Grandmother Goose

Mum loves most animals, but most particularly cats and birds - any kind of birds. She lives in a first floor apartment with a patio and always puts seeds out so the birds will come. She loves to watch them as they fly around and eat the food she provides. Her cat, Munch, likes to watch them too, but she's not allowed out (luckily for the birds) so she just watches them through the window.

The other day in Winnipeg, we went down to The Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet and enjoyed the walk along the river bank. Mum got as close to the Canada geese there as she could, feeding them bits of her sandwich left over from lunch. I think she actually expected them to come eat out of her hand.

She taught her children to love and care for the gentle creatures too, and if it weren't for allergies I'm sure I'd have a pet or two in my home...budgies or a cat or two.

Mum's Birthday

I just got home this afternoon from Winnipeg where we celebrated Mum's 87th birthday. She can't remember having a birthday party before (she's had many!) so was very excited to actually be receiving gifts. I guess that's a small blessing of having Alzheimer's. Everything is a 'first', new and exciting. After her dinner (prepared by the best cook in the family, my sister Wendy) and the cake and gifts, she and my brother-in-law played cribbage while my sister, niece and I played Settlers. A nice little birthday party.

Faces of Childhood - Summer Edition

By the end of the day you can tell what kind of day it was by the look of the kids. Have you ever seen a dirtier face than Max's?? Or more freckles than Wyatt's (a neighbour boy who came over to play with the kids this evening)? Charlie's dirty too, but she has decorated her dirt with Barbie bandaids to cover the scratches she got out at her other grandma's house this afternoon. They were all happy and smiling and still having fun when it was time to go in to get ready for bed though...hopefully to have a bath first! Grammie and Papa left before the action began. We all had a good day.

Cards

I've come to enjoy making cards. The problem is, I hate to give them away. So when I make one I particularly like, I try to make two of it - one to give and one to keep to use as a model for other ones. Here's some I made last week.

Jar Album

I'm going to Winnipeg for Mum's 87th birthday on Tuesday. Over the years I've made her gifts that she really likes, from cross stitch to special scrapbooks. When I asked her what she wanted this year she said "Make me something I can brag about". Lately when I've called her she's mentioned that she's looking at my family picture and can't remember my kids names...all part and parcel of Alzheimer's. It bothers her though that she can't put names to faces any more.

I saw this jar album at a friend's home and copied the idea for myself. It was fun and easy to make and turned out really well. I put a picture of each child and his/her spouse on one side of the chipboard disks and put their name on the back, along with a list of their children. Then I fancied it up with lots of bling. I made a hole in the lid and threaded ribbon through and knotted it. The other end of the ribbon is attached to the first disk by threading it through an eyelet. That way, when the lid is removed, the whole string of pictures comes out. Very effective I think it'll be something for her to brag about for awhile.

Hula Hooping

Charlie has learned the graceful art of hula-hooping and was eager to show me her skills today. She does pretty good for a 4-year old and manages to keep it up for 10 or 15 seconds at a time. With practice she'll soon be as good as her Grammie used to be.

Hula hoops became popular in the mid- to late 50's when I was 9 - 12. I got pretty good at it - good enough to win a contest at a picnic for the soldier's kids at the army base we were living in at the time (Base Gagetown, NB). I could start twirling at my waist and move it up to my neck and down to my knees without losing a beat or dropping it. Of course I was skinny as a rail and straight as a poker back then so it was pretty easy going for the hoop.

I'm glad to see that hula-hooping hasn't completely died out and that one of my offspring's offspring is following in her Grammie's footsteps.

Way to go Charlie!!

Watermelon Baby

To day Eloise had her first taste of watermelon. She looks so serious about it, but I think she was afraid someone would take it away from her before she was finished with it. See how white the ends of her fingers are from holding on to it. Maybe she just liked the coolness of it on her toothless gums...I personally can't see what all the fuss is. Watermelon is my least favorite fruit and I never eat it if I can possible avoid it. Looks like Elly doesn't take after her Grammie that way. Oh well. She has other good qualities :-)

Emily's Birthday

The family celebrated Emily's 22nd birthday today, although her birthday is tomorrow. She'll have her friends party tomorrow. It's hard to believe that my baby is 22 years old. She's grown into a lovely young woman but she'll always be my baby.

It's actually my sister's birthday today. There's interesting correlations between Emily and Wendy. For one thing, Wendy named Em. Lloyd and I tried several names on Em during her first few days with us but none seemed to 'fit' her. (After already naming four daughters, it was a bit of a challenge coming up with a name for the fifth!) Then Wendy phoned and suggested we name her Emily Patricia. We tried it, liked it, and stuck with it. It suits her. As she grew up, we realized that she looks like Wendy and one of her daughters, and they share several character traits.

My camera's battery was running low (my small camera, not my Rebel) so I only got a couple and they're not particularly good, but here they are. Here's one of Wendy too, since it's really her birthday. Happy birthday ladies. Love you both.

Swinging Good Time

We went over to Sara and Quincey's this morning and sat on the deck visiting. Charlie and Max got bored and decided that they needed more attention from Daddy and Papa so they talked them into pushing them on the swings. It was nice seeing the two men playing with the kids, even if they carried on their discussion while they did so. Meanwhile, Eloise just lounged around on the deck chair and smiled her cute little baby smile. It was a beautiful morning - I love sitting on the deck in that back yard.

A Good Day

It was another kite flying day. This time Amy and Sara took their six kids and I went along to take care of the babies, Aidan and Eloise, while their moms and bigger siblings flew kites and walked the trail at Big Bear Park. Here's some pictures of my little charges. Aidan is 10 months old, Elly is 6 months.

Windy Day Fun

What do you do on a windy day? Go fly a kite of course. I've never actually flown one myself but when Sara took Kenzie and Charlie out to the park with their kite, I went along to watch, but actually ended up taking a turn (my very first) at kite flying. It's a lot of fun. One thing I learned...it's very, very hard to get a picture of a kite flying! Maybe Sara got some better ones.

Perks of Age

OK - so this isn't much of a picture. What it is though is a celebration of the perks of aging. The way I see it, we all have to age (it's better than the alternative!) and some businesses are savvy enough to celebrate with us the fact that we've made it this far and are cheering us on our way.

Today Mickey and I enjoyed one of our 'girls days out' and went to various stores in search of the perfect border scallop tool by Fiscars. Along the way, we stopped at the Royal Fork buffet for lunch. Noticing their seniors reward program, I asked them how old one had to be to take advantage of it. Lucky for me, they regard us young 60 year olds as seniors so Mickey and I paid less for our meal and got the Senior Value Card as well - my very first senior value card! You can bet I'm going to collect as many different seniors perks cards as I can. If I have to be this old, why not take advantage of it and enjoy it all the way. It's not as if I feel old - I don't feel a day over 50.

And yes, we did find the much coveted border scallop tool. We got the last two in stock at Michael's.

Fun With Anson and Brooklyn

Lloyd and I had a chance to hang out with Brooklyn and Anson this weekend. That's always fun. Brooklyn is developing her t-ball skills and we had fun tossing the ball to her to hit. Then she tossed it to me and I swung the bad and hit the ball a bit too hard, walloping the poor little girl in the middle of the forehead, effectively ending the game. She recovered without a bruise so all is well.

Celebrating 60

We had a birthday party at Rob and Cindy's place tonight to celebrate my birthday. The whole family wasn't there - even Lloyd had to be travelling back to High Level today - but it turns out that that's all right. My main birthday gift was the announcement that they've organized a family reunion for my birthday to be held on June 7th. Sara has spoken to the out of town kids and they've all agreed to come. We'll have a picnic party at one of the city parks (already reserved), and one of Sara's staff will come for half an hour or so to take pictures. Hopefully we'll be able to get a fairly decent picture of the whole group of us (Lloyd and I, seven kids, seven spouses, and 16.5 grandchildren). It won't be an easy feat, but we'll make sure lots of pictures are taken. Sara and Emily are whizzes at Photoshop so we'll be sure to get at least one good picture of the crowd.

Cindy and Rob had their dining room decorated with streamers saying 60...60...etc., and presented me with a necklace with purple beads, disks saying 60, and a medallion in the center saying "Clearly a Classic". The cake had sixty candles on it, which took two of the men to light. The heat from the candles was so hot that the icing roses began to melt. It took several grandchildren to help me blow them all out.

It was a fun evening. Thanks kids.

Freedom 55, I mean...60

Today is the day I retired...I am no longer a secretary. It's a strange feeling. There was a large coffee party for me at work, lots of food and people, cards and gifts...and tears. Both my boss, Sandi (that's her with me in the top pcture), and I broke down. Sandi and I have a really good relationship...besides being so close in age. Her birthday is today...mine's tomorrow. She's less than a day older than me. I'm going to miss her...and the rest of the bunch at the hospital. It was a lovely place to work.

Our house is finally back in order now too...sort of. The carpets were reinstalled yesterday and cleaned today, so we're in the process of putting furniture back in order. Things are looking up. It's nice to be able to blog once again. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

My Place is Humming...

My place is humming like three washing machines, all on spin cycle at the same time. All thanks to three super strong fans with extensions that sit under the wet carpet and blow great blasts of air under the carpet causing a remarkable billowing affect...not to mention blowing any dust that was in the carpet at the time of the soaking into the air. Not the best environment right now, but at least it'll be dry and habitable again....in four days! Meanwhile, we have no place to sit, except for the computer chair and the bed, we're reduced to watching the tiny televisions because the 46" one is lying face down on our leather couch because it was in a wet spot. You'll notice the updated picture of the kitchen - no access to most of the cupboards, the stove, table, or microwave. Guess who's not cooking this weekend.

All of this would be really depressing except for the fact that tomorrow afternoon I'm off to a weekend crop, just coming home to sleep before heading out again on Saturday and Sunday...by which time the fans will be gone and the furniture moved back into position....hopefully. Lloyd is escaping the carnage by heading down to Phoenix with our nephew to take possession of the house, installing light fixtures, checking on the pool construction, etc., and won't be back till Thursday. So the end is in sight and we'll be constructive in the meantime. But, man, this roar is tiring. Luckily the bedroom is safe and the door can be closed.