Time For A Change

Several years ago when I started on this blogging adventure, I was at a loss for a title, so I blithely stole my daughter Cathy's moniker and added an apostrophe s Mom and became Murrayville Mom's Mom. Since that fateful day our middle daughter April started blogging under The Besth Blog (The Besth Life) and then the title of my blog really didn't seem appropriate at all!

Well, times and tides change. Soon the Murrayville Mom Blog will no longer exist and starting today, neither will mine.

I invite you to hop on over to my new blog: Motor Mouth Mom.

http://motormouthmom.blogspot.com/

Please be sure to change your rss feeds and follow me there.

Birthday Wishes

Today We celebrate my beautiful Mom's 89th Birthday!

Dear Mom,

Even though Dick and I won't get to share this beautiful June 16th day with you, we send you our love and best wishes for a wonderful Birthday!

Thank you Mom for all of your unconditional love, care, worry, joy, your laugh, your laughter. We can't tell you how many times you've carried us through with one of the above!

Have a beautiful day, and celebrate with the family that is able to show tonight! Enjoy the love and the attention, you deserve it all and so much more. We will celebrate together very soon, we promise!

Always and forever,

Dick and Allyson

xxxx oooo

Feeling Sad Today

Our daughter Cathy and husband Cliff along with their six little children are moving tomorrow. Oh I know on many levels that I shouldn't feel this way. But feel it I do. They aren't moving too far away, only about 65.5 km (checked it out on a google map) which translates to about an hour away vs. 20 minutes. We will obviously still visit, have wonderful celebrations, great chats and lots of hugs and kisses, we just have to go a little farther out to do so. It's psychological.

All of a sudden all of our children live about 45 or 60 minutes away. Feels weird and lonely in The Grove. It's psychological.

I know, we can Skype (if my computer doesn't act up) and of course I expect daily pictures (moving if possible) of all the goings on. It's even going to be long-distance telephone calls. It's psychological.

Enough of my pity party.

We just know they are so very happy with their decision. A lovely home, even relatives close by, just not us! The kids are excited and a little scared too. The unknown, new friends, new schools but the also lots of new adventures, new places to explore and share with us.

Cathy, Cliff, Cameron, Claire, Carly, Catie, Caroline and Coco, may God bless you in your new home. May you have more happiness than you thought possible, more joy than you thought possible and have wonderful new adventures. We love you dearly.

cathyempey.com took this beautiful picture of their children last Sunday

Goodbye Murrayville Mom,
I Love You,
Murrayville Mom's Mom
xxx

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

400 Miles and Counting

Today, Dick and I hit a milestone.

If you read one of my earlier blogs then you are familiar with the 500 Mile Challenge that we, along with about 60 others are participating in.

Today's a big day for us because this week's walking total of 24 1/2 miles brings our grand total to 400 miles!

Thank you feet, thank you knees, thank you legs, thank you Dick for our journey thus far!

These shoes are made for walking!

Baby Love!

Each time I see one of my daughters with their newborn babe, I am always reminded of what love is and what it is like to be loved.

What I mean by that is, and I think it each and every time, watching a baby being loved by his or her mommy and daddy, the caresses and the stroking, and the gazing and the kissing, and the smiling, well if you were lucky, that's just exactly how your mom and daddy treated you. It makes me well up just thinking about it.

Pappa and I had the pleasure of visiting our newest little Grandson Colby today and that all encompassing love is what we saw today.

First comes love, then comes marriage,

and then comes Colby in a baby carriage!
Amy and Tyler you are blessed.

Wordless Wednesday

Crossing Over the Mighty Fraser River

This morning my beloved enticed me with the promise of a trip to "Dagwoods" in Maple Ridge. A nice offer of a bacon and egger beckoned, but first we'd have to walk there, which is for us, is about a 55 minutes, one way, over the lovely new Golden Ears Bridge.

Before the bridge opened the only way to Maple Ridge from our place was either by HWY 1 over the Port Mann Bridge and then drive all the way around, or, we could drive to Fort Langley and take the little Albion Ferry over. Both routes took a long time out of your day. You were either driving forever in a ton of traffic, or, you were waiting for sailing after sailing, waiting for your turn to ride the ferry.

Here are some pictures of our last trip over the Albion Ferry. They were taken May 4/09.

All crammed in and ready to sail.

There's Maple Ridge in the background!

Today though we walked over in perfect "walking" weather.

On the long ramp leading up to the bridge you get to look down and see all of the industry going on. So this is what people do when they're not retired! The neat thing is, from so high up it reminds us of when we were little kids and you had little toy towns, little models, all neat and orderly. Everything in its' place. That's what it looks like when you look down from the bridge.

First off, the metal scrap yard.

The bridge awaits!

Note puddle in foreground, called that one in today. Last time we walked here on the 6th, it was about 40' long and about an inch deep and no other way around it but to go through it!

Next up, the gravel pit! It's fun to watch the goings on down there.

Did you know? It takes one load from a Caterpiller's bucket to fill the front truck bed, and one and a half loads to fill the larger truck bed behind it. The caterpiller operators are so skilled when they place the loads into the truck beds, tamping the last load down very gently, which is something we hadn't expected.

The sand and gravel are barged in on the Fraser River and travel by conveyor belts into the yard.

One of the trucks being loaded.

Off the barge, into the hopper, and over to the yard on a conveyor belt for this load.

The foreshore lined with old auto wrecks.

My beloved . You can see one of the barges over his left shoulder.

One of four "piers" that supports the bridge.

Looking East right smack, dab, in the middle of the bridge.

Two crazy old birds enjoying life!

Destination Dagwood is in sight just over the bridge!

We made it to the other side of the river!

This end is equally fascinating, lots of docks and working boats and boat houses. I'm sending my beloved down there with his water colours!

Well folks, that's the walk in one thousand words or less!! And let me tell you, that bacon and egger was delisch!

"The Sins of the Fathers"

If you were like me and went to Sunday School in the '50s you probably heard a bible passage that goes something like this, "the sins of the fathers will be revisited upon the third and fourth generations". I paraphrase owing to lack of memory, but the passage itself and its' meaning, even though I was but a wee lassy, really stands out for me. Also, the '50s, were weren't so PC, saying "father" rather than "parent" or even "mother" for that matter!

Today's blog isn't religious, it was just the passage that came rolling back over my brain today and let me tell you why.

A little history:
When our three daughters were little girls, they loved gum so much that they would scrape it off the sidewalk, eww, or where ever it was that they might be "lucky enough" to "find" some previously chewed gum, and pop it in their mouths.

I can't tell you how many times I cautioned them against doing so. How many times I caught them in the act, and I hate to admit it now, but even in desperation did the old bar of soap in the mouth trick slash punishment! For that girls, I truly apologize and would for anything in the world, take that back! Not that it really worked anyway.

Fast forward to our delightful Mother's Day Lunch:
After all of the noshing and decadence that a buffet entails, the adults were chatting here and there and likewise the children. Little cousins who hadn't seen each other in a while started to break off in little groups. One little group consisting of Cathy's Catie, April's Abby and my beautiful Niece's son "M", decided to get together under the table. It was a perfect spot hidden from the roving eyes of an attentive parent.

It wasn't until my niece said to Cathy and April, "look under the table" that we saw them there. It just so happened it was right under the table at which I was sitting, so in true Nanny fashion, thinking it would be cute to take a few pictures of them, I simply lifted up the table cloth and tried to get a picture or two of our little darlings. Now If I weren't a Nanny, I probably would have gotten down on my knees, but no, no, no, not me, I just lifted the table cloth up and randomly shot pictures. There, that's my excuse for the poor pictures that you will see below.

Well these three found a perfect little hide-away almost tent like, but with benefits. (And if, I had gotten down on my knees might have noticed). Yup, you guessed it, old, pre-chewed wads of gum in varying colours of white and blue and green!

Unto the Second Generation, at least as far as two of our daughter's are concerned!

Yup, in living colour, Cathy and April's daughters hard at work! Not "M" though, sure wouldn't want to tar him with the same brush! That wouldn't be right!

Still hard at it!








Ooopsie, spoke to soon, sorry Andrea!





Pick, pick, pick, pick!




Getting a better view Abby?



Isn't he a cutie pie?


Standing Joke in our Family! When I take pictures I usually always say, "How is this picture? I don't have my glasses on." They usually chide me, heck, I'd go so far as to say, they make fun of me~wear the shoe if it fits kids~and honestly, I didn't even look at these pictures until I got home and downloaded them. Or, I never, ever would have let this go on!




In fact, it only took the parental units, aka, the Mother's to notice that there was gum under the tables and promptly shooed them all out from underneath.





Disclaimer:
We have no reason whatsoever to believe they actually "chewed" any of offending gum!-LOL. In fact, a very short while later our granddaughter, Coco, was given gum and as I was all Nanny paranoid, said: "What are you chewing?" "Give that to me!" "Coco, give me that gum!" and I scooped it out of her mouth, all the while unbeknownst to me, her mother had given her some!!!!


Poor kid! That's what happens when the "sins of the mothers" comes back to haunt their mother! I owe you a piece Coco, a fresh piece that is!

Others, Mothers and Daughters

On the cusp of Mother's Day my Mom phoned and told me that a dear, gentle woman, our friend, Pastor Ann Strand, died suddenly. I had the priviledge of working with her as church administrator when our church was in need of an Interim Pastor. Over many coffees in the office and lunches in restaurants and later on, serving on a Synod committee together, I learned so much from this amazing woman. I am sad to think that I will never again have an opportunity for a hug, a shared memory or a smile. Rest in Peace dear Ann. You are loved and remembered by all who were blessed to know you.

* * * *

On a happier note, I am looking forward to tomorrow when two beautiful women, my Mom and my Mom-In-Law, along with the majority of our families will be together to celebrate them. They will meet the newest member of our family, Master Colby, and probably be squashed, stepped on, sat upon, smiled upon and perhaps even drooled upon if they play their cards right, by many of their Great Grandchildren who will be there too!

Our moms are amazing and an inspiration to the family. Both now widowed and in their 80s (I won't say where they are in that category), living in their own homes and living full, rich, and for the most, part healthy lives. We are well and truly blessed. Thank you dear ones for all of your love and care and worry throughout the years! We celebrate YOU! We LOVE you!

O u r M o m s

This picture was taken the day before our Granddaughter Coco was born. About 2 and half years ago and for those who know and love them, they would say they look just the same~fantastic!

* * * *

I dedicate this blog to our beautiful daughter's Cathy, April and Amy. I cannot for the life of me imagine what life would be like without you. Full Stop. You have brought the greatest joy, love and laughter to our lives. A richness unimagined. From infanthood to following your heart into adulthood, what a grand journey it has been. To watch each and everyone of you blossom into motherhood, a gift.

C a t h y

Cathy and her darlings, Cameron, Claire, Carly, Catie, Caroline and Coco.
Picture taken last summer by: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kyleperison.com%2Fblog%2F&h=b70d8

A p r i l

This beautiful picture of April and Nick and their children, Hudson and Abby was taken by Cathy last December. http://www.cathyempey.com/

A m y

Amy and her pride and joy Colby. This picture was taken by yours truly just hours after they were released from the hospital.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!

A Mother's Pride and Joy-Some Blog Love!

As we lunching at Cathy and Cliff's on Caroline's 4th Birthday, I received an unexpected offer that I couldn't refuse. Cathy asked me if I'd like to accompany her on a photo shoot and not just any shoot, we were going to visit Amy and Tyler's to shoot Colby Thomas only 4 days old.


Now I am very proud of my daughter Cathy, professional photographer that she is.

In Friday's Vancouver Sun her pictures featured prominently in an article about the very crafty Wendy Russell.


On Monday, a blog called A Million Little Details, high-lighed Cathy in the blog showing examples of her exquisite work from a Jessica Claire workshop which she attended last Autum~ http://www.amillionlittledetails.ca/


In it they say: Check out Cathy’s blogsite, here! Her work is seamless! Another specialty of Cathy’s is boudoir, check out her site completely dedicated to this sexy art!


High praise indeed and I say: Watching Cathy in action as I did for the very first time, I was so impressed with how she goes about it. Cathy puts so much creativity and energy into what she loves to do and the finished product shows. She has a real gift.

Here are a few pictures that I took of Cathy in action as Amy and Tyler looked on.

I have to say, that I started out taking pictures of Amy and Tyler's reaction, but soon realized that it was the whole scene~Cathy at work, darling baby boy and delighted parents as they peeked on at their little miracle~that was the real story!

What a great afternoon! Thank you Cathy for inviting me along.

PS: One of the many pictures Cathy took will be the highlight of Colby's birth announcement just as this one was when our darling Hudson Nicholas was born last December!

All together now, everybody say "awwwwww".