2009 Looks Busy for Us!

That's Missy on the Left!

This is the year I get to go to my St.Clements' School Reunion Luncheon in Toronto on the house. (That's only 1600 miles there and 1600 miles back for a free lunch. Hence the expression, "there are no free lunches!")

The Canadian Kennel Club has sent me a message congratulating me on becoming a Life Member of CKC this year.

My feelings about these honorariums run from feeling rather old to feeling pretty good that I have now lived longer than my parents lived and even though I now live in East Texas, I still have ties to my homeland.

I was not a great achiever in school. As you might expect, I did well in English because I always loved writing. If you like doing something, you generally can do well at it! One tip I have tried to pass on to any youngster who might listen, is that I felt badly once I realized that History and Geography were strictly memorization subjects. Why didn't my parents point that out? I did play basketball, field hockey, and tennis. I even taught tennis to children at St. James-Bond United Church, one block from the family home in North Toronto.

I loved socializing and partying and making friends - I was always outgoing.

My feelings about the Canadian Kennel Club run deep and I think it is very special to be a Life Member. I had never owned any dog, much less a purebred dog until at age 37 I married an international all-breed dog judge (John Devlin) and was thrown into the deep end, as it were.

I quickly learned a little bit about all purebred breeds because I never knew what breed my dinner companions would own. We travelled Canada extensively and into the U.S. and Latin America. I wrote about purebred dogs and travel. I am still pretty good at identifying the breeds as well as their characteristics. I edited the Canadian Shih Tzu Club bulletin for about four years.

I owned, bred and showed Shih Tzu for 25 years and really studied that breed. When my last homebred Shih Tzu (Harry) died, we decided on Buddy, the Lhasa Apso. I had owned three Lhasa - BoBo, Garbo I and Garbo II, so I did know quite a lot about the breed. We found Buddy in Nacogdoches on a street named Martha at Lucas Lhasas who breed very fine dogs. The great part is that we do not show or breed Buddy and so he is free to be himself.

Buddy has become a wonderful addition to our household and tends to keep us on our toes! He is pretty much to the standard, although perhaps a bit Texas-sized. His joy is guarding our backyard, something his breed is supposed to do. He also is a little more clown-like than my others as well as being very smart.

So, we are just at the beginning of the year and already have lots planned. I get to visit my dear friend, Judy in Port Hope who always treats us like royalty. And on our way back, we will get to visit Keith's sister, Louise in the Cleveland, Ohio area. (Note to Missy, Louise's cat: sorry to be talking so much about dogs today!)

Let's Start at the Beginning!

In my beginning, there was Yonge Street. Yonge Street starts at the north shore of Lake Ontario and goes pretty straight north through "Toronto the Good". Keep driving and Yonge Street becomes Hwy. 11. Keep going and you will be in cottage country. Ontario folks tend to live near or on the water, so many had a house in town and a cottage up at Lake Simcoe or Lake Muskoka.

When I was young, I lived one block west of Avenue Road and two blocks north of Eglinton Avenue. Right on the corner. That's in North Toronto. Lower school was Havergal and High School was St.Clement's! TTC or bicycle was my transportation.

The last house I had in Toronto was actually in Thornhill, by the pond, on old Hwy. 7 West that takes you out to Woodbridge.

After I was widowed and met a Texan online at widownet.org, I married and moved to East Texas. That was almost 12 years ago! We are about 100 miles north of Houston and about another hundred to Louisianna.

Only one lake in Texas - Lake Caddo (near Marshall) - is a natural lake. All others are man-made.

I had to learn to pronounce Zee for Zed (the letter "Z"); say "Kakkis" not "Karkees" for beige trousers and Hubby used to accompany me to the supermarket to help me understand that all they were asking at the check-out was "Paper or Plastic?"

Was it a culture shock? You betcha! A dozen years later, I am one of them, but they never let me forget my roots, eh?

The biggest change in my life was church! Every Sunday! Lots of activities, some responsibilities, and bible study. I cherish my friends from church. We have an amazing Pastor and we are growing our numbers.

Oh, I went to church in Ontario, but not with the timetable I do now! And there was an amazing Minister there also! Could it be I wasn't really paying attention, or could it be that now I really do live in the "Bible Belt"?

If I leave you with one thought from this first entry, it would be that when you need a kind word, a smile, someone who's genuinely interested in how you are doing, my church is where you go! I wish for all people - all Christians - a close-knit church like ours!

There's a good start for my blog.