Mom Photos

I want people to remember the old mom, before her devasting stroke, in 1999. These are a few photos I pulled last night from 1998 and sooner. She loved her sons,John, Emil, and Lawrence, and loved her grandkids, and of course, was delighted when Sonia had two daughters. This one picture shows mom, myself and Sonia and the two great grandaughters, Kaleigh and Maddie,(as an infant). I took mom and dad down to Victoria to see Madeline, her new great grandaughter. It was a nice trip, just a month or so after Maddie was born,( her birthday is on March 31st). As you can see, all the beautiful Rhotodendrons were in bloom when we toured around the grounds at U.Vic and Beacon Hill Park. Mom loved flowers and loved to see them, plant them, and have them around her. Remember at her house in Rossland? She made a special purchase every year of the prettiest coloured giant pansies to decorate the little patch of ground in the front yard. I was always impressed, as I never even knew where you could buy such beauties.
In Christina Lake she had her border of double begonias, pom-pom-mums, and any other flower that could fill in the border. The front and back yard were an abundance of flowering shrubs, including beautiful azalias in shades of orange. We brought her a Smoke bush and she pruned it into a giant pom-pom of fluff that the neighbours oohed and awed over. Her vegetable garden was at first ,a feast for the deer, but once the fence went up, she was picking a bounty of everything from carrots to bushels of tomatoes and raspberries and cukes.
No-one could forget the sourcrout brewing behind the basement door, and the delicious resulting crouted cabbage rolls...half with tomato sauce for John, and half plain,for Emil!
At her house, it was all about food and that special tiered plate of candy,always full, on the counter. It was always about family and fun, and a card game to round off the evening...maybe with a bowl of chips or popcorn to satisfy our snacks, and later a coffee with some of her fresh baked gingersnap cookies and maybe that yummy coffeecake. She could cook,and bake,and just because she did it at work every day for years, it didn't stop her from baking and cooking the best foods in the world, right at home. Emil could always count on finding a nice little bowl of leftover cabbage rolls or creamed chicken in the fridge...before we even began to eat dinner!
The other photo, a little dark, shows Emil toasting his mom for her birthday! Yep, that was her favourite place...sitting on that lounge chair in the carport at their Christina Lake house. Here,we brought Kaleigh, who looks to be about four,so mom may have been turning 68...and looking all happy and healthy looking.
You can't think of mom without thinking of how happy and productive she was,and what a hard worker she was also. She always had time for everyone,and loved to see her grandaughters,as the photo showed when we visited Annette on our way back from Victoria. It is these memories that I want to portray her, being her everyday wonderful, giving self.... She was a beautiful person that didn't deserve to be stricken with a stroke that left her without a words to speak. Maybe she will have them all back now.I hope so. She was a mom to me and I will never forget all the good things she did for me, Emil, and our family.

"The Creator"

Great Sadness

I am sad to announce that Emil's mom , Annie, passed away peacefully last night with Lawrence at her side,at Hardy View,after a short bout of flu that brought the whole facility to a Quarantine. I will write more tonight about her life,especially before she had her stroke,which left her with aphasia,and a changed way to exist. Bless her now,as she goes to be with her family in heaven.

Sadly ,today is also the anniversary of the death of my very dear friend Evy, whom I still miss after all these years.

"The Creator"

Tweens!

Finally,finally, New pics of my sweet grandaughters! Aren't they getting all grown up? Kaleigh is sporting a new shorter hairdo. Looks great!
Maddie will be 9 at the end of the month...of course, I keep thinking she will be ten!I have her parcel all ready to send...too early? I bet she won't think so!
Note the piano in the background. Both of them are learning to play,and both sound very good at this young age...Keep up the good work girls! I am very proud of both of them!Thank-you for the pics!You two are bea-oot-i-ful and Granny misses you!
"The Creator"

Good Tuesday Morning...

Wow! Total white out out there...fog,fog ,fog. Its the In with a Lion thing. At least the weather is above zero out there.
So last night, a few of the gals met for Badminton, up at Chillers,at Six Mile. We did have some good laughs... that started out with my Fantasia show, then wavered over to a slightly morbid topic...loss of a husband. Of the five gals there, two had lost their husbands over the course of the last five years. Due to death,that is.
Zelda said she kept a journal afterwards. She has asked a friend to come and take it out of her bedroom drawer and burn it before her family ever discovers it,in the event of her death. She said that all of her anger and fears were scribbled in that book, including one page completely full of "WHY'S" "Why? Why? WHY Why?? WHYWHywhywhywhy???? The whole page with some Why's scrubbed in with the pencil and others trailing off.Her antics describing the Why's had us in stitches.
Then someone told her the third year was the worst...and it was. Sue said thanks a lot, as she is at 1.5 years and doesn't recall most of the first year, but is planning a big big F****ing party for next Christmas! Enough of being so sad.
So it was a bittersweet get together...laughs over who should come and clean out your bedroom drawers when you croak and a reality check as we grow older and how quickly your life can turn upside down. The good part is that these two women have made a good life with their kids and Sue is in the midst of planning a wedding for her son and so life goes on. It is what you make of it.

Have a great day on this more serious note and make the most of your day, your life.


"The Creator"

Texas Hold'em

Ok, Just practicing up for Vegas...The neighbours got together over at Bill and Marlene's tonight for Texas Hold'em...( Big League Poker!)
Elli had the chips set up in a little less confusing manner, tho your five bucks still translated into thousands...ten thousand. The lowest chip was a hundred dollars....and the highest, five thousand dollars.
Of course, at first, everyone is shy to bet with more than a few hundred dollars.

However,after each round(everyone played once), the Big and Small Blind ( ante) was doubled,thus increasing the amount it cost you to stay in the game.
When it reached around 32 thousand ,things started to get tense and we started to lose players,as they bet "All in" because they were growing short of chips.

Then there was a moment of glory when Emil kept raising the bet so much ,that one by one everyone folded except Bill and myself. When he raised it by about ten thousand dollars, I said to heck with it,and went "All in" with my remaining thirty thousand or so. Because, Emil had put so much into bets to grow the pot, he was caught off guard at my bold move.
(Bold and Crazy!)

We layed our cards down and played it out,and Voila! I was the winner by a hair! I had a pair of sevens and the river card turned up another seven to give me a full house. Emil's two high pairs were toast!
The remainder of the game grew crazier,and crazier, as it was between Bill and I to the finish, with the blinds being doubled at each hand. The very next hand after I toasted Emil, I was dealt a pair of Aces. What luck! I won that hand. The blinds were up to 30 and 60 thousand...Whew! I gave Bill the next hand and then he went "All in" on the next and final hand. I thought I was toast as my cards weren't great...a ten and a queen. A straight to the nine, with a pair of eights were on the table and my ten finished it off nicely, beating Bill's two pair for my big win of the year!
That was tense. I'd be a basket case if it for real in Vegas, but at least I had a lot of luck and some good intuition about sticking with a hand. I might be liking this game a little more!
[[Oh crumb... I just read some of the finer details about knowing the potential other hands besides what you have in your own hand,especially when it is down to two players betting against one another... I guess it was just luck on my part! I would need to learn a lot more to play Texas hold'em anywhere else besides someone's living room!]]
For five bucks each, it was a great evening of entertainment!

Have a fun Sunday!

Creator"