Christmas Deco Hunting

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I don’t know about other folks but in our family, we shop for Christmas decors every year and we keep adding but sometimes we don’t even put them up because it doesn’t go with the theme.  This year , we had to go simple because both PB and I are so busy with both the store and my work online.  But Christmas ain’t Christmas without adding one or two new ornaments or decor at home.

There is a place just a little way out of town that have all these wonderful Christmas decorations and for reason/s that I cannot fathom, we don’t go there often enough.  This year, I had to go there and found quite a few things.  Did I tell you that our Christmas tree at the store is white this year?  this is the first time I have a white tree for Christmas.  In the last 14 years with PB , our Christmas trees has always been green, so this was really a nice change.  Loved the new Christmas tree at the store and love all that we bought.

Halloween Fun 2014

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Sorry i took so long to put up pictures of Chloe and her Halloween Night.  She had loads of fun in school as a cat girl and in the evening, we went on our usual route and popped in at Gerald’s and Adele’s and chatted and had candies and so much fun.

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Look who’s the Alien this year.  We had so much laughter with the Leblanc’s.

Approaching 50 !

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In a few months or so, i will be turning 50 – 5 decades, the real 5 0  !!  wow!  surreal ?  a little but I think this year had been such a productive year for me and a lot of growing done.   You must be wondering about the growing part right?  what is  this about the growing ?  after all, at almost 50 what the hell “growing”  am I talking about ?

When you are approaching 50, you tell yourself, you don’t really want to care a lot about what people think of you but to live life to its fullest and do whatever makes me happy.  So this year, I concentrated on doing what i love most, blogging and vlogging and boy!  was it a great experience being able to network with other vloggers and bloggers.  This year, I concentrated on what’s most important to us, meaning, chloe and the spouse and since we have been investing more on properties and buying and renting, it had kept us busy for the most part.  And I’ve done away with a lot of people around my life.  Being “friendly”  is not enough to be considered a friend no more, I have no time for “friendly”.

I also quickly realized that at almost 50, I didn’t want to waste time on people you don’t care to be with or be friendly to.    And I don’t want to do things that I feel oblige to do or be polite to people I don’t want to be polite to.  I don’t want to go beyond my call of duty to please or be a do gooder ,  I just want to do what makes me truly happy.

As I’m approaching my 50, I couldn’t care less about what others think of me or my blog, I  want to write what i feel or how i feel at that particular moment and not having to worry about the person reading about it might get offended.  Because it ain’t about them, it’s about me and how I feel and the situation I was in at that point of time.  I don’t want to bend over backwards for people who ain’t important in my life or worry about what they would think of me if I didn’t do what is “appropriate”

This year, because of my “growing up”  I’ve traveled a lot more and networked so much with both Google and Youtube that I could never have done before,  had I worried about what people would think of me leaving my daughter with the spouse alone for days.  In other words , when you’ve lived almost 5 decades, what’s most important in life is me, myself and my family, the rest can take their turns when I have the time.  If they don’t like it, it’s not my problem.   What’s is important is getting enough rest and giving enough time for my daughter and spouse and taking care of our health and most importantly not having apologize for being a success in our life, both home and at work.

There’s no pretending here nor am I ashamed to write I have the best spouse and the best kid (in my humble opinion), we have a successful business and we own our own place and a cottage by the beach and many acres of land to develop as well as several houses out for rent.  I can also  afford to up and travel anytime I want and buy anything I want not just need.   We have enough money saved up for Chloe’s college and a little more for her traveling.  If people are offended because of it, so be it.   They are entitled to their opinion and it doesn’t affect us one bit.

When you are almost 50, like yours truly,  you can tell people exactly what you think of them and stop making excuses for their behavior.   When you are almost 50, it’s okay if another do not agree with the way you are bringing up your kid or the way you speak or write, it’s not my problem, if they want to take it whatever way they want.    When you are almost 50 like I, you don’t have to like everyone, and you can ignore your crazy ex – neighbor, crazy church friends as well as your crazy customers.

PS  :  At almost 50, it’s ok not to have to justify what you do online or offline to anyone especially to people who are insignificant in your life.  

Keeping Your Marriage Healthy

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A healthy marriage  is a happy marriage.  Besides not owing anyone money and having a flourishing business, the spouse would surprise me once in a while by buying me flowers and gifts that he knows I would love to have.  The spouse is a good provider, I never have to use my own money for anything, I even get a pocket money from him each month.  Money for me to splurge and to buy the things I wanna buy.

Some might not think that he is very talkative or funny but to me, he can be if he wants.  He is always there to help and never whine about anything even when he is ill.  He does all the heavy duty stuff , like mowing the lawn and bring the laundry up and down the basement and carrying all the groceries.

We talk about everything under the sun and moon and have total trust in each other, he is very supportive in any venture or direction I want to take in raising Chloe or my online work. We don’t argue at all, if he doesn’t agree with me, he would let it go at that moment and only chat about it when I’m calm down.  As for work at the store, we are totally in sync when it comes to dealing with customers.  We loved our jobs and our life and every now and then, the spouse would surprise me with flowers, perfumes, handbags and eye lash luminizer, what else can a woman ask for right?

My Baby Is In Grade 5 !

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Well, I can’t exactly say she is a baby anymore – afterall, she is in Grade 5 and almost 11 years old now.  Yes, this year she is in Grade 5 and she is very excited about it too.  Same teachers from last year, so I’m sure she will do well with the teachers.  She also begin her piano classes the same week she starts school.  I’m glad I’m in town the week she starts school , for next week I have to be in Seattle.

Time has flown !  and we have to say that she is growing up to be a fine young lady.  She is a lil’ sassy, a lil’ bratty and a little naughty at times but hell! she is a whole lot good too.  So weighing the good and the lil’ bad – I say, she is doing pretty good for a 10.5 yrs old.

Upper Clements Park

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The summer has gone by so fast this year, it’s crazy! and since we haven’t really done much for the kid, except for traveling for my work, thanks to Youtube for all the sponsorship, we decided that we should go to Upper Clements Park just for a day for her.   Chloe was so excited that she couldn’t sleep the night before and woke us up like several times during the night.

The kids had a really good time, poor me, I had to walk up a hill, and I told PB that he and Chloe must be trying to kill me to replace me for a younger version of me … hhahahaha!!!   We were there for like 5.5hrs and went to visit our cottage after that to cool off, so all in all, we spent the entire day out.  The kids were exhausted and slept all nite without waking up that nite.

PS:  I noticed that this year, Chloe would go on more rides than she did last year, so I’m hoping by next year, she will be more ready to do more things in Disney in Florida.

Simply Joyous

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The summer had been going so well for all of us , from store front to home front.  Chloe is enjoying her summer camp and looking forward to art classes both at the Yarc and the art gallery.  She has several play dates a week and is quite popular of late. And this morning, we saw Pinot and Augustine who will be performing at the Yarc.  Chloe said she didn’t mind watching them at the Yarc, so we booked tickets for the show on Friday.

She continues practicing her piano and reading daily even though it is summer holidays and we shall start with some Grade 5 school work with papers that we received from a friend in Halifax.  We looked forward to August because we will be traveling quite a bit for my work as well as squeezing in a short holiday with Chloe.

At the store front , we have a friend who is helping us out when we are on vacation this year and we are so happy about it.  I know that PB will be able to relax because this friend is pretty smart when it comes to manning the store.  Thus far, he is the only person who didn’t need a lot of training.

We are also spending our weekends at the cottage and just last week, the neighbor at the cottage stopped his truck to say how beautiful we’ve turned the cottage into.  But the cottage is not even completely renovated yet, we still have work to do.  Wait till he sees the inside when everything is done.

Did I also mentioned that someone from the United States wants to buy an acre of land from us at the cottage for $80K?  yup ! you heard right! and right now, we are negotiating the price because the piece of land is right by the beach.  So yes, simply joyous!  cannot ask for more.

A Gift From PB

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My skin is really dry during the winter, so when I mentioned to PB that a local salon here carries it, he bought it for me after I had my facial.

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The body butter is different from the ones that I’ve been using and for the price of this bottle, I’m hoping that it will help to ease up my dry and ugly looking skin.

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Definitely nice to have a spouse who can afford all kinds of things for you.  I may miss home and the food but it certainly balances things.

Appreciating The TEachers

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So Chloe had handed me a list of teachers and TAs and staff from school she wanted to thank.   And if you know my Chloe, you will know how much she enjoys school except for the first year with her french teacher and the little boy who keeps touching her bum from another school.  Subsequently, we never had any trouble and she enjoys all her teachers very much.  Chloe is always grateful for all the attention that her teachers gives her and those given to her by Mr Purdy her principal as well as Mrs Rose, who takes care of her lunch everyday.

She listed all the reasons why she wanted to thank everyone on her list and she even reminded me that she wants to thank Mrs OB because she is her favorite teacher.  She loves her current teachers as well, Mrs Eyre and Mrs Bridgeo and have nothing but good things to say about her teachers.   She loves her TAs Ms Holly and Ms Patsy because of them, she is able to concentrate in class while they take care of other students. This year, she also has a french teacher – Mdm Rhyno and Chloe just adores her  – Chloe said that because of Mdm Rhyno , she loves her french.

I am so grateful for all of Chloe’s teachers, past and present and of course the librarian and Mrs Rose, who is a friendly face to Chloe when she is in school.  They all make attending school so much fun for Chloe and she loves school so much, you can never find another happier kid than Chloe when it comes to going to school.

Every year we try to do a little something for all these special educators, I know we don’t do enough to show how much we appreciate them but we try every year.   From the bottom of our heart, we want to thank them for helping Chloe grow into a wonderful kid, because of them, Chloe will be a fine young lady in the future.

Spoilt To The Max

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I finally got to open the goodies that I had bought from Halifax some 4 months ago during March break.  Yes, I had been so busy with all the things that were gifted to me by friends and advertisers that I didn’t have time to look into the stuff that I had bought some 4 months ago – such a slacker I am.  But it’s actually only because I’m so blessed with all the things that Chloe and I have been receiving from friends, home and advertisers, so there was no hurry at all to open the stuff that I had bought.

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But here they are, cosmetic and skin care products that I had thought I needed when I was in the city with my g/f and family.  Oh plus , I did go for a trip to LA for GenCon , so I had a lot of goodies that I had brought back with me too from sponsors.

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Some samples that came with the stuff I bought.

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Did I tell you that I’m a Lush fan?  Yes, i loved this brand and hope that one day, I get to be sponsored by them.

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Urban Decay Naked palette, since I am trying on eye make up for my vlogging purpose.

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More skin care.

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Skin care again.

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Skin care but yet to try it.

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More samples.

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Good for traveling.

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Free gifts – because I bought like $400 worth of skin care during this trip.

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More gifts.

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More samples and free gifts !  holy moly right!