I am sad.

I cannot believe that it has been this long since I have written here. I am on Face Book almost every day, but the only blogs I have been reading for months are Chris's and Becky's. I am sad to say that I stopped checking John's after he stopped posting for a few months. I wish I had checked more often.
John tagged me on his last post about "Honest Scrap", so I am going to do it now.

1. I love the ocean. Last Night I took Grace to her school for an evening function and had to drive along the Island Highway along the coast. The wind out on the ocean must have been pretty strong. The waves were crashing onto the rocks along the sea wall and I just had to stop and listen. I walked out onto the rocks a little way and sat down on a log and listened. Did you know that when the water retreats between waves the rocks make a tinkling noise? It is so beautiful. It's as if they were singing. So I sat there and sang the song "Give Me Jesus" and cried. I miss my brother and my Dad.

2. I love my house. It is on a very quiet road. It has big rooms and lots of sunlight. I really like my kitchen. My back yard is very nice. My front yard will be by this time next year. I have fruit trees in my back yard. Apple, Yellow Plum, Green Grape, Kiwi, Bing Cherry, and I have been told a Peach. I can't wait for next Spring.

3. I have many regrets. I usually don't waste a lot of time on regrets. Just long enough to realize that I need to make some changes. One of my biggest regrets is not calling my family in Saskatchewan and Alberta enough. We always say we are going to do better, but then when it really matters we find ourselves busy with everyday life. I really, really want to change that. I am a little envious of my sister Sue, who spent a lot of time with John and Chris before John passed away and the same with my Dad. I am going to try to do better.

4. I hate driving in snow. I am not the world's worst driver, but neither am I the best. That isn't what makes winter driving so terrible though. It's all those drivers on the road who think they are the world's best drivers that frighten me. I am really hoping for very little snow this year. Living closer to the water does make that a little more realistic than last year when I lived close to the mountain.

5. When I was young I wanted to be a missionary. My Mom used to give my sisters and I the Sears catalogue when it would expire. We would cut out our favorite moms and dads and kids and furniture and paste them to pieces of cardboard paper Mom would save from her packages of nylons. Then we would cut them out and make our little families. Susan and Mitz would have a Mom and Dad and 10 - 15 kids. I would have only as Mom and about 35 -40 kids and would be the owner of an orphanage. Now you all know why I am a foster parent. God created me to be a missionary.

6. I drive a two-tone, panel-sided, 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass station wagon. I love my car. I bought it 4 years ago at an auction for $600. Two years ago I paid $1200 for and engine repair and other than that it has been normal maintenance. So let's say then that I paid $1800 for my car. It has almost 400,000 kms on it. When it was new it was a very fancy care. Everything is power. Seats, A/C, tilt, cruise, pretty much loaded. Everything still works accept the cassette player. It does 27 mpg weather I am driving just around here or all the way to Sask. It doesn't use oil. It is like the energizer bunny. It just keeps going ang going and... I love my car.

7. I have a need to help people. I don't know if it's the "missionary" personality I have, but it's not always good for me. I let people use me and take advantage of me. They suck me dry. It's not as if they want to spend time with me. They only call me when they need something, never just to spend time together. I have a hard time saying no because I hate confrontation.

8. I, like my Mom and apparently my brother John, am a pack rat. I am getting better, but I am still a pack rat. It used to be I had a hard time getting rid of things and in that I am much better. My main problem now, lies in that I see something that I think would be useful and buy it. I do a lot of shopping (browsing) in second hand stores and I love garage sales. My main weakness is kitchen gadgets. I have so many gadgets that I have never used, but can't see any good reason to get rid of them. After all, they don't take up a lot of space and I keep thinking that I will need it one day and then I won't have it. That is not good.

9. I am very, very afraid of spiders. i hate all insects, but nothing can freak me out like a spider. Even if it is no bigger than the end of a pencil. The bigger the spider, of course, the worse it is. Over the years I have gotten to where I can kill a small spider, but we have Wolf Spiders here and they can get pretty big. I killed one about a year ago, but only because I was home alone and I knew that if I didn't, it would be in the house and I wouldn't know where. That is more than I can stand, so I killed it. With my shoe. It took about 2 minutes of deep breathing and praying for me to be able to get close enough to hit it. Even then I just wanted to throw up, because I had to look at it to kill it. If I am watching TV and there is a spider on the screen, I can't look. My throat closes and I feel trapped. I hate spiders.

10. I love the name Meemo. It was given to me by my nephew, Ethan when he was 2. Now I am Meemo to all the little children in my life. When I become a grandma, I am going to tell my children that I am Meemo to their children.

That's it. I am done. I had a hard time coming up with some of this. I know. By the amount I wrote you wouldn't know that, but I did. So, I am going to tag a few people.

1. Sue
2. Mitz
3. Carol

Chris made me do it.

I am not the best blogger. This is evidenced by the time laps between my posts. I like doing it, but just can't seem to find the time. I have time for reading other blogs, but with blogger, Facebook and email, I just don't seem to have a lot of time for posting. But, Chris tagged me and that means I have to do this, so...here goes.

Famous Singer - Micheal Jackson. Not much of a start to this list, but there are 19 more to go so I'm not going to hurt my brain this early in the show.

Four Letter Word - Mine. I hear this word quite a lot in my house. "Hey! that's mine! Give it to me." OK. I know this one is kinda lame, but you come up with something better.

Street - Memorial Ave. This is the street that runs right by my house on the way to the most amazing spot in all of Canada; the Beach Hut, which I hope opens in early March. I can't wait to sit on the deck with a coffee and a smokie smothered in sauteed onions and cheese. Their poutine are also totally amazing. Then there's the Screamers. A cold drink made of 1/4 slurpy and the rest is ice cream. They have over 30 flavors to chose from and my favorites are Black cherry and orange creamsicle. Oh man. I wish it was open right now. I would take a warm blanket and go there even if it's freezing outside.

Color - Magenta. All I can say is . . . phewey.

Gift/Present - Mini-van. Tye drives it because I like my Oldsmobile better. It was given to me by one of the teachers at my school. Donna Beauvette is the Special Ed teacher and she got a new van and heard that Tye needed a vehicle so she gave - yes, you heard right, gave - me her '91 Chrysler mini-van. It runs great and was well maintained.

Vehicle - See above. LOL Just kidding. Mercedes. I drive an Oldsmobile, but I dream it is a Mercedes. Then, when my car starts to go in the ditch I open my eyes and realize, it was only a dream.

Things In A Souvenir Shop - Marbles. I know you probably think this is lame, but I found a bag of marbles with a Canadian flag inside of them at a little shop here in Qualicum Beach. They were actually quite pretty.

Boy's Name - Micheal. I have always loved that name. Even if you shorten it to Mike, I still like it. Mickey Mouse Micheal the police man? Well.. still pretty cool.

Girl's Name - Mavis. I only ever knew 2 girls with that name. One was a girl from Langham school, whom I don't remember well enough to even remember her last name. Wait a minute. Her name was Avis Blushki. That means I only ever knew one Mavis. The one and only Mavis Braun. My cousin who went to be with the Lord. For all who were privileged enough to know her, she was amazing.

Movie Title - Maverick. A funny Western adventure with James Garner, Mel Gibson and Jody Foster.

Drink - What else would I say, but a Margarita. I don't like them much. I like a Monkey's Lunch. Banana liqueur, Kahlua and milk. You should try it.

Occupation - Musician. I love to sing (even though I'm not spectacular) and wish I knew how to play the piano.

Celebrity - Mel Gibson. I like that he doesn't get talked about a lot in all of those celebrity "rags". He's still married to the mother of his children and to my knowledge, has not had an affair. I'm sure that would be "news" in the Inquirer. Plus the "Passion Of The Christ".

Magazine - Mademoiselle. I have seen it on the racks, but have never read one.

City - Melbourne, Australia. One of the places in this world that I would like to visit some day. My first thought was to say Martensville, but I didn't know if a town would qualify. I would really like to visit there some day, also. :)

Sport - Mud Wrestling. This is a pretty poor excuse for a sport, but I challenge you to come up with something better.

Fruit - Mango. I don't eat them very often, but I do like them. Especially if they are the flavoring in a Screamer at the Beach Hut. Mmmm.

Reason For Being Late For Work - Migraine. I used to get them often when I was in my early twenties and then they stopped when I got pregnant with Tye. In the last few months I have had a few again. I'm not sure if it's stress or age. Maybe a little of both. All I know for sure is that I won't get pregnant again to get rid of them. Advil Liquid-gels is my new best friend.

Something To Throw Away - Mittens. It almost never gets cold enough here to need mittens. This winter is the exception, though.

Something You Shout - MOM!!! OK. I don't shout it, but I hear it. Often!



There you go. I found some of these quite difficult. You probably don't need me to tell you that, the words speak for themselves. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to come up with so many M words. I would tag a couple of people, but when I check my blogs every morning, I don't think too many people even read them very often, let alone post anything. So, I won't. Just . . . I hope you found this entertaining.