New Blog

I've finally managed to get my new blog up and running. You can find me here:
http://lloydsgirl.blogspot.com/


Sorry. I couldn't get the 'insert link' thingy to work so you'll have to copy my new URL and paste it into your navigation bar to get to the new site.

Please visit me there. Thanks.

Not Gone Yet

I'm planning on closing down this blog and am in the process of creating a new one. Having a few problems with the format and look of the new one. As soon as it's up and running I'll put a link here to it so you won't get lost.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Favorite Pictures

I love taking pictures and with the advent of digital photography I find I take way, way more than I need. I don't let an occasion, event, baby, grandchild, bird, flower, etc. go by without taking a picture of it. The biggest reason I carry a purse is so that I have someplace to keep my small camera. I've taken a lot of pictures so far this year that haven't made it into print for scrapbooking nor have they been posted here - I think. This blog entry will be a quick review of my favorite pictures of the past few months...in no particular order.

Frosted tulips - May 2010 - Edmonton, AB

Anson and Brooklyn - I didn't take this one but I love pictures of Rob's kids together.

Fun times with the Jenn and her family - lunch atWendy's in Lethbridge

First new baby of the year - Hannah Rose MacKenzie - April 2010

James (Jammers) Quist - May 2010

I love the natural light coming through the wndow behind him.



Bougainvilla (I think) at Clyde's in Sun City

Winter in the Prairies - April 2010

Empathetic Kitties - January 2010

Percy in the Snow

Baby with her Baby - Elly 2010

Cousins Nathan Quist and Mackenzie Woolf

I love this one of our first grandson, Jonah, proving that he's taller than his Papa

May 1020. Lloyd insists it's a poor camera angle, but Jonah really is taller.

Canada Goose in Winnipeg

Baby Tate, 3 weeks old.

Mother's Love - Amy and Tate

Baron showing his stuff with the basketball - May 2010

Layla's toothless smile and flirty pose - May 2010.

Sign on a building in Tombstone, AZ

Superstition Mountain and cholla cactus, Arizona 2010

And that's all she wrote.

Baby Tate Update

Amy and Curtis's son Tate was born prematurely on May 14.

Now, three weeks later, he's home and doing fine. He doesn't do much yet other than eat and sleep but he's gaining weight and growing and is just as sweet as can be. I had him with me for a sleep-over on Friday night (his parents needed a night of uninterrupted sleep) and during his stay we had a brief photo shoot.

Yesterday Emily and I spent the day together working on our scrapbooking. During the course of the day I completed two layouts of Baby Tate.

Lloyd's Wheels

Now normally I wouldn't bother blogging about something as mundane as a car but Lloyd asked me so nicely to blog about his latest acquisition what choice did I have??? He's so cute when he begs!


When he was down here a month or so ago he found a car deal he couldn't resist. He had been wanting a cool car for us to drive while we're down here in the sunny south - the van just wasn't cool enough! After searching for a couple of days he found a 1992 one-owner white Buick Roadmaster Limited.



As well as having all the bells and whistles available to luxury cars in 1992, this beauty has just 48,000 miles on it. So he figured it was the perfect "senior's" car, since that's who owned it in the first place. We spent time this week cruising in it - I felt like Miss Daisy being driven around.


I must admit he made a good choice - it drives like a dream and the automatic seats have three lumbar support controls for those of us whose backs are starting to wear out.


Another good reason for us to come down as often as possible.

There's Always Something New...

As usual when we come to Surprise, AZ, I take pictures of plant life. I was particularly excited to come in May because that's when the Saguaro and a few other cacti blossom. Lloyd and I drove out to the nearby saguaro forest to take some pictures of them.

And here's the cholla (I think) that Q. planted in our yard.

Quincey did an amazing job with the landscaping on his last trip down. He hired a crane to come and carry/lift the large Mexican fan palm, which is gorgeous. He also planted the cholla, three small bushes with orange blossoms, a really ugly tall skinny cactus clump that I'll try to find the name of, and rocks - large rocks - one 1200 lb. rock. (I didn't take pictures of the rocks but you can probably see some of them in the other pictures). But with our desert landscaping, it all looks beautiful.

The tall, skinny, prickly one.

Our lime - the first year it's producing - we have three so far!

And our lemon - the first of many, judging by the number of tiny ones sprouting there.

The large Mexican fan palm

Orange blossoms on one of three bushes of unknown name (so far)

Then to finish it off, he put spotlights behind the palms along three sides of the fence. With the lights off at night and just the pool lights and the spotlights on, it looks wonderful - romantic and fairy tale like - in the back yard.

The pictures don't do it justice.

Nachos a la Cory

Lloyd has this friend who, whenever they're together with the 'guys' on a golf trip or business trip or whatever, makes a nacho platter that according to Lloyd is a work of art...a gastronomic delight of unheard of proportions...a must-have for every nacho lover in the world. Sometimes in his enthusiasm to share this culinary event with me, he'll call me from hundreds of miles away to tell me all about it - usually when I'm sitting home alone eating my soup and toast dinner.

Cory and his Nachos

This past weekend when we were in Lethbridge - just a few miles from Cory's home - we invited Cory and his lovely wife Cara over for dinner, on the condition that dinner consists of Cory's nacho platter. It was fun having them over and watching them work together to create two pans of this treat - one with jalepenos and olives, and the other without (because I don't like those two ingredients). Cory is very precise in the way the peppers, onions, chives and tomatoes are chopped. The cheese must be freshly grated Kraft marble, the chicken breasts barbequed and chopped. And as he works at creating this masterpiece, he cleans up. By the time the nachos are ready to eat, the kitchen is totally cleaned up.

One platter ready for the oven

And the finished product...it lived up to all of Lloyd's reports. We ate and ate until we couldn't eat another bite, and still there was some left. I guess now I'll still be jealous when Lloyd tells me that Cory is cooking nachos for the guys, but at least I'll know what I'm missing and can try to duplicate it in my own fashion. Thanks Rasmussens for sharing this with me...finally.

Cory and Cara Rasmussen

The Generations Connect!

I had a brief, but interesting and uplifting conversation with 5-year old grandson Max today. Here it is, pretty well word for word. I'll set the stage for you first. It was 12:10 pm and Max and I were heading out to get him to Kindergarten. It was a drizzly, misty day. Max looked down the street and said:

Max: It looks fuzzy down there.

Me: Yes, it's foggy today.

Max: What's fog?

Me: It's a cloud that is just about sitting on the ground. (He's too young to understand a detailed meteorological explanation, which I'm not too sure of anyway).

Me (getting into the car and pointing to the tiny raindrops on the windshield): Clouds are made up of tiny particles of water.

Max: I didn't know that. -pause- I guess old people really are smart!

He made my day...except for the part about being called old.

Introducing - Tate Curtis Woolf

On Friday, May 14, just before 8 am, we welcomed our 19th grandchild to the family. Tate Curtis Woolf arrived 4 weeks ahead of schedule, weighing a whopping 5 lb 10 oz. Such a tiny little guy, not without a few respiratory problems to make life interesting, if a bit unsettling, for a couple of days.

Amy had a chance for a quick cuddle before baby Tate was whisked off to the NICU for some specialized care.




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Later that night Curtis was finally able to hold his son.

Amy was discharged on Saturday, coming home without Tate. The kids were glad to have their Mom home but disappointed that the baby didn't come too. He should be home in three or four days. He's doing really well in the NICU so far after a rough first night.

When Lloyd and I went with Amy to visit him today, we were finally allowed to hold him. He was hooked up to several monitors and a feeding tube so we had to be very careful, but it was so nice to hold the little guy and talk to him. He's so sweet. This is his third day so he's a bit jaundiced - quite yellow in fact - but that's normal. I have yet to see his blue eyes open.

Little yellow wired baby. That's his feeding tube in his mouth.

He's making good progress and we hope to have him home to love by the end of the week. He's our sweet little Tater-tot.