ANNIVERSARY THOUGHTS

Although both of my parents are now deceased, today is still a special day as it was their wedding anniversary date.  They were married in Claresholme, Alberta on May 31, 1942.  Dad passed away in 1992 and mom in 2001. They both are sadly missed and thought about daily.



Ed & Hazel Field (nee McBurnie)  ~ May 31, 1942

We love you, mom & dad!  Special anniversary greetings in memory of you both!

Bear Country

We were fortunate this past weekend to run into a bear or at least see a bear up close! The first time, a lady firend and I were walking on a path beside the golf course at Jasper Park Lodge. I noticed it on the green munching away on the fresh green grass. She did not want to hang around and watch it. Personally, I was upset that I had forgotten my camera so missed a great shot.  The next day, John and I saw him again amd I got a picture or two. The Park Ranger had been called and he came with his gun to shoo him off. He was not causing any trouble and only wanting to eat the grass. He didn't seem to mind the golfers at all but he sure took off when he saw the Ranger!

He was a beautiful grizzly. I guess there were  a couple of them around. This is the medium sized one. There was also a black bear with her two cubs but we never saw them. This grizzly had quite a following. There were a number of us watching him at the fence and we even got brave enough to go 'inside' the fence and stood about 50 feet from him. If he decided to chase us, we didn't have a chance. However, we didn't feel threatened at all. When the golfers came over the rise with their golf cart, he took off. Likely came back later when everyone was gone.

Another beautiful weekend!

Athabasca River and the mountains!

View from our bedroom window!



View from our bedroom balcony.




Picture from outside the fence



Picture from inside the fence-he's watching us now

This is our balcony overlooking Lac Beauvert



Jasper Again

We are back in Jasper after the long weekend. We headed home on Mon and worked Tues and drove back to Jasper Wed for the Shepherds Care Board Conference. The weather was wet and drizzling and cold too but once we hit the park gate, it was sunny. It was only about 14 degrees but sunny. They have been predicting rain but we have not got any yet. We do have wind.

On a walk around Lac Beauvert today, we saw a Grizzly bear on the fairway. He stood up and took a good whiff of us but turned and headed into the trees. We took off the other direction at a good clip but I looked over my shoulder and wished I had my camera. The one time.....

The food here is amazing and you definitely have to put off any diets until next week. Just enjoy.

Tomorrow my brother is going in for a hip replacement so my thoughts will be on him. Trust all will go well. I'll be thinking about you!

Ok, early to bed is the plan tonite. Here's a pic of this past weekend's adventures.

Sunshine & blue skies

More of the same!

Athabasca Falls

John & me at Athabasca Falls

Our neighbors, Jerry & Karen

Happy Birthday, Mom

It's May 20. If you were alive today, you would be 92 years old. Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you. I miss you.


Hazel Field (nee McBurnie)



Getting Ready

Another nice day this morning. It actually rained (a bit) last night and things are green and fresh today. Looking at the weather forecast on the Internet, it appears that we will be getting some rain in Jasper for the weekend, but not a lot. It usually says one thing and turns out to be another but even IF it does rain, that's ok, as it likely won't be a lot (touch wood)!!

We had a great Stephen Ministry meeting last night. We had a guest speaker, Karen Johnson, from Alberta Health Services, Community Care. She gave a great explanation behind the name and the different services and it was definitely useful for us.  Some of our care receivers may need this type of care.  A good evening of fellowship and good questions and answers. Thank you, Karen!!

Today, I am packing up our stuff for the tent trailer and trying to organize for next week also as we will be taking off on Wed. I work Mon and Tues so it will leave me the evenings only and I don't do AS WELL organizing and packing at night! But, that's the situation, so I guess I will HAVE to deal with it.

Looking forward to Jasper whether it rains or not. Just getting away into the forest and relaxing by the fire (if we can have it) or playing cards, reading, walking, hiking. You name it...it will be great.

On a totally different note...here are some pics taken from the airplane from our last trip to Phoenix of ...one of my favourite things...sky and clouds!

Pretty awesome eh?

Finally, calm

Finally, the wind has died down. This is the first morning in over a week that there is no wind. The trees are calm, it is 'quiet'. Hard to believe in Edmonton that we have had so much wind. Not a breeze but a WIND. Even during the night you could hear the wind blowing. We have been picking up branches every day from our willow trees (which shed, but not like this), The leaves are more than half out and the grass is green as John has fertilized and watered. No rain yet. Still, it looks like spring and summer is on the way. Again, I say...finally, calm!

Old Expressions!

Have you heard the expression "don't throw the baby out with the bath water"? Well, I finally figured out what it means. This morning I was changing the toilet paper roll. I had just woke up and was still dozy. In other words, the mind was not totally functioning yet. I pulled the roll out from the wall, slipped off the cardboard roll and promptly threw it ALL in the garbage. The empty roll and the roller! It took a second or a mili second before I realized what I did but that expression immediately came to mind. I guess I had just 'thrown out the baby with the bath water'. It made me chuckle. First chuckle of the day. The mind is an amazing thing...or not!

Finally On Again

The system has been down for the past few days (Blogger) and I found that I missed checking out my favourite blogs and writing my own. Not that I had anything important to say but it's just that I couldn't so I wanted to!  Now that I can, this morning, I am speechless.

I tried to read my brother's blog as it says on my dashboard that he wrote a new one yesterday but when I click on it, it tells me it does not exist. I guess all the glitches are NOT out of the Blogger system yet.

So, what's new? I cleaned out my corner cupboard this morning. It looks so much better now and is definitely more empty. It is amazing how many things you accumulate and don't throw out because you 'think' you might use it (and then you don't)!! I feel much better about it now. It really is interesting to note that you feel better when you do a little work. I will have to try it again sometime!

I went to my Weight Watchers this morning, thinking I was 1.2 lbs lighter than before. It turns out that our scales are not in sync as I ended up being .2 lbs heavier. How deflating is that?!!!! I almost wanted to go out and eat something in spite! Of course it would only hurt me and not anyone else.  When I came home, John had just finished making himself a BLT. You can smell bacon throughout the house. I am thinking I need to 'go out' for awhile or I will be thinking I should have 'one of those' too! Yikes, how many fat grams would that be?!! My nose definitely passed on that information to my stomach as it is grumbling now!

Perhaps I will clean out another cupboard. That seems to make me happy. Let's see if it will work twice in a row!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

We made a quick trip to Bonnyville to visit with John's mom who was 102 in February. She is doing very well and looked good. We bought her a cute white top with light pink flowers. She said she liked it. I hope I see her wearing it though as it went right into her drawer so it wouldn't get dirty.  It was a good drive there with the sun shining and very little traffic. We bought a cooked chicken and green salad and ate with mom at her room in the lodge. John's brother joined us.

Paul, Linda, Mom, John








Mom with all her family photos

Before, Mother's Day was always about MY mom and even after I had a daughter, it was still about MY mom. Oh, not that she expected anything, but you know how it is. She's your mom, so it always seems that Mother's Day is for HER.  My mom has been gone for over 10 years now and I guess with our daughter living in Vancouver, it doesn't seem too much different than any other day - except for our regular visits to celebrate with John's mom. She has never been too caught up in whether it was a special holiday.  She has always just been happy to see us. 



Brandy, Mom and Me (a few years ago!)



Our daughter sent a special ecard with lots of photos and beautiful sentiments. That was very nice. I had done a similar thing for her as well. It was interesting to see the similarities.  Long distance makes it more difficult but not impossible to express our love for each other. Four children keep her busy so I was very satisfied with the card and I know how much work it took!

I know people who have the whole clan come for supper and there are gifts and flowers etc. It's an opportunity to get together as a family.  Guess we should have had more than one child!! Maybe one of them would be living in the same city then!

Anyway, it was a beautiful day. We spent six hours in the car together over the course of today and we had a good time with our visit. It was a good day. It was a special day. It was Mother's Day and I guess that even if we didn't have a big bash....I am still ... a mother!

Happy Mothers' Day   to all of you ladies who have family with you, near by or even far away. May you all be blessed by each other through your love FOR each other!

A Short Break

I am taking a short coffee break. Although the coffee is from 7 am it still is hot and anyway, it is nice to sit.  I sorta got into the mood to do a bit of spring cleaning. Who ever REALLY gets into the mood for any length of time but a couple hours of work makes you feel like you did something. Or did it?

I started upstairs with the bathroom and removed everything, washed the walls, the floor, the toilet and tub and threw my mats into the wash. Next, as I was downstairs putting my mats into the washer, I decided the downstairs bathroom could use a bit of attention as well. So....I pulled out everthing from in there and rearranged all the towels, swept, washed the floors and walls, the toilet and sink and started on the shower stall. That's a big job and awkward too. Anyway, got that all done and noticed the fan (which I had turned on to hopefully cool myself down a bit) was a bit on the dusty side. So.. I took on the challenge (in my mind) of removing it and cleaning it up. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to reassemble things. The screws that came up of the ceiling were not as cooperative on the way back in. They fooled me into thinking they were attached and when I removed my hand, it fell out. Oops. thankfully, nothing broke as I caught the cover as the screws went one way and the cover the other. Screws don't break but my plastic fan cover likely would have IF it hit the floor!

Well, I thought that might be a good job for my hubby. He's good at crossword puzzles so maybe he can figure this one out too!  Right now, he is outside trying to replace the tail light on our tent trailer which we just brought home last night from storage. He was able to find another light at Princess Auto (albeit a lot smaller) but at least it 'might' work (at this point in time).

Well, my coffee is getting cold. Better get back to work. Spring cleaning for me usually drags itself into summer. 

Thanks

The girls thanked me for covering Reception while they all went out to lunch for Secretaries Week. In the end, I was thankful for their thanks and the beautiful roses they gave me! Gorgeous! Who said volunteers don't get paid!!

Helping Out

I'm helping out at the church today as it was Secretaries Week last week and the 'girls' were unable to go out for lunch as a group - too much going on. So...today....it is quiet and I am able to help out by watching the phones.

It always amazes me at how things change over a short period of time. You don't realize it while you are IN it but once you have to step back INTO it again, well, it is very noticeable.  New staff, new systems, new #'s, new letterhead. The list goes on.  Technology does a number on you! Example...Letterhead is no longer in a stack in the cupboard. Now, you print it off at the same time you print your letters. It's a small thing....granted...but it is still a big deal to me.  Must be showing my age!

Still, it is nice to be back in the flow of things for awhile. However, one thing has not changed...Lisa still has her 'strange' keyboard which is different than most - divided into half with a centerpiece in the middle causing your hands to be separated not together and the sameoldstickyspacebar!!!

Did I? or Didn't I?

John has been busy cleaning up the yard for spring over the past few days.  I mentioned to him that there was a 'new' plant under the front window and where did he get it from? He didn't know what I was talking about. He said it had always been there. In my mind, that is sooo not so! This plant looks like it was just planted there and not even planted very deep into the soil. Also, it is green! It looks like something just bought from the Greenhouse. So, where did it come from?

I am thinking that it was my neighbor who was cleaning out her plants and lawn this past weekend. I am thinking she placed it there out of the goodness of her heart and also wanting to clean out her perrenials. She has a mischevious side to her so I am guessing it was kind of a practical joke also.  So, I mentioned it very casually to her last night as we were coming home from the Ladies Spring Banquet. She denied it (as I expected she would)! She didn't seem very convincing so I kept on about it. After much kabitzing, she emphatically said "No, it wasn't me"!! She dropped me off at home but came over to take a look at this mysterious plant! Without really saying it, she said I basically 'forgot' that I planted it last year. That is what my husband thinks too. How can you forget that you planted a plant? Especially when you don't plant that many in the first place?  I am still thinking that some 'trickster' did this and that sooner or later someone will claim responsibility and have a big laugh on me. She even called me later to suggest that it was one of the hanging plants that someone gave to me in the summer and which she remembers having to water DAILY while we were on vacation. 

Whatever....

In the meantime, my nice little balanced row of three plants has become four and I have been told that it looks better if they are in uneven numbers. So, now I will have to find another plant to 'uneven out' my perrenial bed.

Now I am second guessing myself... could it be that I actually planted it and forgot that I did? Wouldn't surprise me at all! Guess it's one more thing I can blame on 'menopause'.

The Weekend Is Over

Well, that was fast!  The weekend is over and it's back to work. Even though I only work two days a week, it seems to be coming around faster these days. Why is that?

Anyway, we had a great night at the Cake Walk but the price got too high for our budget. It was a great fundraiser for Shepherd's Care though and we were happy to be a part of it, even if it was only to purchase our dinner tickets and just to enjoy the venue. The only picture I thought to take was of the entertainment by the Swiss Men's Choir...

Getting organized to sing

The next thing on my Agenda was the Workshop for our Stephen Ministers. It was a very good event and featured guest speaker, Tyler Orn, the Director of Spiritual Life at Shepherd's Care. He was speaking on Dementia. Everyone learned a lot.

Bad news on Saturday morning. On our arrival at the church, we saw the results of the Friday night party in the parking lot. Four of the church windows had been smashed resulting in quite the damage. Vandalism is hard to understand - destruction for no apparent reason.



Four smashed in windows!

Guess we all need to be more aware and active in block patrol!

Well, back to work - the sun is shining and it is 4 celcius so we are off to a good start.