• Mother Nature appears to be showing her true female indecisiveness lately when it comes to the weather. Snow? Rain? Sun? More snow? MAKE UP YOUR MIND, WOMAN! That being said, after experiencing the Great Lower Mainland Snowstorm of 2017 earlier this month, it should be a provincial law that all vehicles, regardless of their geographical location, must have snow tires on their vehicles from October to April.
• Back in the beginning of November there was a horrible accident not too far from my house and a young lady lost her life while waiting for the bus. It really shook me hard, even though I didn’t know the girl, because one day my kids will be the ones waiting innocently for the bus to arrive. A couple weeks ago I heard on the radio that a couple of young individuals are raising money to have a memorial bench installed at the bus stop where she was waiting, as well as at the nearby elementary school where she attended. I think it’s so amazing that a couple of kids have it in their hearts to do something like this. If you’d like to donate towards their cause, here is the link.
• Sometimes, it’s great to offer your thoughts and opinions on matters that you can relate to. I always appreciate hearing stories from those who have similar experiences and fist-bumping in solidarity. However, those who cannot relate should probably STFU and keep their “neener neener” thoughts to themselves.
• I don’t watch NASCAR at all, unless Ricky Bobby is driving, but Monster Energy has taken over sponsorship of Victory Lane. There was a little “news” blurb on my homepage that some people are outraged that the ladies of said Lane are dressed too scantily clad. As a sucker for ridiculousness, I clicked through and didn’t think they were dressed too scantily at all, no worse than any pop star these days. Sure, they had some serious cleavage going on, but as one Twitter commenter pointed out, so did their predecessors. And to the woman who tweeted that it was “too much” and that NASCAR is a family show, perhaps you should unfollow Ariana Grande, because if you listen to some of her song lyrics, they aren’t exactly wholesome …
• Last year, we had put an offer on a house another subject to the sale of our own. We had ours listed for about 2 weeks before our offer was bumped, so we took ours off the market. Since doing that, we’ve received three letters from other realtors in town trying to get us to list with them, with comments such as, “We see you didn’t sell.” While I just recycle the letters, they’re rather annoying and just go to show how vulture-like some salespeople can be.

• Can we stop calling every dog that’s a poodle-cross a “Whatever-a-doodle?” I stumbled across someone calling their dog a “Sheepadoodle” and all I can wonder is if it’s a sheep crossed with a poodle. Or is it a Old English sheepdog crossed with a poodle? How hard is it to say that your dog is a sheepdog-poodle cross? What’s next, a Boxadoodle? Dachadoodle? Stop giving ridiculous names to these dogs so you can charge someone $2000 for a mixed-breed, mmmkay? (I will, however, admit that the sheepdog-poodle cross is pretty stinkin’ cute though.)
• Good ol’ SBux is building an 11th location here in Kamloops. With a population of less than 90,000 people, I think that’s a little ridiculous, no? Hell, there will be 5 in a 2-block radius! Don’t get me wrong, I love myself a vanilla latte or iced caramel macchiato, but that’s just a little crazy, IMO.
• I am a firm believer that Christmas decorations shouldn’t go up before Remembrance Day. It’s already a pain that I have to see Christmas junk for sale in Costco in August. That being said, I’m not opposed to putting your Christmas lights up before then. Lets face it: Canada frequently decides that it’s WINTER NOW and before you know it, it’s -10°C and you’re outside on a frozen ladder trying to hang lights while you can’t feel your toes. JUST DON’T TURN THEM ON, YOU CRAZIES! I put our lights up the other day but their switch will remain in the “off” position until December 1.
• And speaking of crazies and crazy situations … I have one word to wrap Thursday’s dump up: Trump. I just can’t wrap my head around it. Someone on Facebook said she’s waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out and say that we’ve been punked, and I would have to agree. Hang in there, folks. It’s going to be an interesting 4 years for all of us.

Right. It’s been a while since I’m cleared my head of a few things. Let’s begin, shall we?

• I’m all for sending kids away to grandparents’ houses to give myself a bit of a break. But sometimes I think “Going to Grandma & Grandpa’s” can be seen as more of a reward for the kid than an actual break. For example, my kid isn’t listening, is being a complete crapweasel and is driving me insane. Now, as much as I’d love for someone to whisk her away for a couple hours while I gather my sanity, is that really teaching her that it’s okay not to listen? Usually, the rules, if not already greatly loosened, are thrown out the window, and even if you tell Grandma that your little darling is acting up, they only take that info with a grain of salt …
• I am thankful for Facebook’s “Unfollow” option so I can sneakily remain Facebook “friends” with someone and lurk about their pages without having to read/see their posts. I can only see a shared post or meme so many times before I want to gouge my eyes out with a grapefruit spoon, ya know?
• As much as Kyle and I are bummed that our offer got bumped for the house we wanted, we’re trying to find the good in staying where we are for now. Other than not having to show the house anymore (biggest pain in the behind with two kids and two dogs), we’re happy that we get to stay neighbours with one house as well.
• Once upon a time, I went to school to get a business degree. I switched programs a semester in (after failing two business courses), but one thing I always remembered from my failed economics class is that TNSTAAFL, or “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” In other words, you gotta give something to get something. Quite recently I read about someone getting  a big-ticket item for “free” for selling X amount of products with a multi-level marketing company. I was pretty skeptical of it’s “freeness”, so I did some digging and yup – not “free” in the least. You gotta keep making a certain sales quota or the lease payment is coming out of your pocket. (Which is understandable, or else people would be making the bottom line to get their item and then bailing after they get it.) Anyway, my point is that I wish that there was more transparency in some of these MLM companies, because nothing in life is free.
• For the first time in a loooooong time there is no campfire ban, and while it’s great that campers are able to roast hot dogs and marshmallows the old fashioned way while camping, I’m been hearing a lot of reports about campfires left BURNING UNATTENDED. *facepalm* Why must ignorant people ruin a good thing? Boo.
• In light of all the bad luck that Kyle and I have had in the past month, we are amazingly grateful for the little bits of good that we’ve been graced with. We’ve had some great times with family and friends and it makes all the lameness seem a little bit better.

Where do you find the good when things aren’t going great?