Mothers, Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers

I returned safe and sound from my "little" vacation to Brandon, Manitoba. My visit with Uncle Merv and Aunt Georgina "Cookie" Wilson was lovely. Georgina and I drove out on Thursday afternoon after lunch to Newdale, Manitoba to see the tea house and gift boutique. They had an open house this weekend which would allow visitors to enter the proprietor's private home to tour their multitude of crafts such as quilts, pottery, art etcetera. When we arrived at the tea house at 2 PM we were asked if we had a reservation (of course we did not phone ahead) but we were able to sit down right away before a reserved group would be arriving later. I thoroughly enjoyed a pot of peach tea and an absolutely scrumptious saskatoon crisp with vanilla ice cream served in a tall baby blue colored cup! Georgina enjoyed a pot of mixed berry tea and lime tart. We both agreed our choices were delicious. I neglected to take a photo before we finished our snack (Krista could give me pointers for sure on this!). I did however take a picture of the charming yellow character home which entertains as a tea room. I also did get a few ideas for what to do with my silly old wood windows still sitting around from my renovation. If you are ever out this way you can't miss the tea room!

On Friday we took a planned trip out to Killarney, to visit Linda who is an old friend of Merv and Georgina, and whose sister had passed away the week before. She was spending some alone time out at her trailer which was parked for the season at the camp site in Killarney near the lake. On the way to Killarney the plan was to stop in Elgin and visit the cemetery where my grandmother, Merv's mother was buried 53 years ago. Unfortunately when she died in 1953, Merv could only afford the funeral and so a stone was never placed. He was unaware that she was buried next to her parents and, being that he had never met his grandparents, was unaware of their names. I had come across an old picture of my mother standing next to a newly planted grave site and recognized Elgin cemetery from my first visit about 2 years ago. Following detailed review of the picture we surmised the exact location of my grandmother. Merv was so happy to be able to locate his mother's resting place and will start making plans to have a stone placed where it should have been so many years ago. We contacted the person responsible for the cemetery and he was quite happy to accommodate our request to place a stone. As you can see from the picture of myself that we took that day, the cemetery has not changed too much in 53 years except the trees are a bit taller. Thank goodness for old pictures! This was a fruitful day all around. Okay, I'm having trouble uploading pictures today. I have tried 4 times to upload the 53 year old picture with absolutely no luck. I'm getting the message that it is uploaded but.... no way. There has to be a better way to do this so that I can have the effect I want. Frustratin'. One more time... I give up!

Here is a picture of Uncle Mervyn Wilson and his wife Georgina "Cookie" Wilson. He will be 78 years young come October 9th and she is so much younger than her husband being 70. She had a nasty fall this spring and fractured her wrist and ankle but has done so well in pushing herself to get mobilized. Good on ya Cookie! Will add the missing picture on another post (if it works).

Road Trip

Yesterday turned out to be a somewhat sad day. A member of my secular family passed away yesterday from a tragic car accident that occurred a week ago. So sad. If I had known on July 1st when I saw him last I would have given him a warm goodbye... you just are not allowed to know these things in advance. My dilemma now is whether to continue with my planned short trip out of town today... or wait to see when the funeral will be held. Hopefully the funeral will not be sooner than Saturday. I really do want to attend, but also do not want to postpone my plans. Will wait until the office opens to find out any news about the funeral.

I won't be posting anything further until returning from my trip (unless it is postponed). To all of you, take care and God protect you.

The Cost of Peacemaking

I've just risen from a very good sleep, turned on the news to see what's going on in this crazy world and wouldn't you know it, we've gone and started (or come out of remission) of another damn war. I cannot understand why we can't just get along. Why are we so territorial as humans? In all of creation (or evolution or whatever) are we not purportedly to be the most highly intelligent of creatures?!?

I think cats are smarter! I am a lover of cats, always have been, grew up with dozens of cats (not all at once of course). I had a very lovely dog for 12 years who passed away just this spring; she was a sweet dog... but cats, I don't know; maybe just my perpetual contact in my formative years, but I love cats. I have a mixed Persian pussycat right now named "Baxter". He is a sweetie. He is even tempered, doesn't want to bite me or scratch me (unless I get too involved in the playing thing - then he forgets he has nails). I've read up about Persians; of all the breeds they are known to be the most easy going, non-aggressive, pleasant kitties to have around. They are good with children... just plain easy going. Can get along with other cats, just generally an all around great breed to have around. Isn't it ironic that the Persian cat originates in the very region that is currently THE hotbed of utter inability to get along????!!!! Unbefrickinbelievable!

I found this book on sale in a bookstore some time back titled "What My Cat Has Taught Me About Life". It is a nice little book of meaningful stories to enable meditation designed for cat lovers but I think appropriate for anyone really. The author is someone by the name of Niki Anderson. I found what I think is an appropriate meditation for these days we are in; just something to ponder over as we watch the news and the people dying for what reason? I am not particularly a political person but I am a caring human who likes to get along and especially likes cats. Follow along.....

"Being a peacemaker may cause some fur to fly"
Ginger, my childhood red Shepherd, and our white cat Scooter were true comrades. When Ginger snoozed near the fireplace, Scooter snuggled against Ginger's pudgy tummy. In their mock fights, Scooter let Ginger hold his head in her jaws. If an intruding cat or a hostile dog ventured onto the cat's territory, Ginger made quick pursuit in Scooter's defense. I was twelve years old when I witnessed an amazing rescue, as Scooter saved Ginger from an irascible dog.
It was long before the days of leash laws. I sat on the front porch stroking Ginger's head, when a Rottweiler strutted down the street. He darted from the curb to the porch in a flash. His sudden approach and the aggression in his eyes terrorized me, and Ginger was totally unprepared for the unprovoked attack which followed. "Stop! Get outta here!" I screamed. Helpless, I watched a blur of wrestling movements so rapid I couldn't distinguish one dog from another.
Scooter ambled around the corner of the garage just in time to see Ginger in grave trouble. To my astonishment, in a split second Scooter leaped into the middle of the fray. Now added to the snaps and growls were hisses and yowls and a tumbling white streak. In an instant, the cat's entrance confused the opponent and he withdrew in bewilderment. With dampened fur, Scooter and Ginger watched the rascal flee as quickly as he had come.
Scooter was an ambassador of peace, but it cost him exposure and risk. The common advice to stay out of the middle may not always apply. Mediators must often place themselves at the center of trouble to negotiate peace. Don't always shun involvement. Jumping in the middle may hasten a peace.
Paws for Prayer: Dear God, give me the courage to go to the center of a conflict if you have appointed me as peacemaker. Amen.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9)

The above excerpt taken from Niki Anderson's, What My Cat Has Taught Me About Life - Meditation for Cat Lovers, published by Honor Books, Inc 1997, Tulsa Oklahoma(ISBN 1-56292-366-8).

Happy Birthday Olive!

July 17, 1944. Today in 1944 she was born (making her 62 years). She was given the name Olive May Foreman, named after our father's younger sister Olive who died at the age of 19. She is the third child in a family of eight; one child died in infancy. She's under the sign of Cancer. She certainly was a cutie and grew up to be quite a hottie as you can see.
She's come a long way, taken the tough road but is still here with us. Hopefully, with the help of Yahweh, or Great Spirit or whatever each of us calls Him (or Her) she'll be with us a good deal longer. That goes for any and all of us, if you consider what's going crazy around this world these days.
My plan for today is to celebrate Olive's being and enjoy a dinner out. We may stop by and visit her daughter Jo Anne and the new granddaughter, just born this June past. It's the third grandchild for Olive (that I am aware of; Olive's son Barney has a child from an earlier relationship and is currently married with no children). Jo Anne has a first born child, Kaeden, who is 7 or 8 I believe. A little girl to join this happy family. Sorry, I am not quite certain of the baby's name but will provide that information on a later post. She was born at the hospital where I work and so I had the pleasure of holding the little angel a day after she was born (a very healthy 9 lbs!)! Jo Anne is a very good momma; I give her credit for all the good work she does with her very active Kaeden - she'll have her hands full with the two of them.
Anyway, back to the purpose for today's post. Today is Olive's birthday and congratulations on this milestone. She is not in the very best of health and so hopefully she'll have many more. At least she stopped smoking for almost two years - and that is somethin'!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVE!!!

George and Joyce Foreman, circa 1941

So here I am posting the picture that for some reason would not upload properly (even though the system told me it had!. As you can see I have changed the style of my blog - looks much softer and more like my personality; I have no edges, I'm completely round all over!!! This is also the reason I have not posted any current pictures of myself. My image is in a constant state of flux; there was a time when I did have edges and I hope to acquire those qualities again. Some day soon. KL's mum if you are reading this you know from where I come. I will be posting more pictures up (as it was pointed out to me that I had too few pictures). Here is a start. I hope you enjoy.

The photo is of course my parents - Joyce Irene Foreman (nee Wilson) and George Foreman (no middle name as far as I know). They were married on November 3, 1940 in Brandon, Manitoba and as far as I can surmise this photo was probably taken in the spring or so of 1941. Dad was about to go off to England. I have to run but keep watching the site and I will try to provide more goodies.

Day of Thunder.....

It's raining outside and it's hot! Yesterday 'twas 35C with a humidex warning of 40C. Today it will only be 27C but with a thunderstorm..... those lovely Manitoba thunderstorms that I remember so well from my childhood. I love these storms. For some they may be frightening but for me it reminds of some of those really happy childhood moments running around outside in our bare feet in the grass with a thunderous down pour to cool us off. Our war time north end house was always so hot, particularly in the upper bedrooms where we slept (or didn't) during the summer. The hard rain has always possessed the ability to make me feel rested and ready for sleep. This day, we'll have another of those hard rains with heat; today though I have central air and the upper bedrooms are much cooler here. I'm having a pretty good day today. I've been on holidays and undertaking some much needed cleansing and preparing to follow through on much needed financially draining work in my almost 100 year old home. It is such a shame that there are so many utterly valuable antique properties that could be so much more if people took the time to keep them up to the standards of today. Of course, I knew that this property would be a task and a half (really I have just seen too many This Old House episodes; I would bound to end up with one). In any case, I have decided I will enjoy the process, stop procrastinating and get down to business.
With all that, I had started with decluttering and organizing my office. With that of course I have oodles of old pictures of family left in my tender care by my mother who passed away almost 12 years now (wow how time flies). Occasionally I wonder how she must have felt inside at this same age that I am now; her circumstances of course were completely different from mine but I imagine how much more difficult it must have been for her. I think I'm pretty lucky (my significant other often tells me this). It must be true but there are times when I just don't feel that way; sometimes I'm just overwhelmed. I talked with my sister Linda (Kootenay Linda) the other day and she feels the same way I do at times. Sometimes I just rack it up to hormones (we're both in THAT stage, you know) and other times I think our lives just get us in a funk and we start reminiscing about the tough periods in our childhood that got us to this point.
I've been catching Oprah's repeats this week; how timely this paricularly series is for me. Her week is all about debt and the reasons for it and how to get out. I usually don't get to watch Oprah but it has been very beneficial for me to be able to see it this week (after I've just been to the bank to sort things out this week - actually for the better this time). I'm on the road to recovery - having a really good day/week. I have decided to not proctastinate any longer. My sister Linda would be ecstatic. Linda, I'm on the way to freedom.
Back to one of the primary reasons for this blog, is to share family information. With going through some pictures, I decided to post a picture of my parents at the beginning of their family. Newly married (doesn't my mother look too young - she was) and dad, well right after getting married he left for the war. I've read little notes left behind in my mother's papers that in retrospect she married way too young. As this blog is getting too big, I'll simply come back to it later and in the meantime post what I have including the picture (if the photo is not visible, it may be too large to view, keep fingers crossed). The photo was taken at my grandmother's farm (George's mother Mabel) about 1941 probably in the spring, going by the vegetation in the background. They were married November 3rd, 1940 and she gave birth at age 18 (barely) to my oldest sister Irene in October 1941 so.....

Graduation!

Here I am again. It's been a little while since I sat down to put pen so to speak to paper so to speak. I am on vacation now, putting this down, and talking on the phone to my significant other. I love multi-tasking. Sometimes I'm even good at it. I worked on the Monday STAT holiday because I missed out on the Friday before my vacation. I missed Friday due to graduation of my great-nieces, that is my nephew's twin daughters Nastassja and Shandeana. They are 17, almost 18 and finished high school. It was just yesterday that I watched them as infants while their parents were off doing something somewhere. Yeesh, makes me feel old; and I don't have any children of my own to gauge my own mortality.
Anyway, it was a real pleasure to see the girls graduate. I missed out graduating myself and many in my family generation did not graduate as well. One of the girls, I am not certain which one, has said she wants to pursue an advertising or graphic arts career. Both girls have said they are taking a year off before going back to school. I hope they don't get used to making minimum wage and decide not to go back to school. Well I have to run but before I go, I have posted a picture of the graduating gals. They are twins so I will not even attempt to indicate who is who. I can't tell them apart; I used to but don't see them often enough to say. The dark, long haired man is papa, John, and grandma - Irene - is my sister who will turn 65 this October. Wow time flies. Congratulations to Nastassja and Shandeana!! Good luck in all your endeavors!