The Ouseys in Victoria Page

Well we will soon be on our way. We leave Wednesday and we have been mostly getting ready. Pack, pack, pack and the weather is not all that cooperative. Lots of wind and rain; it is giving us more incentive to get going. We have Mom pretty well ready, she isn't happy with us leaving but I think it will be good for her and some of children. They will be spending more time with her. And Mom will spend more time with some of the residents, other than at meals. We had a grand Christmas meal at Lyn's, of course this was only half the family as David, Tena & family have Christmas with her folks, and Mike, Charlene and family are up North in the snow. Everything went well despite Lyn having a bad cold that just so happen to peak that afternoon. We packed up soon after the meal to let her get some rest. She and Alan did a great job, and Carolyn's Turkey hit the spot.

Our Christmas eve with our friends went very well; though our singing left something to be desire, lol. We have fun with the Carols every year. I have a video clip of a bit of it but it won't upload as it is supposed to. Oh Well!

Rob, Sue, Carolyn and your truly went to see "Charlie Wilson's War" We all thought it was excellent, a must see.

Well that's it for me, I do wish you all a Happy New Year.

My next blog will be from somewhere South.

Peace All.

Well I was finally able to corner my mechanic buddy Dave and last Friday we were able to use his shop, hoist and expertise and installed my tow assembly into our new Nissan Versa. It was a struggle but we got it done. It was a 2007 Versa plate in a 2008 Versa, but I was assured that there were no differences between the two years. It worked despite instructions that left a lot to be desired. Rob helped and the two of us got it wired with tail lights too. Saturday we checked it all out with the motor home and all is well. Siggggghhhhhh, a big load off my mind since we are leaving on the second of January.

Otherwise I was spending time doing the usual getting ready for Christmas stuff, which for the most part was not getting in the way of the whirlwind, namely ,Carolyn. Mom decided she wanted to stock up on a ton of stuff, since we would be away 3 months, thus busy doing that. We told her to call the kids but she says she doesn't want to bother them. However, despite that, the kids will call her to make sure she has what she needs, they all plan to call and visit frequently.

Carolyn has just been baking up a storm and fretting about Christmas eve which is about to happen. The smell of ham is wafting about and has my saliva glands going. We have a Christmas eve tradition that has been going on for 15 years now. Margaret & Errol, Suzanne & John, and ourselves have gotten together for that many years (except for a couple we missed due to being South). Initially we had some kids involved but over the years they took off to do their own thing and now we include Margaret's sister and husband, Kaye and Brian, and Suzanne's Mom Tim (aka Florence). It was our turn and we are looking forward to it especially since we have missed some.

Mom decided not to attend as she feels that her hearing is poor and feels uncomfortable in a relatively new crowd not sure what anyone is saying, so begged off. Just as well she is looking forward to Christmas day with the family and that will be tiring enough. We are looking forward to that. We will be at Lyn's and Alan's. Noni, John and Jacob are coming from Comox, the only ones missing will be David, Tena and family as she has family coming,(we'll see them Boxing Day), and, of course Mike, Charlene and family up North, whom we won't see until next summer. We hope they have a jolly Christmas, we do miss them.

We had a beautiful day today, sunny & warm, so we went for a walk to enjoy it. We haven't seen too much of the sun; lots of rain, and, sadly, more forecast for tomorrow. No white Christmas here. On that note we would like to wish everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a safe but festive holiday.

So many wonderful memories, we will never forget. We miss you much big guy. Love you always.

Ta Ta & Peace

Wow, it doesn't seem like 10+ days since I blogged but time has zoomed by. Been busy with any number of things. Preps for the Motor home for our January trip, getting Mom ready for our absence. She had a hearing test a couple of weeks ago and today I took her to pick them up. Good deal at Costco, they tuned them up for her and she loves them. The fit "real good" and she is hearing things she didn't with her old ones. Kept telling me not to shout, while I was talking the same as I was before. She hears her own voice better so she is talking more quietly. So there is some adjustments to make. They do more with 3 noise environment settings as well as volume control. One of the settings is for telephone so she doesn't have to take out her hearing aids to talk on the phone now. We did a medicine count and picked up enough to last her the 3 months we are gone.

I have the tow plate for the Versa but still waiting for my buddy mechanic to get the time to put it on. It will be 4-5 hour job and then there is the wiring for the lights. I have to work on his schedule as he is still employed and we have to work it in somehow, hope it is soon. Rob is working on modifying the table for our Rig. It will extendable. We will have to install that soon.

My Lions club is again involved with the annual western communities Christmas Hamper; it started last week and we go right through to Christmas day. We will put out 500 hampers usually, so this year should be no different. I am also helping with our annual Christmas dinner for the Colwood Lodge Seniors this Sunday. That's me, now Carolyn has been real busy, but she doesn't blog. But with shopping, cards, socializing, she has had a lot to do. We have had a few dinners here with friends and family (eg Lyn's birthday - Happy Birthday Lyn) and have been out to a few as well, the cruise group meets tomorrow and the Lions had the wives out last Wednesday at the 4 mile restaurant, very nice spread.

Well that sort of catches me up.

Ta ta & Peace.

The Cridge Senior Center that Mom calls home, has won two awards. One for "Heritage Renovation" and the "Judges Choice for Overall Excellence" Wow. We sure pick them well. We did like it when we first saw it, and then Mom did too once we got her here. Congratulations to the Cridge Village for the Family for a job well done. The picture is an excerpt from the paper. (Click on the picture to get a larger view).

Friday, Noni, John and Jacob arrived for the day. Noni and John had business to attend to with their company so we had Jacob and Duck for the day. Duck is their little "whats it cross" puppy, who promptly peed on the living room rug, thus establishing his territory. Charlie, her lab, went to spend the day at Stephen's. They were all up at 3 to get here by 7 and to work at 8, then got back here at 5 pm visited for an hour and probably got home in Comox somewhere around 9 or 10 pm, a very long day indeed. Good thing it wasn't a day later as we got a couple of inches of snow here in Victoria and much more up Island where they are. They are complaining a bit about Comox. In a month they have had a wind storm, two Snow storms, and two power outages.

As soon as they left. we went to David and Tena's. It was Davids birthday and we were invited over for dinner. Tena put on a fine standing rib roast, with all the trimmings, and Carolyn made a fine chocolate cake with tasty caramel & walnut icing, mmmmmmmgood. Happy Birthday David.

David dropped by Grandma's last week to get a lesson in cribbage, but ended up winning 2 out of 3. I think she let him win to get him to come back hee hee.

Lewis' blog has some news about his shoulder. He may have malignant soft tissue sarcoma. You can read the details there, just click on his blog to the right. He is going to Edmonton to see a specialist to confirm. We all do hope all works well out for him.

Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
Supports the mind supports the body too.
~John Armstrong

Ciao.