I'm Back

Just a quick post - it's late tonight. Lloyd and I have been down in Lethbridge working on our retirement home. We've decided not to rent it out so are setting it up so that we can stay here whenever we come down. We've moved my dining room set out of the garage and into the house where it looks really nice. We've got a couple of beds here and a couple of comfortable chairs in the sun room. We don't want to buy a lot of furniture and 'stuff' for it because the furniture and stuff we're using in our Edmonton home will be coming down here when Lloyd retires in a couple of years.

We decided to use our cell phones down here instead of getting a land line, but we finally, on Thursday, got our cable and internet services installed. So I was off-line for a week and wasn't able to keep up with my blog.

Lloyd and I are having such a great time down here on our own. We're going to love retirement when it happens. We've spent hours talking and working together. Lloyd golfed once so far and while he was doing that I did a bit of scrapbooking, but mostly we're just hanging out together and having a great time.

We've also spent time with Mike, Avril and the little grandsons. Emily and Allan stopped by last night on their way to Edmonton from visiting Mary and Greg in BC. They spent the night with us and this morning we all went to the Japanese Gardens here in Lethbridge.

I'll try to keep up to date here from now on.

Sleepy Baby

Elly had a busy day today. She had to go to drive her Mom and siblings to the airport this morning and leave them there. Then she and her Grammie had to drive back home. Who can blame Elly for dozing off for 5 0r 10 minutes on the way home. She had a nice lunch with Grammie and played with the bunny and kitten for awhile before being put down for her nap.




The nap didn't take. After not sleeping for 20 minutes, she got up and resumed her playing. She was very low key, I think she was mostly missing her Mom and siblings. The house was too quiet.

At 5:15 she sat down to a dinner of her favorite noodles. I sat across the table from her reading my book. When I looked up, this is what I saw.





Poor baby just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. I picked her up from there and put her to bed. Her eyes didn't open once. I hope she sleeps all night for Quincey. He's not used to being in charge of sleeping babies. The monitor is on in his room though and I'm sure his daddy senses will kick in. I'll be over first thing in the morning to see how things went. And I'll make sure she has her regular nap tomorrow.

Jenny Hair

Our oldest daughter, Jenny, has a head of silky thick blond hair - the only blond among our seven kids.

It wasn't always that thick and silky. She was born bald and didn't have much hair till after she was two. It came in thin and fine. When she slept on her back, she had the worse case of bed head ever - matted and tangled. It took several years for it to get thick enough not to matt up so bad.

Her five blond boys all had 'Jenn Hair'. This is her youngest, Jammers, sporting his Jenn Hair which occurred as a result of sitting in his car seat for over an hour, probably sweating against the head rest. No point trying to comb it - nothing short of soaking it down will tame it.

No, it's not blowing in the wind - Jenn Hair really does stick out like that - doing it's own thing. He'll outgrow it in a couple of years - Jenn and his four older brothers all did. It's just part of growing up in her family. We love them anyway.

Hula Hooping

When I was 10 years old, at the height of the hula hoop craze in the '50s, I won a hula hoop contest sponsored by Dad's regiment at a summer event. At the time, I was skinny and straight and could twirl the hoop around my waist, up over my arms to my neck, back down to my waist and then to my knees and back up to my waist...without ever dropping it. Unfortunately some other kids could do that as well so for the final 'act', those of us left hooping had to start walking around in a large circle while keeping the hoop twirling. The other kids dropped like flies and I alone was left standing...the first time in my life I had ever won anything! It was the highlight of my childhood. My first place prize was a pink wallet and key case set.

It's nice to see my granddaughters playing with hula hoops now. The other day Charlie was demonstrating her skills for me.

Bouncing Babies

Lloyd and I were keeping an eye on 23-month old Aidan and 19-month old Elly in Amy's back yard this evening. Since the big kids were otherwise occupied, we put the babies on the trampoline and let them run. It was so funny...Aidan has the funniest run when he's on the trampoline and the two of them just followed one another around and crashing into each other. Lloyd acted as spotter on one side and I took care of the other. Luckily there were no accidents and everyone had fun.

The first video features Aidan's funny run. Both kids had very soggy diapers on which added weight to their little bodies and softened the falling down. These two little cousins have become great friends in the past year.

Canada Day Barbeque

We went to Sara and Quincey's place for a Canada Day barbeque this evening. It was a really nice time, just us and the H-B's. Quincey manned the barbeque - when we got there the barbeque was smoking away and no cook was in sight. I located Sara while Lloyd went to rescue the charred food. Apparently, because of a miscommunication, Quincey left the food cooking while he went to the store and Sara didn't know that she was supposed to tend the food. When Q. got back home, he found himself in the doghouse. It all turned out good though because it was hamburgers that got charred beyond recogntion and had to be replaced by the best tasting steak I've ever had.


Meanwhile, the kids were being very busy playing in the yard.

Elly knows no fear and climbed up on a small bike that was too big for her and tried her best to pedal it around, although her feet didn't quite reach the pedals.

They hounded Papa to push them on the swings. He's such a good sport and pushed those kids around for quite awhile.

Elly loves the swing but needs to be watched carefully - she tends to start letting go and climbing off while the swing is still in motion.

Meanwhile, the kitten was busy chasing ants.

Charlie insisted that they were going to sleep out in the little play tent. I don't see that plan being put into action. It's fun to play though.

Max was pursuaded to get off the swing long enough to eat a hot dog and tortollini

Elly eats hotdogs her own way.

After several hours Lloyd and I left, in time to go baby-sit Aidan for Amy and Curtis while they took Kenzie and Syd over to watch the fireworks with the family we just left.

A good Canada Day.

Mark Everett Music

Our nephew, Mark Everett, is in the process of launching his music career. This cd has been in the works for quite some time, and is finally ready for sale and radio air time. We're all hoping it takes off for him. He'll be getting air time at radio stations in Arizona and Alberta for sure so far and on-line sales are brisk. And yes, this is a plug for him. He really has a great voice and we're so proud of him. He's been entertaining the family with his music for years now, he built his own recording studio and plays quite a few instruments and writes a lot of his own songs.

I hope you'll take a minute or two to listen to some of his latest cd. Just click the link above (music career) which will take you to his website, then click the 'music' button near the top and click again on the song you want to hear. Let me know what you think.