This morning.

I just took this photo 10 minutes ago. Ninja is licking Hans' face. This is where she likes to sit while Hans is working. It's all about her!

Ninja, Phoebe, Jenn, Me and Hans

Ninja is stretched out on Jenn's legs in the den. She learned this special position by watching her mentor Phoebe.

This is Phoebe and me at the lake last summer. Because we moved into a condo, Phoebe had to become an inside cat, which, amazingly to us, she managed without much fuss at all. Now she gets excited if she hears voices while she is out on the balcony. Heck, I get excited too, we live overlooking a ravine and the river.

This is by far her favourite spot at the lake. The screened-in porch. She could spend hours just watching outside. We never used to take her to the lake, but now she comes with us every weekend we go. It seems that she knows when we are going home and she hides under one of the couches.

On the other hand, this is Ninja's favourite spot. She loves it when Hans stays home to work. She can be very helpful laying on the keyboard and playing with all his pencils and stuff. Hans has to throw pencils on the floor to keep her occupied. We find pencils all over for the next week or so. Who can resist her?

This is one of my favourite spots. The view from our balcony in the morning. Who can resist this?

Little Alia

This is the picture in the same frame as the last. Alia looks like she is about 3 years old here. I was still working on that natural light thing, to quite the extreme I think. I like this photo because Alia is not looking at the camera and is not smiling. Not typical of her.

I thought that these two photos were taken at the same time, but unless I am really off with one of these ages, they must have been taken a year apart. Maybe Jenn is older than I thought in her picture or Alia is younger. Like I said, don't trust your memory for these types of things. That and where did I buy my rrsp's? That sort of thing too.

Little Jenn

This is a picture taken of Jennifer Amy when she was about 4 years old. I'm not very good at judging ages, and of course, I didn't write anything on the back of the picture. Typical. When I was younger, I trusted that I would be able to tell the year and content of every picture I took. Memory is a fickle thing, trust me.

I do believe it was summer when this picture was taken, because I recall that Jenn didn't want to come inside and placate me. She did finally agree, but would only sit for a few minutes. When I got the film back (this was way before digital), I was really pleased with most of the shots taken. I had made all of her friends and sister sit for pictures as well that day. I was trying my hand out on photography using only natural light. I loved the way that the shadow fell.

This picture sits on the top shelf of my desk here in the den. I've decided to share all the photos on my top shelf over the next few posts. I must love these photos as I look at them every day and never tire of them. I love this den, it is filled with pictures on all the walls, every available wall space has a group of photos, or a painting or an old print. Pictures and pieces that I have always loved, now all together in one room. What luck to have a space where I can display all the pieces I love. The room is not huge, and there is no window, so I always fell like I am being embraced by these precious memories.

In fact, our whole condo feels this way. It's not big, 1150 square feet in all. When we moved, we purged a huge amount of stuff. I also got rid of much of our decorations. Keeping only those things that I loved. Most of the stuff that we owned was given to us, vases, glasses, silver. Wedding and Christmas gifts. I garage saled most of it. When we moved, we had an empty canvas. I was able to organize items into groups. Of all of the jugs that were my mother's collection, I saved only those ones that I loved, and placed them on top of the sideboard hutch. Because the condo is open concept, I am able to see them every day. My honey pot collection is all in the hutch, again making for easy viewing. Then I got to go shopping. I needed to find beautiful things that were just right for this space. I needed to fill my new bookcase. I discovered art glass bottles. I'll share pictures of them too. Our bedroom got a feng shui makeover as well. Those are all other posts.

Humm, what started out as sharing a picture has turned into a whole series! I'll need to get organized. Till next time......

Come over to Jenn's house

Our older daughter Jenn, who will be an amazing 25 on April 8th, is redoing her livingroom/diningroom floors in deep rich walnut coloured wood. It is stunningly beautiful so far. Hans and her worked on it last Saturday and will finish it up this Saturday. She lives 15 floors up overlooking the city. She told us that on the 1st of July, she can see not only the city fireworks, but Sherwood Park as well. How lovely is that?

There is a rule in the condo that she lives in that no renovation projects can be worked on on Sundays. Isn't that a brillant rule? Other days all renovation has to be finished by 5pm. What a great idea. I think no work on Sunday means that you have to relax that day, no matter what. A forced rest is always a good idea, even though it may not seem so at the time. She has bought and painted the baseboards, hopefully they can get that done as well tomorrow. The baseboards are nice and tall, 3+ inches I hear. I wonder what colour she went with. I'll know tomorrow. I'm picking her up and we are going area carpet shopping together. We both stopped at HomeSense in the north end last Saturday, but at different times. And we both saw the same rug and thought it would be a good pick. We must be related!

We really enjoy these little renovation projects. I think even though we moved in to a condo, we won't run out of projects for our family and friends. And then there is the cottage. That's another post..............

Ninja Pictures, March 21, 2007

Hooked on Cruises

This is a picture of my cousins and their wives and Hans and I on a cruise recently. We had such a wonderful time. We can't wait to go again. This is just our second cruise and we are hooked now.

We want to go on an Alaskan and a Hawaiian cruise. We have big plans! Teehee

Pictures

These are pictures of the wanderlust child heading out into the world. The first picture is the going away breakfast on the Sunday before she left. The other two are at the airport. Alia is the one in the green, Shea is on her right, beside her is Craig and Dave at the end. In the last picture is Shae, Alia and her big sister Jenn.

Wanderlust

I think it's interesting that when I tell people that my youngest daughter has left home once again and is embarking on her greatest adventure yet - alone. I get a variety of responses. What is also interesting is my reaction to their response. Who knew that I could be so bendy?

Older family members tend to response with a sense of fear for her. My reaction is to scoff their response and assure them that she will be fine. After all, she has travelled a lot, she's an adult, that sort of thing.

My peers are a mixed bag, some are in awe of her, and wish they had done the same. Others think it's wonderful, and are considering doing it themselves. Yet others shake their heads and make soothing noises. For me? To soothe me? I have discovered that with this group, I don't assure them of her safety. They already know where I am with all this, and assuring them will not assure me at all. No point.

The last group is the group that I am in awe of - her friends, her peers. Her immediate friends are the most impressive. They comment on her blog all the time, they are the ones assuring me, they give her good sound advice. Just the thought of my daughter having friends that accept her always, are so supportive, makes me a little weepy. Now, anyone who knows me know that I tend to weep over stuff, but this weeping is deep.

So, here is to Alia's friends. I want to be able to give back to you, everything that you have given to us and Alia, but there is no way I can ever do this. Maybe a glass of wine or a cup of coffee?

My hat is off. You are the best. Thank you. I love you all.