A day in my work life

Photo 1: Today I decided to document my "work" life ... starting with my commute to work - this photo was taken from inside my car, on my way to work approx. 7:15 am;

Photo 2: Entrance to the Oxford Properties Western Regional office; Photo 3: My office; Photo 4: view from my office looking west.

Layout: Pure Joy

Love this photo of Rachel ... I remember well the crisp autumn morning she and I raked leaves into neat piles on the lawn ... she couldn't resist "showering" herself in the leaves. Pure joy indeed.

Heritage fold out

I inherited a bunch of old family photos and decided to create this "heritage" piece dating between 1924 - 1957 starting with my grandmother, Elsie in 1924 (before she was married) and ending with a photo of my mother with my grandfather, in 1957.

First full day of spring, Calgary 2007

March 21, the first "full" day of spring, although you wouldn't believe that waking up to snow flurries, -4 degrees celsius. What a miserable commute to work this morning! Snowflakes were huge, almost furiously falling from the sky. It was snowing much more in the south of the city and as I approached downtown the size of the flakes diminished & the speed by which they fell from the sky slowed a bit - but this is typical "spring" like weather in Calgary - it changes on a dime. Driving home the streets were dry, high of 11 today.

The first day of spring is also memorable for Lyden and I ... he took the car to work and in his haste not to be late, left the car lights on. He called me shortly after 8pm to advise that he had done so and that the car battery was dead. Of course things like this seem to always happen when Andy is out of town ... so I found the spare key to Andy's truck and headed over to the Sobey's parking lot at 9:30pm when Lyden got off work to boost the car. I pulled up to the car, released the hood and then Lyden and I each tried to free the secondary latch to fully open the hood, for what seemed like an eternity! We referred to the owner's manual - but that didn't help so I called Andy (who's in Coleman, Alberta filming) to ask him if there was any special tips he could give. No, there weren't: "just feel for the latch, press it and pull up on the hood" -sounds easy, right? it wasn't. After Lyden and I took 10 more attempts each, Lyden waved over a co-worker who seemingly didn't understand what our problem was, for he opened it up with not much difficulty at all. So what gives?! My theory: Lyden's co-worker was taller than Lyden so I'm calling a "height advantage" on this one ... somehow being taller helped to increase the amount of pressure he could exert when lifting the hood?? Once the hood was fully open, we had the car boosted and were on our way ... now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the short drive home was enough to recharge the battery & the car will start in the morning!!

Layout: Happy Birthday to me!

Ali Edwards, a fellow "life artist" has inspired and encouraged me (and leagues of other scrapbookers) to get out from behind the camera and ensure my scrapbook albums include layouts about ME ... it's all too common to focus on our family, on their accomplishments, and family holidays (where moms are often missing in the photos). I often do not like photos of myself, a common theme I hear expressed by many women ... but the reality is, it's not how I see myself that's important, it's the way my family sees and knows me - that's what's truly important.

My scrapbooks will be a legacy I leave behind for my family, and generations to come. My children will look back through these family scrapbook albums and remember me the way they saw me, and that's what's important. My great-great grandchildren will learn about me, my life and my family's lives "way back when". They will understand our family heritage, traditions and the values our family holds dear, and who knows? They may even glean a little understanding of our crazy, wacky ways! If I waited for what I felt was the "perfect" photo of me, my scrapbook albums would be incomplete. So I have decided to include more photos of myself and journalling about who I am right now, as captured in photos, warts and all ... and that's ok.

Rachel & Chantelle's 5K run!

Rachel and Chantelle have been working out together since January and they achieved their goal today of running their first 5K race! Way to go girls!! I am so proud of you!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day +15, so warm & sunny and no wind ... this morning we woke to a completely different story - grey skies, -4 with intermittent snow flurries. But that didn't damper the spirit of the runners!





The 5K racers started 10 minutes after the 10K racers so the girls came in at 43 min (not the 53 shown in the photo).

Best Friends

Completed this layout today of Rachel and Lyden.

Wedding album completed!

This weekend, thanks to a "boy's poker night" I was able to finish scrapbooking Rachel and Tyler's wedding! I covered a children's board book with a collection of Basic Grey papers, created a lot of the embellishments and stamped up a storm! I am happy with the results - shown here are 3 of 6 double pages.

Sunday Dinner - March 11

We dropped by the farmers market after church on our way home and picked up some fresh veggies for dinner. Waiting at home was a pork loin roast. Our fresh veggie finds: baby potatoes carrots, parsnips, snap green peas, beets! Andy roasted hte pork on the rotisserie outside on the bar-b-que to delicious results. Sadly Rachel and Tyler couldn't join us for for our traditional Sunday family dinner - Rachel had a chamber choir rehearsal at the university. They certainly missed out on a delicious meal!

P.S. Little Penguin was not used in the cooking of this meal, but I needed something to "complete" the photo!

Scrapbooking!

This one is for Shelley ... a sample "paper" scrapbooking page from one of my albums!

Digital Scrapbooking ...

I've been playing with Photoshop Elements....

Birthday Trifle ... then and now

I remember making Andy a birthday trifle a long time ago (works out it was 20 years) and also recalled I had taken a photo of Andy blowing out the candles with Rachel cheering him on. I dug out the photo and took another photo of them in the same pose 20 years later.

I remember Rachel was excited that day, waiting for her daddy to come home to see her special birthday greeting. It warms my heart seeing these photos - a scrapbook page is just waiting to be created!

Andy's birthday dinner...

Instead of a birthday cake, I made Andy a birthday trifle (English sherry trifle of course) and took it over to Rachel and Tyler's place for Sunday dinner (which coincidentally, marked our first family meal at the newlywed's home).

When we arrived Rachel was busy chopping and dicing vegetables for the delicious meal she and Tyler prepared: rice/lentil pilaff and Mediterranean hot pot - both of which were absolutely delicious!

Andy's birthday!

This is the birthday card I made in celebration of Andy's birthday (March 2). God blessed me beyond measure for I know He created Andy to be my soul mate for life and all eternity!

Rachel and Tyler invited us over to their place for our family Sunday dinner (how very nice of them to give Andy a break from preparing dinner). We are definitely looking forward to that!

ScrapRoom!

Creating is a messy process ... photo of my scrapbooking room "before" and "after" ... now, where did I put those cute little flower embellishments?