Since returning to Calgary there have been a few celebrations worth noting.  First my dear niece got married.  Well, she isn’t exactly a neice, but a second cousin whom I consider to be a niece.  Desiree Butler, cousin Kim’s daughter married her true love, Carm Salenga.  I only received a couple of photos of Desiree in her wedding dress.

First a photo of her talking to her Mom (Kim w/ the gray hair up in a knot.  Below is her Dad, Terry w/ the purple shirt.  That’s Carm on the left of Desiree, then right below.  Isn’t she beautiful?!!

How about these 3 taken by the professional photoghrapher showing her dress & a couple of beautiful close-ups.

I also ended up w/ a beautiful photos of the complete Steven Usher family – wow – what a great-looking group eh?!

I also had a birthday & my dear friend Debra sent these gorgeous flowers!  (speaking of wow!)

We went out for dinner w/ Bill, Mom, cousin Jane & brother Brian.  I think my 97-year-old mother looks better than me, 30 years younger!  OMG!

On Saturday (Aug. 27) we were visited by The 2 Usher daughters & Les’ new beau.

Here’s Mom w/ Leslie, Jill & Michael (Michael is Leslie’s new beau!)  They’re embarking on a trip across the country.  They will drop Jill in Kingston, where she’ll finish her classes at Queen’s Univ.  Les & Michael will continue on to Newfoundland!  He’s from England & Les wants to show him Canada.  What a great trip eh?

Soon after I had lunch with my dear friend Geri.  Isn’t she lovely?  We always have such a good visit.

On Sept. 17th, another cousin had a birthday – my darling almost-sister, Robyn Usher.  Here she is a few years ago.  Since she was born in 1860, she’s looking pretty good eh? Those gray eyes!!!

It’s been a wet summer in Maple Creek & Blaine has had a back injury, so we’ve had a bit of a hiatus in our house build.  However, we made another short trip to MC Sept 20-21 & took Mom with us.  Had to cut it shorter than we’d planned because there was a conference in town & the Lodge was booked for the next night!

Cousin Karen was going to come down, but harvesting was happening at their place – plus they’d just returned from the Landing where they’d enjoyed camping for a few days while the weather was gorgeous.

She sent us these 2 photos of the harvesting “Going about 50/60 bushels per acre.  3 combines going. Awesome!  👍👍”

We did however, get to take Mom to the site & get her into our house!

We had asked Blaine if he could get a ramp or something to get Mom into the house, since she can’t really climb a ladder.  His ingenious solution was to put a ramp on the forklift – amazing.  All 3 of us could go up on it (Mom, Bill & I).

Here’s Mom in our bedroom.  You can see the messy neighbours, which is why we want to build a high fence between us.

Here’s Mom with Blaine in the dining room where you can look out the front window & onto the front porch.

This view from the back door into the huge garage!  Lots of room for 2 vehicles, gardening implements & bird seed!

Here is the back of the house with Blaine’s forklift in front of the patio doors where he did the magical lift!

This is the side of the house where the workmen climb the ladder into the front door “hole”.  You may notice that our beautiful charcoal gray metal roof is on!

The basement now has a floor, so that’s a great thing.  The windows arrive next Tuesday (Sept. 27th) & doors are ordered, so hopefully it will be closed in soon!  The bad news is that the kitchen won’t be installed until Nov. 15th.  So now we’re hoping to be “in” before Xmas.

I snapped this shot through the car window just as we took off from in front of our house – our beautiful street of elm trees in fall colors.

The day after we got back another cousin had a birthday.  Joan Fahselt is a year older than me.

She is a true swim suit model, as you can see.  Oh Joanie – you little beauty!

We will make another trip out to MC in 2-3 weeks, so stand by!