Layla Layout

As I've been sorting through all my scrapbooking stuff, I've come across some layouts I had planned to do 4 or 5 years ago, some started, others just put in plastic holders with pictures and papers. One series of pictures I started working on almost 5 years ago is of Layla's first professional photo shoot when she was 6 weeks old. She'll be 5 years old on July 8.


The layout you see here is nothing at all like I had envisioned back then. I didn't even use the paper I had thought was perfect for the pictures. I love this paper with the brown line drawings of flowers and the bird on a pink and white background, so I stayed with the brown and pink theme and added ribbon, a button, a bling flower and letters in her name, stickles sparkles on the bird and hearts, and used my Slice to cut the words - things I wasn't using, or weren't available, 5 years ago.

Sometimes it pays to procrastinate! I love this layout.

Tradition

I arrived home today just in time to capture this photo of granddaughters Kenzie and Sydney on Syd's new tricycle - Syd on the back and Kenzie on the seat. I'm glad I didn't miss it. This is becoming a traditional photo shoot in our family, going back three generations.

Syd and Kenzie are Amy's children.



Back in 1977 when Amy and Jenny were 2 and 3 years old and we were living in High Level, AB, I took this picture of my two oldest daughters. Amy is standing and Jenny is on the seat.



That pose was based on this picture that my mother took of Wendy and me when I was 1.5 and Wendy just one year older, way back in 1949 0r '50. I'm the one on the seat of the tricycle.



Wendy and I both really like this picture of us and both of us have it reprinted, framed and on display in our homes. Mum didn't take a lot of pictures but I'm glad she took this one. It started a tradition in our family.

Jenn's Boys

When we were on our way home from Lethbridge a week or so ago, we stopped at Lacombe to visit Jenn and her men.



When I posted a blurb about Jenny on her birthday in April I didn't have a current family picture to include. When we arrived at their home two of the boys were sitting on these steps so I decided then and there to get a picture of the whole family right there on the stairs.

Jonah (12), her oldest son, is our first grandchild; Sam (10) is our second; Nathan (7) is our third. Micah (4) comes in at number 1o and James (1.5) is our 15th.

At 5'1" Jenn is destined to be towered over by her sons, who seem to have inherited their father's tendency for height. That's what she gets for marrying a man a whole foot taller than she is. Jonah already is taller than his Mom.

A lovely family with cool kids.

If you've been following DD Sara's blog and her daughter Charlie's blog, you'll know that they've recently introduced a new member to their family - a sweet little grey kitten. You probably also know that they named the kitten Mickey after my friend Mickey, who they've come to know pretty well this past year.

I decided I needed to post a picture of the two Mickey's together - as Max says "Mickey 1 is human and Mickey 2 is a cat". The picture is kind of blurry, but you get the idea.


Then they all wanted to have their picture taken with the kitten, except Elly, but I got a picture of her with it the previous day.

Mickey 2 is a very trusting animal - she isn't afraid of the kid and lets them pet her and love to be around the family. She was born at the end of March so she's still very young.


Max is still a bit unsure about the correct way to hold a squirming kitten so he tend to hang on tight. Sydney and Kenzie had come over to play with their cousins and were totally captivated by the cat.


Charlie is completely in love with her new pet.


Kenzie wants one too and I suspect that before the summer's over there'll be a new animal at their house - her mother, Amy, wants a St. Bernard puppy! Holy slobber Batman!


Here's me with the three granddaughters. Sydney finally got to hold Mickey 2 but the kitten is out of the picture at the bottom.

And finally, here's a very short video of the little furball playing.

Yorkshire Pudding Anyone?

For years whenever I've made a roast beef dinner, I've served it with Yorkshire pudding - so delicious with gravy. When I first started making them some would raise and hollow out and some wouldn't. Then Mike took over the job when he was around 15. They were delicious, but because of their failure to raise, the other kids (and Lloyd and I) started calling them hockey pucks. And the name has stuck. We looked forward to eating Mike's 'hockey pucks' with our roast beef dinner.

When we were in Winnipeg last weekend, my sister made a traditional roast beef dinner for Mum's 88th birthday and my niece, Meredith,



made the Yorkshires. This is what they looked like - all 12 of them, although I just took a picture of one.


Definitely NOT a hockey puck! Wendy gave me the recipe Meredith uses which I'll post here for those of you (my kids especially) who want to make non-hockey puck Yorkshires.

Whisk 3 eggs.
Add 1 Cup flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 c. milk
Whisk until smooth.
Whisk in an additional 3/4 C milk.
Don't use a mixer as this works the mixture too much.
Spray a medium/large size muffin pan with cooking spray, then put 1/4 - 1/2 tsp oil in each cup - just enough to cover bottom.
Divide mixture among the 12 muffin cups.
Bake in a preheated 425F oven for bout 20 minutes, till they're nicely puffed and brown.

Good luck. Let me know how they turn out (you especially Mike).

Oops! I almost forgot. The roast beef portion of this meal was especially good. Wendy cooked the roast in her slow cooker with a tin of cream of mushroom soup, a packet of dry onion soup mix, and 2 cans of diet Coke. It made the nicest gravy! Try it - you'll like it.

Who Am I?

In response to Sara's challenge to post a self-portrait without taking a picture of yourself, I am posting the following: the contents of my purse, pictures on my walls, and my space.

Do the contents of your purse really define who you are? I'm not sure. I did this exercise several years ago for a scrapbook layout and the contents of my purse then were quite different from the current contents. Here's a run-down of what I tote along with me daily:

- Sony Cyber-Shot camera. You never know when a photo-op will happen. A purse sized camera is a must.
- Wallet. Treasure trove of cash, credit and debit cards, postage stamps, plastic store cards, gift cards, receipts, etc.
- Cheque book. Seldom used but I carry it just in case.
- Small card holder for all those stores with customer 'points' , etc.
- Sugarless gum. 5 packs. I'm not a big gum chewer but I like having some for those times when I need a quick breath freshener.
- Comb, lipstick and gloss. For a quick touch up.
- Small bottle of hand cleanser.
- Pill box (Coke design) with Motrin.
- Pill box peppermints with Scrapbooking Girl motif.
- Almost empty pocket pack of tissues.
- Notebook and pens. An essential.
- Keys. House keys on a ring with a huge pink 'diamond' (I love bling), car keys on their own key fob, and a key ring punch card for my favorite scrapbook store.
- Dentist appointment reminder card

These things really don't tell you who I am. I don't carry pictures of my husband, kids and grandkids in my purse and they are the main focus of my life. So I did a quick walk through of my space. It gives a much more insightful look into who I am.




I am a wife, with a strong, loving husband.


I am a mother of seven strong, independent, wonderful kids.

I am a grandmother, with not enough places to store all the pictures of the grandchildren.


I am a daughter, whose mother doesn't always recognize her. I used to be a cross-stitcher. This is a picture I did for Mum and Dad's 40th anniversary in 1986. I brought it home from Winnipeg this past weekend because Mum didn't want it hanging on her walls anymore because "the people in it are fat".

And I am a sister, thankful for the caring older sister I have, and for the younger brother we were privileged to have for 39 years.

I am a scrapbooker. This mess is my scrapbooking space - full of photo albums, scrapbook albums, tools of the trade, works in progress, bins of embellishments, flowers, ribbons, stamps and inks, not to mention all the cardstock and patterned paper. This is my hobby - it's where I organize the many photos and memories of my life. Working here helps me to remember how important family memories are, and they are something I never want to lose. I hope that by organizing these scrapbook albums, my children and grandchildren will look at them for years to come and remember how things were when they were small, and when I was young as well.

So, that's who I am according to the contents of my purse and home. Who are you???

Mum's 88th Birthday - May 28, 2009

Lloyd and I went to Winnipeg this weekend to celebrate Mum's 88th birthday with her, my sister Wendy and her husband Randy. It was important for us to be there at this birthday because Mum's Alzheimer's is progressing quite rapidly and it'll probably be the last birthday she has when she remembers who we are.

She was excited to see us, although she introduced Lloyd to her friends as 'my dad' and I was 'my sister'. Sometimes though she remembered that I was her daughter. She seems to have a hard time with relationships and what the terms sister, mother, father, etc. mean. We took it in stride and didn't give her a hard time about it, laughing a lot with her. She phoned Wendy each morning we were there and asked if "those people" were still there!

One benefit of Alzheimer's is that everything is always new. Every time I visited with her she would ask me if I had any children. I would always reply, "Yes, I have 7 and 17 grandchildren" and she would always laugh and say "Oh that's wonderful".





She seemed to enjoy all the attention of being the birthday girl, but she'd occasionally forget who's birthday it was. In the video I'm attaching, she wishes me a happy birthday! Wendy made the delicious hazelnut torte birthday cake for her.

She loved the quilt Wendy made for her, but she forgot that she had made the rose squares years ago and was going to make a quilt herself with them but never got around to it. It is now on her bed in her assisted living home. She was so excited about it that she made everyone who walked by her room come in and see it.

For some reason after she opened her gifts she decided she needed to give her sons-in-law a kiss - something I've never seen her do before. We all got a kick out of her antics. This is Randy she's kissing.

And Lloyd, who she hasn't been able to remember for a year or so...she just knew he was special to us.

It's nice that she can still be happy and have fun. We have to cherish these times with her.

She enjoyed reading her birthday cards, and read every word out loud before allowing herself to open the gifts...something she's always done.

But still, she had her moments of puzzlement

and confusion

But we'll remember best the fun time we had on her 88th birthday.

The following video clip is her Birthday Speech. When she looks to her right, she's looking at Wendy and Randy. Lloyd and I are on her left, out of the picture. I'm sorry, I took it sideways so you'll have to bend your neck to see it.