Early Xmas present

or late, once they're delivered, I guess...
We finally bought a new washer and dryer last night and we're super excited about it - if you've ever been to our house while the laundry was going on, we know why!
The dryer squeaks VERY loudly for a good 5-10 minutes when turning on, the "start" button is broken, needing pliers to start it, and the auto dry feature doesn't work properly. Not to mention that one cycle doesn't even work anymore - it stops after about 2 minutes. And our washer leaks occasionally, doesn't clean very well, and more recently one of the main cycles that we use also decided to stop working, where it would simply just stop 5 minutes into the cycle.

It was time. We bought the old ones used off of Ebay before we moved into the house for $600, so they've done fairly well. They should have been fine for WAY longer, but the previous owners practically abused the things, and they were falling apart before we even got them. She did have 10 kids, though (foster parent), so the machines were probably working non-stop all day every day.

We bought LG's from Future Shop (of all places) as they were on for a great price for the set (unadvertised, about $600 cheaper than what Sears and the Brick are selling the same units for right now). They may have been a little more than what we wanted to spend (isn't it always?), but we didn't think we'd be able to afford LG's in the first place, so we're happy about that. They are one model under the "steam" models - actually the exact same model as those, but without the steam feature.



The cool things about this model is they include the stacking kit (which is usually extra), and the front control panel of the dryer can be removed and attached to the bottom of the unit, so that both washer and dryer panels are right on top of each other in the middle of the stack. Typically it would be on the top. See my photo edit: It looks upside down, but it's not.

Shivers

Last night I had a bad case of "the shivers". I don't know what it is about me lately, but about once a year I get this uncontrollable chill where the slightest breeze makes my skin absolutely jump and I chill right to the bone. It's a horrible feeling and typically it only lasts one evening/overnight. I can only best explain it as being hyper sensitive to cold (and "cold" in this definition is any normal indoor temperature, god forbid any real outdoor cold), and my whole body tenses up trying to fight the feeling. Every hair on my body stands straight up and feels like they want to jump right out of my skin.
I have to wear a hat and scarf, multiple layers of clothing and a jacket and lay on the couch bundled up while I burn up, yet freeze, and sweat uncontrollably. It's really really terrible. I usually end up taking a scalding hot bath, and then wear clothes and a hat to bed - sometimes sleep on a towel because I sweat so much. Thankfully I didn't get the night sweats last night as bad as I have in previous years, so the bed wasn't disgusting this morning. But my pillow had a nice wet spot. Marnie absolutely LOVES those nights, being a huge cuddler and all.... I should have slept in the other room.
And amazingly, this morning after sleeping in for a while (I wasn't going to go to work), I got up and felt (almost) fine. I ended up leaving for work at about 10am.

The last time this happened was last year about this time and Chris and Carey were over for a games night. I was there bundled up like it was 10 below, sweating away and they laughed at me....
I'm telling you, it SUCKS, and it leaves my body as quickly as it comes.

Tree Shopping & Christmas Baking

Saturday was spent getting our Tree at the tree farm in the morning, and then Christmas baking the rest of the afternoon with Marn's family.

Tree hunting was fun, but I wish Echo was a better dog on leash - boy what a pain when there are people wanting to see and pet him. He is actually getting better and more mellow in his old age, but it's taking too long with the leash. He should be better than this. When he wants to go somewhere, he puts his head down and goes - especially if it's people who want to see him! Even with the Gentle Leader on, it's hard work. Besides that annoyance, Echo was a hit, as he always is, and we had fun cutting down our tree. Here he is with his Santa hat:



No pictures of the tree decorated yet, because it's only about half-way done. Marn wants more and different decorations. We don't have great stuff, and not enough lights, so it's looking a little anemic right now...

When we got home from that, Marn's family came over to start the "yummy time" Baking. This is becoming a tradition where they all go to one person's house and try to get all the Christmas baking done.... This year it was at our house again (I think last year it was as well, mainly because we have room in the kitchen for it).
After that, Cand and Dave and the kids stayed a little later and we opened an early Christmas gift to watch; Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, in Blu-Ray High Definition. WOW, what a picture! There was a preview for Cars on Blu-Ray as well, and HOLY COW, I need to get that - the colours and picture clarity are unbelievable!
I think all of us fell asleep watching it (it's a LONG movie), so we'll have to do that again sometime.

SNOW!

If you've been living in a cave the last few days, you might not know that we're currently being hit with a TON of snow... It started last night, then stopped for a bit, then started up again this morning some time early. I woke up at about 7:30 to Echo wanting to go out, so at about 8 I finally gave in and let him go. I had to shovel the snow out of the way to let him out because the wind had created a nice snow-drift about 1 foot up the back door. I decided that since we knew this was going to be a horrible day with snow, I'd shovel the drive way - one of many to come today, I'm sure. It took me almost an hour and I was drenched with sweat and covered in snow. It was already about a foot deep or more in some parts, mostly due to the wind... now, at 2:30pm, it doesn't even look like I was out there at all! unbelievable! It's completely covered over and by looking at it from inside, about TWICE as deep as this morning! Did I mention that it's still snowing? Hard? Ok, not as hard as before, but still snowing. If I had to guess, we've gotten 2 feet today. Maybe not that much in reality, but because the wind drifts it right over our driveway, it's MUCH deeper there than a lot of places.
My back is going to love me tonight! To make it worse, 5 people on my court have snow blowers, so they're in and out in 30 minutes. This one's going to take me a while longer....

First Day Home...

On Monday night after work, I came home to a HORRIBLE smell, and right away knew Echo had pooped somewhere - the sad thing is, he was in his crate all day... Getting upstairs to his room, the smell got worse, and I just dreaded what I was about to see. But I had no idea what was about to hit me.... There was poor Echo FIGHTING the crate to try and get out with his nose - so much so, that he rubbed it raw an bled everywhere. But that's the not the worst part. There was shit and blood EVERYWHERE! It was the most horrific sight that I've ever seen. Absolutely disgusting! Poor Echo was COVERED in it. The poor guy had a bad case of the shats and just couldn't hold it anymore, I felt SO bad for him. When I opened his crate to let him out the built-up crap on him went everywhere - all the way down the stairs to the back door where he was itching to get out. UGHH!! Nice first day back!?
It took me and Marnie about 3 hours to completely clean the mess up, including bath Echo - Thankfully he jumped right in the tub this time - I guess he knew it!

His room still stinks a little, so we're going to either rent a steam cleaner, or hire someone to come in and do it. We've been meaning to get thee carpets done anyway. I think we'll get the stain protector too!

So after that whole nightmare, this morning I wake up at 5:45AM to the sounds of Echo barfing at the end of our bed! WTF is going on with him?
He horked out a huge chunk of his blanket that he had eaten some days earlier, I guess, right over a pile of laundry waiting to be washed. The smell was unbearable - even worse than Monday night if you can believe that!

The little "green machine" we purchased just before we brought him home has really been getting a work out this week - but I don't think it was made for Great Dane messes....
The Scotch Guarding couldn't come any sooner - I'm sick of this!

On a side note, I'm glad we've been keeping him in his crate during the days. I don't want to imaging were Mondays mess might have ended up - but that might have been a good thing, actually.

1st Cruising Experience

In a word... great! We had an awesome time filled with a lot of eating, relaxing, and many great memories. I'll let Adrienne fill in the stories, as she's a much better story teller than I (and has done many already). To reply to her comment about getting my pics/video to her - same to you! I have them burned to disc already, but waiting to send them out on the Truck along with our presents.

As Adrienne has already mentioned on her blog the water into and out of Bermuda was rough, and along with Madison, I wasn't feeling great for some of it. I didn't ever feel like I was going to be sick, but I did lose my appetite for a while that first day at sea. Since then, though, I was fine and I'm now looking forward to our next cruise! :) No plans yet, I'm just sayin'.

While I think of some stories or memories, here are a few of my favourites in a short 5 minutes.

St. Maarten sunset at the port beside the Grandeur of the Seas


My favourite part of the trip ; catching and holding a Stingray!


Marn and Parker enjoying the sun at Orient Beach, St. Maarten.


Cruisin' in Bermuda!


Marn on the deck before dinner; see that little speck in the background? That's Jamaica... or so we were told... Yeah, I don't see it either.


In Curocao, Den and Parker waiting for Maddie's hair. I caught parker with a really cute smile.


In Aruba, Madison was enjoying her sand mustache and looking goofy with her goggles - which we lost in a huge wave - proof is on video, but not posted here.


Not the best outcome for Adrienne and I on this attempt to surf...


And again, not a great outcome for me, but Marn had a good run!


This video makes us howl - just listening to Adrienne laugh at Madison's mis-timed body surfing attempt.