Best Obit I ever read.....

When you read this you can't help but feel like you know her and you sense the humor and love that was and remains alive in this family.
Pat Stocks, 94, passed away peacefully at her home in bed July 1, 2015. It is believed it was caused from carrying her oxygen tank up the long flight of stairs to her bedroom that made her heart give out. She left behind a hell of a lot of stuff to her daughter and sons who have no idea what to do with it. So if you're looking for 2 extremely large TV's from the 90s, a large ceramic stork (we think) umbrella/cane stand, a toaster oven (slightly used) or even a 2001 Oldsmobile with a spoiler (she loved putting the pedal to the metal), with only 71,000 kilometers and 1,000 tools that we aren't sure what they're used for. You should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch. Tomorrow would be fine. This is not an ad for a pawn shop, but an obituary for a great Woman, Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother born on May 12, 1921 in Toronto, the daughter of the late Pop (Alexander C.) and Granny (Annie Nigh) Morris. She leaves behind a very dysfunctional family that she was very proud of. Pat was world-renowned for her lack of patience, not holding back her opinion and a knack for telling it like it is. She always told you the truth even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear. It was the school of hard knocks and yes we were told many times how she had to walk for miles in a blizzard to get to school, so suck it up. With that said she was genuine to a fault, a pussy cat at heart (or lion) and yet she sugar coated nothing. Her extensive vocabulary was more than highly proficient at knowing more curse words than most people learned in a lifetime. She liked four letter words as much as she loved her rock garden and trust us she LOVED to weed that garden with us as her helpers, when child labour was legal or so we were told. These words of encouragement, wisdom, and sometimes comfort, kept us in line, taught us the "school of hard knocks" and gave us something to pass down to our children. Everyone always knew where you stood with her. She liked you or she didn't, it was black or white. As her children we are still trying to figure out which one it was for us (we know she loved us). She was a master cook in the kitchen. She believed in overcooking everything until it chewed like rubber so you would never get sick because all germs would be nuked. Freezing germs also worked, so by Friday our school sandwiches were hard and chewy, but totally germ free. All four of us learned to use a napkin. You would pretend to cough, spit the food into it and thus was born the Stocks diet. If anyone would like a copy of her homemade gravy, we would suggest you don't. She will be sorely missed and survived by her brother George Morris, children: Shauna (Stocks) Perreault, Paul/Sandy (Debbie) Stocks and Kirk Stocks, son-in-law Ian Milnes and son from another mother, John McCleery, grandchildren: Lesley (Sean), Lindsay (Lucas), Ashley (James), David (Tia), Brett, Erin (Brian), Sean, Alex, Courtney and Taylor and great-grandchildren: Connor, Emily, Ainsley, Tyler and Jack. She was preceded in death by her loving husband Paul (Moo) Stocks and eldest daughter Shelley (Stocks) Milnes and beloved pets Tag, Tag, Tag and Tag. All whom loved her dearly and will never forget her tenacity, wit, charm, grace (when pertinent) and undying love and caring for them. Please give generously to covenanthousetoronto.ca "in memory". A private family 'Celebration of Life' will be held, in lieu of a service, due to her friends not being able to attend, because they decided to beat her to the Pearly Gates. Please note her change of address to her new place of residence, St John's York Mills Anglican Church, 19 Don Ridge Drive, 12 doors away from Shelley's place.
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2015/07/this-is-one-heck-of-obituary.html

Mysouff - the French hunter

A few weeks ago I gave into an indulgence and bought a book about French Cats -- kitty cats of course! The photography is wonderful and, of course, I love the French countryside. The stories are fun and interesting too. Apparently, Alexander Dumas, adored cats, exotic birds, and monkeys; I think most people would say these animals don't really belong together and sure enough, trouble followed. Mysouff II, one of his adored cats, decided - enough with those noisy flappy birds! and killed everyone of them. So, Alexander Dumas had to dispense justice and incarcerated the felonious feline by keeping her in the monkey cage with the monkeys. She was released 5 years later!! when he sold the monkeys. The French Cat, Rachael Hale

The cat with the glowing eyes - scary!

So....this is Cat, or princess, or my precious, or gypsy -- whatever. She is Catter to me. I inherited Catter when my daughter got married several years ago. It seemed reasonable to keep her; after all, this was really the only home she knew. Anyway, Catter is at times a great source of entertainment and sometimes irritation. This story is about entertainment:
A few weeks ago, my daughter's boys, age 3 and 18 months were visiting us and spending the night. Bath-time came before bedtime and they were having a pleasant time playing in the tub while I read them a story. After the bath, both boys were drying off half in the bathroom and half in the hallway when suddenly Joshua screamed, covered his eyes with his hands and ran naked and wet down the entire length of the hall. Of course, this frightened Caleb (the 18 month old) and he promptly copied his brother -- picture two naked boys running down the hall covering their eyes and screaming. I was sort of in shock wondering why are these children acting like this and what could be frightening them so much, when I turned to look into the cat's room (yes, she has her own room) and saw her sitting on top of the dresser, eyes aglow. The room was dark-- remember it was night time. I sort of stifled a laugh and went after the boys and gave them each a hug and reassured them that it was okay. I took the three year old back to the cat room so that he could see that it was only the cat and her eyes glow when it's dark -- nothing to be scared of, okay?
Sometimes God has to do this with me, I admit it. I'm very old now, and one would think that I should have acquired the trust and confidence needed to live my Christian faith. But, more often than not, I find myself wanting to cover my eyes and run screaming down the hall just so I don't have to face something that in His wisdom He wants me to confront. I need to trust God more -- trusting is loving, right?

My Guardian Angel

oy vey iz mir; This is what I imagine my guardian angel saying when I do/say/think dumb things!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ice cream habit

Really??? Is this really news? It seems incredible to me that my morning newspaper included a half page write up on the excessive ice cream consumption of the Prime Minister's household. Oh, and he loves pistachio! They really ripped him up over it. While reading this article, I kept thinking -- is this for real? Why are they writing in such a vitriolic manner over this issue? Then I started wondering how much our own president spends on ice cream and how much does he eat?? Oh, never mind - I have better things to think about.

This is my happy dance!

Laural & Hardy - dancing

cuz it's that kind of day....

Cats with Thumbs

Paddy cake cats

This video is so creative, I had to post it

Two Cats