Yay Cleo!

Cleo, my cat (aka Mao), was born around Sep 15th 1996. I say "around", because she was found as a young cat, abandoned on the beach in Metchosin BC, and the vet determined her approximate birthday.
For a 13 year old cat she is still very active and spry. So much so, that when I got home from work tonight - I had a surprise from her. She had caught her first chipmunk!!!!!!
Chipmunks are fast little buggers - I know, because I've seen her chase them.
So YAY puss!
(Granted - I am sorry for the little chipmunk.)
Later on I'll find a photo of Cleo & post it.

Time flies when you are having fun......

*S*I*G*H*

My vacation is over!

Tomorrow I have to go to work again. Ah well... all good things must (unfortunately) come to an end, I guess.

At the beginning of the week I visited with my sister Sylvia in Merritt. She has some interesting 4 legged neighbours.

This cat was drinking from a small puddle in the wheelbarrow .... isn't he cute!

And here is Sylvia giving another 4 legged neighbour a treat.

Then, Thursday to Saturday, I was at the 62nd Diocesan CWL Convention. (CWL = Catholic Women's League)

This is the display they set up for the statue of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

It was a great event and I enjoyed myself immensely!

A lovely full moon...

The moon was absolutely gorgeous tonight... I just had to take a few shots of it.

and then there is me...

I was born on November 28th 1962. Mom told me once that when she was pregnant with me she had cravings for those cans of spagghetti and ravioli... I love pasta to this day and it is one of my favourite foods (next to chocolate, of course!).

I inheritted a hip ailment from mom's side of the family. Her mother had the defect (but in her left hip), I have it in my right.

Mom also had a variation of it, but to a much lesser degree, in that she didn't have to have a hip replacement till she fairly old.

I had to have mine when I was 6. I was in the hospital for approximately 6 months while the doctors did what they did.

This is a photo of me playing with some toys in the hospital bed. (Which incidentally was bed #7 - my favourite number!)

I graduated from Mission Secondary School in 1980... here I am in my grad dress with Antoon and dad.

I was easy to spot on the stage - I was the only one wearing a dark colour... but I picked out the material myself and mom made my dress. Later, Sylvia reworked the dress and made it into a long skirt and used the left over material (which had some lovely beadwork mom had done) into a matching purse.

I still have both.


Mom and dad got me interested in the Scouts - here I am with mom & dad at an awards dinner where dad got his Bar to the Medal of Merit.

This is just about my favourite picture of all time (so far at least).

And here is a recent photo of me and my favourite sister-in-law, Loretta. She is like a sister - I am SOOOOO glad Robert married her!

The middle sister

Sylvia is next, born Sibyl Houben on March 18 1956, at 3:16pm, weighing 8 lbs 3 oz.




Sylvia was into sewing at an early age - here she is busy at work with mom's sewing machine. (I'm in the background & have no idea why I'm clutching my forehead!).








She married young - on October 6th 1973, to Douglas George Monds. They had 4 children in all, starting with twins Leah May and Tammy Lynn, then Donna Lee and finally Jared Allen.

Here's a photo of Sylvia with the twins shortly after their birth, and also in the photo is the twins great-grandmother on their dad's side.


However, Doug and Sylvia had some issues and separated. They get along better now than when they were married.

She lived common-law for several years with James Arthur (Art) Boyd and legally changed her name to Sylvia Boyd during this time. Art passed away due to illness on March 28th, 2000.

A little while later she met Gary Derksen (through the internet!) and currently lives common-law with Gary in Merritt.





Here is a recent photo taken at her son Jared's wedding.
From L to R: Leah, Jared, Tammy, Donna and Sylvia.

Sisters

And now to the sisters. The eldest is Merina, so I will start with her.

Merina was actually born Dora Houben, on January 14th 1955. Due to a messy divorce, she changed her name to Merina Theadora Matthew.

Here she is with her paternal grandpa.

She has lived all over the place: back east, in Saskatchewan, and multiple places in BC - it seems she is forever moving!

She really loves hand crafts - especially fine needle work like tatting and embroidery (something I don't have the patience to do!) and can make very beautiful things.

Here is a neat picture take a while back, taken at one of those places that specialize in period costumes.

Merina married Frederick Batsa Azu on May 19th 1981. This marriage did not work out well and they ended up divorced.

However, they did produce a very lovely daughter - Ruth Elisabeth Akefa Azu - she will get her own write up later.

This is a fairly recent photo of Merina with her dauther and ex-husband, taken at Ruth's graduation party.

And here is another recent photo of Merina - having fun blowing bubbles!