Happy Birthday Lloyd

What does a 60-year old man do to celebrate his birthday? I don't know about other men, but Lloyd and I spent a lovely day hanging out together. We went out for an early lunch and then spent a couple hours shopping. We ended up with a nice collection of birthday presents for him.

At 4:00 the family (the 21 local ones anyway) met at Lloyd's favorite buffet restaurant where I had reserved a party room for us. This way the kids could run and play without bothering any of the other restaurant patrons. After everyone was fed, Lloyd opened gifts from the kids.

Every 60-year old needs a lava lamp so we can relive the hippie aspect of our late teens - the 1960s were such a great time to be alive!

It's always nice to get a calendar filled with pictures of the family (and a schedule of the Oilers hockey games!)

Although the Winnipeg Jets no longer exist as an NHL team (they were moved south and are now the Phoenix Coyotes) Rob was able to find a Jersey like they used to wear. He was also given an Oilers t-shirt and an Edmonton Eskimos CFL football jersey.

Then back to the house for cake and more gifts.


I had prepared a "How Well Do You Know Lloyd MacKenzie" 20-question quiz for our adult kids and in-laws to work on...each one had a copy, but some of the couples opted to work together on them.

Amy and Curtis completed separate quizzes together, but the winner was our oldest daughter, Jenny, who correctly answered 13 of the 20 questions. The next runner-up only had 8 correct. Either I made the quiz too hard, or the kids didn't listen all those years when their dad talked about his childhood.

Then to end the day, the men sat around our television and watched the Oilers lose badly to their worse rivals, the Calgary Flames...but even that didn't diminish the good day we had. Happy Birthday Lloyd.

So What's in Your Purse?

• Are you one of those women who carry everything you think you'll ever need with you when you leave the house?

• Is your purse bulging at the seams with things you never use from one month to another, yet when it comes time to change purses, you just transfer everything into the new one?

• Or are you a minimalist and just carry the bare essentials?

• I think I fall somewhere in between.

Here's what I emptied out of my purse, everything is essential (I think).

• Camera
• Wallet
• Comb
• Lip Gloss
• Gum
• Cheque books
• Credit/debit/reward Card holder
• Car keys
• Keys to home, Lethbridge house and Arizona house
• Hand sanitizer
• Notebook
• Six pens
• Old grocery list
• Bill to mail
• Mints
• Motrin in pill box
• Tissue packet
• Appointment cards
  

So how does that compare to yours? I admit that there are one or two things I could get rid of but most of it is essential.

Visit to Gardner Springs

We went to Gardner Springs this afternoon to visit with our family members who live out there - Lloyd's sister Joyce and her husband Duane and two of their children, Noah and Heidi, Rachel and Kirk, and their families. It's way out in the country - the three families living in separate homes on the large parcel of land - very peaceful - no neighbours in sight, but not so isolated that they feel cut off out there.

After dinner some of us took a walk around the area - Rachel's three girls, Ivory, Lily and Scarlett, accompanied Cheryl and I while Rachel ran back to her mother's house to get carrots to feed the donkey.

This is a handy vehicle Rachel uses to travel between her house and Joyce's.


This is Melvin, the donkey. I don't know what his purpose is but the kids like feeding him.


Rachel and the girls gathered armsful of hay to hand feed Melvin.


Ivory, being careful not to fall over backwards into the corral.


The barn. The girls told me they saw an owl in it one day, so I had to go and see if I could get a picture of it. I love owls. However, that bird had flown so I missed getting a picture.


Inside the barn there are no animals (that we could see anyway) - instead Duane had stored 14 motorcycles in it.


Ivory posing on one of the cycles.


This little tree was planted on the property as a memorial to our niece Tania's son, MacKenzie Fisher, who died on New Year's Day 2009 from a brain tumor at the age of 12.


It's a lovely spot to sit and reflect on a peaceful day.

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.