Home From Lethbridge

When we got to Lethbridge on Sunday night we found the house covered in a thick layer of fine dust - the by-product of sanding the hardwood floors prior to refinishing them. It was on every surface of the house. I spent the first two days there wiping down walls, windows, vacuuming carpets, dusting every surface of the house upstairs and down, and dry mopping the new shiny hardwood. The dust was making Lloyd choke so he went out to the garage to do some much needed organizing there and got waylaid by boxes of old photo albums and a smaller box of love letters he sent to me during the two years before we were married. He wallowed in nostalgia for awhile there and brought them in to share with me. Fun stuff.

When everything was finally clean, our new furniture arrived. We decided that we'd retire most of our old furniture when Lloyd retires next year, so we're furnishing our retirement house with some new stuff. It was like starting out all over again. We're really looking forward to the time we can move down there and enjoy retirement.


This glass-fronted bookcase/china cabinet has been in my parents home for as long as I remember. I can remember having to take everything off the shelves (except the books on the bottom shelf) to dust it. Mum had a nice set of champagne glasses she kept on the top shelf, along with other dainty breakables. I love this piece of furniture and am glad Mum kept it for me. We brought it home from Winnipeg when we were there in May for Mum's 88th birthday.

This is a view of the dining room taken from the kitchen. We love sitting here in the morning when the sun is shining through the window. This room and the kitchen were carpeted when we bought the house (I hate kitchen carpeting - how do you keep it clean?!!!) so we had it removed and had fresh new lino installed. we got our dining room set out of storage (in the garage) and moved it into the room so we're finally able to use it again.

This is the living-room, with our new furniture. This room was carpeted when we bought the house and when we took it out we discovered that it covered maple hardwood, which was in excellent condition. So Lloyd and Mark (his nephew) sanded it all down and Mark put 7 coats of clear varnish on it. The maple looks beautiful now. We've ordered an area rug for the center of the floor to protect it and soften the look of the furniture against the wood.

Another view of the living room.

This is the master bedroom - fairly small by today's standards (the house was built in 1949 - the year Lloyd was born) but very adequate and able to hold the 8-piece bedroom set we bought for it. This floor was re-done as well.

This is the spare bedroom...furnished with some of our old stuff. It has a unique closet which doesn't start at the floor, but about 3 feet up the wall so it's kind of like a cubby hole but is high enough to hang clothes from a regular rod.

Another view of the living room in case you've forgotten what it looks like. We really, really like this room.

And that's it. I forgot to take pictures of the seven sets of blinds we installed but that's all right. You might find that boring. I'll take pictures of them when we get the sun room set up because that's where 6 sets of them are hanging.

So, while it's good to be home now, it's getting harder and harder to leave our retirement home five hours south of us. Our day will come though.

Happy Birthday Sara

On this day 33 years ago while we were living in the far north Alberta town of High Level, Sara Louise joined our family. She was the 4th child - the middle child as it eventually turned out - and third daughter - the middle daughter also as it eventually turned out.

She was born in a little health centre on the edge of town. The morning after she was born I looked out the window of our room and saw a brown bear at the edge of the clearing! Her birth was exciting, in good ways and bad. For one thing, back in those days fathers weren't allowed in the delivery room and had to wait in the waiting room. Since it was such a little health centre whose staff didn't stand on ceremony, Lloyd was able to be there to witness the birth of his child for the first time. It was a remarkable experience for him and I still have the letter he wrote to me when he went home that night. I had an easy labor with Sara but when she was being born it was noticed that the cord was wrapped tightly around her neck so I had to stop pushing when her head was out so the doctor could cut the cord away from her neck. Then when she didn't breathe immediately we were so scared. I was so glad Lloyd was there with me. We waited forever it seemed to hear Sara's first cry and to be allowed to hold her. I remember when she was out and they told me she was a girl, my first words were, "We can't call her Michael". Our actual Michael was born a year and a half later. We had already chosen to call her Sara Louise, after a favorite aunt of mine. Luckily she was no worse for wear after her dramatic start, and quickly fit into the routine of our growing family.

Her first portrait at age 3

Sara always loved babies and dolls and wanted to be a mother. I love how she's so serious here.



This haircut caused me a lot of grief from both Sara and Amy, who had a similar one. I was so tired of having to do up long hair on four girls that I took them all to the beauty parlor and got their hair cut. To this day they bring this up whenever they want to bug me. I think she looks cute with her hair short. Compare it with the next year's picture...



Maybe they were right. She sure was cute in grade 4.

We moved to Nova Scotia when Sara was in kindergarten and lived there for 7 years. It was a fun place to live. Sara loved the beach and on this cool spring day she showed her exuberance by doing the perfect cartwheel on the sand of Lawrencetown Beach.

While in Nova Scotia we had our last baby, Emily. Sara bugged us for a long time to have a baby sister for her and thinks that she was responsible for Emily being here. That's Sara in white at the far left of the picture. She appointed herself Emily's special sister and they're still very close today.

Sara has had lots of birthdays over the years, with pictures to prove it, but the most memorable is one I don't have pictures of. In 1985 we took a road trip during the summer from Nova Scotia, through the US as far as Utah, then up to Alberta and back east to NS. During the course of the trip, we had Sara's birthday. I remember she wanted a panda for that birthday (her 9th). We stopped at a store someplace in the Colorado mountains and let her choose her gift. Then went to another store and bought her a birthday cake. We stopped along the side of the road in the wilderness and sang happy birthday to her and ate the cake. Different, but fun.

Sara liked to travel and when she was older and on her own she took a couple of trips: one to Hawaii with a girlfriend where she had loads of fun, and once in 2000 she and Amy went to New York City for an adventure. Some adventure - they spent every last cent they had and ended up sleeping in an airport (Denver I think), famished and tired and penniless, on their way home. They did enjoy New York though. The picture below shows how prominent the Twin Towers were on the NYC skyline. Hard to believe they're not still there.

Sara had been working since she was 15 at the Photo Gift World and quickly assumed a lot of responsibility for the retail outlet. Her ambition, enthusiasm and drive attracted the attention of the company's owner, Quincey Hardwicke-Brown and before too long they were an item. It wasn't long before he was a regular guest at family functions and a fellow golfer for Lloyd.

At Amy's wedding reception.

Sara and Quincey were married in September 2002 in our backyard, with a large lavish reception at a downtown hotel.

In November 2003 her first daughter, Charlie, was born, followed in December 2004 by their son Max. She had her hands full with two babies. Their second daughter, Eloise was born in November 2007 and noone will be surprised if there's another one next spring or summer.

Sara expanded their retail outlet to include a portrait studio specializing in children's portraits. She's an excellent self-taught photographer and produces beautiful portraits. The company has grown remarkably over the years and we have a ready supply of portraits of our grandchildren.

Charlie, Max and Elly

The Hardwicke-Brown family, June 2008.

Sara has been a joy in our family. She is feisty and spirited but also very giving and generous with her time and talents. She understands people and what makes them tick and is continually studying and learning to improve herself and the life of her family. I'm proud to call her my daughter. Happy birthday Sara

Frisky Kitty

Mickey, the kitten, has learned to climb the ladder on the kids playset and slide down the slide. No one taught her this action - she just learned it herself. Again, I took the video sideways so you'll have to bend your neck to watch it. You can see the kitten halfway up the ladder on the left side and then the slide. That's Elly on the swing.

Fun With the Woolf Pack

We spent time in the back yard yesterday playing with our Woolf grandchildren. It was a fun time.

Kenzie, Me, Sydney

Lloyd, Kenzie and Aidan

Aidan and his Grammie

Kenzie and Syd love their Papa



Syd tried to teach Papa some moves on the trampoline. He made me promise not to post the video I took of him.

New Addition

Amy and Curtis have added a new member to their family...

This is Bernie, a three-month old St. Bernard. He's only been a member of the family for a week, but he's already won the hearts of all who meet him.

Aidan likes to hand feed him by putting bits of food (and his fingers) right into Bernie's mouth. He was a bit intimidated by the size of this puppy who was almost the same size as him.

Kenzie is very proud that she can walk Bernie on a short leash. I imagine as he grows up he'll be harder for her to control him.

One thing for sure, he'll have lots of attention and love as he grows up. Welcome to the family Bernie.

Home Again

After getting a good start on the refinishing of the hardwood floors in Lethbridge, we left Mark to finish up the sanding and varnishing and Lloyd and I headed for Edmonton and home. On the way we stopped in Lacombe to visit Jenny, Anders and the 5 grandsons.

It was so nice to visit them and see all they've done to finish their yard and landscaping...such a huge yard for the boys to have fun it. They've had a successful garden this year and have planted lots of trees and bushes as well.

Today

Lloyd and Mark are working on the hardwood floors today. What a job. They used a stripper on them first to make the removal of the old varnish easier and less dusty, but the smell was breathtaking. They finished the first sanding by 6 pm and will continue with a couple more rounds of it tonight and tomorrow. The natural maple wood looks really good with the old yellowed varnish off.

Mark surveying his work in progress

The bottom of the picture is the natural wood, the top is the wood with the old varnish still on it.


The hall is done and the living room is still covered in old varnish here.



And while the men worked, I set up a scrapbooking station in my laundry room downstairs and completed 4 pages.

We were pleased to have a visit early this afternoon from our great-niece Jade and her friend Mark.


And for those of you who are interested, this is what the blue spruce looks like after Lloyd finished pruning away the lower branches. We had no idea that there was a ring of treated wood around the base of the tree. It looks very nice now.