C IS FOR CARPOOL CHARLIE

As my regular readers know, I am social media junkie that's rockin' a small Canadian town, absolutely love where I work, and what I do for a living.  So as an added bonus, I was  flattered last fall when my boss asked me out if I would entertain helping him out by keeping his dog (our company mascot) for the weekend. I instantly said yes!

Charlie never complained once about the carpool chit-chat.
TAKEN: APRIL 3rd, 2018

Periodically since our first canine sleepover, his pup has returned to visit my pack of three, as well visited me at the office, continually reinforcing just how 'swell a pals' we truly are.

Then, late yesterday afternoon, after careful planning, Charlie hopped in the carpool car and landed at the house for a week long sleepover. 

Just like I always have, I brought him back to the office today, so that my pups could watch us leaving and arriving together for a second day, which seems to easily solidify he's in fact a part of the pack.

Just before 7am this morning, for the better part of a kilometer, he ran circles around me, chased a red squirrel on a neighbours lawn exuded the kind of energy I remember having in my 20's. 

He enthusiastically hopped in the car, rode to the office, & stayed by my side the entire day.

As 'Hallmark' a picture as that may paint, the truth of the matter is he knows I keep cookies in the upper cupboard of my office.... and for some strange reason sleeps all day at my feet; which just happens to be next to the cabinet where my lunch bag is stored.

Story of my life. They tell me my mom had to tie pork chops around my ears so the dog would play with me.

… And I thought I had greasy hair as a kid because of overactive sebaceous glands!

#yagottalaughaboutit

B IS FOR BLACK BEAUTY

Today my post if for my beautiful black flat-coated retriever ANNIE!
TAKEN: 2015,2016,2017,2018

A IS FOR APRIL ADJUSTMENT

Well, I'm definitely making an adjustment this April and I will go on the record with the fact that it's not the kind of forceful treatment you get when you land at a Chiropractic office. 

You see, it's that time of year again and I had quietly convinced myself that I wasn’t going to participate in the April A to Z Blogging Challenge again. Yet, when I got home from the cottage this morning and it was actually April 1st, I realized I truly wanted to.

So, even though I missed their master list registration (that closed yesterday) I figured I would once again forge ahead and play by my own rules; which coincidentally work especially well in my favour!

As I have in the past, I am going to post everyday. I will post where expected for the challenge (email  subscribers & Google+ peeps will be updated in real time) but I am only going to post to Facebook & Twitter once a week.  That way, you can easily scroll through the posts weekly, eliminating the feeling that you are being hammered with my challenge posts daily.

It's hard to believe that I was eighteen months into this silly electronic journey before I decided to register and get in the ring with this specific group of writers five years ago. In that moment, I had been seriously motivated by a couple of people (that no longer blog) and decided to challenge myself. 

Here's to my one hundred and thirty first consecutive April posts and my to extremely late decision to jump into this difficult challenge again. Here's hoping my minor 'April Adjustment'  in the sharing  department keeps my readers both interested and engaged this month. ~ Cheers, Rhondi.

Admiration. Ambition. Absenteeism. Adios Amigos. Amazing... Resulted in an April Adjustment!
TAKEN: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Here are the pictures from my last five April 1st posts.
2013: Admiration    (As you can see I hadn’t embraced how my camera truly fit in yet.)
2014: Ambition        (Dot proving to me that ambition is a true key to success.)
2015: Absenteeism   (Reflective that the two bloggers that got me started, had quit.)
2016: Adios Amigos (Starting by saying goodbye, as I'd fled to Mexico to learn to surf.)
2017: Amazing          (The selfie I shared was taken the night before my very first April A- Z post in 2013. What an amazing outlet this has truly become!)

MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

This morning I awoke and decided to stay in bed simply because I could. You know those kind of days, when you wholeheartedly embrace being a fornicating canine? Anyway, as the morning progressed closer to the noon, I text my daughter and asked if she would like to join me for lunch: she said yes.

As I landed at her apartment to pick her up, she appeared to be walking toward me carrying a relatively large cardboard box. I knew it wasn’t her laundry, because that is usually presented to me in a very task specific kind of basket, not a box. So, with my curiosity piqued and her wearing a cat shit eating grin, she arrived at me and announced, “...I have something for you.” Inside were more of the very treasured Petro-Canada glasses I obsessively collect!

Thanks to everyone for every effort
to help grow my special collection. *hugs*
TAKEN: MARCH 17th, 2018

Being in the middle of town and opening that box today made me realize that my more than decade long act of collecting these beautiful holder of anything liquid (in memory of my father) has evolved into a true tag-team effort. 

This lot came from a blog reader and personal friend of Staccs that I don't really know. So I want to say, yet again, that I am truly grateful to all that call, buy, deliver, and even text message location deets; while truly remaining on the lookout.

The interesting twist to this post is that when I got home and sat down to begin to write this one, I did what 99% of us do when we sit down at a computer, I checked my Facebook.  As soon as it populated, I discovered it was the anniversary of the death of a man that I spent a phenomenal amount of time with he and his family during my teen years.

Looking at the photo she'd posted and reading her tribute to her dad, embraced everything I would say to mine if I could. That I love him, and miss absolutely everything about him. Every... single... day.

I know there are so some naysayers out there may think the glass collecting obsession is silly, but it doesn't phase me. Instead,  if I could offer one vantage point of logic to their negativity it's that what they don’t know is, in the very minute I hold one of these new to me special treasures in my hand, I'm in a wonderful moment with my Dad. Today I could hear his laughter in the car with my daughter and I; and there's nothing even remotely silly about that.

Cheers to both these awesome guys today. Hope they are sharing a burger & a beer.

Not to mention having a good laugh about my asinine glass collection!

MADE YOUR APPOINTMENT YET?

So, it’s been a little over a year since I began my quest for a clean bill of health. It started in my family doctor's office with a clear vision of me needing to establish a starting point for my mid-life body, giving me the ability to embrace it for the next twenty five plus years.

It immediately kicked off with a ton of blood work that quickly led to a series of ultrasounds, smears, specialists & 'oscopy procedures; and although it took longer than I'd ever imagined, all have proven to have been very necessary.

My point is that I had an outpatient procedure yesterday in hospital about 30 miles south of me. It was at my request, as we had ruled out the medication dealing with what was a definite growth wasn't having the overall impact that was expected.

Because I was the one pushing for the procedure, I didn't find the idea as personally stressful as say if I’d been given less than a week's notice and told it had to happen as soon as possible. In hindsight, I wish I would have been more mentally prepared and done some clear research to understand what I was about to endure. 

Who knew OHIP supplied very sexy paper bracelets
for enduring one of their life changing spa experiences?!
TAKEN: FEBRUARY 22nd, 2018

As silly as this may read, I believed that I was going to pop in and out of the outpatient department as fast as one does locally when they have a mammogram, which wasn't the case.

I should have picked up my doctors' vibe when he asked me, twice, 'if I would prefer to have a general anesthetic' and not remain awake.

I declined because I felt I had prepared myself for having the lump removed, yet what I didn't know was how painful and stressful being awake for the procedure would be. I actually think I went into a little bit of shock... Because by the time I dressed and said my goodbyes, I began to shake all over. I narrowly managed to get into the car before I had a total meltdown. I cried all the way home from the sheer physicality & emotional anxiety of what I'd just endured.

Now that I have had time to calm down, I don't regret going forward with the procedure. I was a tad surprised with the number of stitches I received and that it would take close to a month for them to heal but the experience is all a part of the bigger picture and my own philosophy, which is that no one should ever take their health for granted.

If I have to take a glass half full moment from the experience, it would have to be that I am so very grateful that I have always been aware of my body and any changes that are happening. Between self-examination and the simplistic generality of Web-MD, I hope to have stayed ahead of my biopsy results being cancerous.

If you haven't kept up on your bill of health, make that appointment today. If my post doesn't spell it out, understand that there are a million reasons why you should with the #1 reason being the single most important one of all.

... You're freaking worth it!

MY BEAUTIFUL MIDLIFE BLANKET

I was texting back and forth yesterday morning with a trusted confidant and we began reminiscing about the summer of 2012. For a number of varying reasons we cheerfully remember that time, most importantly because it was the very first time I’d lived alone at the cottage & commuted to work since its purchase in 1999. In hindsight, I guess you can say that was the summer I officially learned to sew; simply because that summer was the first time I'd ever invested in mending... me.

It’s not like I was broken per se, more to the point that when the twins left for post secondary school in September of 2011, I felt a sense that my life was unraveling. The point being, when the nest empties I don’t think anyone can truly get to know themselves (what they want, nor what they need as a newly independent person) until they make the effort to try and figure it out. Midlife gave me the one thing I’d never had the luxury of before: time.

All these years later, I realize that nothing truly prepares us for midlife. And when that phase crept into my peripheral vision, I honestly would not have classified myself as unhappy. More elated, embracing a feeling of euphoria because I no longer had to focus on everyone around me, and could finally get to focus on my own needs.

It was in that moment, that I looked in the mirror and realized that I had no idea who I was. I remember my immediate assessment on the outside was that I was overweight, yet on the inside I realized I was resentful for being underappreciated. That very harsh personal reality hit like a ton of bricks… and trust me, I did NOT see it coming.

So, as things in my life began to quickly unfurl, I took matters into my own hands. I don’t know what I would have done without my very best girlfriend. She was a lifesaver. She had already survived something similar, so she was my beacon. Thank goodness I didn’t have to pay CJ for all of her hugs and words of support, I would have gone bankrupt!

The summer of 2012. Puddin' was just a wee pup and Dot got to spend extra paddle time alone with me!
TAKEN: JUNE, JULY & AUGUST 2012

The point of my post is that I don't dwell on that time and I have no regrets. I made some big personal moves, learned how to live my life on my terms, and over the eighteen months that followed suffered gut-wrenching heartache I don’t wish on anyone else to have to experience. At the end of the day, I came out the other side more vibrant and exceedingly more comfortable with the skin I’m in. If you’re in my life it’s because you deserve to be, if you’re not, you ultimately know & understand why.

Owning who you are is a lot harder than you may think. For years I just folded like a lawn chair until I would explode with frustration. Now a days, I wholeheartedly own what I want and openly communicate where I’m going: with no regrets.

A wise man once told me that life experiences are the threads that all have a part in our final blanket, which is very true. The other side of that coin is, who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

I taught myself to sew a beautiful midlife blanket six years ago... Didn’t I ?!