Our yard

I always look forward to winter going and summer being here. This year it took a little longer. As much as I enjoy flowers, I'm not much on growing them or taking care of them. So, I'm very happy that Jack loves to garden. He grew up working on both grandfathers' farms and loves to garden.

We moved here to St. Marys a year and a half ago and he has slowly been getting our yard in order. The house is a semi-detached house and was only two years old when we bought it. The yard hadn't had anything done to it.

Last summer Jack put in a sidewalk up to the front door and also built a small deck at the back of our house, next to the patio doors. He made a small flower garden adjoining the patio. He has planted several cedar bushes, some perennials and has planted some hosta plants. In the small flower garden he put a trellis with some clematis plants growing up it. The flowers are purple and so beautiful.

At a garage sale last summer he bought two planters for the patio and they look great. Last fall we brought back several trees from northern Ontario for the side yard. They are still quite little, but will grow. They remind us of our 30 years up north and the great friends we still have there. One finishing touch was a maple tree for the backyard that Jack bought and planted. It is a good size and I love it. He is to be commended for all his hard work.

Adventures with my Sister

When I was in Dallas recently, my sister (Shirley) came down and we spent several days traveling together. We drove to Oklahoma City to see my brother and his wife. Then we drove over to Ft. Smith, Ark. where she lives. Our plans included going to Branson, Mo. to see some of the shows there. We arrived in Ft. Smith Sunday afternoon and then left for Banson late Monday morning.

Driving with Shirley is an adventure. I think she could probably be a NASCAR driver, along with my daughter. She is from the South (which you definitely have to be in order to be a NASCAR driver), can start and stop on a dime (and sometimes does), gets where she is going in about half the time that I can get there, and before you know it she is parked and out of the car--she has things to get done.

It is about 2 1/2 hours up to Branson from Ft. Smith. As we were getting close to Fayetteville (not sure how to spell that) she was trying to remember how to go around it and get to the highway north. I kept telling her that she needs to have a map of Arkansas in the car and then she could know definitely what exit to take. That didn't seem to appeal to her. We did have an atlas of the states and I tried to tell her several times that we were not on the right road. She is always very optimistic and knew she would find the right road, and eventually did. Can you tell that she is the first born and I'm the middle child?

We didn't do badly on the time it took to get to Branson. Just before we got to our motel, we saw the theater that we were going to go to that night. It was only about 1/2 mile from the Motel. I suggested that maybe we could walk when it was time to go. We had been sitting for a while and it would be good to just walk. We were going to see Shoji Tabuchi (a Japanese violinist) at his theater. It started at 8:00 so we left the motel about 7:00. We wanted to visit the gift shop and then go see the women's bathroom at the Theater. I've been hearing for years about this bathroom. I'll include a picture of it. When we got there Shirley went to get our tickets that we had reserved. She got out the sheet that she had written all our reservation numbers on and then realized that we weren't to see this show until Tuesday afternoon. We were to go to see the Presley Family (not Elvis) instead.

One thing we have in common with each other is a good sense of humor. We also can laugh at ourselves. So off we went, laughing, in a hurry to walk back to the motel to get the car. I tried to forget that I was the one who suggested we walk to the theater. Then we had the task of finding the back way to the Presley Theater. In Branson you don't want to go down main street when you are in a hurry. After much ado (yes, Shirley knew exactly how to get there) with a little searching we got there about 10 minutes before it started. My friend, Sharon, had recommended that we go to this show and it was very good. The music was outstanding.

We did go see Shoji Tuesday afternoon and he was great. He also had a small orchestra and dancers that were wonderful. Tuesday night we went to see Andy Williams. Shirley and I were teenagers when he was popular, oh so many years ago. He is 76 and still has a very strong voice. I had my picture taken with him at his theater as you can see. Alright, it is only a cardboard picture of him. The songs he sang brought back many memories.

Wednesday morning we left for Ft. Smith and then the next day back to Dallas. It was a very fun time with Shirley and I love sharing adventures with her.

I'm so proud of myself

I have officially done two blogs with pictures attached, and am very proud of myself for doing them. The first one my son helped me with, but the second one I did on my own. I had to keep telling myself that I can do this. It took me several tries to finally remember the steps that Lenn showed me, but I persevered. Since I officially will be a senior citizen in June (yes, turning that dreaded 65) I feel that I can boast that even us "seniors" can learn computer things. Of course, my nervous system will never be the same. There is no telling what I will try to master next.

Since I'm so confident now, I think I'll show you a picture I took in Dallas of Lenn and the boys.

Memories of Motherhood

Once your children are grown and leave home you tend to forget how much time, effort, blood, sweat and tears are involved with having babies and toddlers at home. The memories are there, but maybe you box them up and put them in the closet of your mind. My daughter graduated from high school in 1987 and went to college and then my son graduated in 1992 and went to college and it has been very quiet here ever since. There have been many days I wished that they were home and the house was messy and it was noisy here.

All of this to say I've renewed my respect for mothers with small children, after seeing how much work Sarah does in taking care of three energy filled boys, ages 4,3,1. I've just spent two weeks with Lenn and Sarah and the boys, in Dallas. It brings back memories of the nights that you don't get much sleep, being a peace keeper between the children, thinking at times there is more food on the floor than was eaten, constant washing of clothes,etc. So often after my own children were in bed I'd think "why was I so upset with them today?", they look like little angels now. Of course, the next day I remembered why I got upset with "the little angels".

Even though there is a hugh amount of effort that goes into raising children, they are so worth it. I have such fun memories of the past two weeks. Saturday we went up to Lake Murray in Oklahoma to be with my brother. He has a boat and he wanted us to come and go out on it. Andrew was sitting in the back of the boat urging his Uncle Bob to go faster so the waves would be bigger. He was fearful of getting in the deep water, but finally got on a small floating thing(don't know what it is called) and conquered his fear so he could go with his Daddy to the shore to throw rocks in the water.

Matthew had a harder time on the boat, but once we stopped and Mom and Dad were swimming he would walk to the back with his stick fishing pole and pretend to fish. The stick was another of his "treasures" that he loves to find. He snuggled with his Daddy on the way back to shore. He also loves to try anything he sees his big brother doing. They have such fun together.

Then you see Robbie coming right behind his two older brothers. He is eager to climb on anything, get into the little swimming pool they have, wrestle with them, etc. Since turning one, he is sitting forward in the car seat, eagerly looking out and seeing everything, smiling at his Mom and Dad as they look back at him. He also loves to swim and here he is in the water with his Dad.

It is hard being so far from Lenn and Sarah and the boys. I am thankful to the Lord for the times I get to be with them. They will be coming up to Ontario this summer for a week and I can hardly wait.

My Three Grandsons in Dallas

I'm having a great time in Dallas with Lenn, Sarah and their three boys (Andrew, Matthew, Robbie). As I watch each of them I see how different God has made them. They have such different personalities.

Andrew is 4 1/2 and looks just like his Daddy, and has the energy his Daddy had at his age. He loves to jump and run and climb. His co-ordination is unbelieveable for his age. I'm not nervous when he climbs on things(at least I try not to be). He seems to know how to do it without hurting himself. I love it when he is serious and is telling you something that is important. My heart just melts when I look at his sweet face and see the innocense of childhood just oozing out of him. He loves for someone to read books to him, loves to laugh. Coming home from eating lunch out today he kept asking his Daddy about motorcycles. One answer led to another question. He continues to love learning about things.

He especially loves quilts and blankets. When he was up at my house at Christmas, he was sleeping in one of the bedrooms with Matthew. I have an end table that has a quilted skirt on it and then a scarf on top of the skirt (the table is round) and then there is the round glass over these two items and a lamp sitting on the glass. After the first night, I was sitting downstairs waiting for everyone to get up and here comes Andrew, carrying the quilted skirt and scarf and he was saying he was very careful when he took them off the end table and explained how he did it. I just stared at him with my mouth open, not quite grasping the fact that he thought it was another quilt that he felt he needed. It also didn't dawn on me that there had been a piece of glass on top of the "quilt" and a glass lamp and to be worried that he could have hurt himself with them until Lenn had gone up to see what had taken place. It all made me laugh. I love making memories with him.

Then there is Matthew who is 3. Sarah and Lenn have told me how much he loves finding "treasures", but I didn't understand fully about this until this visit. It is amazing how he finds money when we are walking with him. I don't think there has been a day since I've been here that he hasn't found at least a penny or nickel when we have been out. He finds other things as well, and always comes home with another treasure. I'm sure he'll go deepsea diving for sunken treasure when he grows up.

I love it when he is talking about something serious. He talks with a deep voice and is ever so serious. You need to watch him also when he is drinking anything liquid. He will drink it until it is empty, usually walking around while drinking. It doesn't matter what it is. He has done this from the time he started drinking from a sippy cup. He follows his "big" brother around and tries everything Andrew tries. He also loves play dough, chalk painting, anything to do with art. Besides hunting for treasures when he is grown, he'll also sell his famous paintings all over the world.

The third grandson is Robbie. He will be 1 this month on the 18th. When I think of him I think of his magical smile that lights up the room. He always is ready to smile and laugh. It is funny to see him at the supper table with his brothers. He wants to enter into what is going on. He talks or yells right along with them, jabbering as if we should understand what he is saying. He also does things to make you laugh on purpose. He has started to walk and every day he is going further. Of course, when he crawls he can really motor. It is fun to see how fast he can get to what he is after. Yesterday his Aunt YaYa was over with her dog Pooky(not sure how to spell that). Robbie is all over him, loving him, and Pooky just lays there and lets him do it.

Children are a blessing from the Lord, especially grandchildren. I thank the Lord that Sarah and Lenn are raising their children to love the Lord. I thank the Lord for His blessings in my life.

Talking on ICHAT

Tonight I did a fun thing. I talked with my brother, Bob and his wife, Gail, and my sister, Shirley, on the webcam. This is the second time that I have gone on ICHAT and done this. Gail has been learning how to use the camera on her computer and last week she helped me get on line and we chatted for about 45 minutes face to face.

Shirley is visiting my brother in Oklahoma City and we talked on the phone earlier today to set up the time to do this tonight. We've been in Canada almost 40 years and have missed being with our families and this is a great new way to feel like you are more a part of their lives. Of course, now I have to worry about how I look before I call them. But I guess they feel the same way.

Shirley has a cat named Bootsie that she takes with her to Bob's, so she had to get her in the eye of the camera so I could say hi. We laughed a lot as Bob kept trying to do things with the computer. He was trying to set up a threeway ICHAT with Gail's computer. Each week we learn new things.

I just can't get over how many blessings the Lord continues to bring into my life. My brother and sisters are so dear to me and now I can see them as I talk with them. Hopefully Alysa and Lenn will be doing this soon.

Maddie's Decorating

While I was talking with Alysa this afternoon, she was waiting for Maddie to finish her creation out in their backyard. Maddie likes to decorate things. It reminded me of when she, Alysa and Jackson were here during spring break.

We were planning supper and Maddie decided she wanted to set the table and decorate it for us - as a surprise. That's when Alysa and i should have clued in, but we didn't. She wanted to use my good plates, so I got them out of the buffet and put them on the table, but didn't set one for Jackson (he is only 2 and isn't ready for good china yet).

We were told we could wait in the basement, so off we went with Jackson. I think I asked Alysa if we should be doing that, but she didn't seem too concerned.

Finally we went upstairs. When we looked at the table we were quite surpised. The first thing I noticed were my bone china teacups from the buffet (that are 40 years old). She had gotten them out of the buffet. Then next to them at each place (not Jackson's thankfully) were my good white mugs (also out of the buffet-it has glass doors, so you can see all these things in it). As I looked at the mugs, they were filled to the brim literally with water. Not another drop could you have gotten in them. I noticed Maddie adding water to the last mug(she had gotten the water from the bathroom). I know bathroom water is alright, but the thought of drinking it at supper was not too appealing.

There is a scarf that I keep on the buffet, and I set my good teapot on it, that she put on Jack's chair and another crocheted scarf she put on my chair. I had baked some chocolate chip cookies and had them in a large rubbermaid container and she had set that on the table and had put 2 and 1/2 cookies on each person's plate. Jackson immediately got up on his chair and ate his cookies- before we could stop him. She had also set a bowl of artificial fruit on the table. I'm sure there were several other things that she had done, but I can't remember them.

She was so sweet and so proud of herself and had been so careful with everything. We did praise her for the nice job she had done. The only other thing I could bring myself to say to her was to ask her if I could take a little water out of the teacup and mug so we wouldn't spill it when we lifted it to drink from them.

I just talked with Alysa and she told me what Maddie did outside. She had spread out a blanket with pillows on it, so they could lay on their backs and watch the sky and clouds. On the edge of the blanket she had put rocks so the blanket would stay down. She also had brought out some water for them (filled to the brim) to drink. Then there were three chairs together that they could used for a table for the craft that they would be doing. What a wonderful little creative 5 year old granddaughter I have. She lights up our lives and brings us great joy.