happy 50th birthday to my beautiful man!!!

it's a beautiful day to celebrate my manz 50th birthday!

when i was "sneak" emailing and chatting with jambaloney's mom telling her about the surprise birthday party i was having for jambaloney while they were visiting in september, she asked if there was anything that he would like for his birthday, i told her that he would really love an album of older family pics. and of course some of his step-dad's famous maple syrup (but that was for me, too - teehee!).

well, she outdid herself! she must have spent hours putting this album together, climbed in attics and dug through boxes, climbed in basements and dug through boxes and goodness knows what else! here are some of the pages of the album. jambaloney loves this gift and we have spent many an evening looking through it with him telling me all the stories that go with each item. i hope that you enjoy this!




"Some Memories on your 50th"

"Never a dull moment Jame xx Mum"

his family tree

pics of little jambaloney - he was such a cute kid and teenager!

"Family Gatherings"

this pic is one of our favourite family gathering - we had tons of fun at this xmas party at jam's parents house. that's me in the red sweater and jam sitting beside me. jam's sister is sitting on the other side of me.

jam in the news wearing shorts during a heatwave in ottawa in december.

in grade 11 his school did a "hat and tie day". yes, jam was the only one who wore 6 hats.

gardening has always been in his blood. this is him in his grandmother's garden.

this is him doing various sports. he's been mountain biking since 1989 - he loved it and even did mountain biking competitions in the snow! he also did track and field in high school.

besides Framboise Manor, his grandparents' (now his mother's) fishing camp at Heart Lake is his favourite place in the world. he spent a lot of time with his grandparents.

at Heart Lake one year, he took his sister fishing. as jam is the fisher extraordinnaire, you can understand his sister's big smile as she caught the bigger fish! they had a really good time that day!

jam took out his step-dad fishing another time and his step-dad didn't only catch a bigger fish - he caught 2 - bahahaha! look at that big grin!

but the biggest grin of all is on his mom's face. she went out fishing and caught four beauties!

here's a young jam catching 2 beauties!

this next part of the album is very thoughtful...but man is it funny, too! at the top she wrote "MY SON THE..."and then put a pic of him with his math group and wrote "Mathematician". the second pic is from a few years ago when jam sliced off the tip of his finger and crazy-glued the tip back on. she wrote "Crazy Glue Doctor. and the third pic is jam pulling the lawnmower up hill with his step-dad driving. she wrote "Human Tractor"

this one is "Rat Catcher" and is a letter from the "Canada Department of Agriculture, Health of Animals Branch" written by the Chief of Epidemiology, Special Health Services Branch, Ontario Department of Health and was sent jambaloney after he had caught a rat and thought it might be rabid.

she called this one "the Politician" as he ran for president at Carleton University.

this is a contract that jam wrote with his mother as his grades had been dipping (in grade 13) and his mother made him promise to study 3 hours a night and achieve and 85% or else he would not be allowed to play on the soccer team. he picked up his pants and was able to play. she called this one "the Negotiator"

during the summer break after his first year at Mount Allison University in Nova Scotia, he went out to Prince George, British Columbia to plant trees. his mother called this letter he sent "Tree Planter. he hated planting trees and only lasted 3 weeks.

for 9 months at the Hilton in Ottawa, he worked as the Assistant Restaurants Manager and then resigned. there were a ton of reasons for doing so and he was hating the way the staff were being treated due to budget cuts.

she called that letter "Restaurant Manager".

during the heyday of jambaloney's mountain biking days, he published a mountain biking magazine called "Punk Monkey" for the Capital Off-Road Bicycle Association.  in the third section you will see a sign off from "jammer" which was his nickname with the mountain bikers. the "Ginoo" at the top right is a made up creature from Gatineau Park that all the mountain bikers told stories about but no one ever saw the Ginoo.

jam's mom labelled this one "Journalist"

this is a list of monies in and out, one of jam's first budgets. his mom called this one "Financier"

jam wrestled for the Mount Allison Mounties for a year when at University.  on top is a newspaper article in which jambaloney won his match. the letter below is a letter he sent home telling about several other matches he had one. his mom labelled this page "Wrestler"

when jambaloney was 12 he started to make his own lures...something he does to this day. this is a letter from his father saying that he will send jam stuff for making more lures. jam's mom labelled this "Fly Maker".

this one is self-explanatory - "Cartoonist".

he did 3 years of a biology degree at Mount Allison University before switching over to Philosophy (he is going back and finishing his 4th year and getting his biology degree if i have to kill him! he knows everything about flora and fauna! and he draws beautiful entymology diagrams!) here is one of his drawings of tarantula fangs. his mom labelled it "Biologist".

this section of the album is labelled "And now...some very sweet little kid stuff". he is 5 in the pic and  is fishing at Brown's Inlet in Ottawa.

here is a little poem that he wrote when he was visiting his father's family in cape breton when he was 10. it reads:

"Dear Mom i want to tell you that i am catching lots of crabs and Buch will take me mackeral fishing. i hope you are having a great time and i will see you soon. well i'm keeping in touch. give my love to everyone."

this is a paper about dinosaurs that he wrote when he was 8. his teacher marked it "Escellent"

a note to his Mom when he was probably 8 or 9.

listing out all of the provinces and territories of canada with a little picture to describe each one. most of the pics we can't for the life figure out - but for nova scotia he drew a bagpipe player and even though the northwest territories looks like a guy fishing with a bunch of different rods, it's actually a sled and sled dogs. one of the dogs on the right-hand side obviously made a break for it and ran away - bahahahahah!

i hope that you enjoyed seeing the beautiful album that his mother put together for him, something to cherish forever and maybe pass on to one of his grand-nephews one day. i want to thank his mother for putting so much effort into this album as it means the world to him.

now on to my 2 favourite pictures of my beautiful man (who am i kidding - i love every picture of him!):

unstrapping his brand new bob special canoe:

look at that smile! he loves that canoe!

and then my second favourite pic of him:

he will kill me when he sees this! let me tell you kids, we had my ottawa besty over for what was supposed to be a nice evening of hanging out and having a few drinks. somehow - it went way downhill from there! i would love to say that i had to put ruphies in their drinks in order for them to let me draw cat noses and whiskers on them - but alas, they were both quite agreeable to the idea. and let me do it. and then let me take pics.

but man - did we ever have a fun night that night! (i also think they both have a deep desire to star in the musical "Cats"!)

i know this post is a long one. but it's not for you, it's not for me. it's for his mom. and it's for him.

he is the best partner that anyone could ever have. and he knows how much i love him. i tell him every day - several times a day. and i am more proud of him every single day. he's a hard worker, a good and reliable friend to many, will help anyone with anything anytime, loves and respects nature, is loving and kind to all....and the thing i love most about him - he's MINE!

i love you jambaloney!

for his birthday treat we are going picking cranberries! we found the perfect place! and nothing says "happy 50th birthday" than picking cranberries!!!!!