Narrow Perspective

It's been a long time... I know.

Last night I didn't do any homework or clean any part of the messy house.  The only productive thing I did was make supper.

Instead, we watched the first few miners, who have been buried for 69 days in Chile, walk on the surface of the earth again and become reunited with their families.

It was magical.  I'm still watching it whenever I can.  The President of Chile has been there from the beginning and still has special smiles and hugs and words for each man that comes up.

Do you ever think about the perspective of life through someone else's eyes?  Like those men and their families.  Nothing else really matters to them today.  All they care about is seeing their loved ones again.  And here I am, worrying about how dirty my house is and how on earth we're going to design a tower by April.

Summer at the Lake

We just got back from a lovely week at the lake with Leif's family plus a few extras.  The weather for the first half of our vacation was gorgeous!!!  Sunny and above 30 every day.  Then the winds blew in the smoke and chilly air but we still we able to get out on the lake a few times and the men enjoyed some golf.

Saturday was a golf and shopping day.  Sunday we went to Chase and then relaxed around the house.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all on-the-lake days.  On Thursday night some more rellies came and brought their air-chair for behind the boat and the brave ones gave it a try.  On Friday while the boys were golfing (for the fourth time!), three of us ladies took the boat out all by ourselves!  With a talented Molly at the helm, Lola and I both went skiing and scurfing.  Saturday was the clean-up and drive home day.

I didn't take many pictures on our camera and none from the boat.  You'll have to ask our English friends if you want to see pictures of water sports.

Because of all the forest fires in BC, the sun one evening turned bright red. The camera couldn't pick it up quite right, but it's still a pretty site.

And here's another picture of her royal cuteness doing what she does best.

Our Niece Sleeps Over!

This weekend our cute-as-a-button niece slept over at our house for the very first time!  She slept in "Grandma's big bed" with no complaints.  We had some scrapes and bonks at the park, but nothing a band-aid, a jelly bean, and a nap couldn't solve!  And then we had her parents and sibling-to-be over for supper after their long day of painting.

In the afternoon, we baked a carrot cake together.  Here she is with her "apron" on (which doubled as bib when she was eating) helping me stir everything into the flour.

And her she is smelling the mixture.  One time she breathed out when she was smelling and got flour all over her face!

Just had to get a picture of her cute smile!

This is her licking the icing spoon.  I'm actually a little surprised she liked the cream cheese in there.

You can't really see it, but she has icing all over her face!

We're ready for you to come stay with us again sometime soon!  (hint hint M&D)

Big Birthdays

My little sister turned 18 last week!!!  She spent the day with her best bud and then celebrated in the evening with her family.  She even got to have her birthday on a holiday!

So a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a very special sister!

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Here's Annaliese and Kelsey looking pretty and Joel making faces in the corner.  See, Annaliese had 4 candles left after she blew the first time which means she has 4 boyfriends.  For once that old wives' tale told the truth!!! (Just kidding sis!)

An inside picture of the yummy Torte.  The white part is the best!

And this is part of our gift to her - a new bible bag.  (You just said not on facebook!  Our blog is fair game!  Besides, you have to show off your braces-free smile.)

Construction Site Visit

A couple weeks ago, some of us from work went for a tour of the new Hockey Canada Headquarters being built right beside COP. There is some mighty construction going on there! When it’s all done, there will be 3 NHL-sized rinks, 1 Olympic/international-sized rink for Team Canada tryouts and practices, a 5-story office building for Hockey Canada, a full service high performance training facility with running tracks, equipment, doctors, physiotherapists, etc, a banquet room, and the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame.

This is the Olympic sized rink.  There will be seats installed in there eventually.

Here's another view of the Olympic rink.  The roof will follow the smooth curvy profile on the far side of the picture.

One of the NHL rinks with beautiful timber glulam beams.

Us at center ice!

The red structure at the back is the future Hall of Fame.

I can't wait to see it when it's all done!

Cousin Fun

Last month, my 3 “little” cousins came up from Portland, OR to hang out for a week and then go to the family reunion. We saw them everyday for almost a week! One night we went to our Aunt and Uncle’s house for supper and cake to celebrate all of the cousins’ summer birthdays. They have a trampoline in their backyard and we had some great fun on it.

Leif started off the tricks.

Then Zach showed us his stuff.

Kaden did some super flips.

And Jake even got in a few tricks with a sore knee.

Some collaboration stunts.

And some double-bouncing. Leif gave these boys some serious air time!

Supper on the trampoline!

Here are the cake formalities.

Thanks for coming to see us guys! We had a ton of fun with you!

Our Company

This week we had a lovely little family over for some dessert and good conversation. It was so nice to meet their cute new “munchie”. I think that bundle of joy and I became great friends! Thanks for coming over guys! We hope to spend some more time with you in the near future.

Field Days

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last week, I went up to Red Deer with our Senior Biologist to do some soil assessments in the proposed right of way for the upgrade of a highway. I learned that when a highway is built, the contractors must strip all of the top soil off and build the road and then put it back down in the ditches. So we had to go out there and figure out have deep the topsoil went. I didn’t realize this before, but there’s usually a distinct colour change from the topsoil to the subsoil.

Monday was rainy so we had to quit early or risk losing all of our field notes. Tuesday was great weather and we got 40 holes done! It wasn’t too hot and the wind kept the mosquitoes away. Wednesday wasn’t so great. We were both tired and the mosquitoes were relentless and it got really hot!

So, I was supposed to go there to help dig the soil pits. Here is a picture of me attempting to do that. The soil was so compact that even with me jumping on the shovel, I couldn’t do much!

So I was given the recording job. And that suited me just fine!

P.S.  Don't I look so stylish with my bright orange vest!!!

Today's Episode

This morning when we were getting ready, I walked by the bathroom door and the most terrible high-pitched electronic voice which said something like "Your batteries are low!" almost made my heart stop.  Leif and I looked at each other and then tried to figure out what on earth made that noise.  We figured it was our smoke detector but we were in a rush so we didn't think much of it.

When we got back from lunch it did it again, so Leif brought the ladder upstairs to take the dumb thing down.  He tried to clean it with bleach because it's turned yellow from the sun or something and then put it back up with no battery in it.

It gave us a couple hours of peace until after Leif left for his hockey game - go figure!  Then it started going off like there was a fire and it would not shut up.  I had a complete meltdown when I couldn't get the ladder open to get up there.  There were little kids outside and they were saying "Oh is the firetruck coming now?" so I was sure the whole complex could hear it!

Luckily Leif was still getting dressed  in the change room so he told me how to open the ladder, but when I got up there I couldn't figure out how to disconnect the wires.  By this time I was in sheer panic and bawling.  Yes, I guess I'm not good under pressure.  With Leif still on the phone, we tried the fusebox or whatever it's called but, of course, there was no switch that said "smoke detectors".

Leif said that I should go ask our neighbours for help but with the state I was in, that was not a good idea.  Finally, with the phone tucked on my shoulder and precise instructions we got the thing to shut up.  Hopefully it's just broken and we don't have a gas leak.  Leif took the thing for a walk to the local fire station when he got home (which was empty) and it was still acting up, so we think there's just something wrong with it.

I hope that NEVER happens again!!

Stationary Nerd

Am I the only stationary nerd out there?  Seriously, needing to go to Staples for any reason makes me so excited!!!  Today I had to go there to get a new day planner.  The one I have now ends at the end of July and seems like I'm booking into September at the moment.  Look at this beauty I found!

It's even super bright and happy inside for those cold winter studying days!

Been Framed

I know almost all I post is craft stuff, but I've got to show these to everyone! You'll all have to come to our house to see them in person, because a picture doesn't show how good they look!  The framing cost an arm and a leg at Michael's but I think it was worth it.

Niece-y

At the rodeo, with cowboys and horseys and a clown that took off all his clothes and then danced!  Silly guy.

Helping Grandma water plants and make muddles in my PJs. So fun!

1st Anniversary Pictures

Something I really want to do is take pictures around our anniversary every year. For our first anniversary, my sister happily agreed to go out to a park with us and be our photographer. We think she did a great job! Here's some of our favourite shots of the evening. (Some of them are rather funny. It helps to have a jokester for a husband!)

Golf

I never really thought golf was a sport, until yesterday.  It takes some serious skill and muscles in funny places to golf.  You've got to be able to whack the ball far, but also be accurate when you get close to the hole.

My annual company golf tournament was on Friday so Leif and I joined in on the fun.  It was my first time golfing.  (Except for mini-golf, but that doesn't count).  We went to the driving range for a bit first so I could learn how to hit the ball.  I missed more than I hit, and took a few twirls.  The lady behind me was laughing at my sounds effects.  My husband kept having to remind me to keep my eye on the ball and keep my knees bent.  Then we started the 18-hole course.  Luckily it was "best ball", so Leif could bail out his team of beginners!  Otherwise we would have been there for 10 hours!

Here's a funny picture that describes my experience quite well.  While we were there it wasn't raining, but it's been raining here for the past month, so the course was wet and muddy.  My ball landed in a big pile of muck so I went in to get it and I got stuck!!!  Hooray for wearing trendy rain boots while golfing!!

Power Outage

When we got home yesterday evening at around 9pm, we had no power at our house!  I called the electricity company and they said they would have it back up by 11pm.  So showering by candlelight it was!  Looks pretty romantic eh?

After I got over the initial worried phase, I was pretty excited that we had no power because that meant I wouldn't be enticed by anything on the computer and I surely couldn't do dishes in the dark, so I would be able to get to bed on time!  Unfortunately, 3 minutes into my shower, the power came back on.  And I wasted an hour on the computer.  Go figure!