Monday, May 28
“You might find that your brain is hanging out in the slow lane today, dear Aries. Gradually it may even be creeping over to the breakdown lane. You might find that it is harder to make your quick, witty, rebuttals to the conversations at hand. Take your time and make sure you choose your words very carefully. Communicating with others might be a bit like pulling teeth.”
Sometimes I look at my horoscope for no other reason than to amuse myself. This one cracked me up. And never mind the fact that I feel it is true.
Why is it that some days you wake up all fired up and ready to take on the world? Then there are those other days where one seems to wonder what to do after getting up off the bed.
Today is one of those hanging out in the slow lane type of days. Every morning I wash my hair at the sink. My bed head is just too scary for most people. The routine is the same. I take my shampoo and conditioner out of the drawer next to the sink and place them on the right and left side of the sink in the order that I use them. Today they were on opposite sides. I don’t know why? I started with the cream rinse and then shampooed my hair. Half way through the shampoo, I realized that it was backwards. However I decided that maybe I have discovered a new method of hair washing and just let my hair be. Who knows, maybe we have been doing it wrong all along.
I have spent the rest of the day trying to stay out of the breakdown lane. I will let you know how that turns out for me.
WKH
Monday, May 28, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
GRANDMA TELL ME A STORY
“Grandma, tell me a story.”
Stories rush to my head. I feel like a shaken two litre diet coke with the cap slowly being untwisted. The words, thoughts, and memories are all fighting to come out first.
“What would you like to hear, honey?”
“Tell me something about when you were little.”
Alanna has frequent weekend night sleepovers. We love to have her as much as she loves to come. Well at least for the time being. On one of these occasions, she forgot to bring a book for me to read to her at bedtime.
I have always read stories to my children. The difference now is that I don’t seem to be as tired or have as many things on my mind when I read the books. In fact I look forward to it as an exceptional quality time. So many things come up when you read.
I have this wonderful memory of Bill and Jill together in our comfy armchair. Jill is about 3 months old and is tucked in under Bill’s arm while Bill is reading to Jill. He is reading her his electrical engineering manual. I remember chastising him for reading her such a book. His response was that Jill did not care about which words were spoken to her, but that she was being spoken to.
I have since discovered something better than reading a story. That is telling a story that you have buried deep down inside you. A story that you have but have not thought to share with others. We all have stories. We all have history. We all have special events that we can retell in our own words. All it takes is a little quiet time, a little prodding, and a little deep searching; and some little ears that eagerly wait to hear your story.
Well Alanna when I was young, actually younger than you are…..
I use to go to bed at seven p.m. In fact I was told that I quite frequently fell asleep before I finished my supper. However, I awoke early in the morning like 6 a.m.
I would go to the kitchen and sit with dad as he got ready for work. He made coffee. He sometimes made porridge for him and me.
“Do you like porridge, grandma?”
Well yes I do. I love it with brown sugar and a little milk. Dad always got it ready for me and we would eat it together. We didn’t really say too much. My dad didn’t speak much. But he had the best smile.
I would say good-by to him as he left for work. It was a special time with just me and my dad.
“Just like it is with you and me now?”
“Yes Alanna exactly like that.”
I continue the story that I had set out to tell before we got slightly side tracked. This one particular morning, I awoke like all the other mornings at 6 a.m. I walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. You know yawning and everything.
“I know grandma, I do that sometimes too.”
As I got to the living room, I saw him.
“Who did you see grandma?”
Well that was the problem. I saw something that I had never seen before in our house and it kind of scared me.
“You were scared, grandma?”
Yes Alanna we all get scared at times. This scared me so bad that I froze in the spot that I saw him and screamed really loud.
“What did you see grandma?”
Well, I saw the biggest, whitest, fur ball curled up under our coffee table. He had four legs, two ears, a tail and two huge eyes. I was sure that we had a polar bear in our living room.
“Did you really grandma?”
Well, not exactly, but I thought so. I awoke the whole family and the big animal under the coffee table.
You see while I was sleeping the night before, a stray white Samoyed dog found its way to our home. We took it in and fed it and gave it shelter.
“Who did it belong to grandma?”
Well that was the problem, we didn’t know. And as it turned out we never found out whose it was. You see Alanna, when I was young; the homes in our area rarely had fences around their home. And dogs and cats were allowed to travel around the neighborhood free. Often dogs and cats went missing.
“Did you keep him grandma?”
We did keep him Alanna and in fact we named him “Chief”. I loved him dearly and he never scared me anymore. In fact he made me feel safe and protected.
“When I have a dog, grandma, I will probably feel that safe just like you.”
I hope so Alanna, I really hope so.
Stories rush to my head. I feel like a shaken two litre diet coke with the cap slowly being untwisted. The words, thoughts, and memories are all fighting to come out first.
“What would you like to hear, honey?”
“Tell me something about when you were little.”
Alanna has frequent weekend night sleepovers. We love to have her as much as she loves to come. Well at least for the time being. On one of these occasions, she forgot to bring a book for me to read to her at bedtime.
I have always read stories to my children. The difference now is that I don’t seem to be as tired or have as many things on my mind when I read the books. In fact I look forward to it as an exceptional quality time. So many things come up when you read.
I have this wonderful memory of Bill and Jill together in our comfy armchair. Jill is about 3 months old and is tucked in under Bill’s arm while Bill is reading to Jill. He is reading her his electrical engineering manual. I remember chastising him for reading her such a book. His response was that Jill did not care about which words were spoken to her, but that she was being spoken to.
I have since discovered something better than reading a story. That is telling a story that you have buried deep down inside you. A story that you have but have not thought to share with others. We all have stories. We all have history. We all have special events that we can retell in our own words. All it takes is a little quiet time, a little prodding, and a little deep searching; and some little ears that eagerly wait to hear your story.
Well Alanna when I was young, actually younger than you are…..
I use to go to bed at seven p.m. In fact I was told that I quite frequently fell asleep before I finished my supper. However, I awoke early in the morning like 6 a.m.
I would go to the kitchen and sit with dad as he got ready for work. He made coffee. He sometimes made porridge for him and me.
“Do you like porridge, grandma?”
Well yes I do. I love it with brown sugar and a little milk. Dad always got it ready for me and we would eat it together. We didn’t really say too much. My dad didn’t speak much. But he had the best smile.
I would say good-by to him as he left for work. It was a special time with just me and my dad.
“Just like it is with you and me now?”
“Yes Alanna exactly like that.”
I continue the story that I had set out to tell before we got slightly side tracked. This one particular morning, I awoke like all the other mornings at 6 a.m. I walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. You know yawning and everything.
“I know grandma, I do that sometimes too.”
As I got to the living room, I saw him.
“Who did you see grandma?”
Well that was the problem. I saw something that I had never seen before in our house and it kind of scared me.
“You were scared, grandma?”
Yes Alanna we all get scared at times. This scared me so bad that I froze in the spot that I saw him and screamed really loud.
“What did you see grandma?”
Well, I saw the biggest, whitest, fur ball curled up under our coffee table. He had four legs, two ears, a tail and two huge eyes. I was sure that we had a polar bear in our living room.
“Did you really grandma?”
Well, not exactly, but I thought so. I awoke the whole family and the big animal under the coffee table.
You see while I was sleeping the night before, a stray white Samoyed dog found its way to our home. We took it in and fed it and gave it shelter.
“Who did it belong to grandma?”
Well that was the problem, we didn’t know. And as it turned out we never found out whose it was. You see Alanna, when I was young; the homes in our area rarely had fences around their home. And dogs and cats were allowed to travel around the neighborhood free. Often dogs and cats went missing.
“Did you keep him grandma?”
We did keep him Alanna and in fact we named him “Chief”. I loved him dearly and he never scared me anymore. In fact he made me feel safe and protected.
“When I have a dog, grandma, I will probably feel that safe just like you.”
I hope so Alanna, I really hope so.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
COMMENTS PART TWO
AND NOW THEY ARE BACK!
APPARENTLY IF I DO A POST A SAVE IT TO DRAFT BEFORE I PUBLISH, IT DISABLES THE COMMENTS.
THE LESSON IS TO KEEP IT SHORT AND THEN I WON'T NEED TO SAVE TO DRAFT
OI VEY!
WKH
APPARENTLY IF I DO A POST A SAVE IT TO DRAFT BEFORE I PUBLISH, IT DISABLES THE COMMENTS.
THE LESSON IS TO KEEP IT SHORT AND THEN I WON'T NEED TO SAVE TO DRAFT
OI VEY!
WKH
Comments
I have noticed that I do not have a comments section. I really like comments but apparently I am not alone in this department with blogger. I am now working through all the help groups to figure out why my comment section is disabled. Yes I have checked all my settings. I think that is equivalent to asking if the broken appliance is plugged in. So hopefully this will be fixed so that I can enjoy any comments anyone might have
WKH
WKH
Monday, May 14, 2007
Wanderlust
WANDERLUST: "The irresistible and very strong urge to travel."
My Great Grandparents
As I look at and research my family history, I am in awe of the fact that I am only second generation family from Canada. I have been researching my maternal mother's family. The Krikau's.
My maternal great grandmother and great grandfather lived in Prussia in a town called Warrenburg. My grandma McLaughlin was born their as was four of her six siblings. The Krikau's can be traced back to Wolfenhausen, Vitrunkel county of Germany as far back as the early 1700's. This was the time of Catherine the Great. The times were poor. The peasants were treated badly. There was war. These conditions made the time ripe for recruitment of the Germans to Prussia. As I understand it, some of Catherine The Greats' incentives included free travel, freedom of religion, freedom to build churches and church schools. Temporary freedom from taxes and capital for developing a parcel of land in the Prussian Volga region.
According to my grandmother's nephew (John Krikau) who did all this research, not many of these incentives were realized. However the promise was enough for a few adventurous souls, including one of my great great great grandfathers, to move to their new home along the Volga valley.
As the early 1900's came forth, once again there was political, economic, and religious unrest in Prussia. My grandmother's parents must have felt this and took advantage of yet another offer to resettle in "the land of opportunity", America.
They had letters from a first cousin who was established in Canada as a farmer and would sponsor them.
I obviously have never been through war, or persecutions for my beliefs or for that matter I have never been hungry. On some cerebral level I understand this motivation. But many in Prussia were in the same pickle.
What was it that caused my great grandfather to make the journey? Given the times, I am only assuming that it would have been an unilateral decision. What made my great grandfather actually move his wife and 5 small children away from his family and all that he knew?
I like to surmise that along with these motivating factors, their was a huge proportion of an adventurer and dreamer in him. He must have been a sweet talker to convince my great grandmother to go along with him. Or their must have been great love for her not to stay behind while her husband went ahead and got things settled. I am always the romantic.
They arrived in Ellis Island in New York on October 17th 1911. They traveled by train to Rosthern Saskatchewan on the sponsorship of the first cousin. A few years later my great grandfather moved away from the farm to Winnipeg. There is an unsubstantiated story that great grandfather had saved the soul of a person on the ship ride from Prussia. This fellow was so appreciative that he paid for train transportation for him and his family to go to California. However my great grandfather did not realize that there was a 100 dollar head tax for each member of the family. He couldn't afford it and thus stayed in Winnipeg for a few years.
The family moved on to Illinois in 1924. One exception was my maternal grandmother. She stayed in Winnipeg and was married. As an aside this marriage has remained a big mystery in my genealogy research as she divorced him and remarried and no one talked about him.
So my grandma stayed behind because of love. I understand this. My mother was born in Winnipeg. My maternal grandmother and her first husband moved to Saskatoon. She lived her remaining days there.
My mom and dad met, married and lived in Saskatoon all their married life. I was born in Saskatoon along with my 6 siblings.
Bill and I met and married in Saskatoon. We spent one year of our married life in our home city of Saskatoon. I believe the romantic in me said I would follow him to the ends of the earth just to be with him. And thus began our journey following the money and opportunity trail.
We moved to Regina where Bill got his first engineering job out of university. Regina is where my two daughters were born. We moved to Edmonton and now we live in Calgary. I followed.
Bill and I always called these moves our response to the seven year itch. I thought we were the start of the wanderlust generation. But were we?
We were following the dream of something better and probably bigger. The Alberta advantage took us. The land of opportunity; economic improvement and no provincial tax.
The cycle carries on.
Last week Jackie called me. She was so excited and talking a mile a minute. She has decided to stay in Japan. This decision was not a big surprise to me. Mothers just know. After her contract with Jet is finished at the end of July, she is moving to Tokyo. She has one more year left on her Japan work visa and what a shame to waste it.
Jackie loves big cities and do they come any bigger than Tokyo? Her pragmatic side made her realize that she had greater earning potential in Tokyo than in Canada. Apparently, Tokyo has many opportunities for English speaking persons.
Jackie is already looking for accommodation and has some promising leads. I believe Jackie is motivated to stay for the economic side of her life. She is also pursuing the challenge of another foreign big city. She loves the challenge. She is also looking for a new community to find happiness and love.
Globally the world is very small. The modern conveniences such as computers, messaging, phones, and affordable airfare allow for this. Jackie's generation listlessly travels to a new world for adventure and for the opportunity to improve economically.
My family has many generations of re establishing themselves in foreign and unknown places. Maybe the reason for moving away now are no different from those of 300 years ago.
Economic, opportunity, adventure, and maybe love.
WKH
My Great Grandparents
As I look at and research my family history, I am in awe of the fact that I am only second generation family from Canada. I have been researching my maternal mother's family. The Krikau's.
My maternal great grandmother and great grandfather lived in Prussia in a town called Warrenburg. My grandma McLaughlin was born their as was four of her six siblings. The Krikau's can be traced back to Wolfenhausen, Vitrunkel county of Germany as far back as the early 1700's. This was the time of Catherine the Great. The times were poor. The peasants were treated badly. There was war. These conditions made the time ripe for recruitment of the Germans to Prussia. As I understand it, some of Catherine The Greats' incentives included free travel, freedom of religion, freedom to build churches and church schools. Temporary freedom from taxes and capital for developing a parcel of land in the Prussian Volga region.
According to my grandmother's nephew (John Krikau) who did all this research, not many of these incentives were realized. However the promise was enough for a few adventurous souls, including one of my great great great grandfathers, to move to their new home along the Volga valley.
As the early 1900's came forth, once again there was political, economic, and religious unrest in Prussia. My grandmother's parents must have felt this and took advantage of yet another offer to resettle in "the land of opportunity", America.
They had letters from a first cousin who was established in Canada as a farmer and would sponsor them.
I obviously have never been through war, or persecutions for my beliefs or for that matter I have never been hungry. On some cerebral level I understand this motivation. But many in Prussia were in the same pickle.
What was it that caused my great grandfather to make the journey? Given the times, I am only assuming that it would have been an unilateral decision. What made my great grandfather actually move his wife and 5 small children away from his family and all that he knew?
I like to surmise that along with these motivating factors, their was a huge proportion of an adventurer and dreamer in him. He must have been a sweet talker to convince my great grandmother to go along with him. Or their must have been great love for her not to stay behind while her husband went ahead and got things settled. I am always the romantic.
They arrived in Ellis Island in New York on October 17th 1911. They traveled by train to Rosthern Saskatchewan on the sponsorship of the first cousin. A few years later my great grandfather moved away from the farm to Winnipeg. There is an unsubstantiated story that great grandfather had saved the soul of a person on the ship ride from Prussia. This fellow was so appreciative that he paid for train transportation for him and his family to go to California. However my great grandfather did not realize that there was a 100 dollar head tax for each member of the family. He couldn't afford it and thus stayed in Winnipeg for a few years.
The family moved on to Illinois in 1924. One exception was my maternal grandmother. She stayed in Winnipeg and was married. As an aside this marriage has remained a big mystery in my genealogy research as she divorced him and remarried and no one talked about him.
So my grandma stayed behind because of love. I understand this. My mother was born in Winnipeg. My maternal grandmother and her first husband moved to Saskatoon. She lived her remaining days there.
My mom and dad met, married and lived in Saskatoon all their married life. I was born in Saskatoon along with my 6 siblings.
Bill and I met and married in Saskatoon. We spent one year of our married life in our home city of Saskatoon. I believe the romantic in me said I would follow him to the ends of the earth just to be with him. And thus began our journey following the money and opportunity trail.
We moved to Regina where Bill got his first engineering job out of university. Regina is where my two daughters were born. We moved to Edmonton and now we live in Calgary. I followed.
Bill and I always called these moves our response to the seven year itch. I thought we were the start of the wanderlust generation. But were we?
We were following the dream of something better and probably bigger. The Alberta advantage took us. The land of opportunity; economic improvement and no provincial tax.
The cycle carries on.
Last week Jackie called me. She was so excited and talking a mile a minute. She has decided to stay in Japan. This decision was not a big surprise to me. Mothers just know. After her contract with Jet is finished at the end of July, she is moving to Tokyo. She has one more year left on her Japan work visa and what a shame to waste it.
Jackie loves big cities and do they come any bigger than Tokyo? Her pragmatic side made her realize that she had greater earning potential in Tokyo than in Canada. Apparently, Tokyo has many opportunities for English speaking persons.
Jackie is already looking for accommodation and has some promising leads. I believe Jackie is motivated to stay for the economic side of her life. She is also pursuing the challenge of another foreign big city. She loves the challenge. She is also looking for a new community to find happiness and love.
Globally the world is very small. The modern conveniences such as computers, messaging, phones, and affordable airfare allow for this. Jackie's generation listlessly travels to a new world for adventure and for the opportunity to improve economically.
My family has many generations of re establishing themselves in foreign and unknown places. Maybe the reason for moving away now are no different from those of 300 years ago.
Economic, opportunity, adventure, and maybe love.
WKH
Friday, May 4, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Anniversary
We were married 32 years ago today.
A marvelous bright blue sky dawned that day and the sun shone down upon us. Brides never want a rainy day. It had something to do with bad luck.
I was 21 years, 1 month, and 8 days old. Bill was 20 years, 6 months and 23 days old. We were just babies. I know for certain we didn't think so at the time. After all, I had a full time job nursing. I had money in the bank. And I was in love. Bill had just completed his 3rd year of engineering. And he was in love.
While in Japan, Jackie and I had a discussion about love. The only thing I knew for sure is that "you just Know" when you are in love with that special someone. How do you know, mom?
You never stop thinking about each other. You never want to be separated. It is that unexplainable feeling that nothing else matters as long as you are together.
Only three other times have I ever felt that way. The birth of Jill, Jackie and Alanna. There is a connection that takes you over and you let it take you.
It was this feeling that I walked toward on our wedding day. I was not thinking of where we would be 32 years later. It was only for that moment of letting our friends and family know we were meant to be together forever.
As the anniversaries added up, the time seemed to speed up. It has been a long time since we lived in a basement apartment with concrete block and wooden bookshelves. It has been a long time since Bill would come to pick me up from my evening shift and we would go out for pizza until 2 or 3 a.m.
We have enjoyed life in 4 cities, 1 apartment, 4 houses, and one condo. Location did not matter to our marriage. In fact it strengthened it as we learned to become independent of family.
We have accumulated our material things. It was great. More things did not make us happier. Together and at the same time we realized that life was more than what we owned. We downsized and simplified our life. In this simplified life we have found our lives becoming strengthened as a couple who can enjoy our time together.
We have two daughters, one son in law and our grand daughter. We have been blessed to watch their growth into adulthood and find their own lives. We have been so enriched by our granddaughter. We really should all be grandparents first. It is a much easier ride.
Bill and I do not have the magic answer to marriage. We have magic in our marriage. I live each day with a grateful heart. I have married my best friend for life. And that life so far has been truly magical and full of love.
WKH
A marvelous bright blue sky dawned that day and the sun shone down upon us. Brides never want a rainy day. It had something to do with bad luck.
I was 21 years, 1 month, and 8 days old. Bill was 20 years, 6 months and 23 days old. We were just babies. I know for certain we didn't think so at the time. After all, I had a full time job nursing. I had money in the bank. And I was in love. Bill had just completed his 3rd year of engineering. And he was in love.
While in Japan, Jackie and I had a discussion about love. The only thing I knew for sure is that "you just Know" when you are in love with that special someone. How do you know, mom?
You never stop thinking about each other. You never want to be separated. It is that unexplainable feeling that nothing else matters as long as you are together.
Only three other times have I ever felt that way. The birth of Jill, Jackie and Alanna. There is a connection that takes you over and you let it take you.
It was this feeling that I walked toward on our wedding day. I was not thinking of where we would be 32 years later. It was only for that moment of letting our friends and family know we were meant to be together forever.
As the anniversaries added up, the time seemed to speed up. It has been a long time since we lived in a basement apartment with concrete block and wooden bookshelves. It has been a long time since Bill would come to pick me up from my evening shift and we would go out for pizza until 2 or 3 a.m.
We have enjoyed life in 4 cities, 1 apartment, 4 houses, and one condo. Location did not matter to our marriage. In fact it strengthened it as we learned to become independent of family.
We have accumulated our material things. It was great. More things did not make us happier. Together and at the same time we realized that life was more than what we owned. We downsized and simplified our life. In this simplified life we have found our lives becoming strengthened as a couple who can enjoy our time together.
We have two daughters, one son in law and our grand daughter. We have been blessed to watch their growth into adulthood and find their own lives. We have been so enriched by our granddaughter. We really should all be grandparents first. It is a much easier ride.
Bill and I do not have the magic answer to marriage. We have magic in our marriage. I live each day with a grateful heart. I have married my best friend for life. And that life so far has been truly magical and full of love.
WKH
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