Congratulations Erin!

After completing two years at Olds College, Erin received her final exam marks - she is now officially a Registered Animal Health Technician! Way to go Erin!


Lyden bought this DQ ice cream cake to celebrate the milestone.

Love Letters

A week or so ago, Andy and I pulled out an old trunk tucked away in the corner of our garage for years and were amazed to see what "goodies" we had put into archive - amongst the goodies were shoe boxes filled with love letters.

I have spent a few hours over these past few days reading through but a few of the 100+ love letters we exchanged in 1978 & 1979.

Being the scrapbooker/family archivist that I am, I quickly took to altering a tin lunchbox to hold a sampling of the love letters which seems very appropriate as we will soon be celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary on August 11.

Many doubted our love would last and who could blame them? I met Andy during the latter part of his posting to Canada with the British Military. Our first date was Feb. 9, 1978; he returned to England on April 6th, 1978 and I knew I'd marry him. These letters were the lifeblood of our relationship - there was no email or instant messaging in those days and overseas phone calls were very expensive - $2.50 a min. (very expensive by comparison to the wages earned in 1978; ie: found a reference in one of my letters to him about Woolco's $1.44 Days it was possible to buy 5 pr of pantyhose for $1.44). Needless to say, phone calls were few & far between. It was 4 months and 100's of letters later until we were reunited. The odds were certainly against us ... but love truly conquers all!

Elbow Lake Trail

Andy set off early Sat. morning for a hike that Karl Grebe arranged for a Korean group from our church. It was another hot weekend ... temps in the 30's so they set off early, leaving the church at 7am. They chose the "Elbow Pass" trail which is considered to be a moderate hike, hiking about 8 miles in all.

Rain, finally!

Cooling relief at last ... it's been an unusually hot July for us - temps in the high 20's/low 30's pretty much since we returned from England. Typically we get a week or 10 days of non-stop hot weather (usually during Stampede week) returning to much more pleasant temps in the low to mid 20's, no humidity to speak of, but this year, it's been non-stop heat and oddly enough, humidity! The tv weathermen reacted to by including humidex readings in their forecasts.

While we've had the occassional thunder shower here and there, they were short lived and nothing substantial, until today.

Andy and I have taken to sleeping in the guest room in the basement for this past month which has been a true blessing! The forecast for tomorrow is 24 celsius and with the cooling off we received this evening with the rain, maybe we'll be able to sleep in our newly decorated bedroom tomorrow night! Andy has been hard at work painting our ensuite bathroom and bedroom in the past week. We chose "French Cream" for the bathroom and "English Tan" in the bedroom. To say it was a hot, sweaty job is an understatement esp. given the fact that hot air rises further acerbated due to the way our bedroom windows open, we rarely catch a breeze, muchh less a cross breeze! We'd open the bedroom & bathroom windows wide open before retiring for the evening in the basement and it was amazing to feel the temperature in our home rise with each step I took up the stairs to our bedroom, even at 5:30 am the next morning!

While Andy definitely did the lion's share of the painting, last Friday afternoon I left work early and came home to give the ensuite a third coat of paint, getting into all the nooks and crannies around the tub, shower, toilet etc. which gave me a new appreciation for the work Andy had completed on his own working in "sauna like" conditions.

Sunday afternoon we helped Lyden clear out his bedroom - he's moving into Rachel's old room and we'll convert his room into a den. It was a huge sigh of relief when Lyden concluded purging his room of 10 year's accumulation of text books, old school reports, books, clothing he's worn out/forgotten about/outgrown. Boys ... who knew they could be such pack rats?! Imagine my delight when he pulled out his scrapbook of our trip to Cozumel in March, 1998. Lyden was in grade 6 that year and his teacher asked him to keep a scrapbook at present it to his class upon his return. I loved reading his entries, reliving the fond memories of our vacation through the eyes of an 11 (almost 12) year old boy. Good times. Good memories. Good reminder of how quickly time passes!

End of Stampede ...

Yahoo... life will get back to normal now. Time to pack away my dusty cowboy boots until next year.

Finished my first ever "Scrapbook in a Box" this weekend from our trip to England. Believe it or not, there is a total of 28 2x2 photos included in this box!

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

It was an absolutely glorious day - high of 27 so naturally we took to dining "al fresco" on the deck. Andy cooked a whole chicken on bbq using the rotisserie (which we absolutely couldn't live without now) was served alongside a colourful garden salad. For whatever reason, the "privacy screen" (solid fabric show draped in the photo above) was full extended to ground level in our screened gazebo which faces outward toward the lawn. I was sitting with my back to the privacy screen which we never usually use ... and suddenly a gust of wind brought the privacy screen up and over my head. I wasn't sure why the screen had been let down, but assumed there was a reason so I decided to tie the corners to the supporting beams of the gazebo. I secured one side and went to secure the other, but the next thing I knew, I was in a slow motion dive to the ground. Erin and Lyden, who were already sitting at the table had front row seating to my "poetry in motion" movement which from Lyden's description amounted to a 360 degree lateral sommersault springing from a face plant on the top deck riser (impacting on my chin, bottom lip & nose). Suprisingly, my glasses remained on my head and were not damaged. The funny thing was I could feel myself falling and instinctually grabbed for the closest thing to prevent the fall: the unoccupied patio chair which resulted in the patio chair being a partner to my fall.

I landed face down on the grass. Andy rushed to my side while Erin and Lyden stood nearby, mute in disbelief. Because Andy didn't watch my fall from start to finish, his immediate concern was whether or not I had hit my head. I could only feel my now throbbing chin/lip and reassured him I had not hit my head otherwise. He cautioned me to sit up slowly. I reassured him I "was fine". I sat upright for a moment before rising to the standing position, and proceeded up the risers of the deck only to feel immediately faint. I quickly returned to the prone position on the grass until the queasiness passed away (about 5 min). Meanwhile, Andy was applying ice to my face and inspected the damage done to the rest of my body .... grazed skin on my left elbow and right forearm, skinned left knee, skinned nose and a swollen middle finger on my right hand. My bottom lip is still swollen (3 hours later) but I'm hoping the immediate icing will be adquate to prevent any bruises appearing on my face tomorrow!

Canada Day family bbq & golf

Andy decided to bbq over the fire pit for a change .... & a nice change it was (followed by roasted marshmallows of course). After dinner we went putting ... all 6 of us, which was a first! The men are very competitive ... Andy won by 2 strokes followed by Andy and Tyler. Lyden advised me that I got a birdie on two holes but I'm convinced that wasn't intentional, just luck. One thing that helped mind you was golfing left handed - Tyler noticed a weakness in my one arm after taking my first shot and knowing I was left handed, suggested I try golfing left and I found it much easier! (why didn't I think of that?! - my son-in-law is such a smartie!). So the next time I go golfing, I'm going to rent left handed clubs and we'll see if it makes a difference.

Happy Canada Day!