Christmas 2010

It was a quiet but wonderful day! Marcia was just getting over a bout with stomach flu and was certainly not her joyful self. However, we were ever so glad she felt like being with us.

We had a wonderful dinner and so many exciting gifts. I have already used my new Canon lenses. We had a baptism at our church building this afternoon and I took pictures. Normally when I take pictures at a baptism they turn out really dark. These were bright and wonderful. I almost had tears in my eyes because they turned out so well.

FEELING OLD!!

It really makes me feel old when I am filling out a form on the internet. When it asks what year I was born and it starts at 2010 and goes down to the year of my birth, it goes on forever before getting to the correct year! Sooo intimidating!

TWO THANKSGIVING CELEBRATIONS

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! As a dual citizen I get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice each year. Actually I am thankful for so many blessings that I receive each day of the year!! Our Canadian custom of observance in October was a delightful time at a cottage near Huntsville, ON.

Marcia picked a perfect spot for our Sunday morning worship that week-end.
No pictures of our beautiful turkey dinner but one of a more casual breakfast. Since our US thanksgiving day is just another work day for most, and since Wayford and I will be the only two to cook for, we will be taking advantage of Swiss Chalet's festive dinner tonight!

Have you had days that feel like this? I can explain some of the attire! I had purchased new shoes. $135+tx. Will I be able to wear them? After being instructed by the shoe store to wear them a few minutes morning and evening to see if they feel good, I did that. I can also explain the long underwear showing under the robe. I had just finished my morning walk. I know you are just dying to know if the shoes felt good. They didn't. I had to return them. Now I am $135 +tx richer!!! There is absolutely no explanation for the robe and the hair and the face. Now you know what Wayford has to put up with.

Winter is coming! I never realized a bird family was living in my front yard until the leaves left to reveal their home. Will they return to this nest next spring? I will watch for them.

The Bobsey Twins

This is what happens when a couple have been married as long as we have. What a laugh we had when we realized we had dressed alike! I accused Wayford of copying me but he reminded me that he had dressed first.

One of my little friends from church made this card for med. I just had to share it with you!

FINALLY ARRIVED!

You know you have truly become a senior citizen when you have to have a chart to keep track of your medications. After seeing a Dr. in the ER on Saturday I came home with two new prescriptions (I already had been taking routine meds). One was for pain (Tylenol 3) and the other was for????????????(Ibuprophen 600 mg). Ohhhh the pain medication was so wonderful. Finally, after 5 days of pain, I could be comfortable again. Then the Ibuprophen---one tablet three times a day with food. After taking four of them I began to feel pain in my stomach, even though I had taken them with food as prescribed. So, I knew to stop but the medication had already apparently done a great deal of damage to the stomach. So, on Monday, when I saw my family Dr., he prescribed another medication to heal the stomach. It was to be taken once a day. Then, when the Dr. got the report from my ER visit he found that I had a bladder infection. So, now another prescription. This one cannot be taken within an hour of taking any dairy product, which would include my regular calcium pill. The Tylenol 3 has a tendency to constipate so now I have to eat a lot of fiber as well as drink a lot of water.

Enough already! Which pill do I take now? Did I take that one already? Is this one with food or without dairy products? What a person to do? Make a chart. I felt just like Grandma Smith.

And then there are the appointment times to be remembered. CT scan on Wednesday, Ultra Sound on Friday, Family Dr. on Monday, Three visits to the ER, one for blood work and a blood thinner injection and another for another blood thinner injection and another to get the results of the CT scan. In addition to that, I had an appointment for a field test for my eyes on Wednesday, which I had to cancel because of the CT scan.

I am thankful for Drs. who can diagnose conditions and treat them. I am thankful that there was no blood clot. I am thankful for machines that are so helpful in making diagnoses. I am thankful that at my age I am still as physically fit as I am.

SUNRISE, SUNSET

One of my most favourite things to do is take pictures of the sunrise and sunset. What beautiful pictures God has painted for us to enjoy!

Bon Fire at the end of the day!

One of the highlights of our trip to Skeleton Lake was our campfire at the end of the day. The kids finally got to roast their marshmallows. Some of the older folk also got into the act, however they wound up with more on the ground than in their mouth.

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!

I have found the perfect solution to worry. Recently, while shopping at a prominent store in Michigan, I found the solution!!!! Did you realize that the brand of pants you wear could be the answer? I'm not sure what kinds of worry this covers. Perhaps it is just assurance that your fly is zipped! Or, perhaps, if you spill your coffee it will never be noticed. Or maybe that your shirt and socks really do match the pants. Or maybe the cost of the pants will not put you into bankruptcy. However, here it is---the worry free pant!!

THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER

BEAUTIFUL WITH WATER DROPS ADORNING IT!

THE AMATEUR TRAPPER

Fruit flies have taken over my kitchen!! No wonder, when I have had such an abundance of fresh fruit, but what do I do to get rid of them? I know there are many creatures that would be more annoying, more scary, more dangerous, but these little pests are really annoying. So, I go online to get some ideas of how to eradicate these pesky things. With saran over the top of the glass and with holes poked into the saran, and some soapy water and fruit peels in the glass they crawl into the glass and there they meet their doom. It is working!!! They crawl in but can't find a way out and they drown!

One person suggested they were too small to shoot. One said to eat a few and the rest would be so scared they would leave but I found this to be the easiest method of elimination. So this is your helpful hint of the day!

A DARK CLOUDY RAINY DAY!

What does one do when it is rainy and cloudy and dark? I paint! Well, almost. First I want to print a copy of a couple of photos that I took while in Wyoming last month to use as my reference. So, I go to the PC and print one. I discover that the color cartridge is low and the color just does not come out like it should so rather than put a new cartridge in I will go to the Mac and print one. What do I discover? Since we put a new hard drive in my Mac my printer is not recognized. So, after much fiddling around I decide to download a new driver for my printer on my Mac. Got that done but the output on the printer is not very good. So, I decide to do a test print. I put an old sheet of paper in the printer to do that. It gets jammed in the printer. So, I need to take the back off the printer clear the paper jam. But my light is not good so I reach for my trusty flashlight to give me some light. However, the flashlight has been left on and the batteries are dead. Boy, do I need a cup of coffee! So, my sympathetic husband makes me a coffee, complete with a granola bar! I replace the batteries, find that the printer is working, the sun has come out! I am back in the painting business once again!! However, it is almost lunch time so the painting will have to wait until another time!

A Saturday Morning Ritual

After taking a mile and a half walk and about 30 minutes of stretching and

while I am making our usual pancake breakfast, the hubby is assembling his meds for the week.

You'll notice that most of the meds are vitamins. That's what keeps this fellow going!

And.....of course, one always winds up on the white floor, which makes it almost impossible to see. Oh, well, a person has to get their exercise some way!

THE END OF A WONDERFUL WEEK

My week began with a trip to Troy, Michigan. Lita came to Sandra and Roger's home with friends and we joined them there and brought Lita home with us. My sick computer kept

Roger busy all day Monday. But, alas, by the end of the day it was up and running again.

Dinner at the Lake House Restaurant was wonderful! The food was delicious and the company was fun!

Since Lita and I have cameras which are identical, well except for the fact that she has a more dignified lens, we did lots of experimenting with photos during the week.

This is my version of the harvest moon, notice the star directly underneath the moon.Later in the week our focus was on the fall harvest. Grapes, apples and pumpkins.

It was a fun week! It just ended too quickly! I am thankful to God for the relationship I have with each of my daughters, a bit of heaven on earth.

Our recent VACATION in Memphis

If you have to have a delay in flight travels, this is the way to go!! Of course, it would be more convenient to have your own luggage, especially your own hair brush, toothbrush, pj's etc. But if you don't , you can make do with wearing your underwear for pj's (or wearing your husband's underwear!) And the way to really enjoy this luxury is to travel from Atlanta to Columbus, Miss. and then to Memphis in very small, very warm planes before you get to the luxurious, cool hotel. You see, when you are just 20 minutes from boarding your scheduled flight and the announcement is made that your flight is cancelled (no explanation given!) you hardly know which way to turn, especially when you are informed that the next available flight is 28 hours away! At least we were stranded together! We also did not have a wedding to attend or a funeral or other function that was obligatory. We prayed for a safe trip. Perhaps if our plane had been on time, it might not have been a safe trip. So thank you God, for looking out for us.

Our stay at the luxurious motel was very comfortable!

Three Days in Thunder Bay

It was a time of celebration. It was a time of family fun. We had to get up reallllly early to drive to Toronto on Thursday morning to fly to TB. We arrived in TB at 9:45 a.m. So we had the day to visit with the kids. What fun! After lunch Kyle suggested we go for a walk. So, Wayford, Wilma, Sandra, Kyle and Bayleigh went across the road from Kyle's house to a trail through the woods. Since it was a really hot, sunny day we covered ourselves with sunscreen. Well, that probably wasn't necessary because most of the area we hiked was in heavy bush which kept us in the shade. Now, because there was shade, there was mud, because it had not dried out since the last rain (or snow). A few places there were rickety bridges which we crossed and one place there was a pile of small logs that were loose(maybe you think that was not a challenge for this great-grandma). Thankfully we were a bit early for mosquitoes and black flies. Now, if you know Kyle, he has been known to take people on hikes, convincing them he knew where he was going, when in fact he was going the wrong way and winding up miles away from their destination (right, Jeff and Jeremy?). In fact a pair of sandals are still imbedded in the mud somewhere in the Meaford area. We take comfort in the new technology that can track him now wherever he goes. We didn't have that tracking device with us on this trek. He kept telling us that we were only a few minutes from a look-out. By this time Bayleigh is upset because she thinks the mud on her shoes is dog dirt and Grandpa is complaining that his hip is hurting. We did eventually reach the look-out. Now, what to do? Do we walk back the way we came? Do we walk along the highway, which is only a few feet away? Do we call back to the house and ask someone to come get us? As it happens, there is only one vehicle available. It is a truck with three car seats and room for one adult besides the driver. OK, Bayleigh gets the car seat, Grandpa gets the passenger seat. Where does that leave, Kyle, Sandra and Grandma? You guessed it! We climb into the back of the truck. We laughed all the way down the hill to the house. Reminded us of going fishing, riding in the back of Grandpa Lawson Smith's old truck.

We had great times playing with the girls.

Breakfast together afforded the girls with an unusual situation. Four grandpas were all seated together. Two grandpas and two great-grandpas.

These were just serendipities of our reason for being there. After these things the celebrations began. Friday evening Kyle was hooded as an MD and then Saturday afternoon both Kyle and Jessica graduated from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Kyle will be a resident doctor at the hospital in Thunday Bay for two years. Jessica is presently working in a fitness center there in Thunder Bay.

The evening closed with a formal dinner honoring the new doctors and their families. Sunday morning began again with a very early schedule. Wayford and I left TB at 6:10 a.m. and arrived back in Toronto in time to get to church at Tintern by 9:45. It was a great time of celebration!