PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/12/2008

(More than one picture this time!)

Two months before my wedding, our friend Merle suggested that Carol-Ann and I sleep over at her house one night. That sounded like great fun, so we got on the bus and over we went.

I'm sure Carol-Ann was in on it, but I was totally unsuspecting! I was too new to all the North American ways to even realize or think about a lot of things. In fact, I am sure there were many breaches of etiquette on my part because I did not know the customs or understand what was expected.

How shocked I was to find a whole group of my friends, ladies young and not so young, from church! Merle and everyone gave me the best time and made me feel very special.



Carol-Ann, Beth, Merle, and Marilyn busily chatting (one of the things we all do best) while watching me open my gifts!


Opening the special gift of the evening, one that my friends went together to buy for me -- a lovely white negligee set. I had never had anything nearly that elegant and beautiful! And I'll always be grateful to my friends for knowing me so well and getting me something I would love and enjoy wearing.

I have been thinking back 30 years and realizing once again how very blessed I was to have friends and a church family who loved me and went WAY out of their way to make this time in my life perfect for me.

My parents were still living in Liberia, and the only communication we had was letters that took weeks to go back and forth. My church family took me in and did so much for me. To be honest, I didn't know what I was doing, had absolutely no money, and wanted almost nothing! So when they asked me what I needed or wanted, I could not even give them hints! They were not put off by that and came up with what was exactly right for me. Now those were true friends!

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PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/11/2008

Barry and me on a trip in the mountains ~ 1976

July 15 will be our 30th anniversary, so I want to post a few pictures about us for the next week or so.

It was August, but I was freezing, and Barry loaned me his jacket. We were high up on Trail Ridge Road in the Colorado mountains, and there was still a little snow in shaded places. Besides that, I had just changed continents and was still used to tropical temperatures.

This picture was taken a few days before Barry asked me to marry him.

(Paula, Barry's sister, is on the left side of the picture.)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/10/2008

Najee

Our cat Najee thinks that everything we do has an intended purpose for her.
If we sit down, it is because we want to give her a lap to sit on. If we are vacuuming, it is because we cooked up a plot to scare her. If we are fixing dinner, it is because we think she looks hungry. If we let L.C. in from outside, it is because we knew she needed another cat to annoy. If we go to bed at night, it is because she is waiting to warm up our feet. If we lay some clothing on the bed, it is so she can have the perfect spot to shed some fur. And if we strip the bed to wash the sheets, she thinks we are giving her a wonderful big place to stretch out!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/08/2008

Our "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree"

Here is the tree in our front yard, the one with the mourning dove nest in it. Isn't it the strangest looking thing? It actually has more leaves on it this year than usual. It has a healthy straight trunk, and the branches are symmetrical and would make the tree a lovely shape -- if only it had proper leaves on them! The doves did not have to fight off any other birds who thought this tree would be good to nest in! Actually, the other birds are all laughing behind their wings at their poor choice!

(The sprinkler happened to get in the bottom of the picture.)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/07/2008

Andrea's new kitten, Professor!

To quote from Andrea's email:

"Her name is Professor and she is very playful and curious. She purrs constantly and has stayed up with me all night for two nights. She loves her feather toy and when I let her out on the deck. She is super cute, but she sheds everywhere! A great thing is that my allergies have not acted up since having her around."

What a cute kitten, and a great name for her, too! She sounds like she will be a very good-natured and friendly pet!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/05/2008

The mourning dove nesting in our tree

In our front yard is what I call our "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" because it looks so ... well, strange! It has a straight trunk and lots of branches, but the leaves are all bunched up at the center of the tree, mostly where the bottom branches join the trunk, with long bare branches sticking out all around. Right in the center of those leaves, a pair of mourning doves has built a nest, and they are taking turns sitting on it.

The doves have been keeping a sharp lookout for L.C., the cat, but also have been very wary of us humans. We seem to have one big round eye that stares at them and lets out a bright flash of light, so the minute they see one of those eyes approaching, off they dart to sit on the roof or the power lines to wait until it is safe again! Gord tried every approach including sneaking around from the back of the house, all to no avail. A picture taken through the glass of our front window just didn't make him happy! So after reading on the internet of the best screens to use to fool birds, he settled on staying in his van and taking pictures through the open window. This sure wouldn't work for me, but it did for him because he attaches his digital camera to his scope so that he can get great closeups.

So here is the shot he got yesterday. Click on the picture to see how long the dove's tail is! It goes almost all the way to the edge of the picture.

(Another one for the calendar he will give us at Christmas, don't you think?!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/05/2008

Puffin

Another of Gord's pictures!
(Needs to go in his "calendar file," I told him!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/04/2008

Kinza giving Grandma her birthday cake!

Carol-Ann, Bruce, and Kinza live very close to my mother, so they went over to visit her and took a cake and some red jello -- perfect for Grandma! [Please read yesterday's post to understand about the jello!]


While they were visiting, I called on the telephone to wish her a very happy birthday. Carol-Ann snapped a picture of her talking to me!


Kinza is holding the flowers that were a gift to my mother from all her children and our families.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/03/2008

My Mother's Baby Picture

Today is my mother's 91st birthday. I searched through my picture box to find this one of her when she was very little, maybe not even one year old yet. How much this little girl has seen happen in the past 90 years!

A few years ago, my mother put together a book for her grandchildren, and in it she told about her family and what things were like growing up. Here is her memory of birthdays long ago...

"I did have one brother -- a "big brother" because he was three years older than I was. He was born on August 28, 1914, and I was born on July 3, 1917, so we both had our birthdays in the summertime. Strange, but I can't remember any birthday cakes! Our very special treat for those birthdays was -- jello! We didn't think of it by flavour, but by colour. We always had a red one, and then we could choose one more, a yellow one or an orange one. And what a decision that was to have to make! We didn't have a refrigerator in our home, or even an old-fashioned "ice box," so how to get the jello to "set" in summertime was a problem. Our father sunk a large crock into the dark, cool, earthen floor of our cellar, where it was not nearly as warm as in our bright, sunny kitchen upstairs. The bowl of jello was placed inside the covered crock, and we hoped for the best. We made ever so many trips up and down the cellar steps to see how it was coming along, and I remember being told that it never would set if we didn't leave it alone!"

Happy Birthday, Mother!
(in the jello colors!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/01/2008

New Jersey bunny

Gord has gotten awfully good with his camera. Tonight he sent me this picture that he took just a week or two ago, and I thought you might like it too!

(How about giving us calendars for Christmas, Gord??)