New Momma on Mother's Day

Remember that stray cat that my daughter Sara adopted a month or so ago?  Well, on Mother's Day she became a new Momma.

 Sara has been staying at my place since Friday recovering from surgery.  Her children's nanny, Rachel, called last night around 8 pm all excited because Climber was finally having the kittens.  I went right over (cat people are like that!) and found Rachel and the three oldest kids crowded into the bathroom watching the poor cat as she labored to birth the kittens.  They were fascinated with the whole process.

After a couple of hours there were three new little kittens in the laundry basket with Climber.  It's amazing how animal instinct takes over and she knew exactly what she had to do with her babies and everything else concerned with the birthing process.  The kids were very excited to be there and see the new babies.  The first one was black,

 followed by a grey striped one

 and finally by a brown one.

It'll be fun watching them for the next few weeks.  The plan is to give them away when they're eight weeks old.  That might be difficult since each child has claimed one of the kittens for his/her own and is in the process of naming them.  Elly's is Minnie, since they already have a Mickey.  The other two remain nameless but Max is considering Nightmare or Midnight for the black one.

Stay tuned for future updates.

PS.  Sara is doing fine and should be back at home with Quincey and the kids in a couple of days.

Mothering Thoughts

Here are a few thoughts on motherhood for this Mother's Day...compliments of Pinterest.

That would be me!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers and daughters and grandmothers.  It's the greatest career of our lives.

When I Get Older, Losing My Hair, Many Years From Now

Does that title have you all singing a Beatles song?  I hope so.  That's the song I'll be singing to Lloyd all year.  Yes, yesterday I turned 64!  One more year to go before I'm officially a 'Senior Citizen'.

And how did I celebrate?  Why, with a children's style birthday party of course!  Five of our kids, kids in-law, 11 of the grandkids and a dear friend turned up at a barbeque at Sara's to help me celebrate.  Here's how it went.

Beautiful color coordinated decorations

Party hats and goodie bags

A lovely cake hand made by a family friend and
a silly birthday queen hat for me

Everyone wants to help blow out the candles

The delicious cake was cut and eaten (why didn't I take that silly hat off?)

My girls posed for a picture with me

and presents were opened.

My family encourages my collection of owls by adding to it on occasion.  These are the owls I received for my birthday.

It was a great time, family, friends and good food.  Can't beat that.  Now I'm going to go practice my theme song for the year.

Endings

For my birthday, I'm going to share this video with you.  I loved the movie Titanic but recently discovered there was an alternate ending.  Let's see which one you like best - the original or the alternate.

I discovered that there were more alternate endings as well, but this one was my favorite.

So Proud of Them

It was a weekend of amazing accomplishments for a daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and granddaughter this past week.  We are so incredibly proud of them all.

First there is Mary and Greg's daughter, 7-year old Layla.  She ran her first 10k run and came in third place with a time of 1:07:53 - beat only by two adults.  She's amazing.

Layla with one of her fans.

She was pretty tired after the run, but happy.  Little brother Baron
wants to race too.

Then there was Mary, Greg and Cindy.  They went to Vancouver for the marathon - Mary and Greg to run the full marathon and Cindy to run the half marathon.  The first ever for all of them.



SILGreg, DIL Cindy and Daughter Mary before the race

Cindy's race was first.  That's her en route at the front.

Cindy during the run

...and after - still feeling the effects of the run.

Then it was time for Mary and Greg to get ready for the full marathon.

Greg and Mary

 Here they are nearing the end of the 43k (26 miles) marathon.

I love the way Greg is looking at Mary - he adores her.

And at the end of the race.

Of the race, Mary posted this on her facebook status:

12 years ago today I married my best friend. Today I ran my first marathon with him. I ran the first 10k with him by my side, then I sent him ahead so I could slow down. At 32k I was shocked to find he ran back over a 1km to run the last 10k with me and finish together meaning he ran about 45k instead of 42.2km. I love you Greg! Thank you.

That makes me tear up everytime I read it.  They were barely 20 when they got married 12 years ago.


The unsung hero of the day award goes to our son Rob, Cindy's husband.  He trained for months for the marathon and was getting great times on his long runs.  He was psyched for the challenge of the big race.  But a few weeks ago he got injured and has to undergo physiotherapy to correct a pelvic defect he apparently inherited from his paternal grandfather, but which had never been detected.  His doctor insisted that he can't run until the issue is corrected.   So instead of running, Rob accompanied his wife, sister and brother-in-law and acted as cheer leader, photographer and emotional support from the sidelines.  I'm as proud of him as I am of the runners.  What a good guy. 

Rob in Vancouver.

So to all of you - Layla, Greg, Mary, Cindy and Rob - Congratulations.  You make your family proud.

Lunch With Angels

I spent the weekend taking care of Rob and Cindy's two kids while they went to Vancouver for the marathon (another blog for another day).  Since Anson had a four-hour activity with his Children's Centre group, I took Brooklyn in to Edmonton for a lunch date with her cousins, my grandchildren, Kenzie, Sydney and Charlie...ages 6 - 9. 

These kids are nuts!  Seriously!  They were funny to watch and fun to be with.  Silly little clowns. 

Charlie, Brooklyn, Sydney, Kenzie



That's better  - Happy Girls

Brooklyn and Syd share a frosty drink

Charlie slurps her spaghetti in a very ladylike (!) fashion

Brooklyn digs into her grilled cheese sandwich

Syd enjoys her pizza and fries

And Kenzie eats a pasta dish with 'bugs' in the title!

And when we're finished, Syd rests her sweet head on the table.

I guess the girls aren't ready for high tea with Queen Elizabeth yet, and probably never will be, but they had a good time and entertained their grandmother royally.

A Walk in the Park

I walked to the mailbox this morning, taking a shortcut thrugh the park.  There has been no sign of snow for a week now and things are rapidly greening up.  I seemed to be the only one out today.  The park/playground/soccer field was empty...a bit wet from the early morning rain.  The day is cloudy and windy, but lovely just the same.  I just had my phone with me so the pictures aren't as good as they should be.

An easy walk on paved paths

With conveniently placed benches for resting on.

This is a close up of the tree in the bench picture above.
I love all it's branches, perfect for climbing on.

It looked winter dead but I spotted some new green growth.

Then there was this stand of dead pine trees.

Pretty sad looking.  I wondered why they hadn't been cut down.

Then I walked closer and saw beautiful new green growth,
as well as the pretty little pink baby pine cones.  I had never
seen them before - it was a pleasant surprise.



Lots of new growth that had just been waiting for a few sunny days to show itself

A life lesson maybe?  What appears from a distance to be
used up and dead, upon closer notice is just bursting with life.

And here's one of the main reasons the grandkids like coming to
Grammy and Papa's house - the great playground just across the street.

The grass in the park still looks pretty faded and sparce but it'll come to life very quickly now that it's not covered with snow.  It looks like spring has finally come to Alberta.