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Viewing 199 - 207 out of 244 Blogs.
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We received an Evite today from our daughter-in-law, telling us that she is planning a surprise birthday party for her husband... our son! He will be 50 years old in December. My first thought was, "Wait a minute. I'm not old enough to have a 50-year-old son!" But when I counted on my fingers (and toes), I realized that she was right. I AM old enough! It got me thinking about surprise parties that have occurred in our family, and a flood of memories entertained me all afternoon. I don't recall any "surprise" parties in my parents' home when I was growing up. My mother was just too organized and would have to do long-term planning to have a "proper" celebration. When I was in nurses' training, it seemed that our lives were filled with work, studies, and sleeping. We only had one day off per week, and many times there were classes or workshops to attend. What I do vividly remember, is an event that we experienced in the town where my husband and I met. We were 'newbees' in town, thanks to our jobs. He was the local "telephone man" and I was the new RN at the 19-bed hospital. There was a lot of interest in the new house under construction in town, which was our "dream" home. My brother-in-law was the contractor, and he had it finished in time for us to move our few pieces of used furniture into the house just days before our wedding. The last day of our honeymoon was busy and long. We stopped at my parents' home to pick up our wedding gifts, and drive the 85 miles to our new home. All evening we unpacked gifts, as well as our personal belongings that kind friends had moved from his boarding house and my room in the hospital residence. We knew that both of us were 'on call', so we made sure that our telephone was working before we retired for the night. Some time after midnight, we were jolted out of our sleep by a ringing telephone. I picked up the phone receiver beside our bed, but the phone kept ringing. The 'telephone guy' told me that it was the phone in the kitchen that was ringing! Duh! We tried to turn on a light to find our way to the kitchen, but there was NO POWER! Even the street light in front of our house was out. When we made it to the kitchen and answered the phone, it also continued to ring. At that point, we figured that something was up, probably initiated by work buddies at the telephone office, and the next door neighbor who worked for the power company. Wandering through the house to find the source of the incessant noise (with the help of a cigarette lighter to provide a bit of light), we finally found the ringing bells. It was a set of telephone bells used in grain elevators, cleverly hidden in one of the metal furnace ducts that carried heat to the upper floor. My hubby was nervous about cutting the wires because it could very well have been wired to start something else. When he finally had the courage to cut the wires, three things happened... the bells stopped ringing, the lights came on, and both front and back doorbells were ringing. At 2:30 a.m., thirty people invaded our home, plates and forks in hand, waiting for their pancake breakfast to be served. They even brought the pancake mix, the maple syrup and butter, and a large frying pan, in case I didn't have one. This was a local tradition called a 'Chivary', to welcome home the newlyweds. We had heard of these events, but how it worked was all new to us. The whole town knew about the plans, and it was reported in the local paper. I can't think of a better event to help us feel at home in this community. We were now 'townees'!
Tags: Friends Celebrations Traditions
There is a saying in our area ... "If you don't like the weather, wait for five minutes!" This took a bit longer, but I thought I would show you what has happened in less than 24 hours.  This photo was taken yesterday by our son, and posted on Facebook. He lives closer to the city than we do, but it is the same river valley that we enjoy from our home. His comment was, "To celebrate Halloween, several of my friends and I dressed as golfers and played 18 holes."  About 24 hours later, I took this photo from our back patio. Here comes the snow! There was a major football game in the city today, and they had to bring out a plow so that the players could see the yard lines. Here are photos taken at the game!
  If the weatherman knows what he's talking about, we could have 10 to 20 cm of the white stuff before the end of the day. That's enough to make a snowman!
Tags: Weather Snow Canada
I have been mulling over the very active "discussion" as a result of one of the posts this past weekend. Even though I am a dual citizen of Canada and U.S.A., I try not to get involved in discussions that become a 'war of words' instead of a friendly sharing of personal opinions. Every single person, no matter their age, has the opportunity to learn from others if they take the time to listen at least some of the time. Everyone who declares they are 'Christian', must surely know the simple version of the greatest commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." For the context of this, read Luke 10:25-37 That brings up the question ... 'Who is my neighbor?' Is it just the person who lives next door or across the street? Is it people who cross our daily paths that we don't know. These questions were presented to me recently, and I realized that the question is very hard to answer, especially since I claim that I am a follower of Jesus' teachings. Then another question comes to mind ... "What would Jesus do?" In my opinion, how we conduct ourselves with other people we are in contact with, in our neighborhood or on our NotOverTheHill social network, speaks volumes about who we are, not who we claim to be. A good reminder to myself ... I hope I'm listening!
Tags: Opinions Neighbor Discusions
This is a follow-up to my blog that was posted yesterday ... All I can say is 'Thank you, Rex' for your National Comment ... REX MURPHY'S POINT OF VIEW If you don't recognize his name, click on the link above to find out who he is. Mona
Tags: Canada News Reporter
It has been quite a day in Canada, and many feel that because of it, things are not going to be the same tomorrow, and the days after. For the second time this week, a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces was killed in their own country. Today, a gunman shot an on-duty reservist at the memorial of the Unknown Soldier on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The gunman then ran into the Parliament Buildings, and was shot dead by Security before he got too far. Some thought there were accomplices, so a large area of Parliament Hill was put on lockdown. The soldier died in hospital several hours after being shot. At this point, not much is known about the shooter, but there is fear that more attacks may occur. Heightened security at provincial parliament buildings has been reported. The American president has been on TV, giving support to his country's "most important" ally. WOW... that's a switch! I don't want to "rain on his parade", but the feeling of being the "friendly neighbor" has been absent for some time. And that statement is from me, a citizen of both countries. We'll be glued to our TV all evening, and probably for days to come. We need to pray for our leaders!
Tags: Politics Crime Security
Our son sent this to us today, and I thought I would share it here. I've never seen anything like this applied to the real estate industry. My husband was active in this business for 52 years, and our son is active in this industry for the 32nd year. His market is high-end estate homes, most in rural settings. He has always done his own photography and digital tours of listings, but this video was done by a new business in the area. Here is the link (it will open in a different tab ... Drone Photography Enjoy the coming new week ... Mona
Tags: Business Technology
We made our first trip to the city today, after the beautiful week we had in the mountains of British Columbia. We had heard stories from friends and family about the two unusual snow storms that came through Calgary while we were enjoying warm and sunshine days in the mountains (a six-hour drive from home). I heard about 3000 public parks that were closed because of the fallen and damaged trees, about the request from the mayor to any citizens of Calgary who have access to trucks, to help with the cleanup and hauling of broken branches and downed trees to the landfill sites. I also read that an estimated 57,000 power customers were without service for several days, and more than two million kilograms (22+ tons) of tree branches and debris have been dumped at city landfills. An additional 33 community drop-off points were intended to take some of the pressure of the filled landfill sites. Because we have not seen any damage in our area, we were assuming that the media were "over-stating" the situation yet again.
Today, I have a better understanding of the situation. As we drove into the city, we got a taste of what happened. Here is a photo I took from the parking lot of my favorit Tim Horton's Coffee. The snow is gone ... the temperature was in the mid 70s today, and there is a lot more work to do!
 With winter just around the corner, many dead trees will need to be cut down in the spring. For those of you who live in areas where tornados and floods are a reality, this may seem like no 'big deal', but in our area, we've had to learn about new types of disasters here.
Tags: Weather Damage Trees
CALGARY IN SEPTEMBER We are still on our autumn travel adventure with friends in British Columbia, and enjoying a beautiful sunny morning by the Shuswap Lake. We enjoyed a lovely day last Saturday at the Canadian Insulator Collectors' Club Meet ... meeting collectors that I have not see for ten years. The link above will let you know why we are not heading home as planned, even though it is only a six-hour drive to home. No point in complaining ... we can't do anything about the weather because 'it is, what it is'! Our friends are so worried about their garden, because they left some of the root vegitables in the ground when we left. We just received a phone call from their family, telling them not to worry about the garden ... its trashed! Hope you are all doing well ... and enjoying the moment!
Tags: Weather Snow Fun Sunshine
I finally found a bit of time to visit on The Hill, the first since before the weekend. Since the weather had improved from the wet and cold previous week, we travelled to visit my husbands' oldest brother and his wife, who are both in their 90s. Today was a wonderful day in the city ... enjoyed lunch with a nursing classmate who was in Calgary for the day. I'm not sure we absorbed all the stuff we talked about, squeezing in news from the past year. There is something about the 'sisterhood' we have in our nursing class. We graduated 53 years ago, and the friendships are still solid. Much of it comes from the fact that we lived together in a residence for three years, worked together, attended classes together, found dates for each other, and our social life was also together (none of us had any money, but we sure knew how to create fun). Through the years, we had a class reunion every five years, and even though our class has scattered to many countries, many travelled long distances to be together for a weekend of celebration and reminiscing. Now we are starting to lose classmates ... and that spurs us to recall happy times and contact others who are also experiencing the loss of a nursing sister. To me, friendship that has been established recently and friendship that has remained strong over many, many years are very special gifts to be treasured.
Tags: Friends Reunions
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