Introducing - Tate Curtis Woolf

On Friday, May 14, just before 8 am, we welcomed our 19th grandchild to the family. Tate Curtis Woolf arrived 4 weeks ahead of schedule, weighing a whopping 5 lb 10 oz. Such a tiny little guy, not without a few respiratory problems to make life interesting, if a bit unsettling, for a couple of days.

Amy had a chance for a quick cuddle before baby Tate was whisked off to the NICU for some specialized care.




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Later that night Curtis was finally able to hold his son.

Amy was discharged on Saturday, coming home without Tate. The kids were glad to have their Mom home but disappointed that the baby didn't come too. He should be home in three or four days. He's doing really well in the NICU so far after a rough first night.

When Lloyd and I went with Amy to visit him today, we were finally allowed to hold him. He was hooked up to several monitors and a feeding tube so we had to be very careful, but it was so nice to hold the little guy and talk to him. He's so sweet. This is his third day so he's a bit jaundiced - quite yellow in fact - but that's normal. I have yet to see his blue eyes open.

Little yellow wired baby. That's his feeding tube in his mouth.

He's making good progress and we hope to have him home to love by the end of the week. He's our sweet little Tater-tot.

Scraplifting, Cousins, Geese, Etc.

Scraplifting - a wonderful tool for those of us who have a hard time coming up with our own ideas for scrapbook layouts. You look through scrapbook magazines, online galleries, websites, blogs,etc. until you find a layout that you would like to model one of your own after. I scraplift - a lot. When Mickey and I were out the other day we visited a couple of scrapbook stores. My eye was caught by a lovely layout that I thought would be perfect for using one of my pictures of Mum. So, after getting permission from the store clerk, I took out my camera and snapped a picture of the layout. I then bought the materials I needed to duplicate it, and, after making a few 'tweaks' to the original, ended up with this layout. I am very pleased with how it turned out, especially the pearl details.

I think I want to do a layout of this Canada Goose I saw in Winnipeg last week (one of many).

...and a layout or two of these sweet cousins (my grandkids) at my birthday party on Sunday.

James (Jammers) Quist - 2 years old

Nathan Quist (8) and Mackenzie Woolf (7)

Sydney Woolf (4) and Nathan Quist (8)

And there's just got to be a good layout for this one - our oldest grandson, Jonah Quist (13), was proud to demonstrate that he has passed his grandfather (Lloyd) in height. Guess it pays to have a Dad over six feet tall, especially when your mother (our Jenny) is only 5'2".



So I'm off to search for more layouts to scraplift.

Happy Mother's Day

Mum - May 28,2009

We just got home from a visit to my sister, BIL, and mother in Winnipeg. It's always fun to see Wendy and Randy, but is getting sadder and sadder to see Mum. She's in late stages of Alzheimer's now, living on a secure unit in an extended care facility where she's safe and is treated very well. Our visits with her only last 15 minutes or so. She has no recollection of us nor of anyone in her family except occasionally her mother and father. She can still speak very quietly and indistinctly, but can't carry on a conversation. Still, we can see the occasional glimpses of her former self when something makes her chuckle and in her familiar hand gestures. We reassure ourselves that she's in no pain (arthritis) - her brain seems to have forgotten how to register pain - and is cared for and is as content as it is possible for her to be. It seems that she has no emotions left and has forgotten our visit before we're out the door. She spends her time wandering around her unit tidying up, folding papers and small laundry, and resting in whatever room she happens to be near when the need for rest comes over her. I don't think her need to be busy will ever leave her. The staff keep telling us how sweet and cute she is and they seem to genuinely like her. It's hard to reconcile the person she has become over these past few years with the vibrant, energetic, funny, happy person we grew up knowing. That's the person I'm trying to focus on this Mother's Day. She'll be 89 on May 28.

Mum's 88th birthday - May 28, 2009

I checked my email when I got home earlier and there was a lovely Mother's Day quote that a dear friend sent me. Maybe you'll enjoy it too. Thank you Mickey.

Your Mother is always with you.

She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street,
she's the smell of certain foods you remember,
flowers you pick and perfume that she wore,
she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not feeling well,


she's your breath in the air on a cold winter's day.

She is the sound of the rain that lulls you to sleep,
the colors of a rainbow, she is Christmas morning.

Your Mother lives inside your laughter.
And she's crystallized in every tear drop.

A mother shows every emotion........... Happiness, sadness, fear, jealousy, love, hate, anger, helplessness, excitement, joy, sorrow.....and all the while, hoping and praying you will only know the good feelings in life.

She's the place you came from, your first home,
and she's the map you follow with every step you take.
She's your first love, your first friend, even your first enemy,
but nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not space.......not even death!





"The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or touched - they must be felt with the heart." ~Helen Keller~





Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's and potential mothers out there. Live long and prosper.

Global Warming???

It's hard to imagine global warming when we're hit with a series of spring storms here in Alberta. Don't you just hate these depressing storms?! I'm just glad I haven't taken my snow tires off yet. It's been nice and warm and sunny here - the trees are budding out, tulips are blossoming, grass is green, and then...wham...this morning we awoke to piles of snow and fierce howling winds. It was over by suppertime, but it'll take a few days for the snow to melt.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the following pictures taken in Sara's front yard - they were taken with my phone - but you get the idea!

Beautiful frosted tulips.

Rose bushes bowed down by the heavy wet snow.

Almost buried yellow tulip

Ditto - red tulip

And a final shot of the rose bushes.

Lloyd and I are off to Winnipeg tomorrow morning. Hopefully when we get back on Sunday it'll be spring again.

You're Never Too Old

...to swing at a pinata for the first time. My 62nd birthday party was as good a time as any to try my hand at batting the super strong saguaro cactus pinata.

Since Sara and her family were going to be away on Mother's Day and my birthday, she and Charlie decided to have a small birthday party for me this past weekend. Charlie (6 years old) loves birthday parties and insisted they go to the Party Store for special decorations. We ended up with a Hawiian themed party. Here are some images from it.

Elly has a turn.

My new pink Cricut.

Kenzie, Charlie, me, Max, Sydney singing Happy Birthday

The pinata before it got bashed.

The Hawiian hula girls, Kenzie and Charlie

Trying to Stay Ahead

I thought I should work on layouts of baby Hannah before Tate is born in June and Quinn in July. It's so hard to stay ahead, or even caught up, in my scrapbooking.

When we were in Lethbridge a couple weeks ago to see Hannah and her family, I was unable to get on the internet. So to fill in time while Mickey was on the internet (could never figure out how she could get on and I couldn't), I used a digital scrapbooking program to create 8 digital pages in an hour - unlike the 8 days it usually takes me to make one page the 'real' way! Those digital pages were 8.5 x 11. Since I usually work with 12 x 12 pages, I decided to incorporate my digital pages into 'real' 12 x 12 pages by printing the digital pages and adding them to 12 x 12 pages. I know this is fascinating information for you non-scrapbookers. The following four hybrid pages are the results of that exercise. The final page is one I did from scratch. Have a look-see.

Birthday Cards

I love birthday cards. I love getting them. I love sending them. I love making them (although once made, I hate sending them away). I love searching for them.

A number of years ago (who's counting...I've had many birthdays, after all), while looking for a birthday card to send my sister I couldn't decide between a funny one or a sentimental one...so I sent her both. That started a new tradition. I now spend the year buying funny birthday cards to send to Wendy, trying not to duplicate the ones she sends to me. It's not unusual for us to receive 7 or 8 birthday cards from one another. Already, two weeks before my birthday, I've already received 5 very funny cards from Wendy, and have a stockpile of cards to start sending her next week (our birthdays are 8 days apart, with mine coming before hers). This giving and receiving of birthday cards is something I look forward to each year.

The whole family seems to enjoy this tradition of ours. The other day when a particularly funny card arrived, Lloyd took it and showed it to our daughters who were upstairs visiting Amy. Yesterday when 7-year old Kenzie brought my mail down, (did I ever mention that Lloyd and I live in Amy's basement suite?) she said "Here's your mail Grammie. Two of them look like they're from Wendy" and she had to watch me open them so she could read them too and laugh about them.

It's a challenge to find cards that Wendy hasn't found. To that end, I avoid Hallmark and Carleton stores, unless absolutely necessary. I've found great cards, different cards, in interesting places...Bubbles Car Wash has racks of unusual cards, as does the truck stop in Vulcan. A couple of stores in the artsy-fartsy university area of Edmonton have an even better selection of non-Hallmark cards. Not that I have anything against Hallmark cards, but everyone has them and I'm looking for the unusual. Indigo and Coles book stores also have a different variety to choose from.

I've had such fun doing this with Wendy that a couple years ago I included my sister in-law, Cath, in my birthday-card-a-rama. She loved it. And this year I 'graduated' my oldest daughter, Jenny, to the multiple card birthday. She got a big kick out of it and called me a couple of times to remark about the cards she was receiving. What the heck! I figured when you turn 37 you're old enough to get funny "ha ha you're old" cards. What else can you do if you can't laugh at the ravages of father time!!! Welcome to the club JLQ. I hope your birthday today is a great one.