Happy Easter

For the first time in several years Lloyd and I stayed home at Easter and were able to share it with some of the kids and grands. It was a beautiful day - sunny and dry and the snow melted just in time to make egg hunts workable.

Sara hosted the Easter dinner and it was a huge success - so much fun. The kids played on their own on the trampoline, in the back yard, and on the Wii, leaving just the two 2-year olds needing our attention. There were four of our kids with their spouses and 8 children so it was a nice little gathering. Everyone brought something - ham, baked beans, scalloped potatoes, corn, taco salad, vegetable tray, and Sara made Death by Chocolate for dessert.

Rob's wife, Cindy, told us of this conversation she had this morning with 6-year old Brooklyn:

B: Is there really a magic rabbit who brings all this candy to us or do you do it?
C: What do you think?
B: I think you do it.
C: That's right.
B: I thought so. Does Daddy know?
C: I'm not sure. Should we ask him?
B: No. I don't want to tell him.

So it appears that 38-year old Rob is the only Easter bunny believer in their family! What a sweet little girl for not wanting to spoil her father's fun.

Here's some shots from this evening. The little Holland lop-eared bunny is a pet of Charlie, Max and Elly. Their mom, Sara, featured her in her bunny portraits event at her photo studio last week. She's a sweet little thing who seems to love all the attention.

Aidan and Elly feeding the bunny

Aidan caught red-handed with his hand in the jelly bean dish.

Granddaughters Kenzie, Brooklyn, Charlie and Sydney enjoying Easter candy.

Elly and Aidan emptying their basket

Max and the bunny

Elly sharing her candy with cousin Anson

Aidan showing us his egg hunt loot.

Sure hope the rest of you had a great Easter.

Lloyd's Lucky Day

My husband is a golfer. He loves all things golf - except international scandals involving some of the game's very best players. Over the years (he's been golfing since 1998) he has shared his passion with anyone who would listen to him. He wanted to create his own private group of golfers who would almost always be available to play with him. To that end he made sure his sons and sons-in-law all had golf clubs and, with the exception of Quincey who already was a golfer, he taught, coached, and played with them until he never needed to worry about golfing alone.

He tried to teach me too but I just can't seem to get the hang of estimating yardage, judging which club to use where, or hitting the ball. I have accompanied him in the golf cart and have played the occasional 9-hole course with him, but I was so bad that he just considered those nice walks in good company and didn't worry about scores :) .

After having all the sons, and a couple of the daughters/daughters-in-law fans of golf, he then looked to the younger generation and began teaching his grandsons who were old enough to swing a club and one granddaughter who showed an interest, and coached them as well.

Lloyd and Sam

Lloyd and Layla

Then, he had the brilliant idea to have an annual MacKenzie Family Golf Tournament, complete with a very nice trophy onto which were engraved the names of each year's winners. As his friends heard about this tournament, some of them who were good friends of the family also joined in. It was getting a bit out of hand so last year we limited it to family only again, and still managed to field three teams. There were prizes for longest drive, closest to the pin, etc. and everyone contributed something to the participants table so no one went away empty handed, or empty stomached either as we combined the tournament with a family barbeque.

2008 Participants - back row: Art (friend), middle row: Lloyd, SIL Curtis, Cory (friend), Mark (nephew), Darin (friend), Bottom row: SIL Quincey, son Michael

(In other years we've had daughter Emily, SIL Allan, son Rob, DIL Cindy join the family team.)

And then when we discovered Arizona...woo hoo! here was a way for Lloyd to golf year round, instead of just from April to October. It's amazing how many excuses one man can come up with to go to the sunny south! He now has a set of clubs down there permanently and one up here in the north so he doesn't have to transport them across the border everytime he goes down.

So...why did I title this entry 'Lloyd's Lucky Day'? Well, you can imagine how hard it is for him to pass by a golf store and not go in (sort of like me and scrapbooking stores). Yesterday he saw a sale at his favorite golf store - one where he's a member of their Leader Board, whatever that means. The one obscure club that he hadn't added to his collection yet was on sale, so he bought it at a great price...for clubs, that is. Do you realize how expensive golf clubs are?? Never mind - it makes him happy and he can't complain about my scrapbook expenses as long as he's buying golf stuff. Anyway, he also found a box of his favorite golf balls - Bridgestone Tour B330-RX - they go farther and better than others I guess. He took them to the check-out and the manager on duty recognized him (that shows you how often he's there!) and was standing with the cashier. The box of balls wouldn't scan. The manager said "Well, we'll just have to give them to you for free". And he did!

I can't tell you how many times yesterday Lloyd came to me holding two boxes of Bridgestone Tour B330-RX golf balls and said, holding first one box and then the other out, "Box of golf balls - $46.99. Box of golf balls - Free!" It was indeed his lucky day!

Weekend

Yesterday Lloyd and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary in the peace and quiet of our home, enjoying a good dinner and just spending time reminescing about the events of the past 39 years. Here are some of the highlights:

- 1971 - moved to High Level, AB, to start married life together

- 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1986 family steadily increased until there were 9 of us.

- we made a few trips from BC - NS (3000 miles) to visit family

- due to Lloyd's federal government job, we moved a lot, living in 16 different places from Cole Harbour, NS in the east to Prince George, BC in the west, finally settling in Edmonton, AB

- the children quickly grew up, completed high school, went on to college, got married, and started producing children of their own.

- 1997 - First grandchild is born, Jonah Quist, and then the fun really began. He was quickly followed by 17 more grandkids to date, with more on the way.

- 2008 - We had our first family reunion to celebrate my 60th birthday. There were 32 of us at that time...from Lloyd and me, our children, their spouses and children.

Of course there's a lot of events between the lines. We've had many occasions to beam with pride over the accomplishments of our children as they developed their skills and talents and became honest, responsible adults. Our family has covered a lot of ground, vacationing and living in the entire width of Canada, and visiting many of the United States. We've had our ups and downs but always dealt with them together and with love. I wouldn't trade our life's adventures for anything. They've made us strong, and our love and commitment to one another stronger. Not for one minute has either of us had reason to regret getting married all those years ago. I can't imagine spending those years with anyone else. Hopefully we'll have many more years together. After all, 60 is the new 40 so we should have lots of time left.

This morning, as a late anniversary gift, our 18th grandchild, 7th granddaughter, Hannah Rose MacKenzie, was born in Lethbridge, AB. We'll meet her and visit her parents and two brothers in the next few weeks. Welcome to the family Hannah Rose.

'Eye's' Fine!

I wasn't going to blog about my laser eye surgery but a couple of people have asked why I haven't done so yet, so here it is. No pictures though.

On Wednesday my good friend Mickey drove me to the hospital to have the surgery. I had no idea what to expect except that the opthamologist told me beforehand that the most painful part of the whole process was paying for the parking!

I've always been very nervous about anything to do with my eyes - just can't imagine life without my sight and don't like to take any risks with it. The process (it's hard for me to call it surgery when there were no knives involved!) was a necessary pre-emptive strike to prevent my narrow-angle glaucoma from developing into close-angle glaucoma, which leads quickly to blindness. My problem is that there's almost no space between my iris and cornea and the natural drainage that occurs there was impaired, causing pressure in my eye, which is glaucoma. In order to prevent the total blockage, the opthamalogist's goal was to shoot two holes is my iris with the laser, thus facilitating drainage. The process is called an iridotomy. Here's an article that describes almost exactly what I had done, with pictures.

http://www.glaucomaassociates.com/laser-iridotomy.html

That article pretty well says it all. My eye was numbed with eye drops to constrict my pupil. Then I went to the treatment room. Mickey timed how long I was in there - only 10 minutes. I sat on a stool and put my chin in the holder and my forehead against the forehead bar and then the Dr. put a special contact lens in my eye (the most uncomfortable part of the whole procedure, but very bearable) which focused the laser and kept my eyelids open and my eye still. Then she shot the iris. I could see the laser beams in my eye and felt a small pinch, but virtually no pain. When it was all over, she removed the lens, and said I was good to go. Mickey drove me home (after a detour for lunch at Burrito Libre) but I think if I had waited half an hour I would have been able to take myself home. I'm glad Mickey was there though because the vision in that eye was a bit blurry and I felt a bit off balance for a little while.

So we'll go through the same process on April 28 in my left eye. And I'm not the least bit apprehensive about it. In fact, I'm a big fan of laser eye surgery now and would even consider having surgery so I wouldn't need glasses anymore, but I kind of like wearing glasses.

I realize this is a rather dry blog entry, and boring to most of you, but it might help any of you who might be facing similar procesures to feel less apprehensive. It's really a quick and simple procedure. We're so lucky to have such technology available to us. I know I appreciate it.

And thanks to Mickey for being such a good and helpful friend. Everyone should have a friend like her.

It's been more than a week since my last entry. Guess that happens when my life flows along without any appreciable bumps or turns to write about. Not that I want bumps or misdirections, and I sure enjoy life on an even keel, but it makes for boring blogs. I couldn't even get motivated enough to put together one about past history or general stuff. However, I guess I should start the week right and let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking.

Since Lloyd is in High Level right now, I had a quiet weekend planned - lots of scrapbooking and relaxation. My weekend starts on Friday - I work Mon - Thurs so every weekend is a long one. I love my Fridays. That's when Mickey and I get together for lunch and a couple hours of hanging out and getting caught up. Friday started out not so pleasantly though with a mammogram and bone density scan (necessary procedures for the aging female population). Not bad as I had expected - for those of you who have yet to experience the joys of mammography, never fear, it's improved in the three years since I had my last one. I mentioned to the technician that it didn't seem to squeeze and hurt so much this time and she told me that this was a new machine that senses when there's enough tissue involved and the pressure is right, so none of the 'extra squeeze for good measure' any more. Anything that improves the procedure is good in my books.


Saturday was Mike's birthday, but since he lives 5 hours away, we didn't get together to celebrate. We thought (hoped) maybe his birthday gift would be a new baby daughter - Avril had false labor last week - but no luck. After two sweet little boys, Mike is excited to get his little girl. I called, as usual, to sing happy birthday to him. As old as the kids get (6 of them are in their 30's already), they still expect and like me to sing to them on their birthdays - and believe me, my voice leaves a lot to be desired. It's the thought and the love that counts though. Happy birthday Mike.



Today I slept in till 9:00!! A rare thing for me. I got up, washed and changed into clean pyjamas and prepared for a day of staying in and scrapbooking...and doing laundry. Somehow it took me till noon to start - preparation is half of the fun. Then, having left the door open, I was visited most of the afternoon by the Woolf cubs.



Kenzie has discovered the game of Peggle on my MacBook and can play it for hours...then Sydney comes down to see what Kenzie is doing.




And of course Aidan wanders in and out at will. He brings armloads of toys with him when he comes. I have a closet with toys for the kids but he prefers his own.



Two-year Aidan became our hero today. He was laying on the carpet in front of our sliding closet door and called me to look at something. There, squashed between the door and the wall was a dead mouse. We assume that Aidan, who plays with the doors whenever he's down here, swung it closed at the right moment and 'took care' of the little visitor. Hopefully that's the last of his kind in the house.

I did manage to get one layout done today - one of our visit to Tombstone, AZ, and the Gunfight at OK Corral.

I guess I've rattled on and given more information than you could possibly be interested in so I'll shut down and go to bed. 'Night all.

All Day Crop

Yesterday Mickey, Emily and I did something we haven't done in well over a year - we attended an all-day crop at our local scrapbooking store. We used to go to these marathon events once a month but gradually got out of the habit. They're great fun - about twenty scrappers set up on large tables in the back of the store and visit, chat, shop, and work on our projects. It was scheduled to run from 10 am till midnight, with the store owner supplying dinner, dessert, beverages and snacks for us. I love these sessions and look forward to doing more of them.

Here I am with two of the three layouts I completed. I'm a slow scrapper so considered it a good thing to finish three. It's too easy to get distracted by all the new products for sale at the front of the store.

Mickey is much quicker than I am. She decorated these blocks for her niece who is expecting a baby. It's hard to see the detail, but they're quite beautiful. She also almost completed a mini album.

Emily is a fast worker too. She managed to complete four layouts using her wedding pictures. She's been married for a year and a half already and is slowly working on her wedding album. In her defence, she's a very busy young lady. I love her style.

Em was the first of us to pack it in. She left at 7:00 to go to a party.

Mickey and I must be getting old because we only lasted till 9:00. We got uncomfortable sitting hunched over our work for so long, and all the Chinese food we had for dinner made us sleepy. We were embarassed to pack it in so early - we used to stay till they kicked us out after midnight! Ah well! It was a fun day, in good company, doing something we love to do, so we were totally satisfied with our day and night out.

Babies With Babies

I love little girls playing with baby dolls - not the Barbies that they all have - but real baby dolls. Our Elly is just such a little girl - she loves her baby dolls and has lots of them. At nap time she chooses the lucky ones to take to bed with her.

Today she found an empty laundry basket and decided it would make a good bed for her baby-of-the-day. She also found four of her 'gings' (receiving blankets that she clings to at bedtime). She spread one of the blankets on the bottom of the basket, put her baby on it then lifted the baby's head up very carefully and put another one in for a pillow. Then she put the other blankets over the baby, leaned in and kissed her, then started singing in her little two-year old toddler voice "go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little baby". It was adorable.

You can tell how a little girl is cared for by the way she cares for her own babies.

She's actually sitting on her baby here.

And a mother/daughter portrait

She comes by it honestly...this is Elly's mom, Sara, with her baby doll.

And this is the real live baby girl that Elly will be able to play with this summer.