Mark Everett in Concert

Lloyd and I are down in Lethbridge again this weekend...mainly because he has a meeting here on Monday...and also because it's warm and snow-free after last weekend's weather disaster and he's able to get another golf game in...and also because last night our nephew Mark was in a country western program in Raymond and we wanted to see him perform.


As I've mentioned here before, Mark is in the process of launching his music career and is gradually getting air time with his CD, mostly in the US Southwest, but also here in Alberta. He already has some fans in the community here, and this concert enabled him to show his stuff to a larger audience.

The Broadway reference comes from the venue - downtown Raymond is a particularly broad street named Broadway. The concert hall is a lovely large brick building that is used for all kinds of musical programs, plays, etc. Last night's concert was a sell-out and I believe tonight's is as well.



Mark's musical partner, Cory Rasmussen, overcame his dislike to country western music and provided excellent backup for Mark's guitar and voice.


It was fun to go and see the enthusiasm with which an audience that wasn't entirely his family responded to his performance.

Lethbridge Weekend

The morning after arriving home from sunny Arizona, Lloyd and I headed to our home in Lethbridge for the long weekend. The weather here is unseasonably cold, which has everybody grumbling. We stopped in Lacombe on our way down and had lunch with Jenny and her two pre-schoolers. We were sorry to miss seeing the other three boys, but we'll save that for another time. It was amazing to see how much food 4-year old Micah could put away!

Here's the view out of our front window in Lethbridge on October 9.

We usually don't have snow until November here. Nasty stuff.

It wasn't all bad though. My sister, Wendy, and her husband, Randy, arrived from Winnipeg for a two day visit with us shortly after we got here. Randy had brought his golf clubs and he and Lloyd had a couple tee times set up, but the snow ruined those plans. They went bowling instead while Wendy and I shopped. Wendy is looking for a mother-of-the-bride outfit to wear to her youngest daughter's wedding in January. We found nothing! No panic though, she still has time to look.


Lloyd's sisters, Cheryl and Joyce, wanted to celebrate his 60th birthday while he was here. He turns 60 on the 24th. So we, along with Duane, Tania, Ron, Wendy, Randy, and Richard, all went out to dinner at Luigi's and had a great time visiting and eating.

Cheryl, Lloyd, Joyce, Duane. Lloyd is looking at one of his birthday gifts from the girls.

Then on Sunday, Amy, Curtis and the kids, who were visiting Curtis' parents in Claresholm for the weekend, came over for a visit. It's always nice to have them visit us at our Lethbridge home. We live in their basement suite in Edmonton so it's good to remind the kids that Grammie and Papa have a home that is not part of their house. The kids love playing hide-and-seek here because there are so many 'secret' nooks and crannies and storage areas for them to hide in. We went out to a Chinese buffet for lunch. Sydney was too excited to eat but when Kenzie realized there was sushi, that' all she wanted.


I don't know many kids who like sushi, but Kenzie loves it.

Mike and his family came over for dinner Sunday night. Kenny and Alex are such sweet little boys, full of energy and fun. I forgot to get the camera out when they were here.

So we had a busy weekend visiting with all of our siblings and a couple of our kids and their families. We'll be making the 5 hour trip back home to Edmonton later today.

Name That Bird

Mickey and I got home last night and today Lloyd and I are heading 5 hrs. south to Lethbridge today for the Thanksgiving weekend.


Mickey and I thoroughly enjoyed our week in Arizona. From the first day we were there, whenever we were in the back yard or at the pool, we heard a new birdsong in our tree. We would occasionally see the birds but whenever I tried to get a picture of one of them they hid in the branches. For awhile this one is the only picture I was able to get.




Then, yesterday as we were cleaning and preparing to close the house up, we spotted a pair of them inside the pool enclosure picking stuff up. I guess they thought we were gone and they felt that they had 'their' pool back. Here's some pictures of them. If you know what they are, please let me know.

I've never seen these up here in Canada. I liked them. They were nice company in the back yard. They would respond when we whistled or talked to them, and I love taking pictures of birds. If you know what they are, please post it in the comments here. Hopefully they're not what is considered pest birds like the Magpies are up here. Enquiring minds want to know.

End of the Line

I guess it was inevitable...we've had our final swim (water temp. 74F - air temp 89F)...gone to our final restaurant...taken our final pictures of sunsets and cacti...and are packing up to go home. It's been a busy six days but we've had fun.

Just so you won't think I haven't accomplished anything, I'm going to show you some of the layouts I did at the convention and at home in AZ.

Are you ready?..... Keep in mind when looking at scrapbook layouts, that you don't just look at the picture - you study the techniques used, colors, composition, embellishments, texture, etc. and then you admire the lovely pictures :)

Max and Charlie on the waterslide

Elly picking flowers - I'm going to enlarge that picture so it fits the layout better - it's just temporarily placed there now. It's hard working without all my equipment.

Me with granddaughters Charlie, Kenzie and Sydney

At the Japanese gardens in Lethbridge, AB. This, and a couple following, are two-page spreads, each page is 12" x 12".


Elly picking flowers again. These photos suited several of the layouts we did at the convention so I used them on two.

Son Mike and his family at Japanese gardens in Lethbridge.


Grandson Aidan playing with the hose.

Elly eating a cinnamon bun. The owl consists of 12 separate little pieces, outlined and glued into place. The flowers are attached to the branch with brads and each leaf was individually cut out, outlned with ink and glued into place.

There are more layouts completed but without the pictures added. After I go home and have a chance to finish them, I'll post another blog with 'the rest of the story'. Thanks for looking.

This and That

Today was to be a quiet day spent at home relaxing and of course scrapbooking. When I came out of my room and sat at the computer at 8 this morning, I was pleased to see that Mickey was just getting up too. When I commented on this to her (she had been getting up early every morning and this was a nice change), she said "Oh, I'm just going back to bed. I've been up scrapping since 3:30). She's nuts. After another hour of sleep she was ready to go!

As I got to the top of the stairs after breakfast, I looked down, and tucked against the stair riser in the carpet I saw this critter...



Isn't that a beauty! Of course the scorpion was dead or else I would never have touched it. That's also why his tail is out straight instead of curled up. You can see his stinger at the end of the table. I know you can't tell from the picture, but he's no more than 2 inches top-to-tail and he's belly-up in this photo.

So naturally an incident like that called for a chocolate therapy session. Off we went to Arrowhead Mall where we headed to Mrs. See's Candy shop for our chocolate fix. It's so nice to be able to pick and choose the candy you put in a pound box. I got half a pound of key lime truffles and an assortment of my other favorites. Yum! We did a little more shopping too but that was the highlight.


Our feet and legs were tired when we got home, and it was too late (and a bit cool) for our daily swim, so we just sat on the edge of the pool and soaked our feet. Aaahhh...nice. We also played with the timers on our cameras so we could both be in the picture.

Sometimes I didn't make it back before the shutter clicked!


We met Penny and Les for dinner at The Islands - great meal, good friends, and fun. As we pulled into the parking lot the sun was setting in all its splendor. Someday I'll get a good sunset shot but this will do in the meantime.


All in all, it was a nice day, busier than we had planned, but we sure enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow is our last day in Arizona. We head home on Wednesday.

We Have A Convert!

Mickey and I were up early this morning scrapbooking. Actually Mickey was up at the crack of dawn - I stumbled downstairs at 8 to find her already well into her layouts. We scrapped until early afternoon.

This afternoon our non-scrapbooking friend Penny came over with Pauline to see what the fuss was all about. Penny just happened to bring along a box of photos and a scrapbooking kit that Pauline had given her some time ago. As she was eager to learn all there is to know about organizing her photos into a scrapbooking album, we were just as eager to help her get started.


She looked a bit overwhelmed at first but as we showed her some tips and ideas, she got more and more excited about it.

She went right to work cropping photos, working out placements, learning about matting, punching, using bling, adhesives, embellishments, etc.


And ended up with a lovely 2-page layout of her wedding. Didn't it turn out well. Now she's excited to go out and buy the list of tools and toys we told her she needed. She's going to get some bling and finish off this page and get to work on the rest of the pictures. We're so proud of her. And we had a great couple of hours with her and Pauline, who also had a hand in the production of the layout. Next time we come down, we'll have another scrapbooking session with them. Great fun.

Convention Day 2 - Mickey's Birthday

Day 2 of our scrapbooking convention dawned bright and sunny and so did Mickey as she celebrated turning another year better. To celebrate, she cooked scrambled eggs and toast and as we sat down to eat, she had fun opening her birthday gifts. You probably think it's mean of me to make Mickey cook her own eggs, but you don't know Mickey. She's not one to sit by while someone else is working so while she cooked the eggs, I made the toast and set the table.






When that excitement was over, we got ready to go back to....

the frantic, exciting world of scrapbooking. It was a busy day - Mickey and I took two classes in the morning, starting at 8:30, and while I took a third class at 12:30, she left her bags with me and checked out anything she may have missed at the Vendor Faire.

Our first class involved creating our first acrylic albums. This was the most important one for us to take as it involved learning a technique neither of us had done before but have wanted to do for quite awhile. It was surprisingly easy to do. The best part of the class was the prizes. I won the very first door prize of the day - a set of acrylic stamps - and both Mickey and I got a prize for being the ones who travelled the longest distance to get there...an honor we shared with the girl who was there from Holland.

I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but that's my finished acrylic album and it really is a lovely piece of art. now I just have to add the pictures. I'll do that when I get home.

And now the convention is over. It's been a lot of fun. We came home and, after a swim, got down to scrapbooking again...stopped to go out for dinner, and have been sitting at the dining room table working on our projects ever since. There's never a dull moment around here!!!

We have a few days now of fun and relaxation without schedules to follow before we head home on Wednesday. We may just stay in our pyjamas all day tomorrow and scrap...just because we can. Good night for now. And Happy Birthday Mickey.