SISTERS

I was sharing with my coworker while driving to work this morning, how there are two ladies who are sisters at the quilting group I have been going to. They are both their own person, they have that comfortableness with joking back and forth and there are supportive as well. It does remind me of my sister Kathryn, and the relationship we had shared - just like these two ladies, laughter was definitely a part of our lives.

It has been on my mind for the past week or so, the topic of "Sisters". Sisters is just more than the biological sibling. There are ladies that come into your life, that just fit perfect, the truest of friends. At that point, they are more than just your close friend, they are a part of your family - your Sister. Also "Sister" can be referred to those who are Christians - Sisters in Christ (talk about been a part of a huge wonderful family!!!). I have been blessed in my life to have all three - my sister Kathryn who will live in my heart forever even though she is not here; my James sisters - such true friends they have been and continue to be to me; and the sisters at my hometown church and my church here in Calgary - friendships that become something special. When I think of sisters, these are some words that come to mind:

S Sensitive but straight-forward

I Insightful

S Supportive and provides Strength

T Thoughtful and Truthfulness

E Encouraging

R Respect and Realism (so important to have someone ground you every once in a while)

S Special kinship

So thank you to all my sisters for being there for me - letting me use your shoulders (and plenty of kleenex) during my rough times and sharing in my happy times with plenty of laughter. Great memories of special times with people you love.

Trying something new

This story begins with an idea in October. For those who knows my dad, he did many a marathon when I was growing - some 130-135 marathons. With those marathons, comes t-shirts. Since he has stop marathoning, he is into cruising the high seas and with those he has bought t-shirts. Do you see a theme? Yes it is t-shirts. A few years ago, a lady from my home church in Thunder Bay knew a lady who could quilt t-shirts - that outcome was a queen size blanket of various marathons he ran over the years. So in October when he visited for a few days, I was able to arrange a meeting with the Quilting ladies at my church here in Calgary. So for the past 3 Monday nights you will now find me at the church helping the quilting ladies with this project of making my dad's t-shirts into 2 quilts. Now for those who know me - I can not sew worth a darn so joining a quilting group does seem quite strange.

This is what I have learned - you don't need to know how to handle a needle or how to work a sewing machine. If you know how to use a pair of scissors and know how to pull out stitches - you can be part of this quilting group. Linda calls it "Reverse Quilting" - and do you know they are just as needed in creating a quilt? The other thing I have learned is what a great way to know more ladies in the church, you might not normally meet up with. Last Monday, we had such a hoot - I even had tears in my eyes because I was laughing so much. Definitely a kinship could develop, or a support system if you need it. One of the ladies told me last night, that she will have me sewing by the end of the year. Well, we will see. Last night was such a success - we have all the t-shirts cut, just 3 panels left to sew and they have joined 4 panels together for the one quilt. We were all excited - the different colour of t-shirts actually work together. I think my dad will be impressed with these ladies handiwork. It has been a joy working on this project with them. Once we have the quilts done I will take photos so you can see and how many ladies have been working on it.

Laura and Elsie

By the time we found out that Elsie couldn't make it to bowling (she met up with us at Cheesecake Cafe later in the evening), we had already but her name into computer. So she didn't feel left out, the rest of our team each had an extra turn bowling pretending we were Elsie. Above is the scorecard of our first round of bowling. Do you see something funny?? No your eyes aren't playing tricks on you - Elsie beat me in bowling!!! I was able to redeem myself on the second round - breaking the 100 mark and beat Elsie too! Elsie won the award for having the best score for being absent. We all clapped when you was given the award. It was a fun evening.

Ladies Bowling Night!!

Karen lifts her glass to celebrate her slowest bowl - it registered at 1.07 km/hr and

Dale was in second with 3.17 km/her

Jude (left), Sherry (middle) and Amanda (right) share a laugh. There was plenty of laughing going on tonight. Amanda in her first round of bowling had 3 strikes in a row!! The turkey came up on the screen when she hit her third strike!

Tonight we had about 30 ladies from my church have a fun evening at the bowling alley. It has been awhile since I have laughed that much in one evening (I must admit the Ladies Quilting Night this past Monday comes in a close second). It was definitely a hoot and a half. Below are some photos from tonights festivities. Brenda and Dale were our official photographers so maybe they will share some of their photos with us. On my team we had - Hope, Karen, Evelyn, Christine, Lorraine, Agnes, Elsie and me. Unfortunately the photo didn't turn out to show you - but we had nicknamed our team "The Ladies that take pride of our gutters" - think we had nearly 110 gutter balls in two games. We even started cheering each other when we got the ball in the gutter. Many of us think we should do it again - Definitely, will be my answer!! Thank you Ladies from our Womens' Ministry team - you did awesome job!!It was so neat just to kick back and have a hoot with old friends as well as make new ones. I got to finally put names to faces that I see every Sunday. We have some great lady bowlers in the church - we had a few strikes and spares show up on the screens!!

New Window Treatments

If they look familar - you're right. I have the exact type of curtain and rods in my master suite and kitchen but they are shades of brown. The bed comforters that I have for Jessica's bedroom are blue, so I thought I would get blue curtains. I really like the colour and so does Jessica. Amanda had an extra single bed from IKEA, so I was able to switch Jessica's other bed (put it in the basement for now) with the IKEA Bed. She told me this morning, she really liked the bed and had a good night sleep. Very happy to hear that.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture? I was so excited to see a 2 for 1 sale at Zellars during the Christmas break and they had my width (27 inches). John was great putting up the blinds as they were able to go within the window frame, but he noticed something was not quite right. One blind seemed shorter than the other one - sure enough, I had picked up 2 different length of blinds. We had a good laugh - though John told me that I will have to get the proper length so they are even. My mom will love this - John measured and the shorter blind will fit over the door window! So not all is lost. It is wonderful to have that extra privacy as the house diagonal as well as across the street from me can see into my livingroom. It feels great to finally give Jessica curtains for her room too.

Ethan's many hats

On Sunday, John, Sara and Ethan came over for supper - made Shepard's Pie. Over the Christmas holidays, I purchased the last of the window treatments for the upstairs of the house - John was great and help me put them up. While we were putting up the curtains, my roommate Jessica did an awesome job amusing Ethan with the limited toys I do have at the house (Journey gave me some cars that she knew that Ethan would like - which he did. Thank you Journey!). Jessica provided these plastic baskets so Ethan could put his cars into. While we were relaxing, Ethan found another use for the baskets - luckily they had holes so he could see and didn't bump into any walls.

Having Fun in Three Hills

Friday night when the kids were put in their bedrooms, the adults got the poker tabletop that Garron received for Christmas and played a couple hours of Texas Hold'em. Of course, we had the hockey game playing on their laptop. It has been a while since I have played poker - Figure the last time was for my 25th b-day, I joined my dad's poker group of the night and none were the Texas Hold'em. It was lots of fun and in between hands Garron shared abit about his cycling across Canada this past summer. Both of us agree - PEI is a beauitful province. Though I won the last big hand - Garron was the overall winner of the Night. Plus the three of us agree - that having a larger group would be even more fun - so we hope to do a games night in the near future with the siblings. On the Saturday before heading back to Calgary, I had some more play time while still having a visit with Amy (Garron was hard at work with their bathroom renos which look great). Amy, Journey and I did some more colouring in her princesses book, but she later brought out this big tupperware tote. Inside the tote were wooden blocks (you might have seen them on Amy's blog) - I thought they looked familar and Amy confirmed, these were the blocks that I had played with when I was Journey's age - it was so much fun playing with them with the next generation. The year Journey was born, my mom was in a "Clean Sweep" mode and she gave Amy the Fisher Price, wooden block and the Richard Scary books I used to play with as a kid with my brother and sister. It is so cool to see them being enjoyed once again. Thanks Mom for keeping those great toys - Amy says the wooden blocks is one of Journey's favourite toys too.

The Newest Oiler Fan!!

On Saturday morning while waiting for his breakfast, Solomon enjoyed his cheerios. Garron is a big Oiler fan, so Solomon's bib is a natural thing for Solomon to be wearing - unfortunately Friday night their team lost to the Minnesota Wild. Sorry Garron.

Baby Solomon

If you have gone to Amy's blog, she will tell you that Solomon is becoming quite the scootcher - before you know it he will be crawling! Here are a couple of photos of his quieter times, just relaxing in between his pillows. He is beginning to teething - so he at the moment he is Mr. Drooler, but he is still such a cutie and he gives you great smiles too. How fast is passing - he is already 7 months old!

Journey and her present

On Friday after work, I headed up to Three Hills to visit Amy and Garron. Remembering that Journey's birthday is on Thursday (18th), I brought up my gift for Journey. If Christmas Day was any indication - Journey enjoyed colouring - so I thought that was the perfect gift for her. While mom was feeding Solomon, Journey and I coloured a picture from the Disney Princesses colouring book. Later on Journey's mom help us colour the picture too. Thanks Journey I had fun colouring with you. We will have to do it again.

Airdrie Christmas Lights

On Dec 29th, a coworker Marilyn asked if I would like to come to her place for a cup of tea and then take a walk through the Airdrie Christmas Lights. I had been at PLC for almost 2 months, so it was great catching up with Marilyn who works at my home site of FMC. We had a beautiful night - not too cold. Thanks Marilyn - I had fun. Below are some the photos that I took of the Christmas lights.

Me and my Mom

It was wonderful celebrating the Christmas season with my mom who flew in from Thunder Bay. She came with old family favourites - shortbread, gingersnaps and crescent cookies. This was the first time she saw my house - of course it was decorated nicely for Christmas too. She is so happy that I was able to purchase the hosue when I did, before the market skyrocketted. She was a great help with the Christmas dinner preparations. I did make french toast for her on Christmas day morning but I must admit I overcooked them as I got distracted by yapping on the phone - a big no-no when cooking right? I'll learn one of these days. She spoiled me with purchasing some practical household items - a shelving unit that goes around the toilet and mattress protectors. I had packed her visit with meeting other people she knew around Calgary. She mentioned she was impressed with my driving around the city as we went from point A to point B. She couldn't get over how expansive Calgary is - she likes that she can be in her PJs at 7:05am and still be at work on time at 7:30am - a perk with living in small town. Thanks Mom for everything you have done for me - I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and a great listening ear with the different bumps I had over the past year. Love you!

My Two Chars

On the left is Char and the right is my mom Charlotte.

Here is a photo of me with my two Chars. It was great having a photo of the three of us.

Working off Christmas Dinner

Ocean trying out the Dance Machine that Sierra got for Christmas.

Now it is Sierra's turn.

Ethan having a quiet time sitting on dad's lap while watching Ocean bust another move.

We were told the Nativity Story

During the month of December, Grandma Char worked with Ocean and Sierra in memorizing the verses in the book telling the Nativity Story. They are both 5 years old, and did they awesome telling the story. Thank you Ocean and Sierra for sharing us the story.

Christmas Dinner finally arrives

Everyone waited patiently to dig into the yummy food as I took a photo of everyone gathered around the table. I have been blessed to have friends who are really family to celebrate my first Christmas in my new home. We had so much food - I had cooked a spiral ham from Costco which was already sliced for me and I cooked garlic mashed potatoes. Amy brought her marshmellow yam casserole dish; Amanda brought turkey, the gravy and her Japanese Salad; Sara brought a corn flake wreath and Char brought the buns and pickles. I had made my punch (Cranberry juice, 5-alive juice and ginger ale). Amanda brought Crackers too - so that was fun opening and yes some us wore our hats that came from the cracker. So around the table (left to right) - Garron, Amy, Peter, John P, Sara, Ocean, Sierra, Char, my mom Charlotte, Amanda, Ethan, Journey, Bradley, Jon J and the hand belongs to Jon K. Baby Solomon is sitting beside Garron is my old highchair (we had to use a scarf to strap him in). I am learning different things to do with my leftover ham. I have like 5-6 frozen dinners ready for me if I don't feel like cooking one day. Thank you everyone for making Christmas Day so special for me.

Waiting for Christmas Dinner

While I was getting ready for guests coming for Christmas dinner, my mom had some one-on-one with Journey with the minimal toys that I do have in my house. Journey's little red dress was from Grandma Char and she looked so beautiful in the outfit.

It looks like Peter did a self-portrait with my camera - it was great having everyone over to the house for Christmas dinner.

Looks like someone got a photo of Amy having a taste of Christmas dinner - it was yummy!!

Connecting the Family Tree Dots

This past July, I was able to meet two of my mom's first cousins Pat and Lynda (their mom and my mom's dad) who now live in Edmonton. We were able to connect the dots by their other sister Betty-Ann from the States who got my number from my Aunt Dee (have I lost you yet?). A couple of weeks before my mom came, I received a Christmas card from Pat saying she was coming down to spend Christmas with her son Michael (which would be my second cousin). So happily it was possible for Pat to meet my mom, which we did on Christmas Eve afternoon for tea. They were trying to figure out the last time they had seen each other - it had to be over 50 years!!! They have one thing in common - both are nurses and will be working past the age of 65. Thankfully with the phone and email they will be able to stay in touch.

This is Pat's granddaughter (apologizes as her name escapes me at the moment) in front of her Christmas Tree. She was so good throughout our visit with Pat. Played quietly and every once and a while come around and gave each of us a cup of tea from her tea set. Then she would collect them and put the cups away. She showed us on her advent calendar that she has one more sleep before Santa comes. It was wonderful meeting everyone.

Going down Memory Lane

This Christmas my mom came to visit and celebrate my first Christmas in my new home. On Dec 23 we visited with my cousin Marjorie and her husband Bob for lunch. The photo above is Marjorie's grandmother, which would be my great-grandmother on my dad's side. For those who know me, this photo is cool as I am the person who has been doing the family tree.

My mom and I met a lady named Kay who was from Shawinigan, Quebec, and knew my grandmother Grace (mom's mom). Marjorie (in red) met Kay (in green) in a hiking group here in Calgary. Marjorie grew up in Montreal so before you knew it, Shawinigan came up in their conversations and Marjorie remembered that is where my mom was from. Kay was a school teacher in Shawinigan and knew my grandmother from the PTA meetings. Thanks Marjorie for making it possible to meet Kay.

On Dec 23rd, I invited a couple who knows my parents that live in the SW part of Calgary over for supper. Doug and my dad knew each other from Lakehead University. It has been over 10 years since my mom last saw Judy and Doug, and the way the conversation went, you would have never known. It was great reconnecting after all these years too.