Cup 38 - Ellen

October 12, 2014

I have never understood Mother-in-Law jokes.  Of course my husband's mother-in-law is an incredible woman but my husband's wife has an amazing mother-in-law too!  

Ellen.

Family is very important to me and while Derek's family doesn't resemble the (conventional) closeness mine enjoys, not surprisingly Ellen is the glue and we are fortunate to see her on a fairly regular basis.  Family is absolutely, extremely important to her too!

A retired teacher Ellen is probably busier now than when she had to commute to school daily. Like her son, she is an avid reader/researcher and a do-it-yourselfer.  She keeps a vegetable garden the size of two backyards (really!) and is regularly maintaining her own home, inside and out.  Several times a year she ventures to Humboldt, Saskatchewan to spend time with sisters, aunts and other relatives (including her mom up until 2010, who lived to be 99!) who still reside in and around where her family farm was.  She and Rick also take short journeys together or spend time either renovating his properties or looking for new ones to buy.   In Calgary she maintains a wide circle of girlfriend - of all ages - who she enjoys lunching with, going to speaker series with, and the like.  It would be rare for her to miss a sporting event of one of her two talented, active granddaughters and, true to Grandma form, she is proud as a peacock of these girls!  (For good reason too!)

And speaking of being a grandma, I think she is equally proud to call herself Brier's grandma!  Both Brier (and our cats) know she faithfully arrives with pockets full of treats and they all accost her the moment they hear her voice through our front door.  Ellen has taken Brier on many a weekend when we travel by air and we call these visits his trip to the Spa.  Ellen purchased Brier a top-of-the-line Radio Flyer wagon last Spring and proudly walks him through either her neighbourhood or ours much to the delight of other walkers (especially seniors) who cross paths with them during their adventures together.

Being Thanksgiving weekend we enjoyed turkey dinner with Ellen and the rest of Derek's immediate family tonight.  She always puts on a delicious, homestyle spread and then loads us up with leftovers. (Actually, every time she comes over she brings us food.  Pies, pickles, veggies from the garden......hmmm, maybe my mother-in-law doesn't think I can cook!  Well, actually Derek IS better at it than me!)  But she is generous in more ways than can actually be mentioned.  Always caring, always concerned, always interested and always ready and willing to give back, Ellen is always thinking of her kids.  (Of which I include myself in the list.)  She would drop anything for us and we love her so much for this.  For other things too.  She doesn't have a negative bone in her body and her patience extends beyond compare.  She is a truly amazing woman who I am lucky, lucky, lucky to have in my life!

Cup 37 - Janay

September 22, 2014

Miss Janay!!  Another friend who dates back almost 20 years, Janay is someone I met during my "Industry Days".  If you've ever waited tables you will remember those days of always having cash in your wallet and being on a very unconventional sleep schedule. What fun it was to be 20-something!  Janay is a friend who, not on Face Book, I have felt out of touch with from time to time.  (And judging by the size of her her Linked-In photo (left), chooses not to have a very large digital footprint!)  But she dos have a large personality!

I met up with Janay at Nick's Steakhouse tonight.  The scene of the crime, if you will.  We worked in this lounge together for about four years and, although we think it had been four years since our last get together USED to at least meet annual for a pitcher of beer and a "Vegetarian Pizza with Spolumbo sausage, hold the onions but please add pineapple".  Yes, we are THOSE customers!  (But at least we tip well.  "Those" customers didn't always necessarily fulfill this requirement back when we were serving them!)

Janay is a self-made woman.  Climbing the ladder to her successful position as a consultant-rebrander-writer-marketer-advisor......(I don't actually know what her business card says) Janay worked her way up from lesser positions at ad agencies, and free positions at magazines, to have her own business today.  Her clients range from Crave Cupcakes to the Government of Alberta so diversity is a strength, for sure!

Fiercely proud of her own adoption story, Janay and her talented hubby, Mario, are the proud parents to Olivia - who shares a (loosely) similar story to her mum.  Not only has Janay been successful in her professional life but she stopped at nothing to achieve these blessings in her personal life too.  I admire her.

Janay has a contagious laugh, is genuinely interested in people (and animals) and can rock any hairstyle from a pixie cut to long, straight locks.  The twinkle in her eye has not faded in twenty years and I look forward to noticing it for twenty more.  And then twenty more.

I'm Way Behind!

October 27, 2014

Yikes.  I am way behind in my blogging!  I have still kept up with seeing people, and I have Cups 37-41 cued up in my "Drafts" box.  Unfortunately, I need to do more than type the title and date.  I am determined to fulfill this resolution, however, and so will set aside a Sunday (soon) to catch up on bragging about all the awesome girls and boys in my life.  But not before I go to Las Vegas this weekend!!...

Stay tuned and be patient with me!

A.

Cup 36 - Heather

September 5, 2014

Who ever knew I'd become great friends with the Girl-With-the-Dinosaur-in-her-Backyard?!  Heather was one of those people who, throughout university I knew who she was (lots of people did) but she didn't know me.  If it seems like I'm painting her with a Scarlet Letter in reputation, let me back up. Her dad was the wildly successful coach of the Dinos Football team (he is now in the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame!) and so many people knew Heather as the coach's daughter.  Apparently this moniker helped her cut the line at many a nightclub back in the day - all the ex-football player bouncers knew her -  so it's unfortunate I didn't know her better then!

Heather and I met at Nick's Steakhouse.  We were both working there as servers during the end of our Education degrees.  There were a small group of us who became friends while working there together and eventually Heather was my first.......roommate!  Well, sort of - we initially moved out together with a third girl who turned out to be.....um.....wacky?  (Is that a PC and sensitive term?)  No matter, we worked around her because we were happy in our 100+ year old house in Sunnyside.  It was undoubtedly a firetrap but it survived our Hat Party and Boxer Short Party during the year we lived there.  Eventually we moved to Parkdale, where I lived with Heather for another year and a half while both threw ourselves into our first years of teaching.

What to tell you about Heather?  Well, from living with her I can tell you that she is a night-owl but then that girl can sleep!  It was more than once that I got a call at my school, from someone at her school wondering where she was.  Colleagues were combing her drive route, thinking she must be in a ditch while she actually slept soundly through her blazingly loud alarm.  Other Fun Facts?  She was (is?) the Martha Stewart of my social circles.  Heather loves to cook and entertain and the way she decorates her house and especially her table for all occasions certainly puts my flowered napkins from Costco to shame!  She's "all-in" for any sort of theme party too and has lost hours of her life sewing (usually at the very last minute) some intricate costume for Halloween or the like.

Heather is a woman of very few words.  HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa........ actually, she is famous for her stories.  Often she will say out loud that she has lost her place and has actually become bored of telling a particular story herself.  She went on some fun travel excursions in her youth (aren't we STILL in our youths?!) and has been through some less-fun "grown up" excursions since then.  All of our experiences make us who we are, though, and Heather has many a wise word to say about much of it.  She is open to sharing.  (Even though she would say "ompen" to sharing - a pronunciation she literally can't get her lips around and so a harmless point of teasing over the years.)

I believe busy people generally like to be busy and Heather fits this description.  She and her kids are all active with family, sports and school.  Heather juggles home and career in Calgary and during her "vacations" in the Shuswap spends much of her time at the family cabin swinging a hammer or hauling something from point A to point B.  She is a hands-on girl with an awesome work ethic.

It was wonderful to get to spend the evening with her tonight over fabulous food and flowing wine. Even though I'm not sure I got to say much!  ;)  <3