I’ve just come home from poker night where I played for three hours and came home having only spent 20 bucks. I was drinking non-alcoholic Rum and cola and now I just feel all tired and burpy lol. I probably should’ve skipped it being that I have a late night tomorrow night but at least I have no plans tomorrow morning except to sleep as long as I need to.
Today was fit in as much work as I can around my monthly maintenance of all things. Left work for my brow waxing then picked up Ashley at the office and we went to Rotary lunch. It was very interesting as I didn’t know we had cadaver dogs in Cranbrook. Thyme and his trainer Sharon gave an interesting presentation. To recertify he has to find the source in an 80 acre property within 2 hours! They use placenta for training!
Dropped Ashley off and registered for the District Conference in Nelson May 2-3. I will be able to share a room with Leanne. I was so excited to realize I could make that happen as Nelson is only an hour or so from Mark and Kaslo and I will be picking him up that next day. It all worked out perfectly. I am now very excited about things that are coming up.
Next was getting my nails done A little Spring and bling
After meeting with Maxime, working on her taxes, and sending her home with homework, I headed over to the theatre to emcee the last of the Winter Ale series. There was a big mixup when they switched to the new ticketing system and although the event was supposed to be at 7 PM and it even said that on all advertising and media, the tickets said 7:30. I couldn’t figure out why nobody was there until 6:35
Oh well, that’s my job as the MC to keep things running and everybody seemed pretty cool and stayed right till the end. Aaron Alander was the opener and he did an entire original set on his guitar that he just finished making, a 12 year project.
Suzie was phenomenal, as a human and a performer. Turns out we have 25 friends in common on Fb, lol. She signed and gave me one of her CDs.
She also played an Amazing version of my favourite song
Ethan Askey joined her for a couple. They had met on Hornby Island
The finale was fantastic!
It was so lovely at the end when so many people purposely came to thank me for the season and hope to see me next year. This lovely little old lady named Trudy gave me a huge hug and thanked me for being the highlight of her winter. What a blessing.
I am exhausted, mostly because I am not sleeping long enough. I am fretting in my sleep.
I was asked to do 50/50 tonight as no one else stepped up so I did. I sold the winning ticket. The man was very happy.
Bucks lost 5-3. They have to win tomorrow ight or they are out.
My middle child is 38 today. She moves to Edmonton next week. I will miss her, but wish her all the good things
I was asked by Kenton, an accountant that I worked with 6 or 7 years ago, to contract to a big construction company that he works for. Beginning next week, I will run their 70 person payroll. I agreed to take it on for two reasons. They will pay my contract rate and they will cover me when I am unavailable. I won’t have to do their payroll from on the road. That is a sweet deal and now I just have to learn the software they use which I am unfamiliar with, but I know payroll and that’s the part that matters.
I stayed late and finished my own books and taxes today and I’m happy that I have kept enough money aside to pay them and then I can start paying for my trip. It’s tough being self-employed for having to pay so much but worth it for the freedom of schedule as a rule.
Not leaving the office until nine having something to eat and watch The Voice has left me very tired so I shall go. good night
I tossed a lot and woke up too early. I was replaying the day before. There were many great moments but I found myself on the outskirts again. There was a period of time when I had to make myself go to big family dinners as there is a family that they are very close to but their teenaged children were allowed to sit at the main table leaving no room for me so I often had Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners at the kids table. Now my own 17 year old Grandson has ‘aged up’ apparently and sat visiting with all of them or being on his phone while I was left standing, which I could only do for so long, and once again ate with the kids. I felt disrespected, that my acting up ankle was disregarded, and that I just wanted to go home.
I will have to get over it or kick out a kid going forward.
The best part of today was getting a message from Reid, Jackie’s son, that the celebration of life will be on Mother’s Day. I will be in Vancouver and can go! Such a blessing
The funniest part was when I voice to texted a client that I would check his urine tomorrow. What a laugh we had as I meant year end.
I got a lot of chores and sorting things done today and also managed to finish the lights on my BB eight make cookies to laundry and take some time to watch a three part documentary about the dark side of young influencers
In the afternoon over at the family, in between bouts of rain, we managed to have our Easter egg hunt, followed by dinner of delicious ham and lasagna and Caesar salad and homemade pie. I was glad Maddi liked the little purse and pink Cadillac Gummies that I got her. I certainly liked my selection of beverages from Rae-Anne
I was also spoiled with some special birthday presents.
Unfortunately, everyone had mostly left when Rae-Anne remembered that they had a cake for me. She had gone out of her way to find me a very beautiful rainbow cake with glitter frosting. It was very light and delicious and I left there very very full.
I came home at a relatively early time because there were some things I needed to do still including kitty litter and garbage out and restraining the lights now that the tree was trimmed.
Once I was in for the night, I put my jammies on and settled down to build my mini millennium falcon and dancing Groot
The first email I read when I woke this morning was a lovely birthday greeting from Lorne Westnedge the district governor for Rotary district 5080.
I responded that I was surprised and thanked him
He replied that the real surprise might be that it was also his birthday and that of Rotary founder Paul Harris.
We had a nice chat back-and-forth about what we are doing with family and grandkids, and I was left with a very big smile on my face
I shared this with Leanne who has become a lovely Rotary friend and she said that I was obviously destined to become a Rotarian.

I awoke far too early. I was ready for the girls when they arrived at 10:30. We had such a good visit. They played with the things I got them for Waster and then dug into the tickle trunk where Gwen found the little kitchen items that were Rae and Ashlées when they were small. She made toast and coffee. I loved the plant they brought me.
They helped me build my shoe cubby and I only wish I’d taken time to take a video of our assembly line. Emmy put the pieces in place that Gwen brought us, I put the connector in place and Gwen used the little wooden mallet to secure it.
As we were enjoying pizza together Gwen asked ‘why Emmy Nana?’ I said I was her Nana too if she wanted and I got the big happy response. I was glad to have the bonus granddaughter over for the first time.
As soon as they left I jumped into the shower and then headed to Key City to volunteer for the first time this year. It was the Alphabet of Awesome Science and over 450 people in big and small family groups laughed and seemed to have a great time
A girl left her ears behind. I think they would look great on Mary
I was surprised by an awesome gift from Galen, Monica and Zoe. I forgot that I enjoyed sitting g on one at their house and intend to use it on my straight back chair when doing LEGO
Galen, Monica and I met at Fenwick & Baker to watch game 1 between St Louis and Winnipeg. 5-3 Jets
On the way home I stopped for the cheapest gas in a very long time!
I read all my lovely birthday messages, was especially touched by some DMs, had a great chat with Mark after he sang to me and am falling asleep in my chair. All in all a great day!
It was nice to have a good sleep in and a relaxing morning before I head off to do my duty as a Canadian I know it is a privilege to vote that not all women nor all people in the world get to, but this may be the most complicated election I’ve ever had to vote in
From there, I went to the office where I sorted all of our paperwork and filed Mom’s taxes and reconciling my books for the last year so that I can do mine soon. I don’t want to be the last one again this year and I need to know how much I owe so I can settle that up before I pay for my cruise.
While I was at the office Danika message to see if I could have Emmy and Gwen from 1030 till one tomorrow. Normally, I would’ve just jumped at it but it’s a little more complicated as I am volunteering at 1:45, it’s my birthday, and I had no groceries in the house nor am I very childproof at the moment with all the stuff out that I’m sorting. I thought about it though, and decided that I would love to spend some time with the girls and it’s the first time that I will have Gwen stay with me. I left the office and went to save on where $300 later I had my groceries. My snacks some Easter treats for the girls and I’m ready for the week to come. It’s been a long time since I’ve done groceries and kind of felt nice. Once I got home, I heated up a pizza and then put together my little bags of goodies for the Easter hunt on Sunday and for the girls to have tomorrow 
I was up silly early, but managed to get back to sleep and take my time getting into the office this morning. I got some work done and then headed to my mom’s to drop off her birthday gift in anticipation of her opening it with Ashlée and having Ashlée hang it in her apartment. It was a photo of the turtles that Ashlée had taken that I very much love and knew Mom would like too.
The Rotary lunch was especially fun as Judy brought birthday cupcakes because her birthday is on Sunday and she is the person who announces all of the birthdays and anniversaries. She called out the birthdays in this next week and called all of us the power five., Beth Bennett, Carol, myself, Lallah and Judy. We are definitely five women who are very involved with the organization. I am proud to be in their company. It was an interesting talk today from Karen Penner and Loree giving us the history of Sam Steele sweethearts, which has now morphed into the youth ambassador program There was no opportunity for questions, but I do wonder at what point will there not be a gender restriction? I think it is important that labels not be applied when it comes to being an ambassador for our city
Back at the office, I was spoiled with a cake and singing.
After work, I stopped and had a lovely visit with Michelle at the bar at Fenwick & bakerbefore heading over to Encore. My team was unavailable tonight for trivia as one of them had to head out of town and the other had a hangover so I was grateful when Roger reached out to join them. It was Roger, Zac, Nesta, Sharaya with her son Hudson and myself, and we won! Took home $77 for my five dollar investment, which was definitely a bonus and our team name was Hoppy Easter. I did very well in the gin category.
I arrived home to a gift hanging from my door from the lovely Diana Grabenhof. We fall into this delightful pattern of gifting each other on our birthdays. I honestly don’t remember when it began and we don’t even see each other very often but there’s just something special about celebrating someone being born and she weirdly knows me so well. The gifts were brilliant. I feel like the only time we’ve been out together intentionally was for sushi so the gift is perfect.
I was also overwhelmed when I decided to check my mail even though I had checked it yesterday. There was a part of me that I’m not necessarily proud of that was sad that I didn’t get any birthday cards. And then tonight I had the biggest surprise of all getting one from Kevin O’Driscoll. I’m met him at a Rotary and he has very much tuned in with support. He and his wife moved here from Australia, although he is originally from Ireland and I had to let him know how much it meant to me to make such a simple gesture. I was brought up to feel that birthdays were special that it was important that I was on this planet. I try to let people in my life know that I feel that way about them and I also try not to expect too much from others. In spite of the fact that it is important to me that I am having a birthday. Is that weird?
It was so weird to drive home at 9:28 PM and it wasn’t completely dark considering that it snowed today! Serious herring, weather happening here. #IYKYK
I was moved when I got up and saw that my love you sign was lit up. I don’t even know how it is possible that the batteries are still working so I just acknowledged my guardian angels because I feel like I get signs from flickering lights and other effects from them and I felt like it was a good start to the day.
I was up stupid early again so I was at the office at a decent time. Got a lot of work done before going to pick up Mom and bring her to the dentist for 11 where they determined that she needs some work done and potentially a replacement for her decades old Plates. The rub is that the new ones will be more comfortable, etc. but are good for 3 to 5 years. She doesn’t even remember when she got these ones that’s how old they are and how long they have lasted sigh
Once we were done at the dentist, I took her to the mall because she was wearing a size 16 super long coat that made it hard for her to get in and out of the car and she’s about a size 8 now although we ended up having to get her a larger size so that she could get her arms into it more easily. There was a good sale plus they gave my birthday discount to her so she had some good savings. She also bought me a jacket for next winter that was $140 regular on for $40 for my birthday so win-win.
Back at the office, I got a ridiculous amount off my list and had a lovely little visit with Monica that culminated in an invitation to stop by for a quick glass of wine after work. This of course turned into a three hour amazing visit with her and then Galen when he came back from one of his meetings. I appreciate that the bubble we reside in allows us to say what needs to be said about over things that we are involved in.
Three hours later, I made it home for a fancy dinner. My own version of charcuterie.
I woke up at 10 after five this morning stress overthinking, even though I’ve never failed to get everything done in an April and I have a great deal of it done now halfway through my psyche doesn’t process it as well. I was at the office early enough to get a great deal done before I came home to meet the guy who needed leaves for mulch. He showed up and raked up most of my maple leaves. He was very grateful, but as I told him, it was a win-win because my ankle is still hurting from trying to rake on Sunday. I left him to finish off and hustled over to Karissa‘s for a lovely visit and haircut and then stopped to chat with Zac at Encore bar and visit with random friends that happened to be there or pass through as I was there. It was a nice hour and now I’m weirdly home before dark And looking forward to a good night sleep all good April, I got you.
Today they launched the auction online for the Rotary district conference where I donated the crib board that I made. It’s a cute write up.
I must say that the city of Cranbrook has hired a creative and amusing marketing person. This made me want to need a sani-dump.
Of course, Monday morning is the first day that I could really sleep in in the last three days. My alarm went off at 8:30, which is my failsafe in case I actually do get sleep, but I rarely sleep until it goes off except today. I was lying in bed doom scrolling, trying to convince myself to get up when my phone rang and it was the Culligan guy saying he was going to arrive in half an hour even though I was told he couldn’t make it till after 11. This would work out far better for me so I left up, jumped in the shower and was dressed and ready making my first coffee just as he knocked on the door. He serviced my whole house, soft nurse system, and my drinking water system, and I puttered at spring cleaning my stove while it was pulled out so he could access one of the systems. I laughed as I was putting it all back and noticed that the paprika lid was on the thyme. I didn’t spend any more time to find out where the paprika is at the moment as those spices have been above my hot range for too long to be effective at all anyway they’re mostly decorative at this point. It did make me wonder who switched lids, though as I am digestively challenged by paprika.
Work was multitasking as always, but I did take the time to check out the WestJet deals and then compare the flights from Florida to Cranbrook using my AIR MILES to find that I can get a direct flight from Orlando to Calgary and then over to Cranbrook for $47 in taxes and fees and 3000 something AIR MILES. I reached out to the travel agent who booked my cruise to find out if she can get me a good deal on a Disney hotel’s package, including tickets before I book the actual flight back, but I figure in for a penny, in for a Canadian dollar. This will be one of the biggest trips I’ve ever taken in my life if not the biggest so why not add a week in the happiest place on earth, especially since I won’t be going to the states unless absolutely necessary in the next four years.
I did make sure I took time to eat so I popped into the final and Baker had a nice visit with Robby and his friend at the bar Darcy. The Baja tacos went very well with what I would call a version of a Pisco sour that he calls a blackberry king. it really was pretty much the ingredients of a Pisco sour using blackberry crown instead of Pisco.
Next was meeting my friend Laura at the old candidates forum put on by JCI. It was very informative, and I found myself conflicted by our local constituency candidates.
In order of the way they presented themselves tonight, party not withstanding:
Dr. Jim Wiedrick- Independent
Kallee Lins- NDP
And the. The other three in honestly no particular order:
Steven Maffioli (a little green in experience lol)- Green party
Rob Morrison-Conservative (see below)
Reggie Goldsbury (I wanted to think he was capable but he was a little bit of a ham)
I am going to wait until the video is posted of this evening to share an actual clip of Rob Morrison who I believe said he was surprised at discrimination against women and LBGTQ+…  well that is what I heard in his response to a question and was immediately struck by his white male privilege as he felt it has come about because of Trump. Again, in an effort not to misrepresent what he said, although it is still echoing in my brain, I am going to wait for the video and I will record and share that part to review it and give him the benefit of the doubt.
This was my favourite thing I saw today as it reminds me of my friend Monica and me
I had a relaxing morning, trying to get my new phone set up mostly and then decide to jump in the shower after lunch. When I got out, I could hear voices and then there was a bang on the door. It was Roger with Lukas and Sawyer here to deal with my willow tree. What a wonderful surprise as I had talked to Roger about it but not made a plan he has this super cool battery operated little chainsaw on the end of a pole that can extend. It was so hard to watch half my tree disappear, but I am hoping that is alive enough that new growth will come out of the parts we left. I did start a fire and started burning off some of the smaller sticks. He took a truckload of the bigger stuff away. And we got to that point just as it was time for me to leave for the arena to do 50-50 for the afternoon hockey game.
At one point, I took a quick picture and sent it to my cousin Jeanne to confirm that one of these young men was her grandson, Kye. Imagine his surprise when I called out hey Kye, do you guys mind moving so I can see the game too? I quickly told him I was his dad‘s cousin, and there was a chuckle all around. They were very polite and moved out of the way immediately. As it happened, I got to see very little of the game because the 50-50 pot kept getting higher and higher and the lineup was getting longer and longer and from about half an hour into the game until some minutes into the third period I was constantly selling tickets. In the end it got up to almost 12 grand and nobody claimed it!
Good news was we won one nothing knocking the Smokeaters out and moving onto the next round.
It was very nice to get home and appreciate how much was done in my yard even though there is much to do with clearing up the branches still. I may have to reach out for help though because my foot is on fire after walking on all the uneven grass today, raking and stooping to pick up branches and leaves and then walking on the concrete for the game. I need to be more careful 
I woke up after a decent sleep to a day that would be full of rain and snow and breaks and rain and snow and all the herring weather. I had received an email from Telus saying that I had signed up two years ago for the buyback program and that if I didn’t trade up my phone I would have to pay $420 before the end of April. Being that I trade my technology regularly this is not a surprise, but it also seems more significant with the news reporting that phones and other tech will go up due to the tariffs on items. Actually needed a cord that I had so I had it off drop that off borrowed the cord from her and then headed to the Telus in the mall. I came out with an iPhone 16 Pro and after going in checking, staples and winners came back and also bought a new case and pop socket with the proper holder for my car. It is pretty desert colored, and I have a clear sparkly case over it.
While I was in the mall, I checked out winners and managed to find what I think is a lovely Easter present for Madi who was mine in the gift draw this year amongst the adults.
Went home I sorted through all my cords and have an entire bag of lightning cords and a brand new case for any phone up to an iPhone 15. Of course I just bought the case last weekend on sale at Staples and it doesn’t fit my new phone because it has a side button for photos which I look forward to getting used to.
I stopped at the office on my way home, intending to hook up my hard drives and pull the photos off them so that they’re all in one place but as it turns out, I got distracted doing people‘s taxes and that is not necessarily a bad thing because it takes some of my workload away
Once home again, I made food and tried to work on my BB8, but I was just kinda not in the mood for it so now I am sitting here watching black mirror which I discovered has a new season on Netflix
It swings back-and-forth sometimes as if I am living in a grandfather clock. Swing to the left, positive things swing to the right, negative. my day can often be measured by those swings and if I’m lucky they alternate. Today was a little bit like that. I was sad to be poached by another in town of two of my files. They are both from the same owners two different companies. I have been doing their books since 2017 and thought we were friends, but I feel like something from two years ago which had nothing to do with our business relationship affected the husband who then ultimately had the wife deliver the news. I was caught off guard I was emotional. I stayed calm, but it was hard. I do wish them well, and as the day went on, I realized that it will be better for me. It will lighten my workload in the quarters that matter, and they still deal with paper, which doesn’t work well for me either so the only thing really that was hard especially was that I have a 30 day clause and had no notice Nor conversation before.
Shortly after that, I had the thought to check my Rotary app and found out that I am a Paul Harris fellow which is kind of a cool thing especially in my first full year. It really just means that I have donated $1000 US to Rotary in various ways between July 1 and June 30.
I was still a little rattled when I confirm that my on location client still needed me to come help them with their books. I left the office around 3:30 to head there. Over the next five hours, we did enjoy strawberry daiquiris made by her husband and once all the work was done and I was off the clock we all enjoyed some pizza. So that one was a bit of a quick swing of the pendulum as it was taxing on my brain to figure out how to solve their problems, but once it was solved, there was happy dance pizza, and daiquiris.
I got home to a notice from a friend from many many years ago, Dan Riordan, that he had created a painting, similar to one I had admired which he had already sold. I admit that having one done just for me makes it even more special. I shall pick it up when I go down to the coast in May.
I got to bed so late last night because of the hockey game that I set my alarm for nine but I still woke up before it and got myself together and was at the office to get a bunch of work done before I headed to Rotary
The meeting was great and it was our annual director’s report, etc. I was sitting with Dave Morley, who happened to mention that he was handing over the archive items to Bill Bennett because he wasn’t getting it done and I already knew that Bill Bennett had a lot on his plate so I suddenly realized that that could be my passion in Rotary the thing that I do and commit to, so I went and spoke to Bill and offered to take over the archiving and history of the club. I knew that I would learn a lot and enjoy it. It was my jam. I was so grateful when he stood up for happy bucks to announce it to the club and then Leanne gave happy bucks to celebrate. Of course, I had to match her donation by saying that I just love old things which everybody laughed at. I am glad that I am feeling avoid that is important to the historical timeline of our club.

On my way back to the office I stopped to drop off mom’s pills only to learn that she had broken a tooth so I need to make her a dentist appointment and also a doctor appointment by phone that I will take to renew her prescriptions and she said she needed a new shoes, but then she had three pairs of the same types of sandals that she wouldn’t give up one pair of but thought she needed a new pair cause she’s had them for 25 years I dare to argue with her that if she wasn’t willing to give any of them up and they were all still fine aware then she didn’t need a new pair and that she was going to have to cover her dental bills and that might be more important. She acquiesced. it is hard to become the mom to the woman who raised you . 

Back at the office, I tried to focus and get a lot done and then I headed to Encore for friends with benefits night, hanging out and having beers with the other friends with benefits before trivia night
I was so grateful that Brett showed up for trivia night and it was just he and I and we became the team Comfortably Dumb. We did surprisingly amazing for just the two of us coming in tied for third in the first half and then fifth overall behind all the other bigger teams. He already has a plan to bring two guys that I know and I have two women who will start coming in May and I think we’ll have a very well rounded team and I look forward to it but honestly, it was just really fun tonight with he and I. 
I’m sure there are other things that happened in the day but really I am tired and need to go to bed because it is after midnight and I’ve just come home from hockey game that started at 7 o’clock tonight. That’s right it was suddenly tied up with two goals for our team at the end of the third period. Three periods later we finally scored on them. Shot and go were astronomical those poor goalies we outshot 64 to 50. I had so much fun hanging up in the box with Dave and Robby and Jane and Jeff and Robin his wife and a few others. It was just so much fun. Will and Sawyer came up and visited for a while and we were super excited when their grandfather Bill won the 50-50 Something like $2900. A really great night all around.
It’s unusual that I didn’t take a single picture today or check in anywhere on social media.
I guess I was just staying in the moment. I’m working on that because I’m still struggling with numbers and stress in my sleep so trying to avoid it in my day.
I got a lot of work done. I stopped at Fenwick & baker where I had a nice visit with Sandi and Deb before giving Dave a ride to the box playoff game where he had given me a ticket to his box. Suite again. It was fun and Ashlée even came up for a little bit and we had a nice little visit which I was unusual and lovely. I’m also invited to be in the box tomorrow night and Dave and I are gonna do wing night beforehand so that will be fun.
It’s strangely refreshing to chat with a guy about his wife and his life and have him show you pictures of his two-year-old granddaughter who he went to visit for her birthday on the weekend and he’s also cool and generous and very kind.
The group in the box we’re pretty much all strangers although Ashlée pointed out that I knew Hollie as she had worked with Rae-Anne at RM in the past
I had a great conversation with Rob who I met tonight as he had recently retired from the railroad and it was fun to talk about my experience as the first female at this station.
It’s been very interesting, expanding my network so to speak making new friends and acquaintances, which I really didn’t expect at my age. So funny that I began by me just being brave enough to go find my own little spot at a bar that would become my local.
It was also really nice to get a text message from an unknown number, but that I recognized right away was Ethan Askey. He was inviting me to come out to see his band play the first weekend in May. So lovingly, thoughtful, but I had to explain to him that I was taking my friend for his cancer surgery and had to sell the ticket I had purchased to that concert. He replied that I was golden because when he went through his cancer treatments to help from family and friends, what got him through. I had forgotten that he went through that so it was really nice to have that moment. It was also just really nice that it was important to him that I was going to be there.
I really am blessed by the people in my life, and when I put the negatives on the scale against the positives positives are winning hands-down
triumphgal 