Photos from October 1983-February 1984

What an adventure--I thought it would be a simple thing to take in the negatives from 1983 and get prints made, or have them put on a disc.  BUT, it turns out that the kind of film I used in my cheapo-camera of the eighties is a nonstandard size. AND few photo shops do chemical processing anymore. So...a week and an absurd amount of money later, I have some pictures to share here.  I am just laughing at myself, because I thought getting film developed was expensive thirty years ago!! I should have ordered duplicates of every print back in the day--it would have saved me time and expense NOW. But, who knew that the world of photography would change so much? I certainly had no clue.

So...here are some of the photos. The expensive photos!

Halloween 1983: Kelli the chick, David and I the bunnies, and Abbi the genie.

When David's teeth grew in, he got the two bottom central incisors, followed by the lateral incisors on the top, so he looked like a cute little vampire. Then the top central incisors grew in next.  Here he is rocking his cute teeth, when he only had four teeth. Too bad the pictures were not taken by a better photographer...

David was a baby who really needed his baby swing. He spent many hours happily swinging. (NOT swinging often meant unhappy hours filled with screaming.) This was his usual venue for naps. Once he had swung himself to sleep, he would stay sleeping for a good long nap.

 He loved to sit on the booster seats that the girls no longer needed. Here he is sitting in front of my lovely yellow tole-painted piano.

 In the fall of 1983, someone we met somewhere in town told us of their new kittens. We picked out two of the kittens, and named them Harriet and Louise. They liked to sit in David's carseat, which was fine with him, because he much preferred the booster seat.

For Christmas in 1983, the children all got a new pair of "footie" pyjamas to wear on Christmas Eve. Here they are, in all their warm and fuzzy glory:

 Bruce was asked to play Santa at a Stake dance...we don't remember exactly what it was. But since the PJs were for Christmas Eve, and David is wearing his, it must have been a Christmas Eve dance of some kind. Here is Bruce, and David who is completely at ease with the man in red.

And another shot from December (probably the same day, given the order of the pictures on the film...) of David snoozing away in his swing.

Because we had a number of cats, not to mention one crawling baby, we opted to put a small Christmas tree up high to save it from possible damage. Here are the kids admiring the tree...no, actually, they are smiling at the camera.  And what a lot of loot under that tree!

Since Christmas day in 1983 fell on a Friday, my guess is that this picture is from Sunday December 27. This is my sister Colleen's family, at their home in Grassy Lake, Alberta.

Michael, LeRon, Heather, Eric, Colleen and Michelle Torrie.

And one of our family taken the same day and place:

Me, with David and Abbi on my lap, and Bruce holding Kelli (whose grin reminds me of Rachel...)

The last photo from this roll of film was taken in February (since the roll is marked as going to February 1984) but we did not get to David's first birthday on this roll of film.  I will have to find that one, and get prints made from it next.

The girls bonding with David by crawling with him--all the kids in stripes!

Life, Death and Drama

The fragility of life has been on my mind a bit lately...on Saturday I got a text from Josie that said, "I think Jared's dad died."  I was like "What?!"

But it was true--on Valentine's Day, her friend's dad did die. He had been feeling unwell, having shortness of breath, but the doctors had chalked it up to trouble with our poor air quality of late. He was told to take it easy. They completely missed the pulmonary embolism that killed him.

When we moved to Utah, it was the summer before Josie was in Grade One (aka First Grade--sometimes people in the US have trouble realizing those two terms mean the same thing. Go figure.) In school, in Mrs. Boulter's First Grade classroom, Josie quickly made friends with three people who would be her constant companions throughout elementary school and on through junior high--Jared, Michael and Natalie.  They were her besties. Josie spent a lot of time visiting with their families, spending time in their homes and getting to know their parents and siblings.

When Josie was in about grade three, Jared's family went to Hawaii. He brought her back a gift. It was a T-shirt. Josie did not even tell me about it, but one day, when I was cleaning out her drawers to get rid of clothes that were too small, I found a T-shirt that said something like "Someone who loves me very much went to Hawaii...", and with it was a note from Jared, all innocent adoration. It was so cute! I hope Josie still has those--both the note and the T-shirt.

So...yes, Jared has been a pretty important person in Josie's life. And he is also leaving on a mission to Calgary, Canada (our old stompin' ground) very soon. In fact, he was scheduled to speak in church on Feb. 17, and still did, despite the fact that his father died on the 14th. The funeral is tomorrow.

Jared and Josie September 2012

Today, Josie put her head into my office and said, "Danika's little baby niece died." I don't know who had recommended the blog of this baby's mom, but I had read it already, so I knew about this random girl named Miranda and her baby Macy who was in the NICU. But as Josie described the baby, I said, "Wait...is the baby named Macy?" And Josie said it was...and indeed, they are the same Macy. Jolynn, the mom of Miranda and Danika, is my friend. She herself lost a young son to death about a dozen years ago or more. I really liked Miranda's blog post about losing Macy, and the poem by Corrie Ten Boom that she included.

Life is so fragile. You never know what challenges and losses will come to you or those who are close to you. It is so important to treasure those we love while we have the chance to.

Drama has been on my mind, too. Two kinds.

One kind is actual drama--Rosie and Josie are both in plays that open next weekend. So we are really busy with rehearsals in this house. Rosie is playing a fairy (Withered Rose) in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Josie is playing a character named Paula in a comedy called "Backstage".

Nancy has been dealing with Rachel-drama. It reminds me of the little drama queen that I once was, and also some of the drama my own children went through. When Kelli and Abbi were little, we got the Brite Music tapes. One of them had a song that began like this:
Have you ever lived with a whiney child, crying? Ah, ah, ah....
That song was a good friend to me...when a child was whining too much, I would sing it, and then the child would get embarrassed and stop whining.

The down side was, they stopped whining because my singing the song made them mad! So then I had to deal with an angry child!

Later, I read "Temper Temper" by Nicola Morgan.  When the child would get really mad...well, here is the blurb about the book, from amazon.com:
"When Mabel Babelman was the tiniest, cutest, cuddliest baby that ever could be, she had a problem. Mabel Babelman had a temper, a fierce, frightening temper.

Every time she had a temper tantrum, her Temper Temper Monster would appear, frightening away all of Mabel's admirers, parents, relatives, friends, and teachers. As Mabel Babelman grew older, her temper tantrums grew larger, so did her Temper Temper Monster. Soon Mabel was a very lonely little girl indeed - until she discovered how to make the Temper Temper Monster disappear."

We read that book quite often, while we had it checked out from the library. For many years after that, all anyone had to say was "Temper Temper Monster", and the person who was having the meltdown would be embarrassed and stop. That book did a great job of curing some of the drama at our house.

Maybe it is time for Nancy to find a copy of that book...

Stress, focus and the brain

In view of the discussion on Nancy's facebook post about recess, regimented recess, no recess, and the lack of physical education in school, I found a webinar I went to today to be particularly interesting. Because intelligence and the ability to focus both react to not only stress, but to physical exercise.  At least the exercises the presenter gave are meant to be discreet, so that you can do them at your desk at work--or even in a meeting, she said, if you are careful to open your mouth just a little bit when breathing in and out through it!

I liked what I learned, and intend to share it with my students at some point, so here it is:

How to be able to focus better – by Wendy Woods of www.asaporg.com

Signs of overload:

1. Hard time prioritizing work
2. Rush decisions so you can move on
3. Unnecessarily rude, curt or impatient
4. Constantly distracted
5. Find it difficult to adapt to change or new things

Impact of overload:

1. Black and white thinking
2. Your intelligence declines
3. You become less flexible
4. Poor decision making
5. You forget the big picture, including your goals and values
6. You lose creativity

(When you are interrupted—overloaded—by phone and text messages, studies show that your intelligence drops by ten points WHETHER YOU TAKE THE CALL/MSG OR NOT—just the interruption does that!)

Your prefrontal cortex is your “advanced brain”.  Even though you may believe otherwise, you can only focus on ONE THING at a time.  Your VLPFC (ventral lateral prefrontal cortex) is your braking system, to help you in times of stress. However, it is an inherently weak system! (If your car had this kind of braking system, it would FAIL safety inspection!)

Ways to Minimize Distractions:

1. Schedule a distraction-free time during your day if your job allows it
2. Minimize distractions where you have 100% control (for example, shut off unnecessary software)
3. Go to a meeting room to work, shut the door, post a sign
4. Write things down, so that your brain isn’t stressed with trying to remember things
5. If you must multitask, combine a routine task with a thinking activity, not two thinking activities

Your brain works best when both sides are engaged. To help yourselves with that, here are some exercises called whole brain activities:

1. Cross laterals – while standing or walking, touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee. Repeat 10-40 times.
2. Hookups – put your hands, palms down, on your knees. Then cross your hands and interlace your fingers. Bring your hands up to your chest (requires twisting to do so). Put them down, and repeat, this time, crossing your hands the other way (if left was on top before, this time right should be on top). Continue for 30 seconds to one minute.
3. Swing arms – just walk along on stand in place and swing your arms vigourously. Your brain likes this.
4. Whole brain posture – Put your tongue behind your upper teeth. Cross your right ankle over your left ankle, and your left wrist over your right wrist. Hold for 30 seconds. Then, do the opposite. Repeat for several minutes.

To alleviate stress:

1. Breathing – breathe from your belly. You want it to expand. Think “big is beautiful!” Take 10 deep breaths, with your inhale being about half as long as your exhale. So, say you inhale to the count of three—then exhale to the count of six.
2. Suspended breath – Inhale, and hold it for ten seconds. Then exhale, and hold it for ten seconds. Repeat for 1-3 minutes. (Inhaling helps to integrate the two sides of the brain; exhaling calms the nervous system.)
3. Do Tatwa Mudra (hand yoga) –Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, can be seen doing this frequently, if you look at pictures of her. 

Place your hands at your solar plexus, as you can see Angela doing in this picture. Touch each finger to the corresponding finger of the other hand. Then inhale and exhale through your nose; repeat only this time use your mouth; the third time, use your mouth again; the fourth time use your nose.  Do from 3-11 sets of breathing, or from 3-11 minutes, depending on the time you have.

Calming activities for the mind:

1. Easy things.
2. Physical things – this interrupts anxiety feedback from the lower (flight or fight) part of the brain.
3. Be social – people are social creatures.
4. Laughter – relaxes muscles, improves breathing and blood flow, reduces stress hormones, gives you a physiological break from stress. A useful website for laughter is www.laughteryoga.org
5. Meditation – scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve concentration, boost cognitive skills, increase positive emotion.

November and December 1983

According to Kelli's journal, not much happened in the winter months of 1983. Of course, really that just means that not much was written down!

So first, some memories: I had enrolled both girls in "Marilyn's Studio of Dance" which was what Marilyn Stevenson, the kindergarten teacher's, dance studio was called. Marilyn's parents had several daughters, and had built a very nice dance studio which attached to their home.  It was a great dance studio. Marilyn and her sister Julianne were good teachers, and the girls enjoyed it. But...the darkness in Canada was something we were not banking on, and it had a negative effect on Abbi. When the sun went down, she got really tired.  The dance lessons were after school; school ended at 3:30. The dance class that Abbi was in was at 5 pm, and that was just too late for her. It was fully dark at 5 in November, and Abbi was falling asleep. The schedule just wasn't working for her, so she wanted to and needed to quit. Kelli, with her unflagging supply of energy, was not affected in the same way, so she continued on.

And, because it is nice to break up the text with pictures, here are the school pictures of 1983 for each of the girls:

Kelli Layton, Fall 1983

Abbi Layton, Fall 1983

In November, David got very sick with gastroenteritis, and ended up being hospitalized. In today's world, they say that nursing babies should continue nursing when they are sick, but back then, they thought they needed him to be off milk, including mother's milk. David did not agree with the doctor about that--if I ever left the hospital to come home for a minute, they would call and ask me to come back because he would be in such a state of agitation. One nurse, our neighbor Janet L., would also tell me to go ahead and nurse him, because that would calm him down. "We just won't tell the doctor," she would say. David was a very nervous baby, anyways. If I was sitting quietly in a chair nursing him, and he heard even one footstep, he would jerk his head away all tensed up. Being in the hospital being poked and probed by strangers really freaked him out! So much so that he actually got shingles! He was nine months old! The doctor said that he had never seen shingles in a baby before. (I say--your fault for causing him undue distress!)

The journal records that November 10 was the first snowfall of the season. "When I picked Kelli, Abbi and Karma Hancher up at school, the girls were so excited, they wanted to play and play, and didn't care about the cold at all! Later in the evening, we went over to Uncle Bruce's, and when we all were leaving to go home, Kelli and Abbi beat us outside. There they were, in pyjamas, laying in the snow making angels! Silly sweeties! Kelli at least had the good sense to leave her coat on!" [So...Abbi must have taken hers off. She actually quite liked the cold! It did not bother her like the darkness did!]

Kelli's school class had their ice skating unit in December. The community center was about a block away from the school, so it was a short walk for the children.  The journal has a skating award for Kelli in it, dated Dec. 16, 1983.

Monday 19 December 1983 was the evening of my piano studio's Christmas recital. I had booked the multipurpose room at the elementary school. Each of my students played two pieces. Kelli played "Chord Frolic" and "I saw three ships". Abbi played "The bells ring out" and "Jolly old St. Nicholas." And even my husband played--I bet he has forgotten that! He played, "Oh come, little children."

Kelli's school had a Christmas program, just the grade one and two children. The journal has a copy of the program, undated, and a couple of pictures that I took--which are so bad that you can't really see much of anything! Here is one. Kelli is the child on the left.

And that was all the journal could reveal about 1983! No Christmas pictures--surely I must have taken a "Baby's First Christmas" picture of David. If I did, it must be in David's journal, which I don't have. But...I have found an envelope of negatives labeled "October 1983-February 1984." So, I am going to get those developed! Stay tuned!

October 1983

October is mostly in pictures:

Kelli outside in front of our house on 9 October 1983. Looks like it was a good weather October!

October 10th was both Abbi's actual birthday, and also Canadian Thanksgiving. Looks like we had company at our house for Thanksgiving dinner! This was probably due to the good weather--so the farmers were getting their harvests in okay, and people could come to Raymond and be away from their farms. Most Thanksgivings in Canada were spent either at my mom's house (so the men could go and help John and Harold with their harvest) or at Colleen's (so the men could go and help LeRon with his harvest).

In this picture, Abbi is missing from this picture, although her birthday cake is visible! (I am sure that her journal has a great picture of her in it--but I don't have it!) Since we were all together, we did celebrate Kelli (October 14) and Craig (October 15) as well.

Abbi's cake, and pies for Kelli and Craig. Kelli, Craig, Michael and my mom are in the picture.

The next picture, not from the journal but from my mother's pictures, is dated October 11. But it seems odd to me that, if my parents were in Raymond on October 10, that they were still there on the 11th, but maybe they stayed overnight. I can't remember! But if my mom said it was the 11th, then it probably was!

David, me, Kelli, Bruce and Abbi.

That outfit I am wearing--well, you can't see the darling skirt, also mauve, that went with the sweater. It was a definite favorite outfit of mine!  See how David and I are dressed up, and Bruce is wearing a white shirt? These clues make me think this picture was actually taken on October 9, not the 11th, because it was Sunday. The girls have their nightgowns on, so at least we know that the time of day was marching on to bedtime. Isn't it a cute picture?

This picture of David, one of my favorites from his baby days, was also taken in October.  It looks more similar to him in the 9th or 11th picture than in the October 30th picture that comes later, so I think it was taken in the first half of the month. I love the way he is lolling back (the wrong way) in his little miniature crib, all covered in blanket fuzz from a rustish colored blanket that we still have! What a cutie!

David in mid-October 1983.

Then Kelli's actual birthday, October 14. She is wearing her gift from Grandparents C. and holding the dress that I made for her.  This dress I made for her by modifying one of my favorite dresses, but that I no longer could wear because although I was still skinny after David was born, my ribcage had changed shape, and some of my dresses just didn't work anymore. This was one of them. I had loved the dress, and it turned out really cute when I made it over for Kelli.

Kelli opening her gifts, on her sixth birthday, 14 October 1983.

Kelli's birthday fell on a Friday, and her journal relates that we took her to the ward bazaar and let her choose cupcakes to take home and eat.  We put candles on them, and let her blow away!

Ready to blow!

A smile -- and then we all went to a family dance.

There was a Stake family dance that we enjoyed after we ate cupcakes. The journal records, "Kelli had a great time! She danced the butterfly, the Virginia reel, the bird dance and lots of other dances!"  I have to say that I loved, loved, loved Alberta family dances! So much fun! I am a bit worried that the tradition has died out. Which is sad, because they were wonderful. I, at least, have the memories!

Kelli was a special person at school on October 25, 1983.  Here is what the paper from that day has to tell us:
Kelli is a neat friend because she is fun to play on the playground with.
Favorite color: pink
Favorite food: peanut butter and jam sandwich
Favorite TV show: Smurfs
Favorite friend: Marika (Kelli mentions briefly in the journal on October 30 that Marika had just recently moved to Raymond. I totally can't remember her, though!)
What do you like best in school? cutting
Favorite dessert: Cake and ice cream
Favorite drink: Strawberry milkshake
Favorite story: The Three Bears (Once upon a time in a nursery rhyme, there were three bears...)
Favorite season: winter (This, from a child who had only experienced snow a bit in May, in a late Spring storm, and at Waterton National Park...)
Favorite song: BINGO
She also won a "Good Reading Award." Of course!

I took this next picture in our back yard on October 30. See how David has changed in just three weeks? You can tell that he is older. Kelli is wearing her birthday dress, and it looks lovely. Abbi is wearing a knit dress that she really liked.  I am just amazed at how lovely the weather was! And I have to say, I really love this picture. In the journal, I captioned it this way: "Did you ever see three such wonderful children?!" I love the picture, but I love the children in the picture even more! And I miss them--I love the adult versions of them, too, but I miss the little people they once were!

Adorable picture from 30 October 1983.

Kelli had a Halloween party at school on exactly Halloween, October 31, I took a few pictures, all too dark and you can't tell who anyone is. This one is the best, and you can make out Kelli in profile. She is wearing her bird costume from her California dance studio, amped up with feathers to be even better!

Kelli is the yellow one...

Besides my piano studio, I was teaching "Preschool Music and Storytime" at the Raymond Library, and a "Youth Drama" class for Raymond Parks and Recreation.  (I knew that I did that, but I forgot exactly when it was...but the next picture contextualizes it for me, because here is part of the class in a picture on Halloween day, because we met on Monday after school for Youth Drama.) Sorry the picture is so...just badly done.

Abbi, Kelli, Celeste Hirsche and Chantel Start holding our baby David.

Abbi was wearing the costume from "The King and I" so we were getting more use of another of Kelli's dance costumes!

September 1983

Not much written in the journal for September 1983--two short entries, as follows:

Sept. 6 -- Today Kelli started school. Her teacher's name is Mrs. McKenzie. Kelli was really happy to see lots of kids she knows in her class: Marianne Sopal, Charlotte Dunn, Kimberley Cooper, Tiffany Van Orman. Kelli is the only one in the class who already knows how to read.

Sept. 16 -- Holly Bishop [2nd cousin to the girls, my cousin Nola's daughter] was visiting from Calgary and she brought her bike. Kelli rode it--a two wheeler--all by herself, with no training wheels!

Kelli's Grade One class, with her teacher Mrs. Caran McKenzie. Kelli is third from left on the front row.

On Kelli's left in the picture is Marianne Sopal, who would grow up to marry one of Kelli's second cousins, Stewart Payne, the son of my cousin Ruth Conrad Payne.

I want to tell a little story on my cousin Nola, mentioned in the journal entry about Holly--in 1983, her daughter Dylan was born, some time in the summer. I don't think it was as late as September, when Holly brought her bike down to Raymond. But, some time...anyways, Nola and Mark brought their two older children, Holly and Carter, to stay with Uncle Frank and Aunt Celia while Nola would be busy having the new baby. They left the kids down in Raymond to play with all their many cousins for a good long while. One Saturday Mark and Nola rode down from Calgary on their motorcycle, with Dylan in a front carrier that Nola was wearing!  We were all just kind of shocked, but not entirely, because Mark and Nola have always been very adventurous. But that kind of freedom is no longer possible, is it?

I don't have Abbi's journal, but I don't need it to remember that she started kindergarten in September of 1983. In Raymond, the kindergartens were not part of the public school system. However, there were two kindergartens that rented space in the elementary school, so that is where Abbi attended kindergarten.

The "best" kindergarten, according to all the moms who hung out around the pool that summer as we did, was Peppermint Place--one of the Stevenson girls, I think Marilyn, was the teacher.(note to Nancy: Marilyn was also a dance teacher. What is this with kindergarten teachers who moonlight as dance teachers?--She would be Kelli and Abbi's dance teacher the same year.)  During the summer, the other kindergarten, Acorn Circle, had not yet hired a teacher, and the mothers all told me that Miss Stevenson was so good, I would want her to be Abbi's teacher.  Well, Peppermint Place was full, so I enrolled Abbi in Acorn Circle.

That turned out to be a good thing. When class began, there was a teacher in place, Miss Nancy Evans, and she was wonderful. It took a few months for her to get a permanent contract.  There was a bit of a hold up caused, frankly, by bigotry. Miss Evans was a person with dwarfism. She lived with her parents, Gil and Betty Evans, just a few houses west of us.  I actually had been acquainted (but not well aquainted) with Nancy since childhood, because she was the same age as my cousin Priscilla, so sometimes I had encountered her at the park while playing there with my cousins. I had not liked her. Not because of her dwarfism, but because it seemed to me that she just wasn't very nice. She was loud and mean, I thought! (Which doesn't mean that she was--only that in my ignorance, that is what I thought.) But, having learned to know and love her as I did while she was Abbi's teacher, and knowing that these people IN HER OWN LITTLE TOWN did not want her to be the permanent kindergarten teacher because of how she looked--I can understand that she probably had a bit of a chip on her shoulder while growing up.

Nancy no longer seemed mean, by any stretch of the imagination, though she could be loud, which she sometimes needed to be to get the attention of a roomful of busy children! Nancy was a wonderful kindergarten teacher.  It was so cool because she was the same size as the children.  She had an enviable rapport with them. They thrived under her care.  Her teacher's aide, whose name escapes me[Mrs. Whitbeck--no first name yet, but I have remembered part of her name!], but whose face is vividly familiar to me, was also warm and kind and loving. What a great pair for Abbi to spend her days with!

Nancy Evans was a wonderful advocate for Abbi--later, as we approached the next school year, the powers that be wanted to have Abbi repeat kindergarten because of her birthdate, but Nancy absolutely insisted that she must go to grade one--my goodness, by then Abbi was reading Thornton W. Burgess's little chapter books!

Reading in Grade One was a problem for Kelli. Because she could read fluently, and none of the other children could read at all. They brought home little slips of papers that they called "newspapers" and the children were supposed to read them something like ten times.  The sentences were like "I am six. I go to school." Things that were just easy-peasy for Kelli.  She hated them, but at the same time, she refused not to do them. Her teacher and I both were willing to have her reading assignments be more in line with her ability, but she didn't want to be different from the other children.

This not wanting to be different also caused trouble for her with the piano. They had a little talent show at school, and several children played the piano, and when it was Kelli's turn, she played much better than any of the other children.  You would think that would be cool, but no.  It made her "different" and she hated it. So she began to stop wanting to play the piano anymore.  Pretty soon, Abbi passed her up, and could play better, and that discouraged Kelli. She could not see that her choices were a big part of the problem, and she certainly did not want ME to tell her that they were, though I did try.

As for me, I was building a decent piano studio again.  I had about twelve students besides my daughters.  Many of them were relatives, but what else would you expect when I was related to half the town, it seemed?! My pupils included my nieces, Mindy and Carlie Graves; Susan, Cheryl and Karma Hancher and their mom, Lorena; Tricia and Brad Clark, my cousin Myrna Hancock Clark's children; Karyn and Jayna Nilsson, daughters of my cousin Donna Navratil Nilsson; Cammy Woolley and Tammy Johnson. (I seriously do not remember at all--who is Tammy Johnson?) Later on, my cousin Rita Hardy's oldest girls (Cara, Camilla and Cherilea) would also join my studio.

As for David, he was growing, but I don't have the details, since they are in HIS journal. I do remember that he was crawling, and would get himself into very funny places.  He had a habit of trying to crawl through the legs of the piano and would sometimes get high-centered and therefore stuck! Once, at my mom's house, he was crawling on the living room floor, and then he disappeared. I could hear him crying but couldn't see him...he had crawled right under the couch (which had a little skirting on the bottom, so he couldn't be seen) and he had gotten stuck under there!

Summer 1983

One thing that I noticed right away in Alberta was the cost of film--about twice as much as in California. The cost of developing film--about three times as much as in California. The end result--I took fewer pictures!

Besides the cost of housing, another reason we had looked to live in Raymond was because my brother Bruce, his wife Judy and their daughters Heather, Mindy and Carlie had moved to Raymond.  We started doing things with them, going for walks or to the park, or just hanging out together. That was a lot of fun.

We went to the library as soon as possible, because we all loved to read!  I don't think I ever mentioned that, when Kelli started to read in kindergarten in California and would bring her readers home, Abbi picked them up and started reading, too. So by the Spring of 1983, both girls were avid and fluent readers. And they had begun reading to David as soon as he could be imagined to be paying any sort of attention.

Kelli reading to David in June of 1983.

 And one thing that was nice about Raymond was that everywhere was within walking distance. We frequented the Lion's Park playground and swimming pool, and Kelli and Abbi started swimming lessons that first summer in Raymond.

It was a bit difficult to get used to the increased daylight during the summer months. We were used to day and night being pretty even all year long. Now...the whole town was on the go until about ten pm. I remember that I created a detailed schedule of playtime, reading time, outside time, to help us manage all those daylight hours!

There is only one journal entry for June: June 22, 1983, in which Kelli records, first in her own printing, and then I took over for her, because she had more to say than her hand could laboriously print, "I went to see the cows. I milked two cows. It was hard! Someone helped me get some milk out. I saw a bull called Buffalo Bull. It looks like a buffalo. He is meaner than a buffalo. I saw baby ducks. There was a big pond of ducks--swimming ducks, not flying ducks!"

I wish that we had recorded where she went to see the cows--these were not my dad's cows, I am sure, because he had no "Buffalo Bull"!

On July 13, 1983, I recorded: "Today Kelli asked me something about when she was a baby, but I didn't know the answer, because it was before my time [with her]. Kelli sighed and said, "Oh Mommy! I wish that I was born from you!" It made me feel good [and sad, both,] to hear Kelli say it. I told Kelli that it doesn't matter how or to whom we are born, as long as we have parents who love us."

There was a poem that I found around this time and that I would frequently say to the girls. It went like this:
Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone,
But still, miraculously, my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
You didn't grow under my heart, but in it."
[This is apparently by an author named Fleur Conkling Heylinger.]

On the same day, July 13, "Daddy surprised us all by bringing home a baby kitten from work tonight. Her name is Sheba, and she is very small, black, and cute!"

Kelli and Abbi and their new kitten, Sheba, in July of 1983.

July 15, 1983: Tonight, when Kelli said her prayers, what was uppermost in her thoughts was that Heather, Mindy and Carlie are flying to Tucson tomorrow. She said, "And please DON'T bless the plane to crash so that everybody has to go to the hospital." It was cute, and she put so much expression into the thought!

I do not know why I was unsatisfied living in our cute little apartment.  Maybe it was because I could walk all over Raymond, so that meant that one day as the girls and I were walking over to Aunt Judy's, pushing David in the stroller, I went past my cousin Keith's realty office and saw a cute little old-fashioned house for sale for only $30,000. Which was an awesome price--far less than the $90,000 that Arlene and Michael had paid for their house in California. And it was summer, and so lovely weather, and so I forgot again all about hating the winter. And I just made up my mind that I really, really wanted that little house. So I talked my dad into helping us to buy that little house.

The journal records on on August 1, "We moved into our new house located at 77 E 200 N. It gives us so much more room than we have ever had."  The house was on two levels, not counting the super scary basement which I actually never, ever went into. Not even once. On the main floor, there was a living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and family room. Upstairs, there were three more bedrooms. Although two of them were attic bedrooms, so not much height to the rooms. But perfect for the girls, who each claimed one of them. First time they ever had their own rooms.

Sometime during the summer, Kelli took her pre-grade one testing at the elementary school, where her scores were phenomenally high. Only, they got her test scores mixed up initially with those of Kelliane Layton, a distant cousin who also lived in Raymond! I met Kelliane's mom at the park one day, and that was when I found out that someone at the school had called her to comment on Kelliane's high test scores, only to call her back to tell her that, no, those scores were actually the scores of a Kelline Layton. Weird, the similarity of their names!

I know that I met again with the principal to see if Kelli could please go straight to grade two, since she was already a fluent reader (in Alberta, the children were not even beginning to read until Grade One) and she had finished the math text book already. But he said, no, they could not do that. She would need to stay with children her age.  Had I been a more experienced mother, I would have fought him on that--but I didn't know any better.

August 30 -- "We were ready to say family prayer last night but Daddy wasn't home. Kelli said, "I'm glad Daddy isn't going to say the prayer. I like Daddy's prayers. They are nice prayers, but they're so lo-o-o-o-ong!" and she had such expression! :o)"

August 31 -- "We went swimming today, and Kelli was diving off the low diving board. She felt pretty confident, so she tried jumping off backwards. It was a good jump, and she raise her arms up high overhead. She landed in the water--and her swimmies stayed ON TOP of the water! She can swim, so she didn't even go under water, but it really scared her, and she screamed and screamed! Abbi started screaming and crying, too. Sharon Allred [a life guard] came to Kelli's rescue, and of course, she was all right. I was really proud of her, because even after her scare, she went right back and climbed up on the diving board and jumped in, but forwards this time!"

May 1983

After arriving in Canada on April 29, we stayed at my parents' farmhouse while Bruce looked for work, and we both looked for a place to live. It actually all happened pretty quickly. Bruce found employment with an alarm company, but as an installer--at Visutron he had both built the alarm systems, and monitored them, but he had not been an installer.

Since the company he worked for was in Lethbridge, but he would be driving all over southern Alberta, we looked in Raymond, where the housing was less expensive, and found an apartment in a six-plex. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs, and living room, kitchen, laundry room and bathroom upstairs. We had not lived in a house with stairs for awhile, so the girls found that exciting.

We had not been in Alberta very long--less than a month-- when Arlene and her children came to visit. On May 23, we went to Taber to the parade, and slept overnight at Colleen's house in Grassy Lake.

May 28 was a Saturday. In Kelli's words: "Jennifer, Lance and Auntie Arlene slept over at our house last night. We got up early and went to Waterton. I liked Cameron Falls. I looked down at it from the path and saw the water. I saw squirrels. Auntie Arlene saw a deer, and we went and saw it. I liked to play in the snow at Cameron Lake. I wanted to build a snowman, but the snow was too hard. I thought there were going to be bears on the Bear's Hump. All the way up the Bear's Hump I thought about Miss Roche, and how my heart was getting lots of exercise. I saw one deer. I wanted to climb another mountain."

L-R: Abbi, Bruce holding David, Kelli, Arlene, Jenna and Lance at Cameron Lake.

The deer that Arlene saw. Bruce and Abbi are in the back, then Arlene holding David, with Kelli and Jenna in front of her, and Lance on the far right.

On May 31, I took this picture:

L-R: Lance, Arlene, Jenna, my dad holding Kelli, Abbi, my mom holding David.

May memories:
1. We had a late snowstorm one day, which totally took us by surprise. We had, after all, just moved from San Diego, and it was Spring. We did not have the proper clothing yet.

2. In our ward in Raymond, there were four women in the primary who were under five feet tall! They all stood about 4-11. Anne Sykes, Sheila Michel and Diane Mora were all in the primary presidency, and Sister Hirsche, whose first name is escaping my memory, was a teacher. That was just a random happenstance that I have not forgotten--all the short people!

3. I went to the school to see about putting Kelli in kindergarten, but the principal, coincidentally--but a highly like occurrence in Southern Alberta, actually, where everyone seems to be connected--my cousin Rita's husband's brother, felt that there wasn't enough left of the school year to bother. Kindergarten ended at the end of May, unlike actual school which continued through the end of June. And besides, in Alberta kindergartens of the time, the children mostly just played. As we discussed Kelli's education in California, Mr. Hardy registered surprise--she had been using the same math textbook that they would use in Grade One in Raymond.