Aaarrrrgggghhhh!

I can't take it any longer! Minus 29 in March!! It's inhuman!  And the weather forecasters say we'll have 2 more months of unseasonally cold weather.  What did I do to deserve this? I'll show them!!!

On Friday morning Mickey and I are hopping an early morning plane for points south. If Arizona is experiencing unseasonably cold weather too it's gotta be better than it is here. At least we won't be knee deep in snow and ice.

*********

And on a complerely different topic, 39 years ago today my life changed forever with the birth of our first baby. Happy birthday Rob.

Life is good, whatever the weather.

A Weekend in Lethbridge

This past weekend Mickey and I went to Lethbridge to watch her granddaughter's Cheer team compete in the Provincial championships.

The cheering Grammies

 It was a fun time watching all those girls perform, creating human pyramids - so much energy! 

 Wynne's team won gold in their division so it was well worth the 6 hr drive to be there.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Mickey and I spent our time scrapbooking. 

I finally finished a scrapbook of Kenzies 3rd birthday party. She's 8 now and was really pleased when I gave it to her.

I just tested the Comments section.  For some reason it's not allowing comments. I'll try to fix it later.

Sun Dog

Mum used to tell us that these sky phenomena were called sun dogs. Whether or not that's an accurate name, it's what I've always called these beautiful round rainbows - usually seen in pairs - one on either side of the sun. They seemed to predict a change in the weather - usually cold weather.



Driving from Edmonton to Lethbridge this weekend, Mickey and I spotted this sun dog, and since we're both scrapbookers and neither of us had ever taken a picture of one, we stopped the car on the side of the road and snapped our pictures. Sometimes you just need to do what you need to do.

And the sun dog was true in it's prediction. The weather turned nasty while we were in Lethbridge. Today the 5 hr. trip took us over 6 hours because of wind, blowing snow and icy roads.



In one 115 km stretch of road we counted 25 vehicles in the ditch, some upside-down and others right side up with the drivers still sitting in them. Thanks to Mickey's excellent driving, we made it home just fine.

And yes, winter is still with us, with all it's beauty and ugliness. Surely spring can't be far behind.

Joy

I'm sorting through some of last year's pictures. So many of them, especially of the grandkids, express pure emotion. Today's emotion is JOY.

Baron

Anson

Kenny

Max

Is there anything more contagious than the smile of a happy child. JOY.

Grandchildren of a Different Sort

I've always been a cat person. From the time I was a baby we always had a cat, and subsequent kittens, in our home. Then I got married - to a man who is allergic to cats, and had children, some of whom were also allergic - so my days of being a cat owner ground to a halt.

Now I get my cat fixes at my daughter's house, where the famous hunter, Mickey, and her lazy pal, Percy, live. I actually have three grand-cats but Emily's Hero lives a sheltered life on the other side of the river and is seldom seen.

Besides the cats, we have two grand-dogs - Chester, the huge bull mastiff who lives in BC, and Bernie, the equally huge St. Bernard who shares a house with us. I love them both - the fierce protector of his territory mastiff and the gentle welcome-to-my-home-stranger Bernard.

Bernie is more than twice this size now but I haven't taken a picture of him recently. He's huge.

Chester bestows his favors on very few men - luckily Lloyd is one of the men he likes.

But he loves his kids and is very protective of them, thank goodness.

Oh, and lets not forget our grand-parakeet who lives an hour down the road with Jenny and her boys. I don't have a picture of him, but he's very interactive and loving in his own way. I love birds and have had several in my post-cat days.

So there they are - our alternate grandchildren. Every kid should have the experience of owning a pet, if only so their grandparents can enjoy them too.

Deja Vu

We're back in the land of the ice and snow after a lovely vacation in Arizona.

While we were down there, I saw a shirt I just had to buy for granddaughter Charlie.

When I saw it, I thought it looked almost exactly like one her mother, Sara, used to wear when she was 8 or 9 years old (Charlie is 7).

I guess it's close enough, although the color in Sara's shirt might be a bit faulty given the age of the picture. It looked cute on Sara and the new version looks cute on Charlie, in my humble opinion.


Sara wanted me to be sure to say that if she had her way when she was a kid, she never would have let me get her hair cut short - and I thought it looked so cute. Sara has cut Charlie's hair once - it's now almost to her waist. It looks messy in the picture because I took the picture after she got home from school and we didn't think to re-comb her hair.


Just a brief observation today...still trying to warm up.

Poolside

Today is our last full day here in Arizona. We leave tomorrow evening. It was our warmest day so far (85F) so we spent a couple hours relaxing by the pool soaking up some sun. Although we had the pool heater going all day the water was still too cold for swimming (74F). We'll try to sneak in some swimming time tomorrow if the water warms up.

This was my view from my comfortable chair - such white feet!

This little guy was tormenting me. I've been trying for three years now to get a good picture of a hummingbird. This one flitted from our lime tree to the saguaro cactus to the top of the tipu tree while I tried to take his picture. Finally got one while he/she sat still on the very top of the tree.


This is as far as we could go in the water. Once it hit the backs of our knees we wimped out - it was soooo cold. It was pleasant sitting with our feet dangling in the water though.

It's been a lovely week - a pleasant break from the cold and snow that'll be awaiting us as we get off the plane tomorrow night.