Suggestions?

I am in the market for a used car. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for specific brands, models or years of cars that are great. I would also like to know why the car is great. We cannot afford something new, and I would prefer to get something that's a few years old that has a good number of nice options (vs something newer that is a base model).

I am just finding that I have a lot of preconceived notions about certain brands or models of cars, and maybe they are completely unfounded. I have tried reading some reviews online for some cars, but there is only so much you can read before it just gets repetitive. We would prefer to buy from a dealership rather than privately. I think there is just a lot more chance of getting screwed over privately. I know you will probably pay a little more at a dealership, but that is our choice.

Any thoughts on 'used car lots'? I would probably stay away from the ones on 22nd St, but we did browse through Bridge City Auto Sports today and didn't find anything too exciting, but I was wondering if anyone knows of any other reputable ones?

Holidays - Week 2

Week one has come and gone. It was a nice balance of busyness in Edmonton and some relaxation when we got home (slept in until 10am today, ahhhh). Also today has been about getting ready to go to Swift Current tomorrow and out to Lac Pelletier. I am so looking forward to some lake time. No obligations, no worries, just pure relaxation (and good food, mmm).

I think all that I need to do to get ready yet is get a few things together, paint my toenails, mow the lawns, water the lawns and flowers and pack the van. We bought a hose today for the tap by our deck and I was using it to fill a pail to put some water on our cedars (the landscapers finally came yesterday and fixed up a few things in our yard that needed fixing, including 2 new cedars!). Kiwi came over and started drinking out of the hose and got her face all wet. Then she backed up and put her bum up in the air like she wanted to play so I sprayed her with the hose. She ran away, but then came back and wanted some more. When we were done I went in the house to get a towel to dry her off and she took off like a shot running laps on the back lawn around the tree and back to the fence to dry off. We call this the schnoodle 500 and we have not seen it since she was on her pills to get rid of the lumps she had. She has so much more energy since she has been off those silly pills! But no lumps!

I had made an appointment to take my car in yesterday for an oil change and to get a seasonal inspection done, since my brakes had been vibrating when coming to a stop from high speeds. The results of the inspection were certainly discouraging. I don't know all the technical details off the top of my head, but we were given estimates for upwards of $3000 worth of work that my car needs. I had no idea..... And I am pretty sure that most of the things that need doing are not the types of things that have gotten worse if I did ignore them for a while. There is a coolant leak, and something with the suspension, and front brakes (rear brakes should be done soon too), a belt, and a few other more minor things. We are waiting to hear back from a friend who is an owner of a shop in Saskatoon just to get his opinion if the estimates that we were given were ridiculously high. Even if we were to do the most important things on the list we would probably be looking at $2000 for a car that is maybe worth $5000. We are considering trading it in for something new. I know that we wouldn't get nearly as much as it is actually worth by trading it in versus selling privately, however after the pain in the butt of trying to sell the Buick privately a few years back I would rather just get rid of it, if we are going to.

I have been praying about going to Hawaii. I asked God if it wasn't supposed to happen that he would make it clear. I think getting Angie a new car is slightly more important than going to Hawaii. :( Okay God, I hear you even though I don't want to hear you. But I know that having a reliable car is important, especially since I can't just hop into Jay's van any time I want and take it for a drive.

I have NO idea what sort of car would be best. I thought I would have my car for quite sometime yet. We drove through the auto mall today just to see what cars are even out there. It is hard to know what to buy. I don't think we are in any great rush, I doubt my car will stop working tomorrow, but at least we need to start doing some research and praying for God to provide the right car. This car I have now, we have had it for 4 1/2 years and have barely put a cent into it. We always said we would keep it as long as it doesn't start costing too much.......I guess we are at that point now. It still looks so nice and it only has 120,000kms on it (it's a 1998 Pontiac Grand Am GT). But I guess lots of cars look nice on the outside but have some major issues on the inside.

Pig snout anyone??

As you can see by the thrilled look on my face, I was so happy to find fresh pig snout in the grocery store. I have searched high and low for it to put in my pig snout casserole, and here it is. Or maybe not.... :P

Edmonton

We are home again. It felt like a very quick trip, though we had two and a half very full days of shopping and walking and browsing. We left the city Monday at about 9:30am and got to our hotel in Edmonton around 3:30pm. I had made reservations for us months ago at the Wingate Inn and we were quite impressed with it. It was good for accessibility for Jason and a pretty nice hotel to boot. We both found the bed incredibly comfortable and slept very well (which is unusual for us in a hotel), I appreciated the free breakfast buffet, and was glad the bed wasn't too high for Jason to get into. My only complaints about the room would be a big gross looking stain on the carpet in the middle of the room (looked like someone dropped food or something) and the walls seemed awfully thin. We could really hear our neighbour's TV and could hear people running upstairs. I would probably stay there again if we went to Edmonton.

Once we dropped off our stuff we headed over to the West Edmonton Mall (only 10 blocks or so from our hotel). We browsed around for a while then decided to check out the Old Spaghetti Factory for supper. It was quite busy, but we only had to wait about 20 minutes for table. I was concerned that it wouldn't be accessible because there were a LOT of stairs in that restaurant. I think I counted at least 6 different levels where a person could sit. All either up or down stairs. Also it was about 8 or 10 stairs to go down to the bathroom. But they had a back entrance and we got a table. I thought the food was really good and the prices were good, but the air conditioning vent up on the HIGH ceiling was blowing right at us the whole time and I was absolutely frozen by the end of the meal. I would eat there again, but hopefully find somewhere less cool to sit. Maybe go to a different location too. It was quite loud in the mall. We continued browsing the mall and by about 8:30pm figured it was time to go back to our hotel.

Tuesday morning we decided to check out the Muttart Conservatory. It is located close to downtown Edmonton and using mom and dad's GPS gave us quite the scenic drive along the river and down some very steep winding tree filled hills. The conservatory was nice, but unless you have a strong wife or a power wheelchair I would not consider going there if you are a wheelchair user. I found myself slipping on the smooth tile floors in my sandals while trying to push Jason up the very steep ramps. We were able to enjoy the conservatory, and Jay took a lot of lovely pictures (which I am sure he'll post some once he gets them touched up), and Angie got her exercise. After the conservatory we swung over to the Massage Therapy Supply Outlet store. I have never been, and it was THE place to get your massage supplies until we got our own store in Saskatoon a couple of years ago. I checked it out quickly and bought a couple of little things. After that we headed back to West Ed Mall and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We watched the sea lion show, which was fun, and walked and walked and walked. We didn't buy a whole lot there. Jay found some shorts, I got some hand soap from Bath and Body Works, and we bought a bottle of sand.

There was a kiosk set up there that we checked out the first day we were there. It was bottles with coloured sand in side in various patterns to look like landscapes and pictures and other things. I didn't look that closely at them, and I think I just assumed they were somehow fairly mass produced. The second day we stopped by again because we thought they were neat and thought about buying one. This time the artist who makes them was there and he showed us how he makes each one by hand. Free hand, with a little funnel, and a couple of other little tools. If he messes up he has to dump the whole thing out and start over again. When he is done filling whatever he is filling (glass bottles, jars, wine glasses, fish bowls, etc.) he packs them down and puts some glue at the top to hold it in. And it is sealed forever. It is really cool so we did decide to support him and bought a bottle of sand. It wasn't cheap, but a lot of work goes into those things, and I think it's very cool looking.

That night we had supper at Red Robin restaurant. I have seen the ads on American TV stations and thought it looked good. It was a very tasty burger, but quite salty. I think I would go back there again, given the chance. At that point we were pretty tired from walking around (and driving in Edmonton was somewhat of a chore being that there was SO much construction going on) that after supper we retired to our hotel room and watched Apollo 13 on TV before going to sleep.

Wednesday we had planned to go to South Edmonton Common to Ikea and to just scout out the rest of the box mall down there for a good portion of the day. We made it to Ikea in time to have the $1 breakfast! I still can't believe that they give you hash browns, scrambled eggs and two sausages for $1!! It was quite a filling breakfast and gave us the strength we needed to browse around Ikea. We bought quite a bit, but the main things we got there were picture frames. We got one HUGE picture frame that we are hoping to hang above our stairs somehow. After Ikea we checked out a few of the other interesting stores. I tried on some clothes, but didn't find any super deals. Most stores have sales on at this time of year, so I didn't think the 'outlet' stores had such great deals. I think by that point my energy level was starting to dip. I was however, happy to find the bathing suit bottoms that were sold out in Saskatoon at La Vie en Rose at South Edmonton Common (after looking in the three La Vie en Rose locations in West Ed Mall with no luck)!

When we finished up at South Edmonton Common we thought we might go to a Chinese food restaurant that we had found in the phone book that advertised that it had no MSG. It was a little out of way but we figured, we are on holidays, why not?! It took us an hour to get there from South Edmonton Common. And when we got there, we realized that it wasn't actually a restaurant they just do takeout or delivery. We sighed and decided probably by the time we got back to our hotel room the food would be luke warm at best, so we opted to head back to West Ed Mall to try out one of their other restaurants. We had gotten a few recommendations from friends for places to try and one was Mr. Mike's restaurant. We decided to give it a go (I should probably mention it took close to another hour to get from the Chinese 'restaurant' back to West Ed Mall and to sit down to eat. So close to two hours after we left South Edmonton Common we were sitting down at Mr. Mike's. We weren't too cranky though, because we definitely weren't on a tight schedule at all. The meal was good! I had steak with peppercorn sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, caesar salad and it came with two onion rings. It was a very tasty steak (and not too expensive)! After that we headed back to our hotel for an evening of relaxing.

This morning we got up, enjoyed the free breakfast buffet again then headed home. The drive was quite uneventful, and it feels good to get home. A couple of observations about our trip to Edmonton. This was Jay's first time in Edmonton, and my third time (I was there once when I was about 10 or 12, and again when I was 19 I went to YC). What I had heard about Edmonton is how easy it is to get around in. Or more specifically how much easier it is to get around in than Calgary. We did not find this to be the case at all. Taking into consideration all the construction, that majorly slowed us down, I still feel that it took a fair bit longer to get from point A to point B than it feels like it does in Calgary. I think that Calgary has a better network of freeways. Or maybe we just didn't see enough of Edmonton to make that judgment. I enjoyed the West Edmonton Mall more than I thought I might. I think once I got my hands on a map and got a basic baring on where we were in the mall I didn't mind being there. I am not sure I found it to be much more expensive than any other average malls. I think because most of the stores are chain stores, so even the ones we have in Saskatoon have the same sales on that were on in West Ed Mall. One final note. Jay and I were pretty excited to check out TnT Asian Market when we found out they have one in West Ed Mall. We always get a kick out of some of the unique things we have seen in our tiny little Asian markets in Saskatoon. Were we ever wrong. The 'meats' they had available and the live seafood (the smell) was quite repulsive. I posted a picture of me with a pig snout on Facebook. I think my facial expression says it all in that picture!

All in all it was a good trip, but it always feels so good to get home!

Hawaii? Who's going to Hawaii? Am I going to Hawaii?

For the non Simpsons fans out there, the title is a Simpson's quote. Well not exactly, but I have had Hawaii on the brain. In the last few weeks I have done what I feel is a LOT of research on the subject of Maui. I have looked at flights, over and over again. Tried to compare prices between Westjet, Air Canada and United Airlines. But after seeing the video for 'United Breaks Guitars' made by a Canadian band, after their guitar was broken by United Airlines, I am not sure they would be my first choice for handling Jason's wheelchair. I have heard good things about Westjet so they would be our preferred choice for flying. I found a seat sale today for $369 per person each way (average regular flight price is around $600 each way per person). With taxes and fees and whatnot that saves between $800 and $1000 depending what day you would like to fly otherwise. I would love to find a cheaper seat sale (maybe $299 each way....I think that's the cheapest sale price I have seen for Saskatoon to Hawaii) but I am not going to hold my breath for that.

I emailed a number of VRBO properties in Maui and heard back from a few of them. Some were not wheelchair accessible, some became clear that they weren't wheelchair accessible on hearing certain details about them. We got a response from a place called Lahaina Shores. It is a condo complex in the town of Lahaina. It is a unique place, in that a number of the suites are privately owned, but it also has some hotel type amenities as well (ie front desk staff, housekeepers, etc.). The ocean front studio suite we were told about is actually ADA approved (wheelchair accessible, including roll in shower, etc) and for a fairly reasonable price. It also has a full kitchen so we could do a good portion of our own cooking. There is even access to a shared bbq grill!

I have managed to locate two companies that rent vans similar to Jason's on Maui as well. The only problem is I have emailed both of them and haven't heard anything back. I think I will try calling their toll free number next week to get an idea of what it might cost to rent for 7-9 days. I would pay the extra to rent a mini van if it meant that Jay didn't have to transfer in and out of his chair every time we wanted to stop somewhere. Though it might be fun to rent a convertible or something ;)

One more place I emailed was called Maui Classic Charters. They are a company that does snorkeling excursions from Maui. There is sunken crater called Molokini crater a few miles from Maui and it is a wildlife preserve and the most popular snorkeling destination on Maui. You take a glass bottomed catamaran out to this place then they drop anchor and let you snorkel for a couple of hours. Then they bbq lunch and take you back to land. I asked in the email if they had ever had people in wheelchairs on their boats and they said they have many times. I also asked if they would be able/willing to help Jay into and out of the water to try snorkeling and they said they would. Pretty awesome!!

We still have not booked anything, and are not 100% decided at this point, but I think this would be such an awesome adventure!

Thyroid, what are you doing?

I have now been on my medication for seven weeks. I have found that nearly all of my symptoms have lessened if not entirely disappeared. I am surprised that my thyroid is still as enlarged as it is. It is not THAT noticeable to someone who isn't looking for it, but I still see it. And I have gained back the weight I lost, and then some.

In June I went for blood work, about a month after I started taking my medication. My doc called me into the office the next week and said my numbers were still quite high so she upped the dose of medication. I will go for blood work again in about three weeks then I have an appointment scheduled for the following week with her to go over the results and potentially adjust the medication again. I hope that my body is responding to this medication. I don't understand how I could feel so much better but that my numbers are still so high.

This weight gain is really bothering me. I am certain that I did not have symptoms of graves disease for more than two months before I was diagnosed. I am almost entirely certain that the 30lbs I lost since we got married were not because of my thyroid, but due to a change in my lifestyle. I think the last 10-15lbs I lost were thyroid related. I just cannot believe how crappy it feels to gain 10-15lbs in seven weeks. I feel it the most in my tummy area, and I just feel sort of bloated all the time. My clothes still fit, but my pants are a little snugger on my belly. Pants that used to darn near fall off me (the ones I wore around the house for yard work and whatnot) now actually fit me again. In the last couple of years, as I lost weight, I went through my closet and got rid of my 'fat clothes' and replaced them little by little with smaller sizes. I sincerely hope, and I will try to do everything in my power NOT to need to buy more larger sized clothes.

I want to be healthy, and I look at the struggles of my parents and clients who carry extra weight and it is so hard on a person's body. So many joint problems, back problems, not to mention things like diabetes and heart disease. I want to look after this body I have been given. I have never 'dieted' and I realize that diet changes have to be changes in lifestyle, not just a temporary change in eating habits. I do not feel that I have a lot of will power when it comes to food, but I think I could change my problematic eating patterns if I had the proper resources available and a good support system. I realize that exercise is also important. I think I could incorporate more of that into my life too. But I know one or the other on its own (ie changing diet OR adding exercise) is not going to be enough. Maybe as an incentive I should post a picture on here of myself in my new bikini I bought today ;) I would like to wear it if we go to Hawaii this winter, but if this weight gain keeps up at this rate....oh gosh I would be 300lbs by January! I would not let that happen!!!

Taste of Saskatchewan

Jay and I went today for lunch. Jay had never been, and I haven't been in a number of years. I wanted to get out there this summer. I looked at the menu online a couple of months ago and thought it looked pretty tasty. We lucked out by finding a parking spot right on Spadina Cres. by the Samurai in front of the Bessborough Hotel. Then we meandered over to the park and I wondered if we would be able to find a seat at a table. But as we wandered we saw a few tables that weren't full, so we asked a group of four if we could use the end of their picnic table.

Once we got situated I went and started fetching our food. We had decided to try a number of things and share them. First we tried a chicken burger from PicNic's. It was alright, fairly mediocre. Then we tried some chili lime ribs from the Victorian. I know that the Victorian is a very upscale restaurant and so I was pretty sure for $4 (2 tokens) that a person would get a pretty small portion. Sure enough, three little pieces of rib. I was unlucky enough to turn around and one of the ribs rolled right off my plate into the wood chips on the ground. I just left it and kept walking. So we each had a rib to try. Again, they were okay, not spectacular. Next I decided I wanted to try the curry basil chicken from Spicy Garden restaurant. I thought it was quite good, but expected it taste a little more basil flavor. I wouldn't mind trying that restaurant again sometime. Next it was Jay's turn to try something he really wanted, and he chose a swiss cheese burger and fries from Manchesters. For $4, I expected a mini burger and a few fries. What we got was a full sized burger, on a nice big bun and a plate full of fries. Wow, you don't get that much for $8 at A&W! Then for dessert we went to the Homestead Ice Cream booth. I had a frozen, chocolate dipped piece of cheesecake on a stick. Mmm it was quite tasty! Jay had some cherry cola flavored ice cream. All in all it was a good experience, and I think we will try to go again next year.

Oh yeah, but the most unpleasant part was the live music. I don't know who was performing when we were there, but man it was loud (so we could hardly chat) and it was BAD :P

I don't want to be a quitter

But I am thinking about quitting. School that is.... I realize I am not quite even two weeks into the start of my classes, but I am having some serious doubts about them. I know I am able to withdraw from my classes and get most of the money back within the first thirty days of the course start date (and no blemish on my transcript).

I have done a lot of weighing of pros and cons and I just am not sure I want to be a student right now. I know that I probably won't be able to do massage therapy forever, but for now it's enough. I really don't want to waste the tuition I have spent on these classes if I decide not to pursue this any further. I would rather withdraw from them and possibly research some other options at a later time. I don't want to go into all my reasons, but this is what has been on my heart.

I feel so blessed to have such an incredibly supportive husband. He has always taken the "whatever you want to do, I will be behind you" attitude and I love him so much for that. I told him some of my doubts about this and he said whether you stay in our withdraw from the classes you have my support. Sometimes it seems like it would be nice to have someone to tell you what to do, but I know it's best this way. I have talked with God about it, (which maybe I didn't do enough of before I jumped into this...) and I feel pretty peaceful about withdrawing.

I think this is why I have been so quiet on this blog for the last week. Just a lot on my mind.

Happy Birthday Will and Gopher Tales

Tuesday July 7th is my youngest nephew's third birthday. I can't believe he is three already. I remember going to visit him the day after he was born. He was so small (only 8lbs vs. his brother who was over 9 1/2lbs at birth). I immediately thought he looked like my mom. Maybe it was just the chin.


Today we braved the crowds of children at my sister's house for his 'friend' birthday party. Since I work late, and Jay is busy on Tuesday evening. It was actually a lot of fun, since we were able to just hang out outside and the kids were busy on the trampoline and the slip and slide (I totally thought slip and slides had been banned! They seem so painful and dangerous! Thankfully no one got hurt today.) Here is Will blowing out the candle on his darth vader cake. I may submit this cake to the Cake Wrecks website. I think for what my sister paid for it, I could have done a better job and I have NO cake making experience. Oh well, it did taste alright, though not that much better than what I usually make with a cake mix. Will had fun and he was pretty excited to get his Star Wars cake. He also seemed pretty pleased with the Cars big boy underwear we bought him, since he is fully potty trained now!


When we were getting ready to leave for the party we opened our garage door and Jay spotted this little guy sitting half way down the ramp in our garage. Immediately he said "Close the door, so he doesn't go in the house!" I did and came around into the garage from the front door. Jay had tried banging to get him to run away but he didn't budge. He then got a broom and tried poking him. He still didn't budge. We really did not want him in our garage, so I used the broom and gently pushed him out beside our garbage can beside the garage. We decided to leave him there to die and I figured I could use a shovel to put him in a garbage bag and dispose of him later. We were quite shocked, when we got home to find him gone. I was glad I didn't have to worry about possibly touching a dead gopher, and glad he was either gone or maybe someone's cat had come and eaten him or something.

After supper I took Kiwi out for a pee to the backyard and she went straight toward our window well by the patio. This isn't typical for her so I went over to look and the stupid gopher was in the window well. He still looked pretty sick and I wondered how he had managed to crawl around the house and fall into the window well?! I brought Kiwi back inside then a little later decided to go check on the gopher again. It had crawled into the corner of the window well and it looked a lot more alert. All of a sudden it started digging at the side of the window well and managed to burrow under it and out of sight. I don't know what to make of it. I don't know if he is digging some tunnels under our patio, or under our deck, or maybe he really is sick and will go die under our deck and make a terrible stench. Or maybe he will dig up my grass. I tried calling animal control and they said to call the SPCA if it is still alive (at this point I thought he was living on borrowed time), or once it dies call City Sanitation. I left a message for the SPCA so we'll see if they call back next week at all. I really should have just killed it, but the claws looked pretty scary when you get close to it, and I have a hard time killing a living creature (especially when I know that I would probably have to kill it with a shovel....and probably would have to hit it more than once :P). I don't want it hurting Kiwi, and she seems just stupid enough to chase after it. Hopefully we can get it moved, or it will just move on, on it's own. I also don't want it eating my shrubs that have nicely grown back after being eaten by the rabbits last winter!!!!

A different idea

Jay had a good chat with his friend Paul about traveling the other day. Paul is also a quadriplegic and has traveled a fair bit since he has been in a wheelchair. He has been on a cruise, has done an all inclusive resort and most recently him and his wife and their two daughters went to Hawaii this past spring. He had a LOT of nice things to say about Maui. I have been doing some research and am liking what I see.

I mentioned the idea of Hawaii to one of my clients today and she suggested a website where you can look for vacation rental condos/houses so I found the website online. It is Vacation Rentals by Owner and there are a LOT of listings on there. There are places for rent almost every place in the world (well except for Saskatchewan, haha). I like the idea of renting a condo rather than a hotel room. You would have access to a full kitchen in most of them, and some of them even have laundry facilities on site. I am not sure what the advantage of staying in a hotel would be for the same cost as a condo. I would much rather have access to a fridge and stove to prepare at least some meals. I suppose in a hotel they change your sheets more often?

Out of curiosity I was looking at rentals in Orlando near Disney World. There were a lot of houses that said they slept up to 12 people. I think that might not be a bad idea for traveling with another couple, or if two families with kids wanted to go to Disney World. Seems a lot easier than staying in a hotel with little kids.