Book Review "Fifty Shades Freed"

I am going strong with my resolution to read a book a month!!!
Even though this is the only resolution that I have actually been keeping up with, lol.

Here is my book for July.
I have to admit this didn't have me turning the pages.
I liked the first book. "Fifty Shades of Grey"...which I don't think I have a review on as I read it years ago.
I didn't care for the second book "Fifty Shades Darker" (except at the very end).
The reason I read this one is because the last few pages of the second book wanted me to know what was going to happen....plus it is a trilogy, so I just had to complete them.

I know there was some controversy on these books, which I didn't think was a big deal.
What got me in this book was that she was always worried about if Christian was upset with her.
Also that they kept referring to how much money he had, or designer names and such...that puts me off of a book.

I think I need a different type of book for August.
I am not into romance at all...maybe look for an apocalyptic type of book?

I have been so busy this summer and especially these last 2 weeks, so I have to appologise for not checking out your blogs and for not sharing much creatively with you all.
But summer is short here in Canada and I want to enjoy every second of it.

I hope you all had a very creative day.
If you know of some good books you would like to share with me, I would love to know what you are reading this summer.

Tracy :)

Hit the Big 50

Guess what day it is!!!!
Its my 50th birthday today :)
Many have asked me how I felt about turning 50.
Funny thing is over the years I have been saying I'm going to be 50 soon, that I thought I turned 50 years ago, lol
But honestly, I love my age no matter what it is.
I think we should celebrate every birthday and every day in between.

My lovely daughters and husband put together a wonderful surprise party for me on Thursday.
I know my girls did all the work while my husband opened his wallet for them to work their creative magic.
I love that someone turned the 5 around as it looks like I'm turning 20, lol.
There is always one in the crowd.

My daughter Heather took me out for dinner and then we came home to this.
50 lawn signs made by my girls.

I love this idea...they set up a memory jar and a sign stating to write a memory of me with each person who attended, and those that couldn't attend, they emailed my daughters their memory.
I loved reading them at the end of the evening.

One of the gifts my friend Lynne, gave me was this Coke picture, she got everyone that was at the party to sign it :)

My Friend Sharon knew I loved this painted I wanted to win in a raffle at a crop we attended a few months ago.
I didn't win it and was so sad, as I loved it so much.
She contacted the artist and commissioned him to paint on for me.
I was so shocked and I cried when I opened it....good thing Ashley didn't have her camera for that.

But the best was this photo wall my daughters put together.
When I saw it, I started to cry!!
Seriously, how could I not love this...I love it so much I don't want to take it down or take it apart.

I have to say, my daughters are so caring, loving and thoughtful.
Just to prove this, on my 40th birthday (wow was that 10 years ago already) they made me a scrapbook album with the title "40 Things we love about You"
I cried with each turn of a page.
I tell them that I think their mission in life is to see how many times they can make me cry, lol.
But with them being happy tears, I'm good with it.

I hope you all have a very creative day.

Happy 28th Birthday Ashley

I want to wish my oldest daughter Ashley a very happy Birthday today :)
She is such a caring, smart, loving and beautiful daughter.
As well as wonderful mother.

She is also a lot of fun too.
Fun  and funny, she has such a great sense of humour.
Aren't we cute, teehee.

She is just a beautiful soul and I am so proud to call her my daughter and my friend.

I have been so busy lately and so much has been happening which I will share with you all soon :)

I hope you all have a very creative day.

Tracy :)

Limited Edition Canadian Tire money

You know from my last post that we (Canada) celebrated our 150th!!
Being that I am from Canada, one of our favourite stores is Canadian Tire.
My husband thinks a trip to Canadian Tire together qualifies as a date night, lol.
Canadian Tire has its own money!!
With every cash purchase you earn Canadian Tire money to use on your next purchase....yes we have a stack of CT bills.

I remember as a child my dad (who came from Scotland) would tease us by telling us that the man on the CT bills (Sandy McTire) was our grandfather, teehee.
In celebration of Canada's 150th, Canadian Tire put out a limited edition .10c bill, but only for 3 days.
Sadly I was at the cottage, so missed out on getting any.....but when I mentioned this on Canadian Tire's FB page, they sent me some!!!!!
I was over the moon excited!!

Not only did they send me 3 bills, they also sent me 2 Limited Edition money sleeves!!
Look at the beautiful gold foiling on the maple leaves...so pretty.
This is just so awesome!!

Some of you may think I am silly being so excited about a .10c bill... I have always saved old money and coins.
I even saved some older bills and coins for my daughters growing up.
Now I will be doing the same for my grandson Sawyer.
And to start his collection, I gave one to my grandson Sawyer in a money sleeve :)

Thank you so much Canadian Tire :)

Tracy :)

Happy 150 Canada!!!!

July 1st is Canada's 150th Birthday!!!
I always thought I was special being born on a Centennial year  ;)
What better way to celebrate Canada's birthday then spending it out doors in this beautiful country I am lucky enough to call home.
So off to the cottage we went with plenty of food, family and fun.

We will start with the food :)
Ashley came up with the idea that each of us was to bring a food for Canada Day that was red and white (as those are our Canadian colours)
I brought potato salad, Tyler made brochette and Wayne made hamburgers (we added a Canadian flag to the burgers as they really aren't red and white)

We had many desserts ;)
Ashley make angle food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Heather made Oreo bark with red and white chocolate. Blake made peanut butter and jam cheese cake. And Kristy made red velvet cookies with chocolate chips as well as red velvet chocolate balls.
Lets just say there was no calorie counting this weekend, teehee.

The best part of the weekend was being able to spend so much time with my family.
I love when we are all able to get together...I am one lucky mom and grandma.

Here is Heather and her daddy :)
They both don't like to get their photos taken, but they were game this weekend.

Kristy and her boyfriend (of 7 years) Blake.

Ashley and her husband Tyler and baby Sawyer...and of course Oscar their doggy.

And we also had some fun!!
Heather and Kristy enjoying the water.
The water is still way to cold for me.

I picked up some bubble solution as I thought Sawyer would like to watch them...but it seemed like Oscar had way more fun playing with them :)

But like any weekend up at camp....there is a bit of work to do.
Sawyer was able to sit with Grandpa in the little loader.
I was surprised, I thought Sawyer might get scared as it is very loud.
But like his grandpa and great-grandpa, he loves his machines :)

Wayne was going to trim some branches off of a tree down by the lake, but (as I predicted) he ended up cutting the whole tree down.
So everyone helped bring the branches and cut tree, up to the fire, and then the girls wanted to clean it up, so they raked up all of the old pine needles.

Ashley wanted some slabs for decor for her table, so Wayne used the chainsaw to cut them.
Then Blake used a hand saw and cut some coasters for Ashley.

And of course what is a weekend at camp if Wayne and I don't get to take our toys out for a ride.
This is an odd sight....Wayne is in front of me, lol.
We checked out one of my favourite riding trails and there was a huge tree across the trail and the brush was so thick that we couldn't drive around it (believe me I tried).
So we had to turn around.
We were then stopped by the conservation officer.
He just wanted to know if we were fishing and check to make sure we had the proper papers for our machines and that we were wearing helmets.
All was good and in order, so we ended up just chatting with him for about 20 minutes.

So much more happened this weekend that I had better write it down in my camp journal before it fades from my memory.
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and if you are a Canadian, I hope you celebrated our country's birthday with your family and friends :)

Tracy :)