PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/27/2008

Gord, Jeanette, and Carol-Ann and friends in front of our house
(Picture taken in Liberia in the late 1950s)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/26/2008

The thistle in our hedge

The wheelchair van came to pick Coral up for her day program activities, and as I passed the hedge by the driveway, I stopped short as these lovely purple blooms caught my eye. There they were, looking like part of our hedge. Right now, the hedge is covered with tiny white blossoms, so those purple flowers definitely stand out. I never saw that thistle growing up under the hedge. If I had, I might have pulled it out when it was small, thinking of it as a total nuisance! But now that it has grown, I can see how truly lovely it is.

I love finding unexpected beauty! Coral is sort of like that thistle. Some people, including doctors, thought we would find her a nuisance and advised us to "pull her out" and put her in a "home." But now even they can see how truly lovely she is.

Coral definitely stands out in the hedge of our family with beautiful blossoms all her own.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/25/2008

Carol-Ann, Jeanette, and Pat
(The stress triplets!)

Whenever I go to Canada to visit my family, I also get together with Pat, a long-time friend from school. Carol-Ann and Pat have never had a chance to do more than say "hi" to each other, so this year I wanted them to get to know each other better. Carol-Ann joined us at Artisano's, a wonderful coffee shop (they have much more than coffee!) We had such a good time with lots to talk and laugh about. When we started snapping pictures of each other, a very kind lady from another table came over and offered to take a picture of all three of us! So here we are!

Before my trip, all three of us were going through a lot of stress, much of it related to our work situations. So we dubbed ourselves "the stress triplets," and our fun get-together at the coffee shop sure helped to relieve some of that stress. We had a great visit!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/24/2008

A flower that grows by Trent's fence
I'm sure I should know what this is called, but I don't! If you know, please tell me.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/20/2008

My Mum!
This picture was taken on June 17, just 3 days ago!
In just 13 days, she will have her 91st birthday!

I had such a wonderful visit in Canada with Carol-Ann and her family and my mother. We had serious talks, weepy moments, laugh-till-you-cry times...just the best visit ever!

Thank you so much, Carol-Ann, Bruce, Kinza, and Mum!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/13/2008

Kinza's dog, Mini

Right now, I am at Carol-Ann's in Canada!! I have been catching up with all that is going on with Kinza, Bruce, and Carol-Ann. Today I spent most of the day with my Mother. We had a great time going over old photos. She told me who was in the pictures, and I wrote it all down so that that knowledge will remain with us. She also told me the most fascinating stories about some of the people in the pictures.

Don't you think Mini is the cutest little dog ever? (Don't you, Nancy?!!) She really is!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/11/2008

Bob and his plane

This little airplane is the way we made any significant travels in Liberia when I was growing up. We walked or used a motorcycle in our immediate area but to get to the city and other places far from us, we flew in this airplane (or sometimes another one like it). If you zoom in on the picture, you can see that right behind the propeller are the words "Wings of Service for Jesus." That was exactly right. Bob was a missionary pilot and did so many things in service to others. He helped other missionaries get where they needed to go, delivered mail and other supplies, and saved many lives by flying very sick or wounded people to the hospital.

My mother never enjoyed flying, especially in little planes like this one. She always said she felt like she was up on a postage stamp! I think I may have inherited my dislike of flying from her, but nevertheless tomorrow I am flying, not on a little plane like this but on a big one, to go to Canada to see my mother and Carol-Ann and her family for a few days. Which means I am not writing any more now, as I have absolutely a ton of things still to be done.

(Hopefully I will be able to keep up with my "Picture of the Day" while I am gone.)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/10/2008

Barry and me
Someone caught us being goofy!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/09/2008

Daddy teasing Coral...yet again!

Coral loves having a dad who teases her constantly. He's always asking her if she wants a cup of coffee (which she is sure she hates), or if she's ready for bed (in the middle of the day), and generally makes her life lots of fun. Actually, he makes all of our lives lots of fun, even people who don't know us.

This past Friday, Coral and I had an appointment for her with her new primary care physician. Our previous one moved away, so this was a "get to know you" kind of visit. On Wednesday the phone rang, and Barry answered it. I heard him say, "You want to speak to Coral? .... Do you even know who she is? ... Just a minute..." I quickly chased after him as he was taking the phone to Coral!

"Who is it?" I mouthed at him. He was grinning from ear to ear. "The doctor's office! They asked to speak to Coral!" he mouthed back at me! He handed over the phone, and I went into apology mode. "I'm so sorry!" I told the lady on the other end. "My daughter has cerebral palsy and she couldn't possibly take a phone call like this. What were you calling about?" She said in her now somewhat frayed-sounding professional voice, "I am calling to remind Coral of her appointment with Dr. Burnett on Friday at 3:20 p.m." I assured her we were planning to be there and hung up the phone. "That poor girl probably had 20 calls to make and started with us at the beginning of the alphabet!" I scolded. But it was really so funny that we just burst out laughing. I told Barry, "As soon as we get to that office, you know that lady is going to be checking us out to know just what kind of people we are!!"

On Friday Coral and I arrived in good time, pushing our way through the door and into the little waiting area. There were two girls behind the desk. As soon as they heard Coral's name, one of them started to giggle and said, "Your husband was giving me a hard time on the phone the other day!" We all had a good laugh, and I told them, "He makes Coral's life interesting! In fact, he makes all of our lives interesting!"

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/08/2008

Coral and Trent
Cheerful little ragamuffins!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/06/2008

Tux in the window

This is the window in Trent's closet, a little extra room off his bedroom. He has his dresser sitting in front of this window, and on top of it is one of Tux's favorite places to sit. From there, he can look right out at birds in the trees and the little ducks and other wildlife living in the small reservoir beside his house. Mountain water comes down the ditch system. The reservoir to hold some of it runs right next to Trent's back yard, and he helps to manage the pump that sends it on up the hill to the big reservoir where it is used for many things. You can just imagine that this is a kitty's ideal outlook on the fascinating things of the world!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/05/2008

Barry and Trent catching some zzz's!

Another picture from the past! A while back I posted a picture of Coral and Daddy snoozing, so here is the matching one with Trent and Daddy doing the same thing.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/04/2008

The little table by my dining room window

Back in December when I visited family and friends in Canada, my mother said, "Jeanette, I have something that I thought you might like to have." She took me up to her room and took a box out of her closet. It looked like she might have had quite a few things in it at one time, but now it was nearly empty. She took a little roll of fabric out of the bottom and shook it out for me to see. It was a doily!

I love to crochet, and many years ago when I was first married I used to always have my crochet bag nearby so that I could work on my current project. I've made all kinds of things from afghans to potholders to fancy doilies to little animals that fasten over a button on a child's clothing.

This particular doily is one that I made for my mother probably at least 25 years ago and which she had used on her little table when she was living in Liberia.I found it in one of the pictures in my album, and she used it like this with some of those orange lilies that grew around "The Circle." (Picture of the Day from 05/14/2008). Since my mother can no longer use it, I am so pleased that she thought of giving it back to me! It feels like I made my own heirloom!

PICTURE OF THE DAY - 06/03/2008

Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann

Carol-Ann sent this picture to me today, so here we are yet again, so you can see what 25 more years have done! (Please don't look too hard!)

Here we are, middle-aged siblings, not able to believe how quickly our lives have brought us this far! Each of us has had some really tough times, it's true, but we also have so many things to be thankful for, to think back over and laugh about, to still work on improving, to encourage each other with!

(Great pic of you, Gord and Carol-Ann! Who IS that standing by you??)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/02/2008

Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann
Taken at Gord's wedding, 1980

I am leaving yesterday's pic here a little longer so we can see the changes in 5 years! My brother Gord married Paula, my husband Barry's sister. I was one of Paula's attendants, and Carol-Ann sang during the ceremony. We don't have too many pictures like this because we have been together all too seldom in our adult lives.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 06/01/2008

Jeanette, Gord, and Carol-Ann

I'm not sure of the date on this (approximately 1975), taken in Liberia.
Carol-Ann and I often dressed like this in a top and lappa, which is a piece of material cut the full width of a bolt of 36-inch fabric, thus it has a finished edge at the hem and waist. It is wrapped around and tucked in or fastened at the waist to form a long skirt.