Friday, December 28, 2012

The Passing of a Wonderful Soul


Geneva Bowering
We received news yesterday that the girls Great-Grandmother, Geneva Bowering, passed away yesterday. She was 92 years old and had lived her life exactly the way she wanted to.

She was small in stature but her presence commanded a room and her husband Nathan would always say yes to her because even though he was himself a fairly tall man he knew that Nan would remember any misstep.

Nathan passed a few years ago but I always loved visting them as did the girls. They always opened their house to family, friends and anyone that needed it. It was a small house but it was the most loving home you would visit. Always greeted with a big hug and tea and sweets or an entire meal you felt at home. The girls would love to visit. Heading down from Nan and Pop's home to Topsail Beach where they got to catch capelin. When not at the beach they would sit on the red porch gathering snails with Pop helping them. Nan would stand inside and watch - just smiling her big smile. You knew she loved her life.

And she had an interesting life. In 1921 her home in The Battery neighbourhood of St. John's was engulfed by an avalanche. Nan, a small infant at the time, was pulled from the wreckage. I guess that night in February was a good indicator as to how tough this little woman would be.

I know I will always remember her bright eyes, her wonderful smile and her loving attitude to people and life.

She leaves behind many family and friends who will miss her. And I know we will all miss you Nan Bowering.



Thursday, December 27, 2012

Happy Holidays!!!!

I know ... a little bit late from normal but it has been a busy holiday this year.

This was the first year that we Skyped during gift opening. With Martika in Ottawa we Skyped with her so she could open gifts with us. It was actually very fun. We sat next to our tree and she had her tree and she had all the gifts that were sent from us and the rest of the family. It was a little bit weird not to have dinner with her but she spent it with her friends in Ottawa which I know she enjoyed.

We had a wonderful Christmas ... we relaxed ... no stress ... we ate well ... drank well and had fun with the girls. But of course the holidays are not over. We have New Years coming up and between now and then will have more fun with the girls and Kris's friend who arrived yesterday from Sweden.

We did manage to take a few pictures ... and I uploaded them to our Picasa site. You can follow the link or view them in the slide show below. We hope you enjoy.

Happy Holidays!



Monday, December 17, 2012

Looking forward to 2013

As 2012 finishes up I am starting to look forward to 2013 to see what I want to do. Part of this was motivated by having to put in my lottery entry for the 2013 Cherry Blossom 10 miler. It made me think about what I did in 2012 and that made me think about what I want to do in 2013.

So for 2012 I completed 3 races that were 10 miles or more - the Cherry Blossom, Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon and the Navy-Air Force Half Marathon. I think for 2013 I want to get that up to at least 5 races of 10 miles or more. I did win a spot in the Cherry Blossom for 2013 so in addition to that I am thinking the Marine Corps 17.75K, the Marine Corps Historic Half (Hospital Hill is a great challenge) and then I would like to do the Army 10 miler in the fall along with either of the Navy-Air Force Half (assuming they do it this year) or go for the full Marine Corps Marathon. The Navy-Air Force would be great since I would get to do a 10 miler or more for each of the branches in one year but the full would be a great thing to do before I hit 50.

So outside of my races I am planning to finish the work on the Triumph so I can get it on the road and also to do some upgrades on the Wrangler so I can get that off the road :-)

With work, making time for some travelling with La and then time with the kids, both local and in Ottawa, it should be a busy year.

But I am looking forward to it!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

It takes a while sometimes ....

So it used to be, many years ago, that when I took a roll of film out of my camera it got processed. Well times have changed. Partially because with cell phones now I also have the digital versions with me. I know some will say "You still use film?" Yes I do - and I enjoy it. The other issue is finding a place to get it processed. Well I finally found the latter and we now present some additional photos from our trip to Newfoundland in July ... 2011

St. John's July 2011

Monday, December 10, 2012

Christmas Tree Weekend

So we went out this weekend and picked out a nice Frasier fir for our Christmas tree. We got it in the back of the Jeep and got it home and let it sit in the stand so it could fill out - which it did nicely.

Sunday evening we decided to start and decorate it. We strung it with lights and then started the decorating. We will finish it next weekend when Kris and Sam come over. To make it easy to see we have pictures of lt with the room lights and lit without the room lights. We hope you like it as much as we do :-)