Hair Cut!

I recently got quite a hair cut.

I had been wanting to try short hair for a while.

My hair is not naturally straight and in the rainy weather in the winter here, it is a mess. All frizzy, it won't stay straight and I keep it in a monstrous looking bun most of the time because I don't have the time to do anything with it.

I also saw an Oprah episode where Hilary Swank cut off her ponytail to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths.

Pantene then has the hair made into wigs for women and children with cancer who are going through Chemo.

I thought that was a great idea so I grew my hair as long as I could before I couldn't stand it anymore then I made an appointment.


I brought the little kit with me and the dresser read it and took the little elastics I brought and divided my hair into sections and cut the 9 inch ponytails.

She had never done anything like that before and thought it was very different, but a great idea.

When she was done with that I had a terrible mess left and I was starting to doubt if I had done the right thing, but obviously she was going to clean it up.

Besides the cut, I wanted to get a bit of color as I think my hair is getting a bit darker and duller as I get older, so we added platinum blond highlights. She thought it was such a great idea that she didn't charge me for the cut and only charged me for the highlights.

I love the result. I just wash and scrunch it and it looks great all day. My curl is no longer a curse. I can use all these great little accessories and it even looks good when I am working out and doesn't get in my way. Rainy days are no longer an issue and I can use all these cute little accessories that just didn't work before. I definitely love it and I don't think I'll go back for a while. Mike also seems happy with it and thinks I look like a different person, it's nice to have a change. So if you are thinking of a change and would like to give a great gift to a good cause: http://www.beautifullengths.ca/

Cheers, A

Barb and Raymond Come to Visit

A couple of weekends ago, Mike's parents came to visit us.

They had flown to Edmonton to see Kim and Tina first and then they drove through to Vancouver much like Mom and Dad did this summer.

We met them in Kelowna and we all stayed in a cabin for the long weekend.

We had a great time, we had campfires, had some good food visited one of the wineries and Raymond and I went into Kelowna on the sea walk.
The dogs love the little cabin because they can run around outside.

Accident-prone Unos was a little too exuberant and managed to cut his paw badly on something.

He's finally getting better now, but we had to bandage him up to keep it from getting worse for a while.





Saturday is Barb's day of rest and Mike wasn't impressed with the weather, so Raymond and I went into Kelowna to see what there was to see.

We mainly walked around on the sea walk and drove by Knox mountain just to see it.

We had lunch on the water at a little pub and people watched. We saw 2 wedding parties while we were there. One bride, oddly enough, was sitting fully dressed with here bridesmaids at the bar, another drove by on a nice looking white Harley with her groom.

Here I am with Ogopogo. It is an old statue of a monster that is supposed to live in Okanagan lake.

This is I think the first picture of me since I cut my hair. It is much shorter and quite a bit blonder now. I love the change.







Every night we had a campfire. The cottage has a number of fire pits, but the favorite is the one that overlooks Lake Okanagan because of the view.

Here is Mike tending the fire. He is fully equipped now with a head lamp now.

We had some beers, weenies and marshmallows and sat around and watched the fire.




Here is a gorgeous picture of the vineyard at the Grey Monk winery.

We had dinner here with Barb and Raymond (first picture). It was actually their anniversary weekend so that worked out well.

On the Monday we drove home to Vancouver.

They stayed with us for about a week and a half.

We went out to dinner a few times and also Raymond cooked for us quite a bit. He is a fantastic cook and I really appreciated it.
He made Six Pates, spaghetti, lasagna, sweet and sour chicken and shepherd's pie.

Also during the day while they were exploring Barb was on the hunt for sweets and she sure found them.

From the bakery on Granville Island, to Beard Papa's cream puffs, to Cupcakes' cupcakes, she found them all and we had dessert after every meal. I think I gained somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds while they were here, but it was great.


Also while they were here Barb kept cleaning our place! She was doing the laundry, the floors, you name it.

Raymond and Barb joked that they were pretending to be Jose and Juanita, the hired help who were cooking and cleaning.

I certainly didn't expect them to cook and clean, but I surely enjoyed it. :)

Barb loves to swim and she discovered the massive outdoor pool near Stanley Park. She went during the day, but on the weekend, I went with her.
She swam and I went mainly to work on my tan.

The pool is right by the seawall and you can see the ocean from the pool.

I believe it is partly salt water, but it is all clean and chlorinated. It is a gorgeous pool.

I think that they really enjoyed themselves while they were here and we certainly enjoyed having them.



They looked around at some of the near by communities like Burnaby, North Vancouver and Raymond and Mike went out near Point Grey.

Raymond is retiring soon and looking for possible cities to retire in.

Vancouver is a good choice as it doesn't have the extreme cold in the winter and ice and it also doesn't have extreme heat in the summer or many bugs.

Anyway, thanks guys for coming to see us we had a great time. :)