A Guest Post from Jackie!!

This is probably my very favourite picture of Randy, and it was taken on our wedding day, September 30, 1989. I just love everything about it-the way his hair is styled, the way his tux fitted him, and of course, his gorgeous blue eyes!

The picture was taken at MaGrath Mansion in Edmonton, where we went for our formal photographs. It was kind of a roll of the dice what weather we would get, having our wedding at the end of September, but we took a chance and got about 50/50! It was a little on the cool side in the morning and afternoon, but we had a 3pm start to our ceremony and it started going a little cooler around that time. One vivid memory I have of our actual ceremony is that Randy was such a combination of nervous and cold, that his nose started to run really badly, and as we were standing opposite each other saying our vows, he had a little dewdrop hanging off the end of his nose! Our wedding party was shivering by about half way through getting our photos taken, we were glad to get to the meal and the reception, where it snowed to top of the day later on that night!

That has also reminded me of one thing Randy hated-being cold! I have many, many, memories of him watching TV on the floor, his usual position, with a heater-(which 20-30 years ago they were real fire-hazards) going full blast for hours! He'd fall asleep with it on and I'd wake up and turn it off and scold him for potentially burning the house down. He didn't want to be under a ton of blankets though to keep warm, just that darn heater! And you know what, Kristen is exactly the same! It can be a warm summer day and she will have jeans on and a shirt with a hoodie over top, and probably a NorthFace jacket on top of that! And, guess what you'll find in her bedroom? That's right, a heater! And most mornings, it's on full blast when I go down to get her up for school and I walk into an oven, no joke. I don't know what's happened to her Canadian blood, but it doesn't keep her warm-she absolutely would not survive in a Canadian winter anymore!

Five of Seven, pt.3

Note from Jeff: Sorry, readers, i had to change the image size of these pages from Em, to medim-sized, i hope you can still see the details well enough. These very large files, usually over 2MB, use up the 8MB max per post here on Blogger pretty fast.
Perhaps i shouldn't have sent that link to Em on what 3-in-1 to buy. She's going to get scanner burn. I'm sure she enjoys it though, and i'm glad to help her get her selections from her "photojournals" online.
(I thinked she tricked me into this to ensure BLOG is never deleted, because she know's i would never delete my mother's words.Or scrapbook pages).

SO, here's the other pages she wanted to share with you today.

Five of Seven, pt. 2

Bit of a departure here from the usual format on my kids' profiles....I'm scanning a bunch more pages from my photojournal (this does go to my head, you know!). Thought you readers, and/or lookers, and/or lurkers might be interested in some more pages from Randy's life. So these are up as a sort of special memento of Randy. You might like to comment on any pic that seems relevant to you and your own memories of Randy. He was dearly, dearly loved.

Five down, two to go. Watch and wait!

FHE???

I'm tossing this in as filler between the last post, 5o'7, and the upcoming 5o'7plus. With several questions attached. Is this FHE, em?
Others, can you see my sister D, my brother R, my brother R, my dad D, my sister L, my sister J, and my grape like head?

What do you think those books are, on the dining room table? And the written on papers? I think i recognize the handwriting.

Only time will tell.

Five of Seven

RANDALL HUGH NAYLOR

People, this is a difficult guest post for me, I dissolve in those watery things that run down your face! So I am going to take the easiest way to talk about Randy, whose life ended in tragedy in 1998 after impossibly complicated heart surgery. I am going to submit pages from my photojournal, which pretty well says it all, except possibly the well-known saying “Kids aren’t supposed to die before their parents!” I am grateful that we had him for 38 years, and he was indeed, such a joy to us. I was able, after a few years, to put my thoughts and some of the details of Randy’s Time on Earth on hard copy in pictures and text, and that’s what you’re going to see here. Doing so was definitely therapeutic.

Remember, these are very large files…you won’t be able to read the small print unless you’re VERY short-sighted. But all you have to do is click on the picture pages and they enlarge so you CAN read them. Enjoy Randy in his young years….I am not going to post the death and funeral pages, BLOG should be fun, uplifting, inspiring, full of good memories, and let the painful memories fall by the wayside.

Four of Seven

DEBRA CHRISTINE NAYLOR

(AGE ONE)


OK, here’s No. 4 kid born to Doug and Marion Naylor, May 18th 1955. (Oh oh Debbie, you are NOT getting sensitive about putting your age online, are you?)

I’m going to go to a little different format here, using a few more pictures, and if it works OK, some full pages from one of my BIG BOOKS (photojournals).

Suffice it to say, Deb arrived right on time to celebrate her dad’s birthday. I already told the story in a previous post about the neighbors, Jim and Edie, driving me to the hospital in the middle of the night, and the receptionist on duty, figuring Edie was PERHAPS the one about to give birth!

Debbie was a treasure from the moment she arrived in this world…at the same time a very canny little person. Once, when she was 3, her dad was trying to get her to come sit beside him and watch a program on TV…..she didn’t want to leave whatever she was busy at, looked at him sort of quizzically, and said “What you not gonna give me?”, she had her dad figured out pretty good. And remember the story I told about her conning Uncle Tom out of “twarters” when he came over on his Sunday visit? She was a fascinating litle kid.

(scrapbook page here, like facebook, but on paper)

(again)



You’ll all have a laugh when you look at the picture of Debbie and Steve when they were 5 years old, together with their Primary class, with their teacher Helen Olmstead, standing behind them. Steve is in the first row, at the left. What a trial he was in Primary, he was so badly behaved it was unbelieveable. His mom, Betty, was Primary President and I was her counsellor at that time…we used to have our little prayer meeting just before Primary began (after school on a weekday, at the Whyte Avenue chapel). Invariably there would be sounds of mayhem coming from somewhere in the building, screams and shouts, a big ruckus, who knows where or what about. And invariably, Betts would say, “Oh that’s Steve, I know it is! He’s making trouble again! Excuse me, I better go check it out”. Debbie is in the back row, second from the right, she must have had a secret admiration for Steve’s wrongdoings even at that early stage!

As you can see in another picture, they started dating as soon as it was permissible, HEY! maybe before I was even aware of it! Well, all I can say, Steve may have had a rocky start, but she’s turned him into the sweetest, nicest, kindest guy imaginable, great husband and helpmate, indulgent dad and gramps.
Always doing kind deeds and never taking any credit for it. And best of all, he will do anything for FAMILY; I, for one, admire this kind of credo!

(woohoo, a party, with cake)

Can you see the page on Debbie’s 8th birthday? She had scads of friends, very popular in school. This was a special birthday, since she would soon be baptized, so I thought, and thought, and came up with the idea of a “cooking party”. My MIL had just given me some bolt ends of yard goods (curtaining material in this case), from her drapery shop on Whyte Avenue, so I used that to make up all those little aprons. Can’t remember what the food consisted of, but those girls absolutely had a ball! They were just at the right age for enjoying messing around in the kitchen, most successful party ever. Of course, they were all so proud to be able to take their aprons home with them, along with extra treats they had baked their very own selves!

(this tree gets around)

Please forgive me for not having any really “babyhood” pictures of Debbie. You must realize that we were very poor at that stage of the game, and money for film was a bit hard to come by when it was needed for a thousand other necessities. We tried very hard to make it stretch; I made most of the kids’ clothes, and we hardly ever went out for entertainment of any sort, and Dad made many of the kids’ playthings. At Christmas time the rule of thumb was one toy and one article of clothing, and some kind of goodies in the big green and red felt stockings. Remember those, my family readers? That was a chore, making those without anybody seeing them!

I have a bunch of pics of Deb and Steve’s wedding, but decided we’ve used enough pictures in this guest post, but if anybody wants to see them I’ll send them along to Jeff and he can put them on the blog as he sees fit. This is HIS blog, and he does a great job with the ramblings I send him, I’m sure he has a lot of converting to do.

(Not really. SOMEONE is overly concerned with whose BLOG this is, i don't care who it 'belongs' to...i'm just tricky, and lazy. But Mother never did my homework.....like She would have had the time.)

If you have any trouble with the fine details on the scrapbooking pages, just click on the pic, it goes full size, then move it around the screen. Works for me, but i have my laptop hooked up to the tv. Don't get excited, it's only a 29 inch LCD, crappy chinese made at that. But i'm about 2 feet away. Did i mention i'm BLIND as a bat, and without echolocation?
There was another pic that Mother wanted to include, of Herself, as She looks now, like an authour pic on the back of a book, but, the scrapbook page pics were huge files, and i used up my 8meg maximum with just these 5 pics. Sorry.

(See what happens when an 84 year old gets a new 3 in 1? Toils over a hot scanner all day.)

followup

Just a few more pictures of the dinner last night at Shannon's place, in reference to Granny's comment on the previous post. Jack and his birthday cake, Camille's delicious dinner rolls, and the cooling turkey.

BIG PARTY

Big birthday party, and easter dinner at Shannon's place tonight. Looks like a lot of fun. Wish i had been there.


Miss Maddy.


The mighty Finn.



I love pinata's too.


Rachel and Finn.




Scary dinosaur pinata head.


The whole gang.



Suppertime. And the livin' is easy.





Linda and sleepy Finn.

Q

3 more slides, all for a Q+A, with Unohoo.

Do you remember how i got that gash on me nose? Since i got the slides, i've always wondered. Probably falling out of a car, as i was wont to do. I really don't remember.

followup

In reference to the previous post, this is the house we first lived in, mostly, Linda, Judy, Rob, Debbi, Randy. I was there for ten months only. I would guess Mother Marion is standing on the sidewalk afront said house. It's close by my place, i can see it from my windows.

Three of Seven

ROBERT DOUGLAS NAYLOR

I explained before how, when Rob was born, and the hospital phoned to tell Doug he had a little son, 7 lbs. 11 oz., he was so pumped he phoned everybody and told them the baby had arrived, and when they asked how big he was, he told all and sundry that the weight was 11 lbs. 7 oz. Slight reversal in figures there! So of course, the word spread around pretty fast, and congratulations started coming in, cards, phone calls, “Wow! What a huge baby…How’d you manage that?” His two elder sisters, then almost 5 and almost 2, were thrilled with him, and waited on him hand and foot, he certainly thrived in our household and quite enjoyed being the centre of attention, I’m sure.

I also told in another post, about Rob and the butter dish….you all remember that one! Like all our kids, Rob grew up loving animals, the more pets around, the merrier. Kitties, dogs, hamsters, birds, (we drew the line at snakes or creepy crawlies of any kind…not allowed). Rob hasn’t changed to this day. In fact, I have memories of a baby racoon that wreaked havoc wherever it went….they are WILD animals after all, but so fun!

Rob especially loved to watch the milkman come down the alley to deliver our milk every day; in fact, the first words he ever uttered after he mastered mumma and dadda, were “Mukkman, mummy! Mukkman comin”…..and he’d rush outside to watch the big horses pulling the milk wagon. He especially loved bears! He had his most precious book, of the three bears and Goldilocks, and he must’ve heard that story 10,000 times….in fact the most thrilling moment of his little life was one day, when we were driving along Saskatchewan Drive by the front entrance to Labatt’s Brewery on the river bank. In front of the entrance was a stone statue of a bear, almost life size, and of course, Rob recognized it at once and shouts out “Bear bear! Bear bear!” We always had to take that route after that. So Rob could see the Bear bear. Rob had a marvellous collection of Matchbox cars and trucks, and some Dinky toys….every pay day, his dad would go buy him another of those great little detailed vehicles. I remember his favorite was of a milk wagon, with one horse, one of the Matchbox collection. These things are worth a mint nowadays, in antiques shops. Those toys were so well made, of metal, they never fell apart like your plastic stuff nowadays; his dad also made him a wooden box with a sturdy lid on it to house his collection. Rob learned to look after his toys, I don’t think he ever lost one of them. A very active chld, he loved sports and became quite good at them. His dad would take him out in the yard and they’d play catch endlessly.

Here’s a few funnies from my collection of funny sayings…

Robby (pressing his hands tightly over his eyes)…”Lookit, mumma. Me turn off my lights!”

Daddy: Robby! Robby! Where is that kid anyway?
Rob: He’s in my bed. Me Sleeping!

Robby: (5) Mums do all the work, don’t they?
Me: Yep!
Robby: Know what I’m gonna be when I grow up, mum?
Me: No, what?
Robby: Just a plain dad!

Robby: Something’s the matter with my feet….they got clumps in them (cramps, I guess, anyway, they hurt!).

Rob was really a popular kid in school, he had scads of friends, and they were in and out of our house like a river going through it. I’m sure he got up to lots of deviltry behind our backs, in fact I think his sisters were probably more aware of his misdemeanors than his parents ever were. My worst memory is of all four of the older kids, all with the red measles at the same time, all in our bed, with the room darkened as much as we could arrange, miserable as all get-out, I thought it would never end……looking back at it now, I just didn’t know how lucky I was that they all broke out at the same time, and it was all over in a week! Consider the alternative!

Linda, Judy…..what do you remember about Rob?

Q+A with GRANNY, means, QUESTION and ANSWER, if you were wondering

Woohoo everybody, look at me, thinkin of food again. And since i'm one of the few who plays "Q+A", i have a question for GRANNY about food.

Do you remember getting the whole fam, or as many as were in the car, to pick saskatoon berries off the sides of the roads around vermilion with Gramma Morrison? Cuz i do. Distinctly. Not an easy job fishin in amongst the branches.

Two of Seven

JUDITH ANNE NAYLOR
Well, after a hiatus of a few days to deal with cataract surgery, which . by the way, is still a BIG FAT PAIN IN THE EYE, I’m in the mood to spill a few things about our second-born child, Judy-poodie. She was hung with that nickname when she was very little, it outwore itself after a bit, and I don’t think she gained any other significant nom de plumes.
I told before how quickly she arrived during Dr. Laskin’s busy office hours, and he rushed in the door just in the nick of time to deliver her, and plunked her on top of me, (change from the inside environment), yes, but that finger (or thumb, whatever it was) was already in her mouth. And destined to remain there for some years! She was a sweet, pretty baby; 7 lbs. 1 oz.. placid and uncomplaining always. My parents came as soon as they could get there to check her out, and I remember my dad saying she had a "wee, smookey face". I’m pretty sure this was an old Scottish piece of terminology, I don’t know the exact meaning of "smookey". As with all the new babies he performed the coin ritual….let me explain that one to you, the superstition, again old Scottish, was you put a coin in a new baby’s hand and if said babe grasps it tightly and holds onto it, then that’s a sign that baby will grow up "holding on to his or her money"! No doubt Judy put her’s in her mouth; but anyway, she passed the test, I’m happy to report, as according to Scottish mythology it was an important attribute to have (Scots being Scots and why do you think our Scottish terrier dog was named Tightwad Tibbie?).
Living in Linda’s shadow must not have been easy, but Judy managed with great aplomb. The main things I remember about her was (1) how she loved to dress-up. Especially in my dresses, jewelery, and HIGH HEELS…..oh and hats, whatever she could find, I had only a couple of those as they were sorta going out of style at that time, but Judy would get all duded up in as much "grown-up ladies’ stuff" as she could and prance around the house, pretending she was just that, a grown-up lady. She used to say "I know what I’m gonna be when I grow up…a Officer! Work in a office! I already know how to office work…you showed me one day!"
(2) The other main thing about her that I remember was how genuinely funny she was. Of all our kids she was the most comical of all. I used to keep a running list of the funny things our kids said, in the kitchen junk drawer, a little booklet that I would use to jot down those funny sayings before I forgot them. This is such a good idea, my posterity…..you think you’ll never forget some of the things your kids come out with, but believe me, you will forget, and for the few seconds it takes to write it down….hey, just do it! You’ll never regret it.
Here’s some Judisms that I collected:
Judy and Linda used to play "store" at any opportunity, it was one of their favorite games. Judy was into the fruit cupboard and hauling out jars by the dozen. I told her to stop making such a mess, so she announces to Linda "Can’t have any more jars, Linda, store’s closed".
Me: How’s your sore foot, Judy?
Judy: (4) oh, it isn’t very bad now. Its alright when I’m sleeping on it.
Judy: (to me) Mummy, Robbie broke the handle off the chinaman’s cabinet! (Comment: come to think of it, I don’t think that handle ever really got fixed, it was still pretty lame when I sold that self-same cabinet after we sold the house in 2006.)
Judy: (2) Mummy, how come you never read to us no more at the midnight times?
Judy: (2-1/2 and just starting to talk) coming into the kitchen, scraping her feet across the floor, "Look, mummy, my skid my wheels!"
Me: Judy, look how clean Raven licked her plate off (the dog). She’s a better eater than you!
Judy: Well, she’s got a bigger tongue!
Judy: I wish I could wear this blouse to Sunday School with my skirt that I usually never wear.
Judy: (6) I bet you don’t know a word that I don’t know!
Judy: (7) How come peaches have material all over them?
Doug was bawling me out for something….I don’t know what to do with you! He was complaining. Helpful Judy pipes up and says"Why don’t you put her in the oven and cook her?"
Judy: (after running across an old diary of mine) Oh, boy! This is a happen-every-day book!
Judy and Linda were doing dishes. Their dad was scolding Linda for something or other, and Judy was very quick to tell on her "Daddy, Linda’s waving a piece of her lip at you!". Behind his back, of course…..
Judy: (regaling Uncle Tom with the sad tale of our bird’s demise)…Know what happened to our birdie? He had asburn (asthma) and we frowed him in the toilet cause he was died! (I can’t recall the exact details of this tragedy, maybe just as well I can’t).
Judy: (very impressed with some gross TV show)….Mummy, did you ever hang yourself? If you did, you’d get hung too, wouldn’t you?
Judy: (4-1/2) Mum, you know what? When you got ear muffins on, you can’t hear a thing!
Daddy: Linda, if you don’t be quiet, I’m going to stuff a big raw potato in your mouth!
Judy: Daddy, will it be peeled?
Judy: This little boy was playing down the alley, and he was sure a stick-in-the-mud-puddle!
Judy: Mum, is this right? No mans or no ladies what you don’t know, don’t even talk to them? (So much for trying to protect your children.)
Judy: (singing, she did this all the time!) There’s a bluebird on my window sill, eating up my window!
(Judy loved to sing, whether it was popular songs of the day from the radio, or Primary songs or whatever. One of her favorites was "I got my itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yella polka-dot zucchini"…. (translation: I’ve got an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini).
Judy: (on the way out to the acreage to visit Granma and Grampa Naylor) Oh, look at the big loaf of hay! (passing a farmer’s field).
Suffice it to say, she kept us cracked-up literally all the time. She was simply hilarious. A most enjoyable little girl, how we loved our Judy-poodie!

GOOD FOOD (hey, somebody asked!)

k, i got thinking about one of the questions Camille asked me last post, so i chose to stay up and post. sometimes i do in fact get less than 8 hours sleep, but i always catch up. for the sake of free association, i'm going non-cap, less punctuation on this one.

stuff i'll eat at work; spicy hot chicken wings, aka buffalo wings, lots of salads, often with sauteed prawns atop, with balsamic/olive oil, or wasabi/soy vinaigrette, bacon wrapped scallops, milk, oj, aj, clamato, with jalopeno and habanero tabasco added, bison tenderloin, grilled salmon, steamed asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, sometimes chicken fingers, sometimes soup of the day, rarely steamed mussels, bruschetta, cheddar cheese, cocktail prawns, occasional stir fry, dry garlic ribs, a piece of any kind of vegetable if rummaging the cooler or prepping soup, sometimes a strawberry milkshake, rarely fries and gravy, rarely something i make on pasta, scrambled eggs and bacon for brekkie, rarely cheese toast, panko breaded onion rings, sometimes poached salmon, curried mushroom and escargot appetizer, sometimes a beef dip, or a reuben, or a monte cristo sandwich, oranges, apples, honeydew, cantaloupe, strawberries, 12 grain bread, plain/no butter, steamed brussel sprouts, snow peas, i'm running out of stuff quick, i think that's it. in 7 years at the same job, i have NEVER had a dessert. or tasted chocolate, in spite of it being callebaut.

stuff i'll eat at home; milk, rye bread, occasional purchased sub sandwich, chinese delivery, from taipan cafe in chinatown, typical order includes dinner for two, (which could include pork dumplings, beef in black bean, kung po chicken, szechuan pork, chicken with two mushroom, and always, chicken fried rice and spring roll), along with hot and sour soup, and as many orders of salt and pepper bean curd i can afford, micro'd frozen peas, corn, peas and carrots, green beans, or mixed veg, koolaid, safeway potato salad, olivieri ravioli or tortellini, typically beef or chicken filled, spaghetti, spaghettini, penne, or rotini with homemade bolognese, (tomato sauce with carrot, onion, celery, (aka MIREPOIX), herbs and such), sometimes a take home donair, take home KFC, Harveys, Arbys, but never Mickey D's, sushi from sobeys, michelina's small frozen dinners, (had butter chicken on rice yesterday), ripple chips, pretzels or nachos from dollarama, ramen noodles with sriracha, (a very hot vietnamese chili-garlic sauce), dill pickles, any kind of canned soup, preferably hearty style, lipton sidekick pastas, favorite being butter and herb, sliced, salt and peppered tomato, rye and tomato sandwhich, with margarine and dijon, occasionally will add deli meats, turkey, salami, pepperoni preferred, salads, raw veggies and dip, stuffed green olives, shelled salted peanuts or cashews, (again, dollarama), and, if cooked by someone else, i'll eat pretty much anything not on my no eat list. i'm sure there's rare items i'm forgetting. but NEVER pizza. ech.

If i still went to restaurants, ethnicities of restaurants i would frequent; chinese, japanese, thai, vietnamese, indian, french, italian, ethiopian, greek, would like to try mexican, or, with a group, making a group choice, any kind of general north american food. BUT, that's a BIG but, i will NEVER eat at dead lobster again! (Mother). swiss chalet, ok.