Road Trip to Canada Day 2.
Canada Trip 2009
a.k.a. “The Anita Adventure”
Day 2. Friday morning and we were ready to finish our trek to Canada. We got up and went downstairs for free breakfast. While sitting in the little dining room eating, I began to feel a bit of a lump in my throat, which in my world means anxiety attack. (pretend there’s a little frowny face here)
So I stayed calm, left Thea and Summer enjoying the breakfast and went back up to the room so I could take some anti-anxiety medication and do some relaxation exercises before we hit the road. My tummy attacked me a bit (but I won’t go into the details here for your benefit…..you’re welcome) and then all was well. Until, that is, Thea realized she had forgotten to bring her medications. That she needs. Every day. She looked in her purse several times, in her luggage several times, in all the other bags she lugs with her. Several times! No medicines. But we prevail in crises damnit! She called her doctor, found a Walgreen’s around the corner, drove over there and took care of getting a few pills called in to last her until she got back home. Then she came back and waited for them to get it ready while I laid on the bed and did relaxation techniques of breathing and relaxing and picturing myself on a beautiful white sand beach with Kenny Chesney. Aahhh, so relaxing……
Then we hit the road again, picked up Thea’s meds on the way, and off we went toward Ohio. I think having already halfway diverted an anxiety attack I asked Thea to drive so I could just take a little Dramamine-induced nap, so Thea actually drove us across the border and into Canada. Which turned out to be a VERY interesting part of our trip. I almost feel like it deserves its own day’s post but since it DID happen on day 2 I will tell it here. But first here’s a few sights we saw in Ohio.
I took THIS NEXT PHOTO specifically for ABBY.
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Almost there now!
Summer and I have never been out of the country, so it was a big deal, this trip, especially for Summer. She’d been documenting our travels with my flip video camera and loving every second of being the videographer. I told her to be sure to get a shot of the border guy asking for and taking our passports from Thea when we drove up to the little booth. Well, the border dude did NOT like that. At all. He saw Summer with the camera and immediately said, “No pictures. You need to turn that off.” So of course she turned it off and then he said, “I need you to delete that.” I think maybe he thought it was a photo of him, but it was probably only about 3 seconds of video because that’s all she had a chance to video before he saw her and freaked out. haha But hey, no problem dude! I took the camera from her and deleted the video lickety split! I thought it was all cool and we were done. Then he began with his questions. Where are you going? What are you going to do there? How long are you going to stay there? Do you have any guns in the car? (We laughed at that one) Do you have more than $10,000 cash with you? (We laughed harder at that one!) Apparently the questions are standard procedure, though, not because Thea and I looked like suspicious criminals.
So then when we thought we were all done and free to go through the line, he sticks a yellow paper to the windshield and tells us we need to go to customs. Niiiice. I figure, hey, why not? It’s my first time crossing the border, might as well see what’s it like to be detained and arrested at the border too! What the hell. Adds to the “adventure” right? NOT REALLY. haha Thea was hoping for a “strip search” or a frisking, but no such luck. Just kidding. Maybe. HA. We drove over to the customs garage and parked and waited for someone to come tell us what to do.
I took these next 2 photos on the way in before the “booth incident.”
We sat in the car and waited probably 5-7 minutes. Hard to say cause it felt like forever, of course! Meanwhile, we watched in our rearview mirror as they searched a minivan in the parking spot behind us. Then they proceeded to put each person that was in the van, about 8 of them, up against the van spread eagle one at a time and “frisk” them just like you see on TV and in the movies! WOW. At this point Thea says, “They’re probably going to search our car.” No big deal since we don’t have anything illegal with us. haha I was pretty proud of myself internally for remaining calm the entire time. We got tired of waiting and weren’t sure if we were supposed to be sitting and waiting anyway, so Thea got out and grabbed the yellow paper to go in search of a policeman. Or whatever they are. Probably policemen, right? And about that time one came walking over to us. Turns out the yellow paper said to make sure we deleted the video. Man, was the booth dude paranoid or what? This policeman didn’t seem to care too much about it. He asked if it was deleted, I said yes, and he said we were free to go. He didn’t even check! Woo hoo! Free at last! We jumped back into the car, buckled up, and headed out of the customs garage. I turned to look one last time at that minivan behind us and saw they had lined all the passengers up and had them sitting on the curb in handcuffs! Man, I was dying to take the video camera out and get a shot of that as we drove away! But I was too chicken and Thea said NO and I think she may have physically harmed me if I’d tried. haha But OH BOY was I tempted! And darnit, I should have asked that nice policeman if I could keep the yellow paper for my scrapbook! Then we drove over the Ambassador Bridge and that means hello Canada! Yay! Here’s the bridge.
That put us into the city of Windsor. Not far into Windsor we stopped and shopped here.
Neat little place. Similar to a Dollar Tree store that we have in Illinois. Lots of little $1 trinkets. We picked up some candy bars I’d never seen or heard of for Summer’s classmates as souvenirs and I got a lanyard that’s printed with the Canadian flag that I’m going to use as a ribbon in my Canada scrapbook. Summer got her Daddy a keychain. We headed toward Wallaceburg. Drove through lots of country, and it really reminded me of the area where I live in Illinois, very rural. Lots of fields and farms and pretty blue skies. See?
Here’s the “Queen Of The Road”. Of course, that will be the title that I make on my Pazzles for the scrapbook page with this photo. haha
In the early evening around 4:30 we arrived in Wallaceburg FINALLY at our hotel, The Oaks Inn. They were glad to see us…
So we lugged all our stuff up the stairs to our room on the 2nd floor. Why the hell did I choose the 2nd floor when reserving our room? WHY? But I digress…. I called Anita and made plans to meet the next afternoon. She invited us to come to her house. And now it was finally sinking in that I was HERE and I was going to meet HER. Very exciting! A lady named Julie had heard about me coming from a message board online and had offered to let me stay at her home. How NICE is that? Seriously, who does that? But when I told her it was actually 3 of us coming, she retracted the offer. Just kidding Julie! haha I did want to meet her, though, because it was such a wonderfully kind gesture, so we made plans to meet at our hotel’s restaurant. While we waited for her, we took a look at the menu and this was the first thing I saw. Totally cracked me up. And also grossed me out a little bit.
So then Julie arrived and we had a nice time. She was very nice and funny and cute as a button. See?
Summer warmed up to Julie after a while (she’s a bit shy) and then educated her on all the things she could ever want to know (and she didn’t!) about the Wii game Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Turns out Julie has a son the same age as Summer or close to it, I can’t remember which, so she was able to “speak Summer’s language” of Wii games and Pokemon. haha Speaking of Pokemon, here’s what my kid does on the back side of a paper placmat when she’s bored because the 3 women she’s with are talking shop.
And speaking of talking shop, here’s the cool scrapbook Julie brought with her to show us. She made it out of cereal boxes! Is that COOL or what? And scraps! She said she didn’t buy a single thing to make this book. It was so awesome. She promised she’d take good photos of it and post them on her blog so I could show all my scrappy friends soon.
I felt like an idiot because I never even thought of bringing anything of mine to show her or Anita. The meal was good, but the waitress made me so made I was tempted to not leave her a tip. She actually SHUSHED Julie. What the hell? I was speechless. I wanted to smack her. The waitress, not Julie. haha So we finished our meal, visited a while, and then said goodbye to Julie. I’m so glad we got to meet her. She was so friendly and nice, just as I had hoped she would be.
Speaking of visiting a while, this is what my kid looks like when she’s bored and waiting for us to shut up so we can leave the restaurant. Can’t you just imagine what she’s thinking?
That’s it! Good night and see you tomorrow!
To read the other posts about this trip, click on the links below
Filed under Life | Comment (1)Road Trip to Canada Day 1.
For those of you who have been waiting to hear about it, this begins my story of my trip to Canada to deliver Anita’s scrapbook to her. Once again, thanks to every one of you who helped me get there.
Canada Trip 2009
a.k.a. “The Anita Adventure” as I like to call it.
Day #1. As always, I had waited until the last minute to get things done. If you know me, you are not shocked by that sentence. haha There just are NOT enough hours in the day, okay? I wasn’t finished scanning all the pages of Anita’s book before inserting them into the book. So once Thea arrived she stood around waiting for at least an hour while I got them scanned and saved to the computer. Someday I’d like to print everyone a copy who was involved in making the book with me (if Anita doesn’t mind). Finally time to hit the road.
Except I hadn’t gotten all my errands run either because I was soooo busy scanning the layouts all morning! My little Thea remained cool as a cucumber, just riding along on the waves of Hurricane Corinna. We drove to the next town to Girl Scouts so I could return the cookie costumes from my troop’s cookie sale the night before at Walmart (those girls were SO cute).
And NOW we’re ready! Out to the interstate to get onto I-74 East. Took the exit and merged onto the interstate to realize that I had gotten onto I-74 WEST. Yes, that’s right, straight back toward my house. Why me, people? Huh? WHY is it always ME? Oh yes, because I couldn’t possibly take a road trip without some “sort of calamity” as my friend Sandie said to me in her last email. haha So I had to drive down 3 miles, take the next exit and turn around to head WEST. Woo hoo!
Of course, Thea mentions to me later that the whole start of the calamity was actually HER FAULT because she left home without her passport and had to get off the interstate and go back for it. We’ve learned since I got mine that we don’t need it, but it’s a whole lot easier to pull that out of your purse and hand it to the guy at the border than your driver’s license, birth certificate, and whatever else he might want. Anyway, Thea TOTALLY jinxed the trip, right? But she didn’t mention this until later. We drove through Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan and saw a few interesting sights along the way. Here’s one from Indiana.
I really wanted to drive across the border into Ohio and be that much closer to Canada before stopping for the night, but that didn’t happen. I was tired and finally gave up in Auburn, Indiana about 35 miles from the Ohio border. Almost made it but not quite! We stayed at a very nice Holiday Inn Express. If you’re in that area, I recommend it! Good night and see you tomorrow!
To see all of the posts about the trip, click on the links below:
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Dream becomes reality.
I did it. I made the trip to Canada and back. I had a dream, and I saw it come true. And it’s all because of YOU. Every single one of you. The strangers and friends and companies and scrappy bloggers who donated scrapbooking supplies to me and donated your hard-earned money to me and the ones who bid and won the auctions. I thank you. I am not wealthy (not even close! haha), and I could never, ever have made this trip without all of you. Words are not enough. Thank you is not enough. I will never be able to express to all of you what your kindness and your generosity has meant to me. In the coming days I will tell you all about my trip but today I leave you with this. As I was leaving Anita’s house last weekend, she said to me, “I don’t know what to say to you. Thank you just isn’t enough. It’s not enough.” And that’s exactly how I feel right now about YOU. I am overwhelmed, and my heart is so full.
Thank you.
A corner.
Remember this girl?
My cousin Natalie turned a corner and for the first time in a week our family heard good news. Wish I could have been there to see the looks on my aunt’s and uncle’s faces when the doctor told them! Natalie is probably going to be okay. They got her off the oscillator respirator, back onto a regular ventilator, stopped the paralytic medications, and she’s been moving around and opening her eyes some. She may need some therapy before all is said and done, but we’ve got hope now that she’s gonna pull through completely. I am so RELIEVED. Thank you to all my friends and readers who sent me well wishes and/or prayed for our Natalie.
And since she’s in no position to argue with me at this point, I’m going to show you some of the senior portraits I took of her in December. But I’ll only show the ones I know she loved and hopefully she won’t mind.
:)
***edited to add
For those of you who are wondering how Natalie is doing, you can see later blog posts I wrote here and here.
Filed under Life | Comments (2)Natalie.
See this girl?
She needs your help. She needs you to stop what you’re doing right now and pray for her. She is literally fighting for her life.
This kid is only 17 years old and has influenza A (really bad flu virus) and double pneumonia, but last night they discovered she also has MRSA. You might have heard about that one. VERY hard to treat, very resistant to medicines.
Within a 24-hour period on Sunday she was taken to the ER, admitted, diagnosed with pneumonia, took a turn for the worse, was taken to the ICU, was intubated and flown to a hospital 45 minutes away where she is in critical condition on a ventilator and has a 40% chance of making it. A week ago a girl her age died at the same hospital from the same thing. And she was not as sick. Things are not looking good for this young lady, and it breaks my heart. She has a heart of gold. She completed high school early while she was going to CNA classes full time so she could get a job at a nursing home to help people. And that’s where they say she probably got the infections at work.
She is my cousin. I have watched her grow up. She has babysat my daughter, who adores her because she has this special knack with children, that special touch with them some people just have. Her parents are beside themselves. Her mother is going through radiation treatments every morning for recurrent breast cancer. The whole situation is just unbelievable. And it happened SO FAST.
***update
For those of you who have just read this for the first time and are wondering how Natalie is doing, you can see later blog entries I wrote about her here and here and here.
Filed under Life | Comments (4)Ka-Thunk!
You ever just been minding your own business sitting in your office at your computer checking email or whatever……just starting your day………when all of a sudden out of nowhere some gigantic bird comes up and just flies SLAM right into your office window? And it makes this loud KA-THUNK noise? And you jump and involuntarily scream AAAHHHH even though by then it’s already flown away again or bounced off and hit the ground…..but you’d be too grossed out to go check….and there’s even a nice smear of some sort of bodily fluid on the window? That ever happen to you?
Yeah, me either.
Filed under Life | Comment (0)Leftover auctions!
Sooo….thought the auction talk would all be over by now? But plans changed and now the trip to deliver Anita’s scrapbook is next week and I’m sticking to it darnit! But in the meantime getting all the boxes of items sold and moved out of my studio has cleared up some room and made me realize I have some things left that didn’t sell and also a huge lot of items that I never even got listed on ebay! So …… let me know if you’re interested at all in purchasing any of these bundles since now it’s too late to put them on ebay unless I wait until after the trip! Leave a comment or email me at kcsummerrose@avenuebroadband.com if you have a price in mind.
#1 Item Description: Memberships to WeScrap. (www.wescrap.com)
There are 5 remaining. Buy 2 and join with a friend! I already have a membership and there’s some good info and resources to be found here, classes to take online, articles to read. NO SHIPPING, as I have a promo code to give you for joining the site. Go to the website here to see all the stuff you can get (Value is $10).
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#2 Item Description: SOLD
#3 Item Description: SOLD
#4 Item Description: SOLD
#5 Item Description: SOLD
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#6 Item Description: Fiskars ScrapBoss embossing system. It’s “used” as in it’s been sitting around my friend’s scrap room, but it doesn’t look to me like any of it has actually been used. Fiskars describes it on their website as: Starter stencil set and 2 stylus included. Large tray fits papers up to 12.5 x 12.5 inches. Accommodates all sizes of Fiskars stencils. Attached compartment stores stencils, etc. You can view instructions and photos on how to use this system on the Fiskars website here. It comes with the starter stencil and an extra stencil “Themed Vacation”. Photos below. Asking $15.00 and $10 shipping priority mail. 
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#7 Item Description: Fiskars ShapeBoss embossing system. Again, it’s “used” as in it has been sitting around in my friend’s scrap room collecting dust, but I can’t actually tell that she’s used it. Described on Fiskars website as: Unique 2-stencil embossing system. Eliminates the need for a lightbox. Large work surface for any size materials. You can actually view instructions and photos on how to use this system on Fiskars website here. Includes starter stencil set and dual-tip stylus. It comes with the “creative sampler #5610″ stencil from Fiskars and also here are some extras added with it.
#5611 “circle swirl” #5616 “square burst” #5620 “floral”
Photos below. Asking $10.00 and $10 shipping priority mail.
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#8 Item Description: Sizzix Sidekick (used). Machine only. Not in original packaging. Asking $10.00. Shipping $5 priority mail.
Sizzix’s website describes it as: This small roller machine weighs 2 pounds, stands 4 3/4″ tall, will cut a single sheet of lightweight-to-cardstock paper and has a special vacuum seal that holds it into place on any smooth work surface. By adding an optional adapter, the Sidekick is also compatible with other brands’ wafer-thin dies. A crafting system designed for detailed shape-cutting with all Sizzlits, including 12″ Decorative Strip dies, and quick, quality embossing from Textured Impressions Embossing Folders (small only).
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Item #9: Lighted paper trimmer. Can’t remember the company that makes this trimmer, but it lights up and comes with 10 or 11 different blades. Barely used. Asking $8. Shipping $5.00 priority mail.
Like I said up above, just leave a comment if you’re interested or you can email me privately at kcsummerrose@avenuebroadband.com and make me an offer!
You can read more about Anita and the auctions and why I’ve been holding them and selling stuff here on my blog.
** edited to add. Any money that is earned from selling items after my trip to Canada will be given directly to Anita and her family. They will be traveling every day for chemo treatment to a hospital that’s 1.5 hours away, so at the very least they could use the gas money!
Filed under AUCTION, For Sale | Comment (1)Paper flowers!
My friend Abby made these cool torn paper flowers (I added some stuff to the middles of them) and sent them to me so that I could include them in the auctions and sell them individually for my Canada trip fundraiser to take Anita the scrapbook. I’ve been so caught up in sorting all the donations into kits and themes and listing the stuff on ebay and shipping it out, I haven’t had time until now to show these to you. Seriously, my Abbykins is sickeningly talented with paper. Thanks for your donation Abby!
Aren’t they fabulous? Can you see the glittery-ness and the pretty lines of paint here and there? I’m going to go list them in my etsy shop individually for sale so if you like what you see go to the shop here and purchase as many as you like! Although in the shop they’re $2.20 to cover for the fee Etsy charges me to put them in the shop, you can just contact me via my blog or leave a comment to get one too! Still a great deal! I have measured them and described their sizes in their descriptions in my etsy shop.
I am picturing these on the front of a card and on a scrapbook page and I think they would be darling with a magnet on the back and put on the fridge or inspiration board or hang a tiny tag on them and give to a friend. I have so many ideas in my head for these!
Above flower SOLD.
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My last chance effort.
Wanna get a good deal on some cool scrapping supplies? My Canada trip to deliver the scrapbook my friends and I made to Anita is next week, so this is it! This is the final weekend of auctions to raise money for my cause. Everything I have left is on ebay right now up for auctions. Here’s the page where it shows all my auctions. Of course, once you’re looking at one of the bundles you can always click on “view sellers other items” if you’re not familiar with ebay. There’s always a link somewhere to get you to the place to see everything.
Right now there are books, online classes, memberships, large mixed lots of supplies in themes like Christmas, winter, baby, beach, Disney, teenager, and that’s just to mention a few. Go check it out and bid generously please!
For those of you who’ve been bidding and winning my auctions, I thank you so much. It’s gonna happen. This trip is a go! And it’s because of you all helping me and I appreciate it so much. Any money that’s left is going to be given to Anita for her medical bills, as I’m sure they are astronomical.
Filed under AUCTION | Comment (0)Designs by Reminisce products arrived.
**Another auction post….
** Turns out the trip is going to be sooner than I thought AGAIN. Due to an idiotic scheduling conflict on my part, we’ll be going to see Anita and deliver her scrapbook NEXT WEEK! So I’m busy getting all the auctions ready to list so they’ll end this weekend.
Another box arrived and inside was the beautiful “Real Magic” collection from Reminisce. It’s all glittery and sparkly and so cool!
We have patterned papers
Then we also have double sided papers
Sparkly letter stickers
Journaling block stickers
Fireworks and phrases stickers
My personal favorite, sparkly flower stickers
Sparkly border stickers, star stickers, and circle stickers.
**This is another post detailing donations I’ve received for the auction to try and raise funds for my trip to Canada to deliver Anita’s scrapbook to her. If you’re a new reader to my blog and don’t know who Anita is, you can read my previous blog post here. To see other donations I’ve received that will be put up for auction in February and March, you can go to the donations page here.
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