Dec 6, 2008

Five years.

Five years ago ago today Lloyd and I were living in Clarkdale Meadows. We went out to Home Depot around 4pm or so. I remember I sat in the car while Lloyd ran in to the store. It wasn't snowing much when he ran in to the store but by the time he came back to the car, the snow was coming down REALLY heavily....the change was amazingly dramatic. We could barely see the road on the way home and I was very glad that it wasn't far home.

The next day I got phone calls from two friends, Kerry and Michele, telling me that my friend Mandy had been in a car accident - smashing head on with a big truck/ semi on highway 21 in the bad weather. Her partner Curtis and her Son and Cameron had been killed instantly, and her daughter Ashley had died soon after the accident, while waiting for emergency workers to arrive.

I phoned a friend of ours and let her know, and the next day a few friends from Calgary came up and gathered at my home before we all headed into Edmonton to go and see Mandy at the hospital. I was also able to meet Curtis's Mom there.

A few days later I attended the memorial service with friends and we all stood with Mandy as she read Ashley and Camerons favourite bedtime story. ' Love You Forever' by Robert Munsch. It felt like a real honour to be included with Mandy friends as I had only known her for such a short time and had only been in Canada for a year.

A few weeks later I visited Mandy at her parents house ad she would spend time at our house. This lasted for a few months...unfortunately after a while Mandy started shutting all her old friends out of her life - a coping mechanism I'm sure as she faced life without her children and her partner. A little digging online five years later and it seems that this shutting people out isn't necessarily working though :(

I hope one day Mandy finds a way to let her true friends back in and finds peace. There is room in her life for the past, present and future. Sometimes old friends are the most comforting.

The childrens tree...


This is the children's Christmas Tree....my favourite...the one with all the different ornaments - the ones we have collected over the years and the ones the children have made or we have been given. Nothing really matches, some are broken but can't be thrown away because they are too special - like the ballerina Susie had in her stocking one year (she is missing her leg but Susie loves her too much to throw her away).

The fairy on the top is 'Terry'....she adored the top of Lloyds Christmas tree as a child and Lloyds Mom sent her over to us from England last year. She will now sit on top of the childrens tree every year and we think she looks like Lloyds Mom so we have named her 'Terry' :)

The fairy lights on the bottom of the tree stopped working after about an hour grrrrrr so we have to go and buy more - some LED ones which I have put off buying as I really don't like them - don't like the bright colours :( oh well I know they are environmentally friendly and safe

Decorating the cookies






Decorating the cookies after they had cooled.....

Baking sugar cookies





Lloyd and Sam were out all morning, and then they picked Susie up from her sleepover at lunchtime.

As it was raining all day, the children baked sugar cookies this afternoon...they took the time to cut them into all fancy shapes like cows, trains and stars, but in the oven they all meshed into one big blob lol! OOPS!!! so we cut them into squares and weird shapes and the children had fun decorating them anyway! They said they still tasted great!!! And the house still smells great!

Sams first proper hair cut!



Sam went to Regis today with lloyd to have his hair cut by Erin. I think he looks very cute :)
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