February 29 - The Grandfather Clock

I've always wanted a big old grandfather clock - I love the rich deep tones of them. For Christmas of 2005, Sara and Quincey gave me a modern-day version of the old style grandfather. It has a lovely sound. You can see that they wrapped it up so I would never guess what it was!

My little granddaughter, Sydney, loved the clock but was afraid to walk past it to leave our place unless someone was holding her hand and guiding her past it. Now that she's two and a half she's not so scared of it any more, and hardly ever notices it.

February 28 - Tick, Tock

It was brought to my attention by my children and grandchildren that I have more than the usual person's collection of clocks. I don't know how it happened. Actually my children themselves have given me at least four of my best clocks. Over the next couple of days I'm going to post pictures of some of the clocks that I have and tell the story, if there is one, about them.

We'll start with my newest clock. Lloyd and I sort of accidentally fell into a retro mode in this place we've lived for the past year. With that in mind, I knew I needed a black cat clock with eyes and a tail that move for my kitchen. After a lot of searching, I finally found one on ebay - not a 50's or 60's original, but close enough for me. Here's my Felix.

February 24 - Wrapping It Up

After a couple days of house hunting, this is the one we decided we want to make an offer on. Sara and I both fell in love with it. We saw some pretty sad looking places over the weekend and ended up going with the first one we saw, which was pretty exceptional. Now we start the paperwork and not-so-fun stuff. We have an early flight tomorrow morning so are having an early night tonight - hate to miss our flight home.

February 23 - Pick Your Own Fruit

We northerners were amazed at all the citrus trees that were in just about every yard of every house we looked at today. Here Sara is reaching up to pick a grapefruit.

I loved the lemon trees, and the orange trees. I hated the thought of all that fruit going to waste while those houses were vacant. It seems like such a luxury to be able to pick your own breakfast fruit.

February 22 - Raining in Phoenix

It rained all day on our first day in Phoenix - so much for the famous Arizona sunshine! It wasn't cold and it wasn't snow, so we didn't mind too much. This queen palm was growing just outside the door of our motel - I love queen palms.

We didn't do much today - rented a car and went out with a realtor at 5:00 and drove around a lot. It's interesting how the city is laid out in 1 mile grids - makes it not so difficult to get around. Our motel is actually in Peoria, which used to be a separate city but is now part of Phoenix.

February 21 - Arrival in Arizona

After two tiring flights, stopping at Denver along the way, Sara, Eloise and I arrived in Phoenix. We were tired and it was late so we got the first ground transportation we saw when we left the airport. It just turned out to be a gorgeous stretch limousine - after 59 years I finally got to ride in a limousine. Sara, of course, has had many such rides...courtesy of Quincey's sense of romance. Eloise, at nearly 3 months old, won't remember her first limousine ride. It was nice to finally get here and relax. Elly was a very good traveller.

February 20 - Missed a Day

I forgot to post last night...and I don't have a new picture for today. I've been really busy trying to get organized for this weekend trip to Phoenix. I'm taking my laptop and camera with me so hopefully I'll take a picture or two down there and put them in a post. In the meantime, I'll find another oldie goldie for today.

Here's a picture that has become a family classic...taken in 1968 with an Instamatic camera. Lloyd is 19 and I'm 20 in this picture. I don't know why my hair is parted in the middle there. I used to wear it parted on the side - still do.

February 18 - The Young Oiler Fan

It was a beautiful day for Family Day today - well above zero temperatures, bright blue sky, lots of snow left to play in... I went with Sara and Quincey and their kids to the kids' favorite restaurant for lunch. Max wore his Edmonton Oilers' jersey and looked so cute. Too bad the green onion cake he's so fond of is partially obscuring the Oilers logo. His dad, who plays goalie on three adult hockey leagues, has fond hopes of Max one day playing with the Oilers.

Only three of our 15 grandchildren don't have blue eyes. Max is one of them.

February 17 - Papa's Girls

I hope I haven't already posted this one. The only picture taken today was my passport picture and you know how bad those always turn out I considered posting it anyway but just couldn't bring myself to humiliate myself that way.

So here's a picture taken last month of two of our granddaughters, Kenzie and Brooklyn, playing with their Papa. It's a mutual admiration society.

February 16 - Crop Day and Night

I went to a crop at Scrap-A-Lot at 10:30 this morning and left at 11:30 tonight. It was great fun and I finished some of the best layouts I've done. The two in black and white were done using materials I got from a new kit-of-the-month club that I joined, Twelve Fridays, and it's the best kit I've ever had. I love the layouts of Layla and Charlie and Brooklyn and got loads of raves about them today... makes me feel good about what I do.

The two page layout of Mary and Layla at Taylor Head, NS is part of an ongoing attempt to finish scrapping last year's holiday It was done using a kit prepared by the the Scrap-A-Lot people. I'm very pleased with how it turned out too.

I missed my dear friend, Micky, who I usually crop with but she couldn't get back from Ontario in time for the crop. Luckily, Emily was able to come scrap with me, and we shared our space with two very nice scrappers who we enjoyed getting to know. It's a great hobby.

February 15 - Sweet Anson

I was able to have some unexpected time with grandson Anson this afternoon. It was a fun time. Anson likes one-on-one time best and we had plenty of that. He lets me play with him and rough house. It's such fun to hear him laugh and respond to me. He can be quite a tease and got a kick out of turning the computer on and off and watching me deliberately over react to him. It was a fun time.

Anson is six years old - my firstborn's firstborn. When he was two he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. His parents have devoted themselves to his care and treatment and he's doing well ...a sweet little boy. We love him a lot.

February 15 - I've Been Tagged

I was tagged last week but forgot about it. In return, I'll tag the rest of you who haven't already done this.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
- Working at NorQuest College

- Living in St. Albert, AB

- Becoming a grandmother for the second time

- Becoming a mother-in-law for the second time

- Cross-stitching because I hadn't discovered scrapbooking yet

5 things on my ‘to do’ list today
- Get organized for tomorrows 10 am - midnight crop
- Go to WW with Sara and Emily
- Laundry
- Lunch with the girls
- Housework

4 things I’ll do when I’m a millionaire
- Travel with Lloyd
- Buy a retirement home or two
- Share with the kids
- Quit work

3 things I’ll never wear again:
- My wedding dress
- A girdle
- Flip-flops (can't stand the toe thingy)

4 favorite things to drink or eat:

- Diet Pepsi
- M&M Raspberry Macaroon Squares
- Dark chocolate
- Hot soup on a cold day
- Pizza

February 14 - Valentine Girl

Today my beautiful Valentine's baby turned 33. Amy (her name means beloved) is our third child, 2nd daughter, and her birth forever changed the way we celebrate Valentine's day. It became 'Amy's birthday', and we always had a heart shaped cake for her. She's a sweet and gentle, but strong, woman and a wonderful mother to her three children. Her profession as a nurse is completely in sync with her caring, compassionate nature. It's totally appropriate that her birthday is on Valentine's Day.

February 13 - Princess Play

There was no picture for yesterday. I was too sick to even turn my computer on. Am somewhat better today though.

Kenzie came down for awhile this evening. I had just bought some Disney princess paper dolls so she had fun playing with them and dressing them up. She loves the princesses.

When her mother, Amy, was little she used to love going through catalogues and cutting out the models to people her families, furniture, appliances, toys, walls, etc. She had quite a collection of catalogue cutouts. I had quite a collection of paper dolls too when I was young, movie star ones mostly. It's nice to know some things never change.

It's Amy's 33rd birthday tomorrow - our Valentine baby.

February 11 - The Aftermath

Now that the weekend on-line crop is over, I'm left with a mess....paper and tools out, drawers open, table spread with the remnants of layouts in progress...a true scrapping mess. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to cleaning it up. Tonight I'm just too tired. The mess wasn't in vain though - I got a lot done on the weekend. I'll organize as I clean up - need to get ready for the 10 am - midnight crop at SAL on Saturday!!!!

February 10 - Flowers from Charlie

I spent some time with Sara and her kids today...stayed there with Eloise while she took Charlie and Max shopping. When they came home, Charlie had a bouquet of beautiful yellow and white flowers for me. Sara said she insisted on getting them for me and spent ten minutes looking at all the bouquets before finding just the right one for me. She's a sweetheart.

I had a lot of fun over there today playing soccer and I spy and listening to Charlie and Max's silly knock, knock jokes. Three and four year olds just don't 'get' knock, knock jokes, but love making their own up.

It was a nice break from the weekend on-line crop, which finishes at midnight tonight. I had a very productive weekend - finished four 12x12 layouts and 10 cards.

February 9, Layouts

This is another challenge from this weekend's POTP online crop. The challenge was to scrap an oldie goldie picture but focus on telling the story.

This picture of Mum holding me, with Wendy standing at her side, taken in January 1949, is the only one I've seen of Mum wearing her fur coat. She bought the muskrat coat during the war when she was single and working in Halifax. Later, Wendy and I used to love dressing up in it. It was so soft on the outside and silky on the inside - and heavy. I'm not sure what happened to it - I don't remember seeing it sine my teenage years. It became politically incorrect to wear fur coats so I think Mum just stored it away or sold it.

February 8 - Baby Layout

This is a layout I did for a POTP crop challenge tonight. It was a challenge to use white space. I have to admit, it's not my favorite style. I don't like all that empty space. Nice to try something new though. The second photo looks strange because it has a transparency over it which distorts it.

The baby, of course, is Eloise, who was born in November 2007.

February 7 - Aidan

This is #13 grandchild - Aidan Woolf - a real cutie. He's recently learned to sit up by himself, has two teeth and is working on getting more, and responds when I call him Goober.

February 6 - A Golden Oldie

OK. Tomorrow I'll take a picture for sure -no more cheating. In the meantime, here's another oldie goldie. That's me on the right with my sister, Wendy, on the left. Our birthdays are 8 days apart - Wendy is not quite one year older than me. We used to have birthday parties a few days after my birthday, a few days before Wendys. This is taken at one of those parties - I'm 3 and Wendy's 4. Picton, Ontario. 1951.

February 5 - Banjo Babe

Here's one just for fun. This is me in 1968 or 69. I was working at the University of Alberta and did some moonlighting typing PhD theses for some students. I took the pay for one of these theses and bought myself a banjo, took two lessons, and then sold it. Too bad - I would have liked to be able to play it but just didn't have the discipline to practice and learn. It was good for a photo op though.

Look at that blouse - long sleeves and buttoned high on the neck. Oh to be that slim again. Sigh.

February 4 - Keys of the Kingdom

This is where we keep our keys - house, cars, truck. Also, the little girls like to make necklaces for me with their bead sets, so after I wear them for a few hours, I hang them on the key holder so Charlie and Kenzie can see them when they come to visit. I also hang any necklaces they leave around on their visits. What is it with little girls and jewellery. They love it.

Sara made the key holder, putting pictures of Charlie and and Max on it.

February 3 - Sara's Kids at the Muttart

I didn't have a chance to take a picture today so instead I'm posting one that Emily took at the Muttart the other day - Sara's kids, Eloise, Charlie and Max. Sara is using some of the pictures taken that day in a project so she has faded out most of the color. But, in color or black and white, my grandkids look beautiful to me.

February 2 - Cleaning Day

Every once in awhile these tools need to come out and play, and today is one of those days. But first I had to change the vacuum cleaner bag. Somehow it had become way overfull and the dirt and dust when I opened the canister up completely hid the full bag. What a mess! I got it cleaned up though and vaccuumed and swept all the floors, scrubbed tub and toilet and finished up by cooking my favorite comfort food - beef stew with dumplings. Greg and I ate our fill and I left the pot on the stove for Lloyd, who should be home from Victoria (by car) around 8 tonight.

I like a day like this once in awhile. It was beautiful and sunny outside. This morning Greg (a pretty cool son-in-law) took me out to a new diner that he and his work buddies frequent, and I had the best BLT I've ever had. It's nice how simple things can make us happy.

February 1 - Fixed

Thanks to Sara, this is how the Muttart actually looked - without all the blue snow and sky. She's going to have to give me lessons.

February 1 - Paradise in a Winter City

What do you do when it's -25, cold and snowy in Edmonton? This afternoon Sara, Emily and I took Charlie, Max and Eloise to the Muttart Conservatory for a photoshoot. The Muttart is a 4-pyramid grouping of ecosystems, featuring a show pyramid where they feature different floral shows through the year, a desert landscape featuring cacti and succulents, a temperate zone and a tropical zone. The trees and plants are beautifully arranged, growing from season to season in a climate controlled greenhouse pyramid -a beautiful place to visit at any season, but particularly comforting during a record cold spell like we've been having. These two pictures are a few of the ones that actually turned out. I was switching between my two lenses and didn't alter my settings so a lot (most of them) are blurry and out of focus. I need to practice a lot more. Fortunately the professionals (Sara and Emily) had their studio camera and I'm sure they got some lovely pictures. The top one is one of the pyramids from the outside. The bottom is me on a bridge in the tropical zone holding Eloise, with Max's little head in the lower corner.