Finished & Begun

The finished is that I have finally sent my Holiday Faves album from 2017 to the printers and it should be here next week. On the plus side, it was finished just waiting to be printed.  I have tried somewhere new as they had a good deal (plus the exchange was unreal for me to use Shutterfly and my favourite, Blurb doesn't do 8x8 or 10x10 size) so here's hoping that I am happy with the quality.

The cover of my book from 2017

The begun is that I have started my album for this year which I have titled 'Tis the Season 2018. So far I have 12 pages finished and hope to keep the mojo flowing as well as the stories. Let's also hope I get this year's album printed before the end of 2019. Rather than a square, I am doing 8x6 landscape to see how I like it.

The cover for this year;

A few days left of 2018 to make some more memories :)

Christmas Past and The Now

Another Christmas is in the books and I would say this one was hard.  While I had the adoption of Dash that really made it special I also had some down moments. 

This was my first Christmas not having my son with me for Christmas dinner, he was with his dad. For six years it has been us and my parents or us and my whole family.  This year it was just me and my family, it hit me harder than I expected.  I contemplated just staying home and putting my jammies on, but after a meltdown and tears I sucked it up and went back out to my brothers.  Glad I did as we had some laughs playing games and such.

Fast forward to the now........

Dash is doing well and we have gone out for a walk every day.  I feel myself being more at peace and calm, animals are amazing creatures aren't they?  The Meow-man is handling a dog in the house very well and is over being angry with me.  Matter of fact I have cat curled up beside me and do is curled up at my feet.....life is good.

Avoidance is in full gear, I have done nothing!!  There is laundry, dusting, vacuuming and sweeping to do as well as a good fridge clean out needed but I am content to sit and watch whatever marathon is playing on the Comedy or Space network as well as catching some World Junior hockey action (still in mourning over Canada's shootout loss yesterday).

From the Dash-board

Today we brought Dash home.  Dash is the dog we adopted from our local Humane Society and I am in love.  I have been wanting a dog in my life for some time now but it has been serious lately.  I knew I wanted a shelter dog as opposed to getting a puppy for many reasons.  First of all I don't really want to go through the all the puppy stuff again and second there are so many dogs out there who deserve a second chance, a home to call their own with lots of love to give. 

Here is Dash's story; originally I was looking at a three year old beagle mix, we had decided he would be perfect for us in terms of size and I knew beagles were faithful, good family dogs.  We were just waiting for the cat test (I have a cat) and then he would be ours............disappointment as he did not 'pass'. Now they still would let me adopt him but I had to sign a waiver stating they did not recommend he go to a home with a cat.  I sat on the floor with him feeling horrible as he was not going to get his forever home like I promised.  The adoption worker then asked me to take a look at this sweet little guy they had, so I agreed thinking I would look again after Christmas.  In comes Dash (the name we gave him), a sweet little boxer mix with a severe underbite and very underweight.  He was a mess but something in him tugged at my heart, I knew that he would want to please and be a faithful companion.  Definitely a little guy that would be passed by in his cage without the benefit of getting to know him.  I came back the next day to visit with him, and after playing he would come lay down next to me and just let me pet him.  I was seriously getting drawn in all he had to do was pass the cat test (crossing fingers). 

I called to see how he did, preparing myself for bad news and deciding that my search would be off until after Christmas.  The behaviourist got on the phone and gave me the news that he did very well, wasn't even really interested in the cat and that he had a sweet disposition.  It was all set, I knew Dash had found his forever home.  When I went in to visit him Friday it was to let him know he would have a home for Christmas, my heart felt light and I was excited.

Fast forward to today.  Dash is home, with a pretty red collar, new toys and someone to love him.  I don't know if he understands what he has given me, think we need each other and we will make a good pair.