I'm a good little girl!

When Uncle Clive and his family moved out to the farm, Marnie and Arwen had cousins living close by and they could play together every day...if they got all their work done first!

Arwen, Maggie, Marnie, Melanie (aka Arlene, Margaret, Myrna, Marie)

One Saturday morning, Arwen was supposed to wash the sinks. Marnie was supposed to vacuum the living room furniture. While Arwen was busy scrubbing, Marnie was curled up with a book.

Arwen said, "I'm finished my work! Can I call to see if Maggie and Melanie can come over and play?"

Mommy said "Yes, Arwen YOU can play, but Marnie won't be able to play until she does her chores."

Marnie heard, but she really wanted to finish just this page...just this chapter...just the book...so she kept on reading.

Arwen picked up the radio receiver and said, "740 calling 784. 784, do you read me?"

Maggie's voice came in loud and clear, "784 here. Hi Arwen!"

"Can you and Melanie come and play?" asked Arwen.

Maggie said she would ask, and then said they could come.

"Marnie," said Mommy. "Maggie and Melanie are on their way over to play. But you have not done your chores."

"I will...." whined Marnie. "I just need to finish this paragraph!"

The doorbell rang, and Arwen ran to open the door. She and Maggie immediately ran down the stairs to play in the basement.

Melanie came into the kitchen. "Hi, Auntie Opal!" she said with a big smile.

"Hi Melanie, " said Mommy. "I think you will need to go and play with Arwen and Maggie, because Marnie has not done her work. She needs to vacuum the furniture."

"I'll do it, Auntie Opal!" said Melanie. "I'm a good little girl!"

Marnie heard that and it made her mad! As if SHE was NOT a good little girl just because she had not vacuumed!  She WOULD vacuum, she just was reading NOW, but she was GOING to vacuum! She was STILL a good little girl!

Marnie jumped right up and got out the vacuum. "I'm doing it," she said in a bit of a huff. "Melanie doesn't need to do my job! It is my job and I can do it."

"Well, I don't mind doing it, Auntie Opal. I like to help because I'm a good little girl," Melanie repeated.

"That's okay, Melanie. I am glad you like to help, but it looks like Marnie is doing it. Thank you for offering," said Mommy.

Marnie did her vacuuming and put the vacuum away. Now she could play. As she and Melanie went down the hall to get out some dolls to play with, Melanie said, "You should do what your mom asks, Marnie. Then you can be a good little girl like me."

Myrna, Arlene, Colleen, Bruce, Marie, Margaret, Perry, Harold, Ruth and John

Old house, new kitchen

The Botts have completely transformed our old house's kitchen. What do you think? Do you even recognize it?

The centre island is the bar portion cut off and moved to the middle of the floor.  They built new cabinets to line up with the old ones, and then with new finishing and paint and knobs...new kitchen. Almost makes me want to move back there...except for the yard work which is too much for me.

Random comment: the slogan over the window "live well, love much, laugh often" is also in our new house. We didn't put it in either place, but it is kind of funny to me that both houses have it!

The Botts replaced both windows that didn't open with windows that do open. They brought the easternmost window up so that it matched the other window in height so they could build the new part of the countertops at the same height.

Can't believe my baby will be 20 tomorrow! (and by tomorrow I mean April 7!)

Sweet baby Josie! She was born during a particularly difficult time for our family.  It was hard to be pregnant at that time. My good friend Jacquie, in her delightful French Canadian accent, told me that she prayed and asked why God was sending me a baby at such a trying time. Jacquie said "He told me he was sending you a baby to show you that he loves you!"

I had my first ultrasound ever with this baby because I was an older mother (36) and I had a history of diabetes in pregnancy--ultrasounds were NOT routine in Canada twenty years ago. Given my circumstances, my wonderful doctor, Tricia Ewert, ordered two ultrasounds. But no gender reveal--Dr. Ewert was not in favor of that. She was a young doctor with an old "wait and see" attitude.

That reminds me of a story, so I had better tell it so I don't forget it.  It was the day of my second ultrasound appointment. Abbi had come home from school (George Pearkes Junior Secondary School in Port Coquitlam, B.C.) for lunch.  The plan was that I would take Patrick to the recreation center across the street from the school for his preschool class, and also drop Abra off at her school. Abbi would walk Patrick into the rec center for his class, and then go to school herself., and I would take off for my appointment at the Port Moody hospital, and be back in time to pick both of them up again when their classes were over.

All went according to plan, except that when Abbi and Patrick got to the door of his classroom, there was a note on the door saying that class was cancelled!  What was Abra to do? No cell phones in those days, and I was in a car driving to a neighboring city....so she took her little brother to school with her.  He was apparently very shy, and spent his time in her classes sitting on the floor under her desk hiding and not making a sound. Patrick remembers that the students around him would hand him papers and pencils and crayons, and he occupied himself with coloring and drawing.

Was I ever surprised to find that Patrick was taking junior high classes that afternoon instead of preschool classes! (His preschool teacher was Dora Miller, mother of Kimberly Miller Vanderhorst.)

Back to the baby: my across the street neighbor, Midori Walter, was also pregnant. Her due date was April 7. My due date was April 14, my mother's birthday.  On the morning of April 7, I had a doctor appointment. I had already had several false labor days, and had not been sleeping at all well. Dr. Ewert decided to strip my membrane, and predicted that the baby would be born that day.  Midori was not too happy when we headed to the hospital and she did not! We ended up swapping birthdays, with Josie born on Chandler's due date, and Chandler being born on Josie's due date!

The day of Josie's birth was a typical B.C. rainy day, but I remember that, just before we left the labor room to go into the delivery room, the sun came out and it was beautiful!

I had been absolutely dreading having a baby--I mean the physical LABOR of it--and so my husband told me that he was going to insist that I have an epidural.  But since Josie was coming right at the end of the day, Dr. Ewert ended up in some pretty bad rush hour traffic, and the road from Port Coquitlam to the Royal Columbian Hospital was not always easy, because of the bridges.  Every way out had a bridge, including one road that had only a one-way bridge.  So, the traffic could pile up.

To get myself through labor, I pretended I was a cow.  Another story coming: when I was about ten years old, my dad let Arlene and I go out to the pasture with him to watch a cow giving birth. She was a late deliverer, so we had already moved the cows from the winter to the summer pasture, so we were miles away from home, on the land where my cousin John's farm stands today, west of Taber. Arlene and I were in the back of the pickup watching the birth, and it was clear to me that having a baby calf was not easy. So, in my high-pitched, very shrill voice, I was yelling encouragement to the cow.  This did not amuse my father, and I was reprimanded and remanded to the cab, where any inadvertent noise I might make would be muffled. "Mothers having babies do NOT like to be disturbed!" Dad told me.

So, age 36, I thought of that cow, and labored with my memory of her. Josie was unusual because even during contractions, she continued to kick! She did not like contractions, and we all knew it. "Look at the baby kick!" the nurses would say, "Is that a football player in there? It sure can kick!"  It was almost shift-change time, and one nurse said, "I hope you deliver before I leave! I want to see who is in there kicking up a storm!" I guess that interest won the day, because my body rapidly got ready to birth the baby! We all --Bruce and I (with Josie inside me) and the nurses-- moved to the labor room before Dr. Ewert arrived, but she was there just in time to catch the baby.  And then I was really happy not to have had an epidural because, really, they suck. Once the baby was out, I felt fine!

She came out crying and looking around in amazement, with her lovely head of brown hair and her big eyes taking in all that was going on around her.

It was about 7 pm when she was born.  At midnight, she was still awake, looking around at the room and at me.  I would nurse her, she would not sleep. I would bounce her, she would not sleep. I would lay her in her bassinet, she would not sleep.  I was exhausted!  The hospital policy was that babies room with their mothers, so it was all up to me. And I was trying to keep her quiet because another mom and baby were in my room. (In a weird coincidence--our next door neighbors, the Garners, moved to Winnipeg the week Josie was born.  Our new neighbors would turn out to be the mom who was in my hospital room and her family.  She had a little girl and boy, and the baby was a boy, too. I think she named him Quinn, but that might not be right. I DO remember her other son's name, though: Elwood. Because you don't hear that name every day!)

Finally, the night nurse took Josie to the nursery to put her in the swing so I could get some sleep.  She came back with her at 7 AM, and told me that Josie had NOT SLEPT the whole time! Twelve hours old, and wide awake. (The nurse was rather irritated with me about that--why had I NOT taught my just-born baby to sleep?!)

Josie was a very pretty baby, and had a lot of charisma.  She was a baby that people loved to look at and hold and cuddle. Visitors in the hospital would say, "Wow! She has so much personality!"

Another neighbor, across the street next door to Midori, Brenda Klock, was one of the hospital cooks, so she always made sure my meals were delicious and with extras. What a lovely perk!

So, welcome to the world, baby girl! Your always quirky and always sweet personality has been such a pleasure to know!

One day, soon after Josie was born--within a few weeks or a month, at least, I had a plan to develop the film that had Josie's birth pictures on it.  The plan was to load the kids in the van, drive to school and drop them off, and then take the film to the store, so I could do it all in one trip. I am so totally not good with technology, and I had a new camera that used the better film, but I totally could not figure out how to get the film out, so I opened the camera wrong, exposing the film, and I totally lost it, crying and screaming and yelling. I am so sorry, my children, for my poor behavior that morning. It must have been really scary and worrisome to have your mother shrieking like a banshee.

So, the pictures sort of turned out. They have too much red in them, and the sides are ruined. But at least they are not totally destroyed.

Here are some baby Josie pictures for everyone's viewing pleasure:

Although I cropped out the red sides of the frame, the washed-out look of the picture is due to the over-exposure. Josie was just a week or so old in this picture. She was a very mature looking baby. And Patrick adored her.

Patrick and Josie on her blessing day.

Patrick and Josie

The next door neighbors on the OTHER SIDE come to see the new baby. Mila Babajee, Nancy holding Josie, Vanessa Babajee, and Gina Babajee. Our first friends from Mauritius! And now Josie will travel to Mauritius this summer of her 20th year.

Josie and one of her first best friends, her grandpa Arnold Conrad. They had so much in common! Not much hair, not many teeth, difficulty talking, difficulty walking...they really loved each other!

Baby Josie and her oldest sister. Kelli was all dressed up to work as a clown at some child's birthday party, I think.  Josie is not quite sure what to think!

Abbi, David, Nancy and Patrick surround baby Josie.  They all adored that lovely baby!

Patrick adored Josie, but sometimes she did not like him to pick her up and pack her around, which he routinely did. He especially liked to carry her downstairs with him, because he was afraid to go there by himself, but with her in his arms, he became very brave.

 Josie, I love you so much. I am so glad you are a part of our family!