The apartment!!!!

Jade got her very own apartment on the 15th! I'm very excited for her. She has accomplished so much in her young life and I could not be prouder of her. Joel had an orthodontist appointment on Monday in London, then a dentist appointment in Ingersoll and then needed to be taken back to school in Windsor, so Mom was the taxi driver on Monday!
We had a SUV full of stuff to take to Jade for her apartment so we headed there first. We got the SUV unpacked and then we headed off to the Goodwill to pick up the couch she bought. Her friends that helped her move some other furniture in the night before said there was no way that the couch would fit, so they didn't pick it up when they had the truck. 
Unfortunately, Goodwill would not give her money back or do any store credit, so we had to pick up the couch. Worst case scenario - it would sit in the hallway of her apartment until she sold it to someone else. But Joel was determined to get that couch in that apartment for his sister! So off to Goodwill we went.

Joel got the couch tied down on the roof of the Escape and off we went.

These are the stairs leading up to Jade's door. This part is straight - so no problem with the couch there.

This is the hallway, however if you look on both sides the entrance way that this picture is shot through is the entrance to the living room and it's on a funky angle.

This is the living room.

This shows a panoramic shot of the living room.

This is the nice bright kitchen.

Another shot of the kitchen

And a panoramic of the kitchen.

This is the doorway into the bedroom

And a panoramic of the bedroom

The bathroom.

And a panoramic of the bathroom

This is the living room with some stuff in it - and YES the couch!!!!! Joel did a great job of getting it in there. He was determined! 

Here is another shot of the living room.

And another shot! See Jade's plant on the coffee table!!!! Her very own plant in her very own apartment!!

Another angle of the living room. Granny's corner shelf fits just perfect. Her beta fish is sitting on the top shelf and her Scentsy is on the next one. Not sure what she will put on the rest, but it has found it's place in her new place.

There's a shot of the kitchen with the table and chairs.

And another angle of the kitchen with her new garbage pail!

And another shot. We had to do some plungering of the sink, but I'm pretty sure that's all fixed up

Here's a shot of her bed room. If you look really close you can see "beans" for bean bag chairs on the floor. We filled up one of the bean bag chairs and some of the beans got away from us.

Here's another angle of the bedroom showing the closet.

This is a dark shot of the bathroom.

And another shot of the bathroom.

And these are all the boxes we unpacked!!!! They need to be taken out to the dumpster! But it's evidence that we did a lot of work!

And this is Jade's pride spot!! It's in the kitchen. On the top shelf she has her birthday/graduation presents from her best friend Jill. Then the next shelf is the pretty shadow box that her client Rita made for her. The next shelf has a picture of Granny and Poppa, her card from the humane society and her 21st birthday card that I made for her. The next shelf is another birthday card. It's nice that she has a special place to show off her things.

I really like her place. It's homey and she has lots of ideas about what she wants to do with it.

We just have to find her some blinds for those windows!!! We don't want people seeing "ALL" of Jade!!!! 

I'm proud of you kiddo. 

Chow for now, 

Jacqui (Mom)

Remembering Poppa.....

I should have had this posted on Monday, the 20th, but I was out of town with no access to my computer or the internet for that matter.
The 20th would have been Poppa's 97th birthday. It's hard to believe it will be 18 years this November since he passed away. He was such a good guy. He could be a hard ass when he wanted to, but as far as Diana and I were concerned, he was the best. I can't seem to find all the pictures I wanted to find, but here are a few.

Here are Granny and Poppa with Diana. 

Granny and Poppa. I think this is an anniversary picture, but I'm not sure what year.

This is Poppa at the rehearsal dinner for our wedding!

This is Poppa looking pretty dapper in his tuxedo. He didn't want us to spend the money on getting him a tux, but we insisted. He looked GREAT!

This is just before we got in the car to head down to the ceremony!

Here are he and Diana having a dance! 

And here is me, with the 3 most important people in my life. (Until my kids came along and then there were 5!)

I miss him every day and hope that he and Granny are up there looking down on us and are proud of all of us.

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Another new chapter.......

Today is the day that Jade gets the keys to her new apartment!!!!! Joe is heading down today to swap out her beds. The place she stayed at this year was a room in the upstairs in a fella's house. The room wasn't big enough for her big bed from home, so she had to use one of the twin beds. But now that she has her new place, we can take down her big bed. She'll be sleeping like Patrick Star for weeks!!!

 

I'm excited cause I get to go down on Monday and have a sleep over!!!! Only one night this time and just to help her get things organized, but hopefully down the road we can do a weekend!!!! (She's probably thinking good God woman, stay at your own house!!!!)

It's going to be a bit strange though having her call another place her home. It's funny though, cause both she and Joel refer to Windsor as home now. When they come home for the weekend, it's not comments like, "oh we are going back to Windsor"....it's "Mum is taking me back home on Monday", things like that.

I guess that good. That way I know they are comfortable where they are and are not homesick and not wanting to be there.

I don't know Windsor all that well, but the more I am there, I think it's okay. I'm curious to see how pretty it is going to be in the summer when the nice weather comes and all the trees and flowers are in bloom.

Here's a picture of the building where Jade's apartment is located!

 I'm looking forward to seeing inside and helping her get her things all organized!!!

Love you kiddo!

Sleep well tonight!

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Remembering Granny on what would have been her 96th birthday.

I think of Granny (and Poppa) every day, but since today would have been her 96th birthday, I thought I would share some pictures and memories with you as well.

Granny let me scan a whole bunch of old pictures she had, cause I didn't have any pictures of her when she was younger or when Mum was younger. This one is from January 1957. I don't know where it was taken, I just know that it is Granny and Mum and Aunt Donna.

This is another one of Granny and Mum and Aunt Donna. I'm pretty sure it's taken in Ailsa Craig, but I'm not certain on the date it was taken.

Here is Granny and Poppa. He was the love of her life.

Mum took Granny on a bus trip once where she met her pen pal! They had been pen pals for years and they finally met. 

I'm not exactly sure what birthday this was, but look at that smile. Granny always didn't want to smile when you were taking a picture of her. So you had to either try and make her laugh when you were taking the picture, or you had to catch her off guard like in this one. I loved her smile. I think she was beautiful. I would tell her that and she would just give one or her "grrmph" noises!

This is my all time favorite picture of Granny and Joel. They are just casually sitting on the couch having a chat. We would get Granny to come over to our place and visit for sometimes a week at a time. I loved those times. We would either go and pick her up or Poppa would bring her and drop her off. 

When we lived in Woodstock on Bruce Street, we hosted the Lightfoot Christmas one year. Clearly, these two were just partied right out!

And then Mum would host Christmas sometimes as well. Granny loved this present. Her faith was always strong.

This picture holds a special place in my heart. Granny and Aunt Mabel's Aunt Edna passed away and I offered to take them to the funeral. I offered to take Uncle George as well, but he was having a few health issues at the time and didn't want to be a bother to us. It's too bad he did not come with us, because he passed away a short time later. All the cousins/relatives were so happy to see Granny and Aunt Mabel, and they were so thankful that I brought them up. You know at the end of the day, it's not the huge grandiose things that people do that get remembered, it's the little heartfelt things that make the most impact and secure a piece of your heart. I was blessed I was able to take these two to Aunt Edna's celebration of life.

This picture was taken at Granny's Open House we had for her for her 90th birthday. We started off with a family lunch and then after lunch we had invited people to come and say hi and celebrate her 90th birthday. We had a sign in book and if I remember correctly there were roughly 60+ people who came to see her. She kept saying, why did all these people come to see me? She was so funny. Always doing or wanting to do things for others, but never expected people to do things for her. The two people with her are Jason Soldan and Tracy (Soldan) Spratt. Granny was very happy to see these two. She spoke of them often. About visiting them at the Bend. I was very happy they made a point of coming to see her.

And we had to get a picture of Granny with her kids. Aunt Donna, Uncle Mel and Mum. I think they were all about ready to burst out laughing. I can't remember what somebody said.....probably something to get Granny to smile for the picture!

This picture was taken in her bed at the nursing home. The girls at Chateau Gardens treated her so well. I know going to the nursing home was a big step for her, but there really was no other choice, and we were blessed and thankful that the girls were so great. They would kid around with her and she would get to giggling and it was so nice to see.

This shot makes me chuckle!!!! Look at the look on her face! She looks like she is saying "take the picture already!"

I'm pretty sure this was one Mother's Day. The girls dolled her up a bit with some make up before everyone got there, and put on her cherished cameo broach and earrings.

When the weather was nice, we would take Granny out for walks around town. We took her down to her eye appointment one day, and for ice cream another day.

It's funny the way animals can sense things. We took Charlie into see Granny one day. Joel had a really good grip on her leash, as we were not sure how she was going to react, with the new surroundings, the wheel chair etc. But she was great. I didn't post them, but we took a few pictures and the first few we just let Charlie sit beside Granny in the wheel chair to get used to it and Granny basically paid no attention to her. Then Granny looked at her and then she pet her and Charlie loved it. She sat right beside the chair and was very gentle with Granny and Granny loved meeting her.

I would stop by to visit as often as I could. When I had to come into town to pick up Jade or Joel from field hockey, volleyball or basketball practice, I would head in a little early to give me a chance to visit with Granny until it was time to pick them up.

This picture was taken of Granny when she was working on her "cards". She had a list of people who had birthdays each month. Mum would go and buy the cards and then Granny would sign them and put the stamps on them and the stickers. She did most of the addressing until her hands would get sore and then Mum would do the rest. It was fun to watch her going through her stickers and deciding which one to put on which card. I can't see a package of stickers without thinking about her.

Jade popped in to see Granny the night she got all dressed up for the prom. She wanted her to see her hair how it was all curly and done up pretty. Granny thought she looked pretty darn good!

Since the nursing home was so close to the school, we were able to wheel Granny over for Jade's graduation. She said she enjoyed it very much. And I know that it was very special for Jade to have her there. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Granny. It was taken at Swiss Chalet in London on her 80th birthday. Mum and Anna took her into London for lunch and I surprised her by meeting her there to have lunch with them. I remember her giggling when the waiter told her that she looked 60! She certainly got a kick out of that.

I miss her each and every day and wish with every ounce of my being that I could go and visit her like I used to. She is an enormous part of who I am and I was blessed to have her in my life. I love you Granny. 

Jacqui