Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Mom Update

Mom went to the Dr. yesterday, and in the end part of the problem with her arthritis is because she went off of the prednazone for her polymyalgia (no polymyaliga flareups for awhile).  The prednazone was stopping the inflammation from the arthritis as well as keeping the polymyalga at bay.  So a new prescription and she is already starting to feel better.  Hurray for modern medicine.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Well, that was a busy weekend. It seemed like there were people coming and going all the time.
Grace was not around as she went camping at Drumheller. But Sam and his friend Nancy arrived on Friday evening. It was nice to meet her. She is very quiet. She and Sam went out Friday night to a friend's for a campfire and Sam spent Saturday showing her around town. They went out to the lake Saturday night, then left Sunday after brunch. Nobody but us got to meet Nancy as Grace wasn't here and Tim and Courtney were at a wedding on Saturday and then out on Sunday. Oh wait, Kane got to meet her - he was here for a sleepover while Tim and Courtney went to the wedding. That was a lot of fun. He is so darn cute and so busy. But we had nothing to do but enjoy watching him explore everything. He has stairs figured out, at least going up them, so we had to keep a close eye once he got to the top since going down is still a mystery.
Talked to Anne on Saturday. She is very relieved that her dissertation ordeal is over and said that her defense went very well. She also found out on Friday that if she does the corrections the committee wants and fills out some sort of form she can get some of her summer session tuition back. So she was frantically trying to get that done as well as prepare for the canoe trip she is going on with friends. Then she has her job interview next week. So she is still busy.
Also talked to Will who is looking forward to things slowing down at the church in the next couple of weeks. He is planning to come here for a couple of weeks in August.
I am with Judith, I wish this rain would stop. We had a big hailstorm a week ago and if we could just get some sun maybe my flower pots would come back. They got pretty shredded. The garden isn't too bad though.
Sam has found an apartment to rent beginning July 1 so he will be moving, although may not move right at the first of the month.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Rain Rain Go Away

come again when I am gone.  Apparently this is the wettest June in a long time, the creek in front of Mom's is pretty high and very fast.  On the bright side it has not been that cold and Mom's patio is nice and sheltered from the rain.  The weather has not been good for her arthritis, her hands are pretty swollen and her whole body aches and does not have a lot of energy.  I have decided to stay a little longer, until the 19th, to help out a bit more.  That way I can stretch out my tasks for about 3 more weeks.
Richard's nephew Matthew is visiting form Ontario.  He is very tall and a very nice guy.  Lisa is going out tonight, so R and M are coming over for supper, I am cooking a roast (under Mom's careful supervision) hope it turns out.
I finally took a look at the lineup for Folk Fest, I did not look before just in case Allison's magic fingers did not work and we did not get tickets, now I can hardly wait such good people, Emmylou Harris is one of my all time favourites, not to mention Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rodney Crowell, Jim Cuddy, , Bonnie Raitt, and on and on. Astounding, Thank you Allison!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

I used to think that I was one of those people who never, or rarely, got sick.  Since I started at St. Luke's, I've had four colds, including the one I'm currently battling.  I'm very much not impressed.  One of the ladies at the church says it's like a little boy at his first year of school - catching everything that passes.  I think it's more tied to how busy things are! 

Things are very busy, just to back up my hypothesis.  Peter is retiring at the end of June, and he has somehow convinced us to give him a month's worth of parties!  It started a couple weeks ago with a concert - a couple vocal choirs from Victoria (including the one that Peter sings in) as well as a massed church choir, an oboe, a harp, a bassoon and three sopranos (all the instruments and the sopranos were from St. Luke's!).  It was a fundraiser for the diocesan camp and the diocesan soup kitchen, and raised three grand, so it was well worth it.  Tons of work to put on, though.

Then last week was a parish pub night on Friday, followed by a renewal of vows for a Jewish-Christian couple.  The Christian half of the couple comes to St. Luke's, and it was a great service.  They had been married in a civil service in England 15 years ago, and wanted a blessing for the anniversary.  They have three kids 13, 10 and 3.  When I asked the kids if they gave their consent to the relationship the two older boys replied quite properly "we do".  The youngest was looking at his mom, and when she pointed to me, and he heard his brothers, he shouted "YEAH!  WE DO".  Very cute.  Then we went to the hall and danced the evening away.  The day after that was the parish picnic, which was held inside because of rain.  We invited the Lutheran church from across the street, so it was busy and full in the hall.

Today is the parish garden party (which looks like will also be inside because of rain).  One of the parishioners hosts it in a beautiful backyard that they have landscaped themselves.  Then tomorrow is Peter's last Sunday, as well as a Youth Group barbecue. 

Thursday is the really big day - Peter's last service and his retirement dinner (which I'm working hard not to publicly call The Last Supper).  We have 157 people signed up for supper in our 125 capacity hall, and that's not counting kids!  We'll have to put some in the hall, some in the lounge, and who knows where else!  It's reminding me of Christmas in Rocky, with tables all over the place.

Once Peter is done, and we can stop celebrating, I'll be in charge for July, at least (since technically he's on holiday).  There will be an interim rector while the parish looks for a new person, but that interim will likely be part time.  This means that I'll have more to do, and more to do with the running of the parish.  I'm looking forward to this!  The bishop hasn't announced who the interim will be, but one person did come and ask me about St. Luke's, since the bishop had asked him to consider being the interim.  I don't know if he accepted though!  

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Wah

I was driving to work and right outside parking lot, I saw this bird on the road, who did not move as I drove by.
Strange, I thought, but maybe it has other things on its' mind?
I started walking to work (I park about a 10 minutes walk away), and went past this bird, who still didn't move.
I walked closer, asked it what it was doing, still nothing.
I thought, I can't leave this poor woodpecker type bird in the middle of the road! Someone might run over it!
I picked it up (it spread its' wings, so I don't think they were broken) and put it in a tree.
I looked for it when I left work, and didn't see it, so I hope it was just reflecting on life, and not hurt, then eaten by a cat.

Monday, June 18, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUDITH!!!!!

Baby Judy and her sister and Dad. 

Oh Theresa, you shouldn't have!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Thinking About Dad Today






Allison and I were talking yesterday and during our conversation I realized that Judith and Theresa might not have seen these pictures we took on the day of Boh's funeral.  so here they are (just a sample). 

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Garden Tour 2012

 Fresh Strawberries
 Mom and Lisa by a ginormous Hosta.
Mom treated Lisa and I to the annual Garden Tour in Kelowna, it was lots of fun.  The gardens were very diverse, some seemed like regular gardens, that anyone who worked at it could do (plus lots of time, one lady started hers in 1985).  The back yard of the yard that Mom and I standing  in the picture above was just about all vertical on a hillside.  We toured the grounds of a philanthropist, right on the lake, two houses on the property, and grass like velvet, it had tennis courts, a pool, and putting greens, very spectacular.  One of the properties had some squarefoot gardens, one a lot of plants handed down from other people instead of buying all their plants, one property is owned by a chef and had a composting system, lots of vegetables and raised beds.  All in all a great day.

I have been continuing to Mom's bidding, yesterday I hilled potatoes and caged tomatoes, I continue to paint, I have moved on to the back deck.  I figure I will be done by the time it is time to go home.  

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Chicago is great and we are having a wonderful time. We have been doing things slowly, not in a big hurry to get going in the mornings, but relaxing is part of holidays too. On Monday we went on an architectural river cruise. If you are only here for a short time, this is what you should do. It was so interesting, so much archtecture and history and a way to see Chicago that you normally can't. Went on a south side tour,saw Obama's house,where he he gets his pizza and where he used to get his hair cut. The north side tour covers Oprah so we will skip that. The weather has been hot. My hair is just frizzing. Supposed to be a little cooler today. Lots of good people watching. I think better than NY because there are more public spaces and fewer people, although still lots. We are finding the transit easy to use. The train station is only a block from here. Can't seem to be able to post pictures on here.

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Excitement, leave me alone

I do not look for adventure. But must deal with it when necessary. We were a bit late for the airport yesterday and to add to that Geoff was picked for a "special" scan. Flight was uneventful, got a cab at the airport and were dropped off at our address. Except it wasn't our address; Geoff had written it down wrong, we found out after a few trips up and down the street with our luggage. Fortunately we had the correct address elsewhere and were only a few blocks away. So got to te right place, opened the lockbox to get our red key only to find a lone green key there. Our landlord had stressed that we were only to use the assigned key or it would cause a lot of problems and expense, etc. But we used the apt belonging to the green key, we couldn't stay outside. We realized we did't have a phone number to call the landlord and of course did not have a phone. So I faceboked Tim to go check our email to find a phone number. While he was doing that we came across the number so Geoff went to the gas station down the street and contacted the landlord. She didn't know what happened to our key, but assured us that this suite is not rented for the weekend so not to worry about someone jumping into our bed with us. After all that went for a walk to find something to eat then home to bed. Slept in today, more walking, sat in the back yard with our books. It's nice to have a whole week and not feel that we are wasting time doing nothing. We are right by DuPaul univ campus so we were the oldest people out and about last night by decades. Weather is hot but it's so nice here, many trees. Tomorrow we will start being tourists.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

A rare glimpse of Sam



It was great to go to Sam's convocation. And to see Jude and Allison.
We stopped over at Matthew's on our way out of town as they were having a convocation celebration for him there. We were glad we were able to offer our congratulations. Some of Greg's family was there, we haven't seen any of them for a long time so that was nice too. It was a long day but totally worth it.

That was the fifth degree in our family, with a couple still to go.

I should be packing right now which is why I am doing this instead. I don't know why I balk at packing. It is important to a good trip. Better get at it.

Monday, June 04, 2012

Happy Birthday Allison


Sunday, June 03, 2012

Mom's Tree


 Here is Mom's new tree, we planted it on Monday, I dug the hole, Lisa and Richard placed the tree and filled in the hole and Mom supervised.
Richard took a picture of me painting the front door, I have also painted the garage door, the same colour of green that the house is, and added some dark green trim around the front door and the garage door.
I leave tomorrow for a flying visit home for Sam's convocation, then back on Wednesday till the end of the month.
This first picture is of what I'm doing in the front yard. I want to get rid of grass, it's good for practically nothing. Doesn't even look good unless you pour on the fertilizer and herbicides. So I will get this corner started and see what I want to do next. The second one is the back yard. I mainly posted these because Jude wanted to see how things are.
Things are looking really good out there. For some reason  I was able to get a head start, possibly because it didn't snow much in April and May. Most of the vegetables are up.
Grace is at work and Geoff is over helping Tim with his new deck so I sat around in the yard and read most of the afternoon, getting up to pull a week or two once in a while. It's supposed to rain most of the week so I got all the flower containers planted and things cleaned up yesterday and today.

Got to babysit last night. Tim and Courtney went to his 10-year high school reunion. I can hardly believe I have three kids who have been to their 10-year reunions. Anyway, had a good time with Kane. He is so cute. He does this thing where he puts the TV remote up to his ear and says, "H, h, h..." Tim laughed at me but I know he trying to say "Hi." I guess I did an OK job because they have booked me for a Saturday in a few weeks when they have a wedding to go to. I am quite happy watching that little guy play. Babies are amazing. Anne, if you had one think of all the neuro development you could observe. You would just have to train a baby to keep still for an fMRI.

Courtney has been busy in Tim's flowerbeds and they look very good. Tim rototilled up the garden spot and is going to seed half of it to grass, the other half is planted with vegetables.

Had a good but short visit with Anne last week. She had to get back to Guelph because she has an MRI scheduled for her knee. Her thesis defence is this month and she has a job interview in early July. Hope it works out, it would be better to be Dr. Ferrey with a job than Dr. Ferrey, unemployed.

Just a few days until our trip! I am glad we decided to rent an apartment instead of a hotel, I feel that you would be more free to come and go as you wanted. I kind of like the idea of going somewhere you don't really know much about and discovering it. I wonder if we could do a side trip to Detroit. I really want to see it.