Going on a Road Trip

Hanna and I are leaving soon to go to Sarnia for our family Christmas gathering.   Road trips always result in a story when the Poelmans are involved so you better be sitting on the edge of your seat.  I am sure I will have a good one for you soon.

Griffin

Hanna has a blue tabby cat named Griffin.  He heard that I have been writing about my cat Sheba.  He has been scheming ever since to have a blog post of his own.

Yesterday morning at 5:30 I was happily sleeping, minding my own business.  Thank you very much.

I just happened to be wearing pajamas with a ribbon around the neckline.  Apparently the ribbon attracted the attention of Griffin the cat.  It made him quite frisky.  Unfortunately he missed biting the ribbon and bit my brea...........chest instead. 

Talk about a RUDE awakening.

ROAR!!!

Sheba

When I started this blog I vowed that I would not be one of those people who talks constantly about their kids(easy because I don't have any) or blathers on and on about their pet. 
Well too bad because I have a fantastic cat and she deserves a(nother) blog dedicated to her.

My cat Sheba was born in my basement. She was supposed to become our neighbour's cat and was even named by said neighbour but alas it was not to be. 

Sheba disappeared when she was about 5 months old.  We could not find her anywhere for 3 days.  My uncle and aunt came over and we were showing them around the house and backyard.  I heard a meowing cry.  I called for SHEBA and saw her through the window of the textiles factory.  Sheba was throwing herself against the window trying to get to me.  My sister and I went into the factory and asked for help. We located Sheba in the basement of the factory.  She was grease covered and had lost weight but she was safe and sound.  She purred and PURRED when I held her and carried her home. 
Sheba adopted me.
Sheba thinks she is the boss. 

Sheba disapproves of my singing.  When I am home alone there is nothing I like more than to sing at the top of my lungs as I clean the dishes and tidy up the house.  If Sheba is in the house she comes running up to me and starts meowing furiously.  If I stop singing then she calms down.  If I continue to sing then she bites my ankle.  If I still sing on then she bites my ankle again.  I roar at her but she just twitches her tail at me and walks away.

Sheba is the boss of my sister Hanna's cat, Griffin too.  He may be twice her size but he is completely submissive to her.  If he comes near her food Sheba growls and hisses at him.  He finds an excuse to leave the room.  "Oh look at all the interesting shadows over there......did you see that? Was that a mouse? Hold on a sec while I check it out."   And if Griffin decides to take a nap on the floor, Sheba finds it highly amusing to walk right over him.  She is careful to make sure she steps on him with all four paws.

Yesterday I went into the bathroom and saw Sheba on the weigh scale.  She was staring at the reading.  I told her not to worry because 7 pounds is just fine for her.  Sheba flicked her tail at me and walked away. 
She does that a lot-----walk away from me while I am talking to her.

I do sometimes lament that I do not have a lap cat.  But Sheba is quite amusing to me.  And to be fair she does come to me for cuddles.  It's just that she wakes me up at random times-1am, 3:30 am, and her favourite-5:00 am by meowing and jumping all over me until I scratch her ears and rub under her chin.  

Sigh....It's a good thing she is so cute.

First Dates

I am very new to the dating scene.  I had my first date ever in June.  We met through an online dating site.  I had my second date while in BC.  It was a blind date set up by a mutual friend.

I love the concept of blind dates.   Friends set you up and if it works then that's great, if it doesn't then no big deal.  A good friend of mine recently told me, "a date is not going to kill you Beth!".  I am trusting that she is right.  So far I have been having a good time not finding the one.  I have a healthy, if warped sense of humour so I can laugh about it in the end.  It is a learning experience.

Here are The Top 10 Clues that He is NOT THE ONE.

1. You decide on a meeting place and he parks way on the opposite side of the parking lot in a different coloured vehicle than what he told you.
2. While on a 2 hour hike he lets you carry the picnic cooler the entire time.
3. He takes out his cell phone, says, "I guess it would be rude to take this call.", and then answers the phone anyway.
4. He tells you that he does not own a Barbeque because his mother told him that an oven is good enough.  (He is in his late 30's)
5. Two words: personal hygiene.  Seriously.
6. Your date drops you off and tells you that he took you out as a favour to your mutual friend.
7. You make lunch, bake brownies and your date refuses to even try anything but the ham and cheese sandwich.
8. He chooses the restaurant then when the bill comes he lays down the money for his order and looks at you expectantly. 
9. You notice your date picking scabs from his face, slip them in his mouth and chew them while talking with you. 
10. At the end of the date he brings you back to your car.  It is pouring rain.  You try to open the back door to get your picnic cooler but cannot get it to open.  He calls out encouragement, "pull harder, it is an old truck so the door sticks".  While you repeatedly and unsuccessfully try to open the door while standing in the pouring rain he is sitting behind the wheel with his seatbelt on.

Seriously? Seriously.  I can't make this stuff up people.  I am good but not that good.

What a Day!

Maya, Eli and I had a great time at the Strongstart which is their "school".  One of the moms started a hoola hoop train.  Maya thought this was Fantastic!



We dropped Eli off at home for his nap and Maya and I had some one to one time.  We checked out yet another park.  Please note that we stopped at Tim Horton's on the way to the park.  Gotta start them early. :)

This park has everything.  A lookout to the river, playground, picnic shelter, outhouses, trails, soccer fields, a volleyball "court".  After 2 hours I still had to coax Maya to leave with promises to come back another day.  Sadly my camera ran out of batteries before the bald eagle landed so close to us.  Very disappointing.

Maya loved the view from the lookout.  "It is so beeeoootiful!"
She also enjoyed her hot chocolate on such a chilly day.

Maya counting the steps, "1,2,3......13,16, tooda, doodoo, lala". 

Rolling down the hill.

A tire swing, a tire swing!





Maya reminded me again that I should really stay longer.  It will be hard leaving on Saturday for sure.

Park Fun

Maya, Eli and I have been discovering the parks of Vanderhoof.  The sunny fall days are perfect for digging in the sand for treasures and flying high into the sky on the swings.  Notice the continuing theme of Maya dressing up for our various excursions.

Eli loves crawling around on the merry go round.  He does not want it to move because that is scary.  Eli crawls around in circles and laughs at the echoing metal sound that his hands and knees make.

Maya: "Aunt Beth when are you going back to Tario?"
Me:  "In about a week, 7 days."
Maya: "Oh you can sleep at my house for longer than that.  You can live in our basement."
She is a sweetheart. 
We walked to a park.  I pushed Eli in the stroller and Maya was in charge of the sand toys.  I think she looks like a rock star.



Eli and I crawled through the fallen leaves while Maya took pictures of the park.  Here are some of her photos.



Eli stole my sunglasses and is hiding them behind his head.
He is a little clown.



Another fun game.  Nose honking.







Great shot Maya!





I am just loving the clear, crisp fall days.



Princess Maya and Princess Aunt Beth

My brother Jonathan met me at the airport in Prince George, BC on Tueday evening.  We were all going to stay at a hotel for a few days since my sister in law Chelsey was going in for surgery on Wednesday.  When we arrived at the hotel my niece Maya came running down the hall to give me a hug.  My nephew Eli just turned one.  He did not recognize me but he smiled when I made faces at him.  We had dinner then Chelsey went to have a rest.  Maya wanted to go to the room too.  In an effort to distract her, I had the following conversation with my three year old niece:

"Princess Maya?"
Maya's head shoots up and she looks at me with sparkling eyes.
"Yes?"
"Would you like to give me, Princess Aunt Beth a tour of your royal kingdom?"
"Of course I will Princess Aunt Beth!"
"We will need to link our pinkies together."
"Okay, we sure can."
For the entire tour of the hotel Maya insisted on holding pinkies and not hands. 
I also taught Maya the queen wave which we called the princess wave.

Wednesday

Maya, Jonathan and I went shopping during part of the morning.  We found a beautiful butterfly costume and some pink striped tights at a consignment store.  At the dollar store we found some pink goggles for Maya to wear in the pool.   Maya asked to have shoulder ride while we were in the mall.  When people passing us were smirking and laughing I asked Maya what she was doing up there "Oh, I am giving everyone the princess wave Princess Aunt Beth."  Oh dear.

When we got back to the hotel Maya decided to wear all of her new favourite things.  I wanted to show a video of her singing a song but could not get it to load here.  Yes, Maya did wear this minus the goggles to see her mommy in the hospital. 

ADVENTURES

Sparkles is off on an adventure for a few weeks.  Gonna go visit with my youngest brother Jonathan, sister in love Chelsey, niece Maya who is 3 and nephew Eli who just turned one.    While I am there Chelsey is going for surgery, they are moving 3 hours away from their current home and Jonny boy is starting a new job.  My responsibility?  Play with the kids.  Sounds good to me.
No pictures today but come back soon.

Unexpected Discoveries

My sister Melita came for a visit with her children.  She has 6 beautiful and busy children.  Hanna, Melita and I took the kids to the park for a picnic.  They discovered a chestnut tree.  Matthias, Josiah, Kimberley and Asher spent all their time removing the chestnuts from their prickly green protective shells.

When we were ready to go we went back to the van.  Kimberley made this disgusting discovery.  Some people just do not think!

Aunt Hanna: "Don' t touch that!"
Kimberley: "Why? What is it?
Very nice of some person to leave a used condom for a 5 year old to discover.  But Super Sparkles stepped in to save the day and disposed of the unsightly item.

We went on to Pres'quille Provincial Park without further incident.

Sheba

Today I am going to write about my princess cat Sheba.  She is 7 pounds of pure attitude.  Sheba is not a lap cat but she does like to sleep on my bed at night.  I sleep on my stomach and when I fall asleep Sheba is sleeping by my feet.  When I wake up Sheba is sleeping curled up on my bum. 

My sister Hanna and I recently moved to a new apartment.  We moved to a busier area of town so we tried to keep the cats inside (Hanna also has a cat named Griffin).  Sheba begged loudly to be let outside and I ignored her.  So, Sheba decided to try harder.  I would come home from work and she would do a poo by the door.  I roared at her but she just twitched her tail at me.  I still did not let her out.  Then Sheba pulled out the big guns.  She peed on my luggage(in my closet), in my laundry basket and finally on my bed so.......

Sheba goes outside every morning around 6:30.  She meets me in the driveway when I come home from work.  This arrangement is much better for both of us.

Puddle Splashing

I love going for walks in the rain. Especially when there are puddles to splash in.  Not delicately walking through them but jumping up in the air and making a huge, messy 
                                                                       Splash.
Most of the time I try to act like a grown up but there is something about a mud puddle that grabs me and transforms me into a joy-filled, care-free child.  Yes, rain is fantastic.

I don't have any pictures of me splashing in puddles.  But I am at least standing by water.
Here I am freezing at Dennis Lake.
I was not brave enough to jump in.  It was snowing in October.

There you go folks.  Another day, another rambling thought.  Hope you found many reasons to smile today.  

Nicknames

My first nickname that I can remember was *Tigger.  I used to jump and bounce everywhere I went and someone thought it would be cute to call me Tigger.  The name caught on until several people were calling me Tigger instead of my actual name.  One day I had enough.  I burst into tears and yelled, "my name is Beth, not Tigger!".   This was the beginning of my love/hate relationship with nicknames.

My parents started it though.  I was named Elizabeth but have always been called Beth.  The only exception was when I was in BIG Trouble.  This rarely happened because I was such an angelic child.

Scroll forward a few decades and I have a new nickname.  I think it is my favourite yet.  It is Sparkles.  So when I was trying to come up with a blog title, I went with a Day in the Life of Sparkles. 

I am not a wife, I am not a mother.  I am a woman, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend.  I have not accomplished great and mighty things in my life but I find many things amusing in my day.  My dear friend Rebecca has been encouraging me to do some blogging.  So if you wanna take a sneak peak into the life of a 30 something lady with a warped sense of humour then come back soon for more of the life of Sparkles.

*If you are not familiar with Tigger then read some Winnie the Pooh stories.