Winter is coming.
Today a cold wind blew.
Giant snow flakes blew in from the north.
The trees are almost bare.
Winter is coming!

Playing in the rain

It was raining yesterday, at times it was just a slow drizzle. My 9 year old daughter was given a new umbrella Friday. Yesterday she asked, "Mom, can I go for a walk in the rain?" Being an adult, who at times has lost sight of her inner child, my first reaction was to say no. But then I thought about it for a second and thought what fun, how great to be a child and to play in the rain. I remember doing that. Don't you? I remember running through the water puddles - bare foot. It was the best of times. I remember driving my bicycle through the puddles, feet off the peddles the water splashing right up to my seat. The bigger the puddle the faster we drove. Walking in the rain, clothes completely soaked.

A few years ago a bunch of us were out 4-wheeling. When we started the day there were a few puddles from a rain shower the night before. We made sure to drive around them. As the day progressed we got caught in a rain storm...it rained so hard we could hardly see, the rain was beating down on us, pelting our faces. I stopped to pour the water out of my digital camera...it's a wonder it ever worked again. Everyone else had a rain suit but I didn't take one because I knew it wasn't going to rain...yeah, right! They all laughed at me when the rain started - I laughed at them when we got back to the camp and they were no dryer than I was.
As we got wetter and wetter we also got colder and colder. We were an hour from our camp. At first we felt so miserable - wet and cold and so far to go. But as the day went on it became fun, why miss the puddles - we couldn't get any wetter - and what we realized was that the water in the puddles was WARM. OMG, you can't imagine how good it felt to feel some sort of warmth so we hit every puddle we could find on our way back. And because of that we were so muddy but no one cared. It was a good day. We went back to the camp, started a fire, dried our clothes or changed into dry ones and hopped back on the bikes when the rain stopped and headed out again. By the end of the day we were cold, dirty and tired but we had so much fun.
So, of course I let Sarah walk in the rain. How could I not.

Nightlife

Spent the afternoon and evening in Ottawa. Met some friends on their way back from a Home and School conference in Montreal. They stayed the night at Les Suites, Viv and I came home. Took the 7 of us an hour of walking around the Market to finally decide where we wanted to eat...our last choice - Lone Star - was one step away from returning to their room at Les Suites and ordering pizza. Everything we do always includes alot of decision making...oh, well, it adds to the mix and flavour of our friendship...that and some well-meaning joking around and making fun of each other...last night we were compared to the "steel magnolias", you know the Julia Roberts movie of the same name.
It's been awhile since we were all together, some of us were missing though. It's good to get together with good friends and just laugh for no reason.

Growing up too fast!

16 years old on Oct. 21...where did the little boy go!
Often time moves along faster than we may be prepared to deal with.

Where did the years go?
Have I prepared you for what is out there?
Will you make all the necessary right decisions?
Will you remain safe and out of harms way?

Please don't take any unnecessary risks.
Be happy.

Love you!