NOT a Good Welcome Home

Lloyd and I live in a lovely basement suite Amy and Curtis built for us in their new-to-them house. For the most part it's working out really well for all concerned.

And then today I can home from work and my feet squelched on the carpet...not a pleasant feeling. Turns out, all the melting snow, more snow, and rain today decided to come in through a pipe under the carpet in our large front closet. The more Amy and I walked on the carpet, the wetter it got. The water ran under the carpet along the wall of the alcove where most of my scrapbook stuff was stored (nothing is ruined because it was in cases on casters and the big shelving unit is protected by a couple inches of wood at the floor level), and along the wall in the living-room, clear to the far wall of the house.

Curtis came home from work, having cancelled the last two hours worth of chiropractic patients and managed to unplug the drain and get the water flowing out. Then we had to move all of my sb stuff off the carpet. I lost track of how many times I heard him say "you have too much scrapbook stuff".

Lloyd is on his way home from High Level as planned and will be here in a couple of hours. I called to let him know what to expect when he got here. He's getting us a motel room - I didn't think we'd have to, but I've put my sb stuff in the spare bedroom, the main bedroom, and the kitchen (see picture). We'll probably be working on this all weekend, and I'm supposed to be at a weekend National Scrapbooking Day crop from Friday to Sunday. Guess I won't know if I can make it until tomorrow.

And this is my life today.

Elly's Feet

Elly and her family came over to visit me for awhile this evening. She looked so sweet in her new pink outfit. Sara always dresses her kids so nicely. Just don't look too closely...




see her sweet little feet...mismatching socks, neither one of which matches her new pink outfit. As Sara says...baby socks are just so hard to match up after they've spun around in the washer and dryer. She's got a point there. The kids will be free spirits.

Ribbons

I love using ribbons as embellishments on my scrapbook pages. I got a bit carried away though with stocking up. Organizing them became a problem - taking them to crops even more of a problem. Then my dear friend Mickey showed me the coolest ribbon organizer ever. The vinyl sides of this bag are full of holes through which ends of multiple ribbons are threaded for easy access. I have over 100 spools of ribbon (minus the spool) stuffed into this handy-dandy little case, each one with the end sticking out. Now I can see and choose the ribbon I want to use easily and carry them to crops with me. The picture may be a little out of focus but it sure is colorful!

Another Bird Card

I forgot to post last night - I also forgot to take any pictures, in spite of having good opportunities.

My wireless mouse stopped dead on me yesterday in the middle of an on-line crop so I went in search of batteries. Not finding any here, I went to Amy, who was watching Sara's two oldest (4 and 3) as well as her own three. She didn't have any batteries either and was frazzled after taking care of five under 5's for several hours so I took the four who can walk with me to the "slurpy store" for batteries...and slurpys too of course. They had such fun and were so excited about getting slurpies (banana and pineapple flavors). I really should have taken pictures. It was a happy day though and this card that I made for the on-line crop reflects the fun we had...I love the bright colors.

I had bought a new stamp on Friday when Mickey and I were out and stamped it on four different colored papers, cut the bird's body out of blue, the wing out of green, and the flowers out of orange, and pieced them all together. They're attached to the body of the card with pop-dots to make it look three dimensional, and the bird is attached to the square with pop-dots too.

I Love Owls

I'm working on an on-line crop tonight and almost forgot to update this blog. So here's the card I made for one of the challenges.

I'm so glad owls are 'the animal of the year' now - there are so many owl embellishments out there and I can't resist getting them. Now I have to figure out how to use them. The card works well.

Pizza Boxes!!

Aaahhhh...pizza box...the mail that makes a scrapbooker's heart beat faster...not because we love eating pizza so much, but because a scrapbooker's pizza box is filled with papers, and ribbons and buttons and chipboard and alphabets and card stock and...and...and... Nothing brightens up a blah day better than coming home to find a pizza box in your mail. It's a good day. I got one today.

Sisters

Wendy and I were born not quite a year apart - she was born on May 18 sometime in the 20th century and I was born the following year on May 10. When we were little, Mum used to invite the neighbourhood kids over for cake and ice cream on May 14 to celebrate both of our birthdays together at the midpoint between our birthdays.

The reason I'm bringing this up now is that yesterday I received a birthday card from Wendy - two weeks early - but I know it'll be the first of many I'll get from her this year. I don't know when it started, by whom, or why, but for lots of years now we've been sending each other half a dozen or more cards every year in the couple of weeks before our birthday - most of them funny or insulting with at least one 'nice' one. I start collecting cards to send to her shortly after our birthdays are over and save them until the time is right to send them. A fun tradition to look forward to each year.

Focus

Layla loves to climb the fence around her yard. Her tiny feet fit right into the spaces on the chain link. I told her to look at me and smile and she said "I can't. I need to focus." So she kept her head turned into it's focus position, looking straight ahead and said "Cheese".

Now That's a DOG!

This is Chester, Mary and Greg's 165 lb. Mastiff. He's a beautiful dog with a bark that puts the fear of god into anyone who comes to the door. He's mellowed in the five years they've had him and isn't as unfriendly toward men as he used to be. He's always liked me though...and this weekend when we visited his family in Oliver, BC, he became Lloyd's new best friend. He's very protective of Layla (when she was born we were afraid he'd eat her!!) and growled at Lloyd when he was teaching her how to hit a golf ball - guess he thought he was going to hit her with the club.

As beautiful as he is, Chester has one major flaw...he drools...a lot...we were all slimed more than once this weekend. It's a condition common to large dogs with jowels. We love him anyway. Layla calls him her big brother.

Pictures From Oliver, BC

I missed a few entries here because Lloyd and I took a trip to Oliver, BC, the wine capital of Canada, to visit with Mary, Greg, Layla and Chester for a couple of days. We miss our daughter and her family since they moved away from Edmonton a couple of months ago. They have a lovely home in Oliver and have settled in nicely. It's a beautiful drive between Edmonton and Oliver, through the mountains and into the vineyards of the Okanagan. We had never been there before in spite of having lived further north in Prince George, BC for a number of years.

This first picture is Lloyd, Greg and Layla, with Chester sitting guard in the front. Greg isn't really a hippy. He's just wearing the headband to practice his golf swing before he and Lloyd head out to the course.

The second picture is Mary at the Rancho Chica in Omac, Washington, just an hour's drive from their home. It'll become a regular stop on our visits to them - the food is incredible and the staff is fun and friendly.

The third picture is of Mary and Layla in a pensive moment.

A Few More

Two more layouts from the weekend retreat - the first is Lloyd with Kenny last summer and the bottom one is Charlie with her baby sister, Eloise. Some day I'll learn to scan my layouts so they come out better, either that or take straighter pictures! As usual, the layouts look much better in real life.

A Few Layouts

The card on the bottom is a copy of one I found in a magazine. I love it. When I decide who to send it to, I'll put a greeting on the tag. The other two are a couple of layouts I did at the retreat this weekend.

A Fun Retreat

We just got back from the Jasper retreat an hour or so ago...it was such fun. We scrapped until 1:30 am on Saturday morning, but quit early (12:30 am) this morning, and kept going today until we had to close up shop a 3:00. It was a great retreat...the hostess plus 17 scrappers...lots of room to spread our stuff out and work. We took our own snackies, but the hotel kept us supplied with coffee, tea, juice, pop, water, cookies, squares, and fruit mid-morning and mid-afternooon, as well as buffet breakfast and lunch both days, and a special dinner on Saturday, all included in the modest cost of the retreat. We made new friends, took a mini-album class, went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around Jasper, won door prizes, and cropped till we dropped. It was a very productive weekend for me - usually a very slow scrapper. I completed six 12 x 12 layouts, a card, and a nine-page mini-album. I'll be posting pictures of some of the layout in subsequent entries. As fun as it was, it's good to be home and I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

The pictures are self explanatory I think...Me and Mickey at the crop, Mickey and Me with our luggage (the bottom layer of cases isn't included in the picture), and the group in the horse carriage.

Happy Feet, Pretty Feet

Mickey and I are going to Jasper tomorrow for a scrapbooking retreat. As a preliminary treat, this afternoon we went to a spa and had lovely, soothing, relaxing, pedicure. So again, these are pictures I didn't take, but they're fun to have and show. We didn't realize that we had chosen the same polish color until we were actually having the polish applied...we do things like that a lot...our tastes are so similar. I like my feet, but the whole affect is ruined by the gross kankles I inherited from my grandmother.

I won't be posting a blog until at least Sunday, when we're returning from Jasper.

Horton Hears A Who, and Panda Hut Too!

Before Amy and Curtis left for Hawaii last weekend, Amy planned activities for her girls for most of the days they'd be away. Today was 'fun with Grammie' day and the babysitter kept Kenzie home from kindergarten so she'd be ready to go as soon as I got home from work around 1:30.

Luckily, Horton Hears A Who has just come to the theatres, so that's where we decided to go (the girls came over last night so we could plan this date). I loved the movie and so did Kenzie. Syd dozed during the middle part of it, but enjoyed the popcorn and pop when she was awake. After the movie I let them choose where we'd go for dinner. Kenzie chose Panda Hut (they both seemed awfully familiar with it and the menu selections!) so that's where we spent the next hour and a half. They love the play area (the restaurant used to be a Burger King and the new owners saw fit to leave the play area there for their customers) and what they didn't eat of their noodles and rice, we brought home for them to eat later, or for the babysitter, whichever comes first. It was a fun day and the babysitter had a peaceful afternoon with just Aidan to take care of.

The McCarthy's - 1983

Just looking through some of my old photos and came across this one. It's my family taken shortly after Lloyd and I moved back to Nova Scotia with the kids...I'm the one in the white t-shirt. My sister and her family came from Winnipeg and we had a family reunion at Mum and Dad's place for the first time in years. I would have been about 34, Wendy 35 and Ken 31. I have kids older than that now! That was a lovely summer. Wendy's 4 kids and my 6 (Emily wasn't born until 1986) had great fun getting to know one another and all the great-aunts and great-uncles (mum had 13 siblings and most of them lived in that area...dad had 4 not too far away). It's sad to think that there's just the three women left now. Ken was killed in a mining accident when he was 39 and Dad died suddenly of a heart attack when he was 70. We have more happy memories than sad though. I love looking at these old pictures and remembering the fun times. This is why we scrapbook!!

I've got to put this link in to Sara's blog - it's the funniest, sweetest, blog I've read in a long time. Maybe you'll like it too. http://fip.typepad.com/mommy_moments/

Surprize Visitors

Jenny and her two youngest boys came to town today while the three older boys were at school. It's always nice to see them. Micah is two - a very big two - and Jammers (James Anders) is 4 months old, although he should only be 3 months old - the little monkey was born a month early. Micah calls me Grandmummy - the only one of our grandchildren to change my name from Grammy...cute. Both boys are happy and healthy and we had fun visiting with them. Jenny is still putting the finishing touches in their new house in LaCombe and makes regular trips to IKEA for supplies.

I'll Drive - You Navigate

Some things you just can't wait for the snow to melt to enjoy. Cousins Max and Sydney go for a swing ride together at Easter when the snow is still fairly deep in the back yard. Max, because he's the 'man' and a few months older than Syd, is the driver while Sydney appears to be telling him how to do it and where to go. The picture is out of focus, but hey - they're driving!!

Brooklyn

This little sweetie hasn't been featured much in this blog, and she's just too cute to leave out. This is our son Rob's daughter - 4 year old Brooklyn. I took this picture last summer, the first time I saw her with her glasses on. I love her in them - she looks so cute in them. They help her so much that her parents have no trouble getting her to wear them and leave them on. She's sweet and shy but once she warms up to people, she's very much into the fun. She loves dressing up and has quite a tickle trunk of costumes to wear.

The second picture is a studio photo Sara took of her last summer.

Introducing.....

Sara...my middle daughter...middle child...#4 of 7...mother of three of our grandchildren...wife of Quincey...great photographer...successful businesswoman and a believer in the power of positive thinking. I've credited her with several of my 'pictures of the day'. So I figured it's time everyone meets her. She and Q. are also half-owners in our Arizona house. Sara has the distinction of being our only child born in High Level, in the wilderness of northern Alberta 31 years ago, where we looked out the window of our room in the health centre and saw a black bear ambling by.

Throughout the year I'll introduce each of our kids on this blog. Middle kids don't often get to be 'first' so...to Sara...here's your turn at being first.

Navajo Bridge

This is an example of the incredible scenery in Arizona. We were driving along the Hwy 89 where it was nice and flat when all of a sudden this amazing gorge was in front of us and we were on a bridge over it. There was a visitors center there where we could read the history of this bridge and the subsequent one built to replace it. There's so much to explore there. I'm going to love it.

Thirty-Seventh Anniversary

When Lloyd and I unwrapped our Christmas present from Sara and Quincey we found a pair of lobster plates, a set of lobster crackers and forks, and a butter warmer. Sara then told us that the gift also comes with a lobster dinner flown in from the east at a date of our choosing. We chose to have the dinner delivered to us on our 37th anniversary on March 27. On March 26 Sara created a bit of a stir at my office by arriving, 3 children in tow, with a large box freshly arrived from the east coast, containing a cooler in which two live lobsters resided, along with packages of fresh clam chowder, corn on the cob, shrimp cocktail, a lemon, a stick of butter, and a cheesecake. The kids (and my co-workers) were excited to see the live lobster so I had to unpack the box so everyone could see.
All this happened about an hour after we were notified that our offer on the house in Arizona had been accepted and we'd have to leave for AZ that day. So I cooked this delicious anniversary dinner for lunch the day before our actual anniversary. No matter - it was an amazing meal and fueled us up for the long drive facing us. Thank you Sara and Quincey. Oh, I forgot to mention, the meal deal also included a pot to cook the lobster in!