Family Photo

My dear sister Michele and her family have left Winnipeg for a trip of a lifetime. Much preparation has happened and finally, Monday morning they were gone. Jed the dog has been left behind and he is a little sad about that. I can't believe that for the next 6 months I will be the owner of 2 dogs. Imagine, in only a couple of short years I have moved from being a dog tolerator to a dog lover!

I will post some pictures for the benefit of Jed's family.

This is Jed's praying pose. He has been praying a lot. There are several possibilities as to why he spends so much time in prayer:

1. He wants his family home soon, safe and sound
2. He is concerned about the souls of the people he loves
3. He wants a doggy treat

We are trying to help Jed remember his praying trick but it has been very difficult to teach Dixie the same thing. So, when we practise Jed's praying, we practise Dixie's staying. Neither dog seems to notice a difference between the two words and they are both happy with the treats they get as a reward.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

December 30, 1954 54 years later, 5 children, 5 children-in-law, 18 grandkids, 5 grands-in-law, 2 great grandchildren and 1 as yet to be born great granddaughter.

Phew! Quite a legacy, I'd say.

Christmas '08

Ahhhh....Just got home from our annual getaway at Pinewood Lodge. This has become a highlight of my Christmas holiday. This year we spent 3 days in the beautiful Whiteshell Provincial Park, cross country skiing, playing hockey, swimming and just hanging around. Every time I come home, I feel like I've been away for a week.

Christmas was lovely too. We had our own children here on Christmas eve and then had Christmas brunch with the extended family which is a new tradition that we started a few years ago.

Lovely, just lovely.

Here's my great-nephew Gavin having fun in the pool with his dad.

Some of our group of 20.No trip to Pinewood is complete without a few games of Monopoly.

Somebody wanted to view the house today. Christmas day.

Our agent wasn't able to contact us as we had our cell phones turned off and anyway, I would have said no way.

Is no day sacred anymore? I understand that not everyone celebrates Christmas but they must know that December 25 is a day like no other in our Western culture. I feel sorry for our agent because she's the one who had to deal with this today. She sounded tired when I called her.

I can't wait till we sell this flippin' house.

Advent: The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important

This advent season I am anticipating 2 extremely important events. One is the birth of my first grandchild. When Carolyn's "incompetent cervix" was first discovered ten weeks ago, the hope was for the baby to remain in utero until 30 weeks. We are at 30 weeks now and we are thrilled that everything is looking very good and that our granddaughter seems quite happy to remain where she is now.

The other important event that I am anticipating is the death of a friend. I suppose the word is usually used in a way that suggests looking forward to something good, like the birth of a child. Gerald's death is inevitable. Unless a miracle happens, this will be his last Christmas on this earth. I do not anticipate the kind of miracle where he will suddenly jump out of his bed, completely healed. But I do know that when his time comes, he will be in a place of joy and light, where there will be no more pain or suffering. Good for Gerald. He will finally be in a place where he belongs, where he will feel completely at peace.

Birth and death. Joy and suffering. Hope and loss. And in the middle of it all, we live and try to make sense of it all.

I wish you all a very blessed Christmas.

If you'd like to read something that was published in the Free Press about Gerald, look here. For the website that several of his artist friends created on his behalf, click here.

Following in her mother's footsteps

That's my girl!

Poor Heath and Deborah Campbell. It seems that a local New Jersey grocery store denied a request from Mr. Campbell to include the full name of his son, Adolph Hitler Campbell on a birthday cake.

The Campbells are requesting people who disagree with their choice of name to "get their heads out of the clouds and have a little tolerance."

Fortunately, the local Walmart came to the rescue and complied with the request. I guess little Adolph was happy that he got his cake but I wonder what he'll think of his name once he learns the truth about the monster that is his namesake.

House Still for Sale

Yup. It's still for sale. Yesterday we got our first offer and we just couldn't accept it. I know this was the right decision and I feel good about it but still...

Wes has a feeling that it will be sold by Christmas.

I really hope he's right.

Busy cooking today.

Random Thoughts

I'm sitting at Alisha's house watching Gavin while she's at an appointment.  Gavin's crawling around like he's on a mission and is also becoming quite a ham.  I figured I'd have a busy morning with him.  Well, he's sleeping so there's really not much for me to do.  I hope he wakes up before Alisha comes home.  I'd like to spend a little time with him.

Yesterday I visited with an old friend, a second cousin actually, who is in Winnipeg visiting her daughter.  We figured that it was probably more than 30 years ago since we saw each other but it seemed that the years melted away as we updated each other.  There's something about family, even when it's "once removed", that makes conversation easy.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of Ella and her Winnipeg family.

Kristen comes home on Friday!  I am so looking forward to seeing her!  She's taking along a few friends, who will stay overnight and then fly home on Saturday.  She may  also be taking along some unwanted visitors-bed bugs.  Seems that some of the kids picked them up while in Vancouver.  I will be doing lots and lots of laundry before anything comes into my house on Friday night.  Yuck!

The house is still on the market.  We have had about 35 showings without an offer.  I'm usually okay with it all but it is getting tiresome.  I will be glad when things are settled.  Wes has a feeling that it will be sold by Christmas.  I hope he's right. 

I have stopped watching the news.  I am so sick and tired of the politics that is happening in our country that I cannot watch anymore.  This is no longer about the economy.  It is all about power and political posturing and I am sick of it.  

I am loving taekwondo.  There is no stress reliever like kicking a bag.  It has been about 8 years since I quit and I am amazed at how my body remembers what it is supposed to do.  I thought I had forgotten many of the moves but it has taken me only a couple of months to get back to where I was.  

We are still having our family dinners most Monday nights.  For the last few weeks after dinner we have been playing Christmas carols.  A piano, 2 violins and a cello.  That is music to my ears and a good way to end this boring, random post.

A New Blogger

Please welcome to the world of blogging...Carolyn, the wife of my son and mother of my as yet unborn granddaughter

The Quilt

I may not have been blogging much but I have kept myself occupied. This is the quilt top that Kristen and I started several months ago. I finally finished it today and hope to find someone to quilt it before too long.

I like it because it reminds me of Kristen; cheerful, random with lots of personality.

Still There

...but Dixie's getting jealous.

He Moved

Jed's been over for a week and a half. If his family is wondering how he's doing, let's just say he is feeling very much at home.

Thursday Thirteen

I woke up crabby this morning so I thought I'd better write a Thursday Thirteen of things I'm grateful for. Hopefully it will get me out of this mood...

1. The sunshine
2. A warm house, clean and clutter free
3. The music theory group- Chelsea, Tim, Sean, Micah and Joey
4. Playing Christmas songs with Chelsea and Tim (and Micah, if he ever comes home from PEI)
5. My kids
6. Wes
7. The "Artist Date" I had with Yvonne last week
8. My new slippers


9. Peppermint flavoured green tea
10. The butter keeper that I bought in Chicago
11. The soup sock I'm using to make stock. It is an amazing little thing.
12. Monday night dinners
13. Reading material of all kinds

In my very first post, back on April 13, 2005, I promised the following four things to myself and to my faithful readers.

• I will do my best to avoid spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
• I will post as frequently as possible or when I am moved to write something.
• I will try my best not to embarrass my children-even though that's almost impossible.
• I will not try to be too deep or profound. Otherwise, I may not write anything!

I think that I have been mostly successful in these 4 things. Blogging has been fun for me and I've met some interesting and funny people over the past few years through this blog. But I haven't posted much these last few months. I'm not sure why but I seem to have lost interest. Maybe my life is just too ordinary and mundane. I don't have many cute kid stories. My kids are all still cute to me but they're all taller than me, some are smarter than me (I won't tell you which ones) and they just don't do as many cute things as they used to. The international students often gave me good fodder for stories but they have moved back to Mexico and Brasil. The dog is still around and provides entertainment for us here but I haven't felt like writing about her either.

Reading my old posts recently inspired me to try to start posting more regularly again. I would not have remembered some of the things that I wrote about if I had not posted. So, my faithful readers (and I think there may be a couple of you left) I will try to post a little more frequently. This blog may bore you but then again, you don't have to read it.

At the very least, my grammar may improve if I write a little more. I lost the cord for my camera to download pictures so that has also reduced my posting options. Hopefully I'll find it before too long and you will see pictures from our recent trip to Chicago.

Tomorrow, I'll try a Thursday Thirteen or maybe a Thursday Three. We'll see.

Another Birthday

Happy birthday Eric!

This picture was taken last year so imagine Joey and Eric looking just a little older.

Halloween #2

For those of you who are scrambling today to get the costumes finished and trying to get something healthy into the tummies of your ghosts and goblins, take heart. One day you will be like me, trying to decide where you'll be going out for dinner tonight in order to avoid the trick or treaters who might come to your door.


Except for the birth of Kristen, Halloween holds few sweet memories for me.

I am SO GLAD I don't have to dress anyone up tonight, except for myself.