DATE CHANGE

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, please note that the Reunion date has been changed back to the 13th of July. Sorry if you all ran out today and booked the time off. I really hope this weekend works better and that you will all still attend.I will not send out a newsletter about this change, so please let everyone in your family know about the change

Thanks

Jean

YOUR HOT LITTLE HANDS........

should have the newsletter in them as I write. I have had two responses, both for the Calgary area, but no concrete ideas. I need concrete ideas please. I have not lived in Alberta for 34 years. Please don't count on me to know all the good "Hot Spots". Reminder the date is July 20th. If you really need it moved back to the 13th. Please let me know. There seems to be more objection to the 20th than the 13th.

Let's get the ideas flowing!

You all enjoy the weather this week.


Jean

IF YOU ARE LUCKY!

You will receive a newsletter in the mail this week. My computer won't do a "save" or a "save as" and I got it onto a flash drive, but hey I work on 2010 at home and my computer at work is only on 2003. And it looked so nice. I will see if I can get it printed today and into the mail tomorrow. There is always a way to get around computer problems - thank goodness for that.

The date for the reunion has been changed till July 20th. I know that the 13th was a no-go for some and it became a no-go for me also. Book your time off and mark it on your calendar.

Congratulations to David and Heather Maloney. After much hard work, they will become US citizens on April 5th. If you have some time off - you are welcome to head to Abingdon Virginia and pack the court room where they will pledge their allegiance to everything American.

That is all I have for now - if you have anything you want to share publicly, please let me know and I will include it either in the blog or in the next newsletter.


On to the Pics.

 Visiting with Veronica on one of her many trips to Alberta

 Not sure what this occasion was but looks like we were having fun!

 Big I Dos for Cheryl and Ludwik

More I Dos for David and Heather.

If you have a chance to visit David's page on Face Book, he has a cute story on there about he and Heather having to "Get Married Again" in the US. He is a good comic writer. 

Enjoy the upcoming week and don't work too hard.

Jean

AVOIDANCE.......

Is a bad thing and that is what I have been doing to both blogs. Sometimes life gets in the way. In my case, I have a new puppy, so time slips away.

I will be sending out a newsletter this week regarding the upcoming reunion. I still have not figured out a place as yet, but the date is July 13th. Some have expressed concern over the date. The reason for the date is that it hits the end of the Stampede and has given the kids a couple of weeks of being out of school. By then they are bored and in need a bit of excitement. As for August, well, most of the family go away during August. So July it is. On our end Nicole is the only one I need to contact regarding the date if we change it. She is really booked solid for weddings this year. She does though have the weekend following the 13th off. If it is a must for the majority to change the date, I will see about moving the date forward.I want all date submissions in, no later that March 17th.

Places - I have been looking on line for places. I have an idea that it should be in or near one of the places our parents lived. Since I am the tail end, well I only got Ozada and Calgary, but the rest of my siblings had wonderful opportunities to live in some really nice areas of Alberta. I am sure I don't know every place, if I have forgotten any please let me know. As of now the options are: Mundare, Cornation, Drumheller, Nordegg, or the Seebe area. I also know mom and some of the kids lived in Edmonton for a bit and Calgary. So as you can see we have a wide area to choose from. As I see it, the majority of the family is in the Calgary area, so somewhere close to Calgary will probably get many votes. But how about Nordegg? I have only been there once and only to drive by as they were using the area as a jail at the time. I don't know if there are any free parks up there, but there is a kind of dude ranchy thing that will give us a day use area. They could also give us a map of hikes in the area, and can also set up a tour of the mine. That could be interesting. Drumheller has lots of things to do and many areas where we could have the day, but if it is a typical Drumheller day, well as mentioned before, it can be rather hot. But it is still an option. When I went to see Tookie, I took a stop in Mundare. A pretty little town, but am not sure what all is around there. Sonny and Aryele may want to take a looky see into that, but I am certain there may be a bit of opposition as it is a fair distance to go. Cornation - ditto the distance and we have had a few of the larger Fleming reunions at the campground by Brownfield. There are no services at the campground at all. While I am mentioning that fact, that dude ranchy thing in Nordegg doesn't have services either. So outhouses all the way my friends. As for The Ozada area, there is the park up at the mine, there is Bow Valley Provincial Park, Rick Guinn has said we could use his place and would be willing to throw in a trail ride. There are so many parks out that way, there is a lot of choices. So now, please weigh in on what you and your family want. Doug and Marilyn Tryon graciously offered to bring their larger trailer back for the weekend. We will bring the little pop-up with us and I think Christopher and Maren would be willing to bring their pop-up also, so lots of places for snoozes and time-outs. Anyway, that is just a sampling of what is being planned.

On to some more pictures. The first one I believe is from uncle Chunk's (Doug) funeral. The next two are from Doo's 65th birthday.

Sisters

Brother and Sisters

Birthdays

Have a wonderful week all.

Jean

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

At this most blessed time of the year, please take time to reflect on your past, your present and where you would like to be in the future. Take time for gratitude, for joy, for love, for prayer, and take time to include fun. Spend time with those you love, spend time doing something special for others, think of those who are less fortunate, and take time for relaxing.

May you all be blessed during this season and may you all be blessed during this coming year. Most of us have faced some really hard challenges this year. y challenge to you all this coming year is to take a look at ourselves and really determine to change something. It may be the way we see, the way we think, the way we act or react, it may be making a move, going back to school, getting in touch with someone we once knew.

My prayer for you all is that this next year will be a much calmer and peaceful year. May God's Blessing be on you and your household.


Love Jean

SNOW TIME.....
I see Alberta had a great amount of snow and now it is our turn. We are to get 20-40cm tomorrow. Of course it wouldn't be a great snow storm without freezing rain first uhg! Oh well winter has to come to Canada sometime better sooner than later. On my trip to Alberta I took my winter, fall and summer coats and only ended up using my winter one.

We had a great time visiting most of the relatives while there and even had a quasi family dinner of Chicken On The Way. I must be getting old or my taste buds are changing. I did not find it as good as I remember. As for the corn fritters, you needed a magnifying glass to find the corn. Good times were had by all anyway and as you can see from the pictures, we all had that grease laden hung over look.

 Eric with Austen and Gabie with Patrick - so cute to have three little ones all born within a couple of months. Going to be good times watching them grow up.

Jen, Jeff and Maren partaking of Chicken On The Way. Our calculations on servings were way off, so I am sure we fed 1/4 of Calgary the next day at lunch.

I would like to thank Marilyn Tryon, the Doug Tryons, Michelle, and Tabi for the fantastic short notice, johnny-on-the-spot breakfast baby shower they hosted for Nicole Kehler. We even managed to have baby shower games, breakfast food and prizes. This shower came together within a 24 hour period and I do believe it was the best one I have ever attended. We even had two men attend - Geoff and Eric. Good on you guys for showing up - even if it was the food that was the drawing card!

Jolly Jumper 

More gifts - note Marilyn Jr. holding Austen born in August.

The Baby Shower Recipients - Geoff, Nicole, Dakota, Zack and Patrick

Also a big thank you to Justin, Kristie, Jette, Kaia and Brynn for taking their cousins Geoff, Nicole, Gabie, Dakota, Zack and Patrick with them Halloweening. Though it was a mite on the chilly side, the kids managed to bag a fair amount of candy. The dentist should be laughing all the way to the bank in about three months or so.

Jeff Tryon's Halloween Masterpiece

Had some interesting conversations while out there and I think it is time we started putting together a bit of family history. So I will collect all the data, stories, tidbits, pictures etc. that any one would like to submit. Once there is a sizable amount I will ask for volunteers to help co-ordinate it all. So if you would either email or snail mail me pictures and stories, I will start collecting. Please do not worry about any pictures going missing, I am making a promise here to get them back to you within a two week time frame. I don't want pictures and stories just of past reunions, I would like to have a history of each family. Including dates, places etc. would be most helpful. If I get enough stuff I will put it on display at the reunion, July 13th 2013. At this point I believe that the reunion will be at Anderson Park in Three Hills - though that does seem odd as that is the other side of the family. I am open to suggestions, so bring them on.

This picture is of the hospital that Uncle Bink was born in at Mundare Alberta. The date on the hospital is 1929, so the hospital wasn't too old when he was born on May 2nd, 1930.

I don't have any new-old scanned pictures done, so I will leave you with this funny. I think I saved it off of Pintrest. I do not know who put it together, but koodoos to whoever came up with it.

Have a good weekend.

Jean

I hope all of you had a fun and enjoyable summer. I know I did - working (sad), babysitting (happy), attending the stampede parade with Betty Lou, Kristie and Kiai (big happy), doing some Manitoba things (some happy). Now we can all settle in for the long winters nap.

I have set a date for our reunion - JULY 13th, 2013, so put it on your calendars. I expect with this much time to plan YOU WILL ALL BE THERE!!!!!. I haven't decided on a place as of yet. Bowness Park is definitely out as I understand it will take the better part of two years to update the site. I really would like the older folk to attend ie Tookie, Joan and Walter, Marilyn and Jim, so am trying to come up with a place that won't put them in too much distress. It more than likely won't be in Calgary. If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment. It would be nice if it could have some significance to the family.

In ways it is a good thing that we did not hold the reunion in the past couple of years as 2013 is the 100th anniversary of the Flemings coming to Canada. They arrived in Halifax in January of 1913 and eventually settled in the Coronation area. Not all the clan came only the younger kids. I believe the older 4 were already married and not about to up-root their families. So along with Granddad Fred, granny Hannah, dad (Vince) came aunts Lucy and Hilda along with uncle Reg. Uncle Charlie had arrived earlier. He was sent to scope out the country. Just imagine what fun that would have been! I would have loved to be a settler. Oh wait - we lived like that at Ozada - maybe not so much fun.

Back to the reunion. Me and my committee (of 1- Roscoe) have decided that all your needs will be met for that day. To facilitate with any expenses incurred ie. food, site, prizes etc., I will be charging a nominal fee for each family. Note to the Doug Tryon offspring - this means that anyone over the age of 18 will be considered their own family. Along with this privilege will come the opportunity to bring one guest. The other ones can bring a guest too - but I suggest you check with your spouses on this one - they may not like your choice baaahhaaaa! I plan to have a trailer there for the old folk and the young to go have their afternoon snoozes in. As well as to heat and cool items. This year we are having some additions to the family - Tabi and Eric now have little Austin, Justin, Kristi, Jette and Kiai are awaiting their new arrival any day now, Geoff, Nicole, Dakota and Zack are also awaiting their new son/brother around about October 1st. So, along with the few that have been born over the last few years, we will be overrun with little ones Yeah!  Gonna be good to meet all these new little ones.

My plans are to have some games/competitions for the kids and adults, some story telling, some crafts for the kids, some thinking games and of course food. I would like yo all to bring pictures. I would suggest scanning the ones that you have and bringing copies as sometimes pictures have a way of walking away. If you have artifacts from the past bring them for a display. Maybe the wildest one will win a prize.

To again get you thinking about our gathering here are some more pictures from past gatherings.

Enjoy!

Lori's birthday at the Zoo

Was so cold that day, I think the whole party took 1/2 hour.

The Big Rock Adventure

Mom always wanted to see the rock

Those who could make it to the top

Come on Ma - I'll help you down!

Bowness Fun

The love of Cheryl's life

The two Hootches as Grandma called them along with Terri's great smile

Hey Traudt - watch that hand!

Jean and Glenn's goodbye

Some good Chinese food

Doug, Sonny, Ludwick

Liz and John

Ah, tea time

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. If anyone has pictures they would like to share, let me know. 

Happy Fall

Jean