while and who we really want to see as well.
To our surprise they said they would love to drive us! This works out great as our Uncle also owns a condominium right on the beach in Fort Lauderdale that we can stay at as well, with pool, etc. Yeahhhhh!!!!
So excited for this to happen for all of us and especially Sadie as she will not be a happy camper alone in the dark and dungy 'strange' place with all of the luggage. Poor Baby!! I will me more upset than she will.
I am also looking forward to spending quality time with my brother and sister in law.

Well it looks like the snow has stopped and now the sun is trying to come out.
Still not 'sitting out on the patio' weather but nonetheless it's improving.

Gotta go and get my 'curry chicken' ready to cook for dinner.
Have a great day and I will write more soon.

The Locks at the Panama Canal!!