You've Been a Friend

Sherry at My Journey Back has started a new meme. It is about friends that are precious to us and she's invited me to join. This looks like a lot of fun. I'm to write a post about a friend that means a lot to me, either a blogging or real world friend.

This week I'm going to write about my friend, Jo Ann. I met her in 1976 when I was selling Avon door-to-door. She had five children and I had one. Over time we became very good friends and we've been through a lot together.

We helped each other out as our children grew. We shared food, money and anything else. What one had, the other was welcome to. We've watched family members celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, weddings. We clung to each other and cried when family members passed on. We've held each other up, supported one another and cheered each other on. We've traveled dark valleys, climbed high mountains and stood on the top of those mountains and watched the sunshine break through the clouds.

Yes, Jo Ann and I have been friends since we were young women and now we're growing old together. Jo Ann has been a definite blessing to me throughout the last 32 years. Thank you, for being such a great friend.

Now I'm supposed to tag one friend to do this meme. Mmm! Such a hard choice, but I am going to tag Hootin' Anni. ;-)

If you would like to take part in this meme, just copy the button and then go to My Journey Back and add your name to Mr. Linky and then pass the meme along to ONE friend. How lovely that Sherry would encourage us to share one of the most precious gifts on earth - Friends.

A Horror Story and a Meme!

I'm wondering why people take advantage of other people. Is there no such thing as respect and honor left in this world. Though I'm not one to complain about things, I'm hopping mad.

I am a person who will give anything to anyone or do anything to help anyone. I should have learned my lesson a long time ago, but being a giving person, I have never given up on people. Let me tell you what has been happening over the last few months and also what happened today.

We rent our upstairs apartment out to help us make ends meet. Last September, the apartment became vacant. Hubby knew a young man who was going to be put out on the street, so he offered the apartment to him. When I met this person, I had my doubts about him. However, hubby wanted to give him a chance, so I agreed. We rented him the apartment.

When we had to have some work done in the house for the fire department to bring all electrical up to code, I was horrified to see that the apartment was a mess. I don't mean clutter. There were pizza boxes, fast food containers and food on the living room coffee table. As nicely as I could, I told the young man that he needed to clean up the apartment. Two months later he took eight bags of garbage out of the apartment.

While we were on vacation last January, the tenant put his garbage out on the upper deck. The deck was constructed to give the tenant more living space and a place to sit out at night as there is no yard for the upper apartment. Over the next four months, the garbage continued to pile up there. First we had raccoons, then mice. I asked the tenant to get rid of it in February. He told me that he would get rid of it come spring when it had melted. Hubby insisted the tenant would clean it up, so I let it be. Last Monday I told hubby it had to go. The two of us went up there and cleaned up 14 bags of garbage with a shovel. There was even cat litter on the deck. I was horrified.

The other day I went out into the front hall to gain access to the front door because it was raining. I wasn't entering the tenant's apartment, as the hall is a community space. However, we don't use it often as we feel that the tenant should have privacy. I was appalled when I stepped through the door. There must be 6 months of junk mail sitting in that hall on a bookcase that belongs to the tenant. This is a definite fire hazard.

The day we cleaned up the 14 bags of garbage, I heard the tenant come in and went into the hall. His words to me, "I have a little b*tch to clean up after me." I was horrified. I told him outright that I was not his mother and would not be cleaning up anymore of his garbage. I told him nicely and asked him to clean the hall up because if the fire department came in they would have a fit. He said, "Well these aren't all my fliers. Some of them came out of your mailbox."

I held my tongue and replied, "I was nice enough to clean up your garbage. It's your place to clean up the hall."

The hall is still full of newspapers, which are going into the garbage tomorrow morning. Yes, I will clean it up but I am not going to search through all of it to see if there is something of his in there. It will just all go into a garbage bag and be put at the curb garbage day.

For the last few months, the tenant has been late with his rent - as much as two weeks late. He promised me he would be all caught up on May 2nd, which is today. We never heard from him and when he came in at dinner time, hubby asked him if he had the rent. He said no and he wouldn't have any for another two weeks.

Sorry friends, but I lost it. I told him that he'd promised me the rent would be caught up on May 2nd. His reply, "Tough luck for you."

I went ballistic and told him that he would be out of here. He gave me the finger and went into his apartment and closed the door.

I have made up his eviction papers. Hubby will sign them when he gets up tonight and I will serve them to him after midnight. According to the Ontario Rental Tribunal, I have to give him 14 days to pay, or at the end of that time he has to be out. If he doesn't move, I have to pay to go before the Tribunal and have him evicted. Total time frame: approximately 2 months. Total cost to me: About $300. Total cost to the tenant: 3 months free rent.

Now, I've said all of this to make a point. This is a young man who we gave the apartment to so he would not be living on the street. We treated him as a son, helping him out whenever we could and even giving him food when he didn't have any. Why is it that he repaid our kindness by dumping garbage on his deck and not paying his rent? I truly cannot understand people who deliberately take advantage of others. Not only am I bewildered and frustrated, I am hurt that he would do this. We have been nothing but kind to this man. This puts a definite strain on us financially and he knows it. After all, he was supposedly hubby's friend.

I would like to hear your opinions on this. I will keep you updated on how things progress.

Now, on the lighter side of things.

Storyteller asked her readers to participate in 'The Meme of Fours' after being tagged by Ivanhoe. So here goes:

4 Places I've Been:

I have traveled in both the US and Canada. My favorite places are:

* Tennesse

* Arkansas

* Cape Breton Island in Canada's Maritimes

* Cranbrook, British Columbia

4 Favorite Foods

* Fruit of any kind, especially fresh raspberries, blueberries, strawberries plus apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi and a host of others.

* Pizza

* Homemade apple pie, using sugar substitute

* Mom's holiday dinners, which usually consist of turkey, dressing and all the fixin's.

4 CDs

* Roy Orbison

* The Gaithers

* Celine Dion

* The Rankin Family (Canadian Celtic group)

4 Jobs I've Had

* Nurse's Aide

* Taxi Owner Operator

* Baseball Stitcher for Spaldings - stitching hardballs for the pros

* Retail Manager

4 Things That Make My Day

* Hearing from my online or real world friends

* Enjoying fun time with my grandsons

* Doing a random act of kindness

* Blogging

4 People That I Tag

I don't like tagging people, so I'm going to amend this part of the meme. If you participate and leave me a comment saying that you have, you can help yourself to a copy of the award below.

Enjoy taking part in this meme. It will help your blogging friends get to know you just a little better. Have a wonderful Saturday, stay safe and enjoy your time off from work. ~Blessings, Mary~

Message in a Bottle Meme

If you are here looking for my Green Thumb Sunday post, my apologies. My camera batteries gave out on me totally and for some reason will not recharge. I guess they are just plain old. I probably need to replace them. Hopefully I will have photos for next week.

Mimi, Queen of Memes, has tagged me for the Message in a Bottle Meme. Now I have never met Mimi before, but since this looks like a lot of fun, I will participate. Here are the rules, as posted on Mimi's site:

You are about to send a virtual Message In a Bottle across the Blog Ocean. Leave a message in the sand or on the bottle. Write anything you wish. Be a pirate or a poet. Serious or silly. Anonymous or not.
What message would you like to send out to the universe?
Message In A Bottle Meme

1. Compose a message to place in your virtual bottle

2. Right click and Save the graphic below

3. Use a graphics program of your choice to place the message on the picture

4. Post the meme and these rules on your blog

5. Return your "Message In a Bottle" to me via email ~ mimiwrites2005 at yahoo.com, sign the Mr. Linky below and leave a comment HERE telling me you've finished. IF YOU WANT YOUR MESSAGE TO BE ANONYMOUS PLEASE SAY SO.

6. Tag a minimum of five people - or your entire blogroll - to do the same. Notify them of the tag.

My message in a bottle is as follows:I do not like tagging people, so I am not going to. If you'd like to participate, please follow the rules, create your message in a bottle and then let Mimi know that you have done so. I will probably get thrown in Mimi's dungeon for not tagging, but I'm not sure how many have already done this. I do know there are at least 226 of these bottles floating in the blog ocean. So if you haven't taken part, please feel free to do so. I would love to know who participates, as I enjoy reading the messages of this meme. I've seen several of them on my friend's blogs and the messages vary from serious to hilarious. It is a lot of fun.

If you are one of my regular readers and don't know how to add your text to the button, just email me with your message and I would be glad to add the message for you.

There's not much other news from up this way. We've been getting lots of rain. It's pretty much rained steadily since about 1 am Friday morning. We are to have warmer temperatures next week, to which I'm looking forward.

Have a wonderful Sunday and please spend some quality time with your children or grandchildren. It's always nice to make memories together and take some time to bond. ~Blessings, Mary~

Show and Tell Friday, the Farm and a Meme

It's time for Show and Tell Friday. If you would like to participate, drop over to Kelli's at There's No Place Like Home.

This crystal angel came my way from a blogging friend at Christmas 2007 and was a complete surprise. I absolutely adore her. The photo doesn't do her justice but she is beautiful. She stands about 6 inches high and is 5.5 inches from front to back. The pink you can see through her is the lovely tea light candle that she is holding. I often turn out the lights and let this little angel guide my way. I keep her on my entertainment unit. She is a very treasured possession. Thank you once again my blogging friend. Your gesture touched my heart.

Tuesday Brandon and I went to the farm and we enjoyed a bit of one-on-one time. We didn't take any photos. We hadn't been for several weeks and since the weather was nice we decided to go and see if Rosie the sheep had given birth. She hadn't. Today, Jordan and I took our one-on-one time and he wanted me to take the camera along because he wanted to take photos.

Here he caught the baby lamb from last fall looking directly at the camera. I must say that he took his time and made sure he was going to get a good shot.


He thought it was cute because Matthew and the goat were staying close together. This isn't a bad photo either for someone who is only 10 years old.
The the baby goat stood on his hind legs and started eating hay. Jordan was delighted and snapped the photo above.

He soon tired of taking photos and was off to play on the trampoline. The boy next door came running over to play with him and they spent about 20 minutes having fun. While they were doing that, one of the girls from the farm were watching them and I decided to go and see the horses. Meet Cracker, above. I love his gentle nature.

Don't let anyone tell you that horses don't take care of each other. The barnyard is very muddy because of all the melting snow and the rain we've had this spring. The horses are muddy and here cracker is pulling mud out of Max's hair.

When Crackers finished with Max, I whistled and called him over. Yes, I can whistle and yes, he did come. Here he is wanting some attention.
Then he turned his head as if to say, "This is my best profile." He began to scratch his nose on the fence so I gave his head and neck a good rubbing. He basked in the attention, though he gets lots from the people who live on the farm.

Max didn't want to be left out, so came over to have his photo taken as well. I rubbed his head and neck as well. These horses are Heflinger's and they are beautiful. The three girls that live on the farm will bring all of the horses in tomorrow, clean them up and give them a good brushing. They will look much like this within a day.

After the farm, Jordan and I stopped at Tim Horton's, washed our hands and I bought him a milk. He always gets quite thirsty when he goes to the farm and of course he knows we have to pass the coffee shop on our way home. We had a wonderful couple of hours together.


Now you may wonder why, since Easter is over, that I decided to post a picture of Jesus on the cross. Grams at Talk to Grams tagged me to do this meme. I've done this one before and it was easy to do, so I decided to do it again.

The Rules:
1. Write your own six-word memoir about yourself.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you'd like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible, so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don't forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

My six word memoir: He died that I might live.

Since I've done this before and tagged people, I am not going to tag anyone for this one. However if you do decide to partipate, please leave a comment so I can come and read your memoir.

I saw this meme over at Hootin' Anni's and thought it would be fun. For those who don't already know, Anni and I are good blogging buddies. We talk almost everyday and we have come to agree that we are kindred spirits. Now when I saw this, I realized that there are more things that Anni and I have in common.

The Name Game

Your rock star name (first pet, current car) Jack Ford. A very common name at that. Not something that a rock star would be likely to use.

Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Wolf. Not sure about Green Wolf but at least Wolf fits for Native American. Gray Wolf would have been better. Sorry, my favorite color is green.

Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name) Alw -Ma. I think this kind of sounds like something or someone in pain. Well, you never know with Star Wars.

Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Purple T. I shortened my favorite drink, which is a good cuppa tea to T. Sounds more like a superhero - Remember Mr. T.

NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers) William Bertrum. Bertrum William? Whadda think?

Stripper name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) I don't have a favorite cologne, so that is out. But I do have a favorite fragrance. How about Lilac Chocolate or Chocolate Lilac. Do you think that sounds like a name for a stripper?

TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Chrysler Charlottetown. Charlottetown is the capital city of Prince Edward Island.

Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Spring Rose Spring is my favorite season because it is a time of rebirth and I have always loved roses since I was a little girl. Climbing roses are my very favorite, but I also love tea roses, floribunda roses and any other kind of rose.
Cartoon name: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now) Raspberry Jeans

Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Orange Willow. Think it fits? A good name for a hippie, don't you think?

Porn star name (first pet, first street where you lived) Jack Spring. Guess that would be okay for a male porn star. LOL Maybe Jackie Spring?

Thanks, Anni. I had a lot of fun doing this.

A week or so ago, I sent Anni her Pay it Forward gift and she's already received it. Drop by her blog to see what I sent her.

To Pea and Denise, remember that you can receive yours Pay it Forward gift anytime during the year, which ends in January 2009. LOL You'll never know when to expect a parcel in your mailbox.
Last but not least, be sure to stop by Mary's Vintage Flea Market and take a look at the cute things I have to offer for sale this week. There are rooster mugs, a Trust the Lord print, Fairy prints and some other items. You can also find out how to participate in Friday Flea Market by following the link from Mary's Vintage Flea Market. Join in the fun! Buy, sell or just browse and leave comments.

Have a wonderful weekend and spend some time outdoors. This is great weather for getting some exercise and enjoying the harbingers of spring. ~Blessings, Mary~