Life has been busy but I am continuing with Spanish lessons,  and working at learning photoshop.

Some other random things I've learned this week,

1.  Accidentally using oil paints instead of watercolour will ruin what you're working on, but luckily I don't mind throwing shit out and beginning again.

2.  If your oil is not the perfect temperature donuts burn on the outside and are goo on the inside

3. Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Cello solos are perfect writing music and if you play it loud enough and close the office door you can't hear the telephone, or doorbell so you are not interrupted - YAY.

4. When you offer to knit a few headbands and hats for your daughter to sell to raise money for a mission trip to Nicaragua you learn that she is a very good sales person and you'll end up making more than you expected - it's a good thing.   FYI headbands sell more than hats.

Sorry I haven't posted the past few days. I've been on an emotional roller coaster.

Wednesday and Thursday I was learning as per planed. Managed to get this.

I am officially entered in the Red Cross database. I think everyone should learn first aid. You only have to do what you are comfortable with.

Thursday and Friday I learned something I never wanted learn. 

We noticed blood in our dogs urine - the only real sign he was sick other than the fact that he ate his food more slowly. Labs do not eat slowly. He still ate treats and our food quickly. We took him to the vet only to find he had a large mass beside his stomach that was attacking his liver and spleen - he was anemic and his blood showed Cancer. I learned quickly Labradors do not act sick even when they are very sick. Our options were that we could bring him to Guelph and do surgery and then chemo and he may live a little bit longer (he was a 12 year old Labrador) or we could take out his spleen and he may live for three months on pain meds and we could take him home and he may live a day or two but would likely not last the weekend. 

We decided it was time to say goodbye -  even though it was harder for us to let go now and not have him a few more months it was easier on him not to have to be in pain for his last months. We took him home for the night so my oldest daughter could be with us to say goodbye the next morning. We fed him prime rib for dinner, peanut butter and chocolate cookies for dessert. We gave him lots of love (not that we didn't do this normally) - he was still peppy and active however he would stop a lot to rest so it made it harder for us because he didn't act really sick even though he was. We took pictures and let him paint - mostly on the floor. 

The girls slept beside him during the night and in the morning we brought him back to the vet to say goodbye. 

One of the hardest things a person can do is say goodbye when they know it will be forever. 

I keep waiting to hear the click click of his nails against the now painted floor and seeing his wagging tail or waiting for him to knock my feet off the chair so he could get under them. We are mourning  but we will go on remembering what a great dog he was. We will grasp the memories of our goofball Sunny tight in our minds. The paw prints he left are now sealed on the wood floor and we are going to get a 'family' tattoo with his paw, his name and his life. As that should be our family tattoo. He was one of us and will remain with us forever.

Run free my beautiful yellow dog. We will always love you.

Still learning

I am continuing to go out of my way to learn everyday even on days like today when I'm busy driving around town to appointments and such. While my daughter was in her doctors appointment I ran through some Spanish lessons. I'm learning my marks are uch lower when I have to do them on my phone or iPad where I don't bother to put in the right accent on the word. I still pass however I am quickly informed Oops you forgot the accent. I would remember the little dot if I knew where that particular letter was on my phone keyboard. Changing my phone language to Spanish would like not be an option especially when I need to flip between Spanish and texting.

The response text from my daughter would likely be WTF?

Today between writing a new picture book draft, working on my novel, scbwi emails, Tae bo and Spanish lessons I managed to try a couple of new recipes. For lunch due to a snow day my daughter was home so instead of the easy slap together pb sandwich I learned to make Paneras cauliflower/cheese soup. You can find it here:
http:://www.panerabread.com/en-us/craftsmanship/recipes.html#Soups-&-Salads. It's really easy doesn't take long and is really good. It would be fantastic with fresh breadsticks.


This evening I also tried the recipe for the ultimate chocolate chip cookies. There are a lot of places that claim to have these and really it's a personal taste thing but these were the best I've tasted in a long while.
http://www.handletheheat.com/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Happy eating 😊

A new workout

I've done all sorts of workouts before. I enjoy yoga, working out on the elliptical and in the summer riding a bike but today I tried Tae Bo. Using a video - not in a gym. I really wanted to try it before I signed up for any classes. If there are even Tae bo classes around here. I'd have to check. Either way,  I really think I'm going to like it.

Another day of writing, art and learning. Of course when I'm working on a book I'm always learning, somedays it's learning that what I wrote yesterday totally sucks. But whatever go forth and write sucky. It's much easier to fix sucky than a blank page. Today's writing was much better - I think. I suppose I will learn tomorrow if it was or not.

ART - normally I listen to music while I'm doing my art but today I thought what the heck - I'll kill two birds with one stone and listen to my spanish lessons as I paint. I learned how to say a bunch of stuff I didn't understand without reading the English translations :) but my pronunciation is dead on. And the painting turned out just fine. Part of my Hollywood Icon collection - Bette Davis.

I also managed to finish the reading corner in my office. I still need a couple of throw pillows but I also learned today that it was too cold to step outside. I needed a little shelf to hold my beverage when I read or edit (if I'm working on a draft on the iPad) so again trying to avoid frostbite I used whatever I had in the house to build one. I find the little bookshelf fitting for an author's office - how about you?

Here's a closer picture of the shelf we made above the bench Monday. We used a couple of the drawers from the old dresser that we didn't for the bench and then added another file-tower turned sideways on top of that.

Today's learning post is a little boring with no pictures sorry. I could I suppose add a picture of me reading a book on learning to build a website, or sitting at the computer during a Spanish lesson (almost wrote spinach lesson which might be fun if it was given by Popeye) but pictures of those would be kind of boring.

I suppose putting those two subjects together you might think I'm building a Spanish website - but I'm not. I need to rebuild my outdated website and I'd like to learn how to do it from scratch. If anyone has any great tips I'd love to hear them.

I'm also learning Spanish with plans to travel somewhere they speak it someday. Likely alone or with my daughters or friends as hubby refuses to get a passport. Perhaps learning to make him get a passport should be something on my 'to learn' list.


Adiós por ahora!