Blogged Drain

ABIGAIL'S 8th BIRTHDAY
November 18, 2006

Go here to see all the photos at Voxy Lady.

We're home (back to the snow) again, after a great weekend visiting the Grants in Innisfil.
It was hard to leave Alex... what a little doll she is! She's such a good baby - and bright too. (Not to mention beautiful.)
When you talk to her she studies your face very closely and tries to imitate what you're doing with your mouth. She loves to be talked to. I managed to make enough of a fool of myself to get a few smiles out of her... she thinks I'm a crazy old lady, I'm sure. :)

Saturday night, Dave and Tam took us to the Keg where they treated us to a big steak dinner in honour of Burnie's retirement and his birthday (as his belated gift because it happened to fall at a rather inconvenient time this year.) ;)
Alex came with us, and was as good as gold. Tam said they take her with them to restaurants all the time, and she's always perfectly behaved.

Well... I won't bother writing muh more as I don't really have an audience for this blog anyway... but here are some pictures.

"Oh Grampa, what bad breath you have!"

Here are some photos I took out of the van window on the drive down. (Just a few of the 200 I took!)

Labels: A Weekend with Alex (and her Mom and Dad)

The End of an Era

This is a weird morning for me.
Here I am, sitting at my computer, trying to get my head around the fact that this lunch-time, Burnie will be coming home from work for the very last time ever!

I'm thinking - boy, if I'm having trouble trying to absorb this fact, I can't begin to imagine how Burnie is feeling right now, as he makes the final rounds of all the offices - throughout at least a couple of buildings - saying goodbye to all his workmates... wiping all his pictures & emails from his computer's hard drive... cleaning out his desk.... and writing final instructions for those who will be taking over his dutes.
There must be an overwhelming brew of mixed emotions churning through his gut at this moment.

We went to his retirement luncheon yesterday. The turnout for it was amazing - apparently one of the biggest crowds ever for a retirement do. I felt so proud of Burnie, as the glowing tributes to him flowed freely from each corner of the room.
I know they meant everything they said about him. You can tell when a speech is heartfelt.
There is no doubt he's going to be missed.

But their loss is my gain.
The future is about to open up to a brand new adventure for us. As sad as Burnie must be feeling at this moment, I know that he's been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Lets see... how many more minutes to go? Hmmmm I'd say about 3 hours. That is, if he can tear himself away from the place, when the time comes.
Yesterday I asked some of his buddies if they would please throw him out, if he stays too long into the afternoon. :)

She's here! She's here!

The one we've all been waiting for!

Introducing Alexandra Emery Ruth Grant, who made her appearance at 2:49 a.m., in the wee hours of this morning, October 5 2006. (One day before her Grampa's birthday.)

She's a beauty isn't she? She weighs 7 lb 14 oz and she's 21.5 inches long.

Both Alex and her Mommy, Tam, are fine.
Daddy Dave seems to have come through the ordeal relatively unscathed. ;)

Daddy has more pictures on his Flickr site at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35263305@N00/

Well we just got back from a 4 day weekend in my new favourite place - the Georgian Triangle - namely the Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Thornbury areas on the southern shore of Georgian Bay.

We were there with my brother Neil & his g/f Martine, scouting out retirement homes for us. Burnie & I are both seriously considering moving there! The area is booming right now - condos going up everywhere, & many are still affordable, although there's no doubt the prices will climb as the retiring Babyboomers start moving in. The lifestyle is perfect for retirement, with just about anything a retired person would want to do.

The beaches are amazing. The waters of Georgian Bay are a sparkling turquoise... very Caribbean-like. There are hiking trails through wonderful scenery, golf courses, skiiing (not that I would try that LOL!), fantastic restaurants & pubs (more my field of expertise), and much more. On top of that, the winters are shorter & kinder than Sudbury's.

Collingwood & Thornbury are much closer to London, where Kim, Steve & Gordie live. However, those towns are not too far from Sudbury either, & the drive will be much faster once the 4-laning is finished. If we move there, we'll be making that trip on a regular basis because it will be really hard to leave Abby & the rest of the family here.

But...
Burnie will be able to see Dave all the time, as we'll practically be his & Tammy's neighbours, less than an hour away from them & their little squirt!
Tammy, watch out, I'll be there to supervise your every move as a new Mom... that will be my job as your step-mother-in-law, you know. ;)
Just kidding... LOL!!! :)

Anyway....
Here are a very few of the nearly 100 photos I took of our trip.... mostly the waterfront because I love it so much). Burnie took pictures of the Village at Blue Mountain (a mini-Whistler) but I didn't take my camera with me that day - darn it. You'll have to see the pics he took from the gondola we rode on, up to the top of Blue mountain & down again. That was fantastic. The view from up there was breathtaking.

Anyway... there's too much for me to tell you here with my snail's pace typing.

Hope you enjoyed your shower & got all the gifts that you wanted, Tam. Sorry I couldn't make it but we had been planning this trip with my brother all summer, before I was told when the shower would be.
We've had just about everyone else in our families (other than the BC gang) spending time here with us this summer, so I only had time for one of my brothers till now. (That was when my youngest brother Andre & his wife Sharon came up to stay with us for a few days.)

I've come to the conclusion that summer is too short to fit in everyone from all the different families! Geez... well at least we finally managed a trip up to Elliott Lake to see Ralph last month! He's been asking us to go up there for years!
But then, it's not like we never see Ralph... he comes here often, in fact he stayed here with us for a few days in July too.

Once Burnie retires, & we move from this big roomy house to a dinky little place, we'll be visiting everyone all the time instead of having everyone here.
Watch out, you guys... your Dad retires in November. Get those spare rooms ready because we're going to have lots of time to spend visiting! :)