Four Little Monkeys

Someone thinks I need to blog

2012-01-16T08:35:00.002-07:00

Because someone else has been doing a lot of blogging, Chloe is daily asking me when am I going to blog again?

What to say?

We've been doing a little of this,

and that.

It was great to have Jaclyn home for a bit over Christmas break!

Maybe the biggest topic around here of late has been Chloe herself. Chloe continues to report stomach aches. Taking dairy out of her diet 6 months ago cleared up the nasal congestion, but not the tummy trouble. So after we got through the holidays we eliminated wheat. She's been doing it for more than 2 weeks now, and says she still gets stomach aches (baffling), but I'm noticing changes in her: she's happier and has more energy.

I'll just let that last part sink in . . .

Did anyone think it was possible for Chloe to have more energy?

Another Christmas Slideshow

2011-12-26T16:51:00.002-07:00

(Because it is too many pictures for a regular post.)

2011-12-25T04:52:00.003-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,
I am trying to get a head start on Christmas, so as I write this letter my Halloween decorations are still up (though the holiday itself is over). It's challenging to put myself in the right mood, and I am wondering how magazine editors do it - focus on the next season, always working somewhere in the future. In many ways that sums up the lessons life has taught me this year. How to plan for the future and live in the moment? How to grieve and move forward? How savour the end of something and at the same time embrace the beginning of something new? It seems we have had a year of transitions, which maybe makes it the same as any other year. Robert Frost said, "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on." For us this has meant celebrating the life of Ken's sister Christy and missing her particularly during special times as an extended family. Progressing through this year has also meant realizing that Ken and I can take a vacation and leave the kids to care for themselves. We marked Jaclyn's graduation from high school and Steven's graduation from junior high school. With those celebrations came the new beginnings of Jaclyn now away at college attending BYU, Steven moving up to high school academics and athletics, Carmen attacking junior high school with a dedication to homework like we've never seen, and Chloe getting the 5th grade teacher she was hoping for and seemingly ALL her best friends in the same class. Living in the moment, we spent a week skiing together in Montana, and a weekend as a family at the Columbia Icefield. We played more board games together on Sunday afternoons. We took bike rides and went for hikes. Ken and I saw Ireland with his parents, and spent a couple of days alone in London. We did a backpack trip in August with Steven. We had a girls trip to Edmonton to see Taylor Swift, and after we dropped Jaclyn off in Provo we took Carmen and Chloe to Disneyland. Planning for the future, we work and we save. We eat healthy and work out. We hold a short devotional together in the mornings before we go our separate ways. We do homework. We dream. And I hope that the time we spend preparing for the future provides happiness and satisfaction in the moment as well. Christmas is a model for that: the baking and shopping and decorating prepare us for the holiday, and in other ways are the very holiday itself. As we celebrate Christ's birth we are reminded of our hope to see Him one day, as well as how to live every day.
Our love to you now at Christmas and in all the moments to come.
Love: Ken, Barb, Jaclyn, Steven, Carmen, and Chloe

Lets do a random sewing project just a couple of days before Christmas

2011-12-24T09:44:00.002-07:00

Why sure, that doesn't seem crazy at all.

Christmas Lights

2011-12-22T21:38:00.001-07:00

We took a drive through Spruce Meadows tonight.

I thought it was beautiful, though it broke one of Carmen's Rules for Christmas Lights (no solid colours except for white).

I wish I had trees like this lining my driveway up to my house - and I don't usually wish for things like long driveways.

We also toured some neighbourhoods, and voted on worst . . .

. . . and best lights.

Carmen has become very opinionated when it comes to Christmas lights. Even better: some of Carmen's opinions are in direct opposition to Jaclyn's taste in Christmas lights. Chloe video interviewed each of them on our drive, but I'm not allowed to put it up on the blog!

The best I can do is give you Carmen's rules for Christmas lights:

No spinning or flashing
No rainbow
No solids except for white
Christmas colours only
Not on garage or windows - rooflines only
Not on deciduous trees
Must be even and straight
No lawn ornaments
No inflatables
No dangly lights
All bulbs pointing the same direction

Carmen got Ken singing, "I'm dreaming of an OCPD Christmas, just like the ones I used to know."

Our Last Elementary School Christmas Concert

2011-12-22T08:23:00.001-07:00

Choral numbers:

And hand bells:

It's all band concerts after this!

Un-busy

2011-12-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Carmen told me she was feeling "un-busy".

Problem solved! Congratulations on making the school team Carmen!

Traditions

2011-12-19T12:05:00.002-07:00

I had some thoughts when I uploaded these pictures yesterday.

(Besides "here's a bunch of pictures", I mean.)

But here's a bunch of pictures. First, dipping chocolates with cousins:

In the morning it was Erica, Chloe, Carmen, and Emma. They are getting so good at this skill!
I did a bit of bussing finished trays to the table, and getting more warm chocolate when they ran low, but that was it. They were moving so fast, we took a break and went over to the church to play basketball for awhile (both Emma and Carmen are playing for school teams this year). We didn't want to get it all done before Marissa had a chance to join us! (She was at Driver's Ed.)

Now hanging out at the church for a couple of hours while the girls played seriously cut into other things I needed to get done (Saturday is a special day), and the girls had proven their abilities, so I left them on their own for the afternoon dipping. I think it went well, besides a chocolate-drip-on-the-cellphone miss-hap, which Marissa dealt with immediately.

Funny enough, I think this dog-pile was Marissa's idea! I'm noticing the cell phone is ever in danger's way . . .

(But I'm not saying this is a young person's problem: Yesterday my parents were here for dinner and my dad was checking his iphone at the table after dessert. Jaclyn started to tease him about her not being allowed to check her phone at family functions, but he was so engrossed he didn't even hear her. We had a laugh at his expense, though he claims he wasn't tuning us out - just going deaf.)

Steven's favourite 'advent activities' are the food activities. Again, not necessarily something unique to young people.

Chloe with her planning talents helped me realize I had made a bad choice of one activity last week, and that the better thing to do would be to go sledding. I really need Ken to teach that girl Excel, and then she will really whip me into shape!

We arrived at Carmen and Chloe's choir concert very early to find good seats. Luckily Ken and Steven had their *quiet books* with them as my friend Rebecca calls her husband's cell phone.

Carmen and Chloe after the concert.

We started a new tradition yesterday in that we visited Christy's grave and left some flowers on her birthday. We are nearing the anniversary of her passing, but I think we will continue to prefer to take time to reflect on her life and what we miss about having her near on the 18th as a celebration of her life.

California meets Canada

2011-12-10T12:08:00.002-07:00

I'd like to tell you a cautionary tale about a girl from California who went to BYU and married someone from far away, eventually settling near her husband's family in Canada. But I can't, because it has a happy ending: an outdoor pool in her yard just like she always wanted!

With a Canadian twist.

Our friends just finished their pool a month ago - it's wonderful until it's time to get out! Yesterday instead of swimming I huddled in a blanket beside the pool and watched the kids have a crazy snowball fight (until someone took it in the eye).

Carmen took it as well as she gave it.

She changes the meaning of 'throw like a girl'.

Chloe was right in there to.

(I think this snowball melted a little while she was waiting for a target to surface.)

I don't know why the craziest things are always the most fun!

Christmas work & play

2011-12-06T08:46:00.004-07:00

I realized last week that if I wore the dress I was planning on for Ken's office Christmas party that it would be 11 years-in-a-row in the same dress. Which felt like one too many. So on Thursday night I scoured the mall for something new - I really could have used some girlfriend/daughterly company to weigh in on the decision! I ended up with a black sequin pencil skirt and a white silk blouse. It was lovely, but I don't think I'll get 10 years out of it.

Here's a project I'm working on for a friend: (Who I don't think reads my blog!)

I saw this idea for a table runner made from vintage doilies. My friend has a very farmhouse-styled home, and I found a bunch of doilies at Value Village, so I am attempting to make her birthday present. It's supposed to look like snowflakes, what do you think? Steven thinks I'd better include a Starbucks gift card just in case.

We started chocolates! Chloe was happy to help flavour fondant she can't eat (lactose intolerant),

And roll fondant she can't eat,

But luckily we came up with a flavour that works for her: peanut butter dipped in dairy-free semisweet chocolate.

Chocolate mint for the rest of us.

These ones are just for Chloe.

It was Service Saturday at the school this weekend. The junior high students all volunteer for either a morning shift or an afternoon shift working to make the day a success. Carmen rolled coins collected in the Change for Change campaign in the morning, and helped in the concession in the afternoon. That's right: 2 shifts, but that's just Carmen!

Chloe and Carmen had their first choir Christmas concert on the weekend as well. Each of them are standing just to the right and up from their choristers.

I love Christmas, it's just too bad we can't suspend homework and other obligations in December to lighten our evenings!

Recently

2011-11-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

I've been grateful for technology. I like Facebook and email and texting and phone calls and Face Time. (Though I always want more.)

Side note: I saw a little girl this week that reminded me so much of Jaclyn at 3 or 4 years old. I very nearly cried my way through aerobics class immediately afterwards.

I had a hankering for mini marshmallows last weekend - they didn't last long. I ate them *raw* but Carmen and Chloe cooked them, which later in the day inspired our return to candlelit dinners on dark winters' nights.

"Anne" loved Chloe's doll.

We bought season's tickets to Storybook Theatre again. Last year was all classic musicals; this year is all book adaptations. So far so good! We really enjoyed Anne of Green Gables. Chloe brought her Canadian Girl, Jenna, along (with the doll all dressed up in her Anne outfit) much to the delight of the audience around us. At intermission I think I had my first encounter with Hipsters . . . some young women sitting behind us seemed to have the Hipster styling nailed down, and while Chloe and Carmen were off buying concession food one girl had me take a picture of her with the doll.

I thought later I should have applied this test:

(Thanks for the flowchart, Jaclyn.)

Also of note:
If you want a Pomegranate deconstructed, Carmen is your girl.
Ken out of town = less cooking, more baking.
Napping in the car outside of piano lessons may be the best use of fossil fuels ever.

Steven's a little sore today

2011-11-04T08:34:00.014-06:00

But it's the good kind of sore that comes from winning your first playoff game. And they finished before the snow flew! (I don't know if we'll be as lucky with the football weather next week.) To be honest I'm never completely hoping for a win in the first week of playoffs - I can't help thinking it would be nice to have the season over and done. I always change my tune after that first game, though. Even if it means sitting in the snow and cold to watch.

Side note: I think I took my mom and dad's Christmas card photo at the game, wouldn't you say? That is, if they did that sort of thing . . .

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T12:49:00.008-06:00

For me Halloween started with a yoga class (after my green monster smoothie). My yoga instructor regularly promotes both self-acceptance and stretching for growth and change. (Bless her!) Before we got started with the physical aspect of the class she shared her thoughts on

Jack-O-Lanterns:

Cat & Moon by Carmen

She pointed out that pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes, but share some common traits (insert self-acceptance here). When transformed into a Jack-O-Lantern (reaching for desired change out of that place of self-acceptance) the pumpkin becomes a lantern through which light can shine and be shared.

Deep stuff for Halloween, yes?

(Too bad I can't work pumpkins into my Christmas card message - I'm looking for some inspiration there.)

Later in the afternoon I went out to the school for the Halloween Parade. Somehow each of my girls ended up in partner/group costumes. For Carmen it was purely accidental - a friend in her class was independently planning on being Minnie Mouse, and Carmen bought her Mickey Mouse hands, feet, and ears way back in August at Disneyland.

(The shorts were Pinocchio shorts last year, now updated with white buttons for Mickey.)

(Doesn't Carmen look tall?)

Chloe also bought her costume on holidays in August: Alice in Wonderland.

Well, somehow a Wonderland theme tore through 5th grade this year. (Did Chloe spend the last 2 months promoting the idea, or was it another happy accident? I don't know.) So we had the Rabbit, Alice, The Queen of Hearts, and The Mad Hatter. Such Cuteness!

The themes didn't extend to trick-or-treating, though. Officially in our family there's not supposed to be any trick-or-treating after elementary school, but Carmen *took Chloe and her friend out* and came home with record amounts of candy herself. We won't let her get away with that again next year (insert smiley punctuation here, but I just can't do it). (Though I can do it texting or on Facebook so go figure.)

(I got smiley punctuation in an email from an assistant principal at school this week - which genuinely made me smile.)

Green Monster Smoothie

2011-10-31T08:52:00.001-06:00

I made a special (healthy) Halloween breakfast this morning a-la Oh She Glows.

It was dreen, but not dross!
(Though the kids scared Ken out of trying it and he had chocolate milk.)

Fire at will

2011-10-25T08:51:00.000-06:00

I don't know why that felt like a suitable title - but here's a quick update in whatever order the photos uploaded.

We had an unscheduled Sunday on the weekend - no special dinners, no feeding the missionaries, no youth meetings. Carmen pulled out The Game of Life and we saw in through to the painful end, just to say we did it (and never have to do it again). Chloe was losing badly, so she put on Ken's cap and hoodie and called herself a hobo.

Steven got glasses. For free! From clearlycontacts.ca with a coupon code from Uncle Mark. (Thank-you!) The contact lens thing wasn't working out so well on school mornings.

Steven has his last regular season game today. The defence has only allowed 22 points all season! It's interesting how Steven playing defence has changed the way I watch an NFL game. Apparently I used to watch football from an offensive perspective.

We did an apple pie project with my parents and Marie this month - I had the brilliant idea of bringing latex gloves from work so that my fingernails weren't black by the end of the day from handling juicy apples.

Carmen saw this on Pinterest. My goal is to actually do the things we see on Pinterest, to move beyond the pinning. Good thing we have more Fridays off school than usual this year - we can using them for Pinterest Projects!

Johnston Canyon, Banff

2011-10-10T21:33:00.010-06:00

It's a little embarrassing to have lived in Calgary for 19 years and to only have visited Johnston Canyon for the first time this weekend. This is the hike that Calgarians say to each other:

"We could just go hike Johnston Canyon . . ."

Johnston Canyon was breathtaking. It is largely a suspended path winding along the canyon wall.

We'll have to do it again mid-summer sometime so that we can have a high sun and maybe get fewer shadows in our photos.

Beautiful spots all along the way.

And two impressive waterfalls. This first waterfall can be more closely accessed through a tunnel in the rock wall, which makes it all the more smashing.

Steven's been doing some photography for a Venture Scout Award. (He needed an outdoor hobby "not a sport". Ask me how difficult it is for Steven to pursue something outdoors non-atheltic.)

The upside of me not being the one holding the camera - more pictures of Ken & I!

Skillz

2011-10-08T10:13:00.003-06:00

It's about time these kids started taking care of me!

I wear a brace on my left wrist at night to keep me from bending it in a way that aggravates my carpel tunnel syndrome. The problem is that I like to sleep on my stomach with my head on my hands (hmm, could that be the real problem?) and my brace is not so comfortable to rest on. So last night Steven taped my up wrist - something he learned in his Sports Med class at school (the pink tape is for football for October) and ah! what a nice sleep I had.

Thank-you Steven!

I'm pretty positive this is my last post about Jaclyn and high school

2011-09-30T08:24:00.004-06:00

I thought these were well behind me, but then I got a call yesterday informing me that Jaclyn had been awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal for her graduating class. They had to explain to me what that was - I hadn't heard of it. (I guess that means I didn't get this award from my high school.) Jaclyn receives this medal, as well as a certificate, and her name is engraved on a plaque in Ottawa.

Since Jaclyn's gone, the blog is her first look at the award:

Lord Dufferin, Canada’s third Governor General after Confederation, created the Academic Medals in 1873 to encourage academic excellence across the nation. Over the years, they have become the most prestigious award that students in Canadian schools can receive.

For more than 125 years, the Governor General’s Academic Medals have recognized the outstanding scholastic achievements of students in Canada. They are awarded to the student graduating with the highest average from a high school, as well as from approved college or university programs. Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Kim Campbell, Robert Bourassa, Robert Stanfield and Gabrielle Roy are just some of the more than 50 000 people who have received the Governor General’s Academic Medal as the start of a life of accomplishment.

(It's a little anti-climactic to get a high school award after you're gone to college. This award is presented late, long after the high school awards ceremony, because it is calculated after all June provincial diploma marks are in. So the pomp and circumstance surrounding it was slightly lame: Steven got called down to the office to pick it up and bring it home.)

Congratulations, Jaclyn. You'll have to look yourself up the next time you are in our nation's capital!

Fall

2011-09-24T14:23:00.001-06:00

It is funny to me that I don't enjoy repetitiveness from day-to-day, but I love it with the return of each season. September has meant cross country running season in our house for 10 years, and football season for 4.

Each year brings it's own stories.

Chloe was grocery shopping with me at the end of the summer, and while we were in line at the check-out she picked up and turned over an Eatmore Bar. To her dismay, the ingredient list included 'milk solids'. I promised her I would come up with a solution - Eatmore Bars are a cross-country running tradition. I left it till the morning of the first race, but I found and combined a couple of recipes to come up with milk-free Eatmore Bars:

Eatmore Bars:

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup beehive golden syrup

1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups small flake 20 minutes oats pulverized in a food processor, but not to pulverized

2 cups chopped dry roasted peanuts

1 T ground flax seed

1 scoop protein powder

Combine peanut butter and golden syrup over heat till bubbling. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate chips. Mix in other ingredients. Pour into 4 greased bread pans. Cool. cut each pan into 3 long bars. Wrap in parchment, tie ends with baker's string, store in fridge.

(The protein powder probably takes away from the stretchiness of the Eatmore Bars - omit if this matters to you.)

Carmen's story:

From 6th-9th grade cross-country running gets more competitive on the school level. A student's run time on the Terry Fox Day determines eligibility to go to school divisionals. Carmen really wanted to make it to divisionals, and asked me to come to her race to cheer her on. She wanted me to stand at the mid-way point (after the first hill, before the second hill) and count the runners so that I could tell her what place she was in and she would know what she had to do. And so I counted: 1: Elliott, 2: Maddie, 3: Aspen, and so on. Carmen was 18th, and only the top 12 go to divisionals. After I called out her place as she passed, I walked the short-cut to the finish line and started my count again. 1: Elliott, 2: Maddie, and so forth. Then Carmen broke through the trees and came into my view in 12th place. Tears sprung to my eyes, I was so proud. She had passed 6 people on the final hill, an amazing feat. Those of us standing near the finish cheered her in, not knowing that she thought she was still in 13th place. With a reserve of surprising energy Carmen sprinted the final 50 meters of the race passing the runner ahead of her. It was an inspiring finish. Her friends and teachers were impressed (even if she wouldn't have done it had she realized her position on the cross-country team was secure already).

This year Steven is playing his first football season on a school team. Before 10th grade all tackle football opportunities exist at a community level only. That's how I know he loves football: because he played before any of his friends were watching. Steve's high school junior team had their first regular season game on Wednesday. It was a close first quarter, but then our boys pulled away and won by more than 20 points (sorry I'm a little lost for details here I had to leave before it was over to pick up Carmen & Chloe from piano lessons). I was there for Steven's interception - though all I caught was pictures of the blue sky because I was too wrapped up in the moment to look down at my camera. Here's Steven standing up after it was all over (in the silver and green):

Steven took on a second football role this year: Coach Steve. And I took on a not-so-new role: paparazzi. I didn't think he'd pose for me. Pretty sure I was right about that. He's in the black hoodie with his back facing the camera.

We're enjoying one more September tradition today: better weather this first weekend of fall than we saw for most of the summer - yippee!

Back to school

2011-09-16T12:05:00.000-06:00

School bags waiting by the front door on *first day of school eve*.

Steven, Carmen, and Chloe went back to school on September 1st - a fitting day even if it did fall before the long weekend. I felt really blessed that everyone seemed to be ready for the next year.
The high school adjustment for Steven is more independence and responsibility.
Carmen has taken to the extra work-load of junior high (if you knew our junior high you would appreciate what I'm saying here). Carmen's attitude towards homework seems to be, 'Finally we're getting serious here. It's about time!'
Chloe had the good fortune of getting the teacher she was hoping for as well as her best friend in her class.
They've landed well.

They should call it a short weekend.

2011-09-11T22:34:00.000-06:00

Because it speeds by,

Even when you try to take it slow.

We had our ranch weekend with Ken's family on the September long.

Providing quads is one of many ways that Craig keeps us entertained!

Next year we must remember ear plugs for the little ones.

Where were the 12&13 year old girls when I had babies?

I remember it being hot, but I guess maybe not down at Waterton Lake?

We actually made two trips to Waterton: one with the men, one without.

Here I go with the back-lit photos I love.

Ah, young people.

The tamest cricket ever.

I can just hear Blake saying: You took all those action shots of me on the quad and you choose to post this???

Without Cache as my assistant I wouldn't have a picture of Eric,

Or Grandma.

This one is all mine. I also have a similar picture of my brothers-in-law, actually.

You know Ken is old when his childhood helmet is 'vintage'.

Cache planting his landing after flying off the swing.

I didn't have my camera with me on Monday because I sent it with the golfers. Ken took pictures at the beginning and the end. Here's Steve on the 18th hole.

I think the only one I'm missing is me - I'll have to get some pictures off Natalie, but here's our bear siting. Thanks for spotting it Craig!

Steven's Happy Place

2011-09-02T09:15:00.003-06:00

Steven passed up Disneyland (and hours and hours of driving, let's be honest) to stay home and work another week and then be home for the first two days of school football try-outs. Those two activities are linked, actually - one thing Steven spent his summer job money on was his own football helmet. Steven has played football for so long (4 seasons already - this will be his 5th) that he has a strong enough preference for comfort and fit and he was willing to spend the cash. This helmet is called a 'Speed' which suits Steven nicely.

First, the bad news

2011-08-31T20:15:00.014-06:00

Your children are going to leave you.

Jaclyn's autograph quilt from Grandma O

I don't know if I just wasn't paying attention when people tried to warn me of this or what, but it's come as quite a shock. Jaclyn has gone to college and Steven and Carmen and Chloe will follow.

No-one else around here seems to feel the way I do. Ken sold her car, cancelled her on our car insurance, and took her chair away from the kitchen table and relocated it to the telephone desk. What?!? Like she's gone????

(To be fair, I cancelled her Canadian cell phone yesterday.)

Carmen and Chloe have taken over the 'guest' room with Barbies and Groovy Girls and Polly Pockets so that they don't mess up their own rooms.

There is some comfort in the fact that Jaclyn went out into the world (if BYU can be called that) totally prepared for independent life. So I'm not saying don't teach your children to tie their shoes or drive or cook because I suspect they'll leave whether they're ready or not. But still.

If we hadn't driven directly from Provo to the happiest place on earth it might have been ugly. The weeping, that is. (I now believe my dad's story that my mom cried all the way home from the MTC when they dropped Keith off - I always had that story figured for serious exaggeration.)

The good news: Disneyland is really all that.

Just to scratch the surface of our days in California with Carmen and Chloe:

It was perfect, down to every last detail.

Chloe sitting in the princess chair before Cinderella story time - later Chloe got to try on the glass slipper!

Carmen spotted these spritzing battery-operated fans in Bed, Bath and Beyond in St. George and they saved the girls in lines - something to play with and something to relieve our poor Canadian-selves of the 110 F heatwave we faced.

One of these characters are Goofy, the other is Pluto.

The girls were such good window shoppers, only on our second last night when I said 'time to choose something' did they even tell me what they would like to have. Chloe bought herself a smaller Winnie, both girls bought toe socks, Carmen also bought flip-flop socks, and I bought Halloween costumes (Mickey accessories and an Alice dress).

I staked out the perfect fireworks spot while Ken and the girls searched for a snack.

I probably should have chosen the heart shaped fireworks for this post - I'd never seen that before!

Okay, we were mean parents after the fireworks and dragged the girls to Space Mountain which we hadn't done yet. I thought it was a huge mistake until Chloe laughed through the whole ride and caught a total second wind. The night ended on a high - I couldn't have been more surprised!

We went to Ariel's Grotto for breakfast (a grotto is a cave or cavern, I just had to look that up to clarify for my own sake) where we met all the princesses, got all their pictures, and all their autographs. It was a bargain.

The food was amazing, way too much for us to eat, but delicious. And how fun to sit in a shell with a jellyfish lantern!

Ariel's Grotto is in California Adventure Park, where we met a few more celebrities, played some games, and Carmen and Chloe chose very different rides. Chloe took the rocking ferris wheel, Carmen did the Twilight Zone drop of doom and the giant roller coaster.

Our third day we hit Huntington Beach. Carmen boogie-boarded.

Chloe sand-castled.

Buried up to your neck is a classic.

She was quickly back in the surf.

We thought we'd missed out on seeing the parade, but we wandered back to Disneyland later in the day just in time!

Mary Poppins was charming.

Ken took a trip down memory lane with Chloe - this was the ride Ken remembers best from when he came as a five-year-old. (We also did Space Mountain again while we were in Tomorrowland.)

We had a very late dinner in Downtown Disney.

The balloon artist in the restaurant worked for tips - I hoped we payed him well enough, I'm never sure about these things.

The food at Disney was superb with healthy options everywhere and plenty of accommodations for dairy-free.

Actually the whole thing was superb. It seemed that we lucked-out everywhere we turned with the timing of rides, events, food and shade. All of it. The magic of Disney.

Just to help you miss us

2011-08-22T21:16:00.001-06:00

Carmen and Chloe have attacked Jaclyn with their paper covered straws in every single restaurant we've eaten at for the past two days.

Jaclyn now attempts to retaliate - but there is only one of her,

And two of them.

She's such a good sport.

TSwift

2011-08-21T23:04:00.002-06:00

With less than 48 hours left before leaving for Provo to take Jaclyn to BYU we made a quick girl's trip in the opposite direction to Edmonton - was that crazy??? (Chloe actually went up the day before with Milly)

I have to say that when I bought the Taylor Swift concert tickets I had no idea that Jaclyn would be heading to college so early - somehow I thought more like the September long weekend.

Anyhow. We had a great time!

A little photo-op for Carmen while standing in line to buy the t-shirt that proves she was there. A very good way to kill time during the opening band.

That girl puts on one amazing show, I must day. She had fantastic energy and really loves her fans, which is part of her charm.

Carmen and Jaclyn between sets.

Jaclyn would have had more fun if she wasn't so tired - do you think she's going to catch up on her rest during freshman orientation week?

Carmen is the real Taylor Swift girl in the family. She sang her way through the whole concert. As for me, I entered a parent, I left a fan.

Happy Birthday Steven!

2011-08-09T21:06:00.001-06:00

He's fishing off the Coast of British Columbia today, but clearly he's being well taken care of.
(Note the sea plane out the window - I'm not sure he'll ever have a better birthday!)

Sock Bun Curls (that doesn't sound like a real thing, does it?)

2011-08-05T09:10:00.002-06:00

While Kelly came to stay she shared a couple of things with me. Pinterest, for one, which clearly has addictive potential, and Sock Bun Curls - which I believe she found through Pinterest.

The YouTube tutorial we used left a little bit of figuring out to do, like what size of sock?

Erica and Carmen used a women's mountain bike ankle sock, and Chloe used a children's sized sock that was getting a little small for her.

Chloe's curls turned out the best, but was this due to the sock size or that she has thinner, more naturally curly hair than the other girls?

Erica's turned out pretty and wavy, but still damp and didn't hold for long. We may have put the sock buns in too late at night - we were running on sleepover hours you know.

Carmen's hair gained a lot of volume, and though her curls fell out, even her straight hair pony tail in the evening was more puffy than usual.

Chloe did the curls again today, she loves the no hair-do work in the morning. I have yet to try sock bun curls myself, but I will. And maybe I'll try Chloe's little sock!

Tutorial below:

Fringe Benefits

2011-08-03T21:03:00.000-06:00

It's tough to get a summer job at only 14 years old. Many typical 'teen' employers don't even take applications till age 15 (movie theatres, grocery stores). But Steven had an impressive 14-year-old's resume and he really wanted a summer job. To be more specific, he really wanted a summer job at a golf club - he was looking for fringe benefits. So it was funny that when he was lucky enough to get a job interview at the golf course around the corner from our house that he didn't ask any questions about free golf. Even when he was hired on the spot he didn't ask. Very quickly having a job became about having a job: getting up at 5am to do manual labour 4 days/week with naps after work.
Steven adjusted quickly, though, and has been enjoying his free golf and free golf cart. He and Ken (with the special friends and family rate) are squeezing in all the golf they can. It's the summer of golf.

One last look

2011-08-02T22:26:00.000-06:00

It is Chloe's job this week to break her habit of playing the piano with her feet crossed. Camera phones are so great.

Back-country camping

2011-07-31T22:57:00.003-06:00

On Thursday Ken, Steven, and I left for our 25k backpack trip. The first day we hiked from Red Rock Canyon to Twin Lakes.

I immediately sensed a gender gap when early on in the hike Ken and Steven marched right past the most beautiful field of wildflowers. What? Are we in a hurry to set up camp before dark or something?

The pace Ken set turned out to be more bear-friendly than flower-friendly. Look what was coming up the path at us! We would have missed it if we hadn't been hiking so fast! Steven quickly grabbed the camera from my pack while Ken readied the bear spray (just in case). I tried to make noise to chase the bear off the path, but the bikers who came up behind us did a better job of that. The bear moved off into the bushes and we passed by with maybe 20 feet of distance between us and the bear.

It took us about 4 hours, but by 6:30pm we reached the Twin Lakes campsite complete with an outhouse, a little gathering area with log benches, framed tent pads filled in with wood chips, and of course a bar to hoist backpacks/food out of reach of bears during the night.

We actually hit the tiniest bit of snow on the trail right before the campsite - we'd been warned there was still snow on the trail.

It turned out that wasn't the snow the park rangers were talking about. Friday morning after our instant oatmeal (we had dehydrated beef stew the night before - man can we boil water) anyhow, once we set out the second day we found the real snow we'd been warned about. We had to traverse across this slippery slope to find the trail, and then several times after that we lost the trail in the snow, but we found it again every time - I was prepared to double back if necessary, but I'm super glad we didn't have to.

The lake below the snowy slope.

Lower down the terrain eased up, which was a good thing because we were pretty tired, especially our new friend: Tanya. Tanya hiked in to Twin Lakes maybe 15 minutes after us all by herself with rented camping equipment she had no idea how to use - luckily Ken was there to help her set up her tent! Tanya is a university student from Switzerland and a couple of years ago she read about Waterton National Park in National Geographic and wanted to come. So she flew out to British Columbia to visit a friend, then took a Greyhound bus by herself to Calgary, rented a tent and a sleeping bag, took another Greyhound bus to Pincher Creek, and from there took a taxi to Waterton. She bought her back-country camping permit, hitch-hiked up the Redrock Canyon Parkway, and hiked 11k. I was so impressed with her courage and tenacity, but yikes there was some stupidity blended in there. Back-country camping alone is just not safe and what if Ken hadn't been there to help her with her tent? As it was she had a cold miserable night worrying about bears eating her before dawn, poor girl. She needed a warmer sleeping bag for sure.

We were rewarded at the end of our hike with a beautiful view of Blackiston Falls, and clean clothes waiting for me in the back of the van.

It was awesome, and the first backpack trip I've done since I was 10 years old and I'm pretty sure my dad carried everything on that one. Let's do it again!

Last week

2011-07-27T13:25:00.000-06:00

We hosted some cousins at our house:

Monte loved our dog, and that made me love our dog.

Girls played cooperatively

It wasn't a water fight - they took turns dumping water on each other.

Carmen and Avery shared nicely.

Uncles competed for the title of Favourite Uncle - I wish I had pictures of them golfing with Steven.

Emmie and Chloe made a stab at double jumping,

But settled on another game.

Avery and Carmen took a very short bike ride.

This post is looking like we were very outdoorsy - not so. Most of the girl's time was spent like this:

One of many reasons I wish we all lived closer together!

Backyard Campout

2011-07-26T15:49:00.000-06:00

Awhile back Emma and Erica came over for a sleepover. They had concocted a plan in advance that it would be a backyard campout, with a twist I was unaware of.

They decided that they would camp as if they were away from home with no trips back into the house with the exception of bathroom necessities.

So they packed up the cooler and did without whatever they forgot once they 'left'.

I'm afraid dish soap was one of the things they forgot.

They had prepared tin foil dinners in advance and cooked them in our fire pit, followed by s'mores of course.

They took 27 pictures of they fire, so I should include at least one.

I took the first group shot, and after that they were on their own so self-portraits became part of the experience as well as cutting some leftover 2x2's when they ran out of firewood. I won't include pictures of them actually cutting the wood - too scary.

Basically Carmen and Emma provided Chloe and Erica with a little taste for YW's camp including setting up the tent by themselves and singing camp songs for the neighbourhood to enjoy - I loved it!

Youth camp leaders.

Pre-YW campers.

It seems they played some kind of sleeping bag blind-mans-bluff type of game, and since they weren't really in the wild the cooler inside the tent was okay, though we did have a bear wander into the neighbourhood once a few years ago . . .

Pancakes were also made over the fire. My back yard have never been a more fun place to be.

(And for the record the backyard camp was a total testament to the YW's camp program - those 4 girls cleaned everything up totally. It really was like they weren't even home.)

Merry Christmas!

2011-07-17T13:04:00.001-06:00

Carmen finally got to cash in on her Christmas present from 6+months ago - we went to Wicked!

We dressed in green,

Painted our toes,

And Carmen's fingers.

Bought a t-shirt . . .

It was an amazing mother-daughter date, thanks for sharing your Christmas present Carmen!

Baby you're a firework

2011-07-16T07:23:00.002-06:00

Chloe's birthday began with birthday breakfast. Steven and Carmen came into the kitchen and promptly laid their heads on the counter, having been forced to get up earlier than usual.

Then I noticed Ken doing his version of the same thing! It was 7:30 am. (Jaclyn was just coming down from her shower.)

"Hey, you said you wouldn't get this for me!" (a baby buggie)

Later in the afternoon we had a picnic dinner down in Fish Creek Park.

Chloe tried to blow those candles out but still ended up with 6 boyfriends.

Most of the entertainment was provided by uncles.

Kevin brought his ghillie (sp?) suit, put it on Steven and after getting pictures with nearby picnickers who thought it was funny, Steven went about sneaking up on us.

He got really close, and was only noticed by Uncle Craig.

Craig taught us lessons about resolving conflict lovingly. My new phrase is 'hug it out'.

I just like getting pictures of the boy cousins, they're such a rarity - even though these 3 boys are bookended by one cousin on a mission and one baby boy cousin (plus another due any day now!)

For the birthday finale we drove down to just outside the Stampede Grounds for the fireworks display.

The girls pretending to be fireworks. Carmen's idea, clearly.

Happy Birthday!

Young Adulthood

2011-07-15T07:18:00.002-06:00

Jaclyn has graduated from high school and seminary. She has her YW Recognition Award as well as The Honor Bee. College textbooks are being couriered to our house. And she's a primary teacher, which came in very handy during sharing time (er, gospel instruction) when the primary counsellor needed siblings to come to the front for a demonstration - Chloe and Jaclyn were the only siblings in the room!

Stickler

2011-07-14T19:12:00.003-06:00

Steven's been working on the bronze level of the Duke of Edinburgh Award - the last area he has to complete is the outdoors section. Last Friday Steven and Ken hiked the Cascade Amphitheatre in Banff as a day-hike in preparation for the hike-in camping trip they have planned for the end of the month. This week Steven was reviewing the requirements for the camping trip and it turns out that the DofEA requires a minimum of 3 people to make the trip for safety reasons. We are sticklers for rules, so guess who gets to do something cool at the end of July? Me!

Carmen's First Triathlon

2011-07-01T15:07:00.001-06:00

(Carmen did something amazing today)

We took Carmen out to Turner Valley today for her first triathlon. She was a little nervous on the way out. (Something about that highway? Same highway as soccer finals.)

In many ways Carmen's first triathlon was my first triathlon. I think I got my job done. Carmen was prepared from head:

To toe:

Even though Carmen has suffered a sore shoulder this week, she totally went for it in the swim and attacked the 300 meters:

Carmen kept this smile on her face the whole race:

She had an awesome transition to the bike:

And returned from her 10K ride before we knew it:

Still smiling:

Carmen gave herself permission to walk after the half-way point of her 3K, but when she reached her goal she still felt good so she kept on going and ran the whole thing!

Her strong finish.

Carmen felt awesome after the race. She couldn't stop talking about it!
(Nor could she stop talking about next year.)

Conner's Grad

2011-06-30T16:07:00.001-06:00

A fun advantage to raising children their whole lives in the same place is I can follow up a picture like this:

With a picture like this:

Awwww!

Golden Birthday

2011-06-29T16:48:00.004-06:00

Chloe will be 10 on the 10th, which means it will be her golden birthday in a week and a half. Last weekend we had her golden birthday party before school ended so that all of her friends were still around to celebrate.

We made ruffled garlands from plastic golden table cloths. We covered the house in them and they were so cute, much to my relief - early on in the project they just looked like lasagna noodles, but that was because of our colour choice I'm sure.

We had a golden pinata.

And we roasted marshmallows till they were golden.

We played Midas Touch (freeze tag) and Hatch the Golden Egg (sit on balloons till they pop). The big hit was that I rented an inflatable bouncer castle to try to make it "the best birthday party ever" that she hoped it would be. It was expensive, but so fabulous and easy.

Chloe was a little shocked to have 7 boyfriends! Carmen decorated the cake and made it golden with butterscotch icing (burn the butter/margarine before you make a normal buttercream icing) dusted with gold petal dust which somehow she knew to send me to buy at Michaels. The party guests were totally delighted with the sparkly/shiny golden cake.

Our Golden Girl.

Chloe got a really fun present:

I can tell you there are still a few in stock at the Deerfoot Meadows Walmart in the gardening section, but they are selling fast! I've bought a couple - in fact Carmen took one to a birthday party today, already pulled out of it's packaging and placed in a gift bag to maximize the effect. I think it will probably give the birthday girl a bit of a scare when she opens it!

Awards Night

2011-06-28T23:11:00.000-06:00

If I can't take a good picture in gymnasium light, then I'll edit it any way I like.

Steven finished off junior high tonight alongside many kids he's gone to school with for ten years. He seems to run with an award-winning group of friends because many boys I know and love and feed on a regular basis walked up to the stage repeatedly. (He could introduce them that way from now on: "and I'd like you to meet my award-winning friends . . .) I was proud of all those boys (and the occasional girl that classifies as *in his group of friends*).

Steven received the Most Improved Award for Sr. Boys basketball along with his friend Truman. Steven was also recognized for his achievement in attaining honour roll and citizenship. He was a little surprised to get a tech award for the school play. Steven worked as head technician last year, but this year the school play fell on the same night as the city football championship game and even though he didn't know his team would go to finals he had to decline the position on tech crew just in case. Well, somehow Steven still ended up missing classes and staying after school (until it was time for football practise anyways) to help train the new tech kids. It was nice of the drama teacher to acknowledge Steven's contribution.

As always, special awards were reserved for the end of the evening (Grandma and Grandpa were good sports to show up for the whole two hours when they maybe just needed to be there for the last ten minutes). We knew what was coming, but Steven didn't.

Mrs. C. began introducing the award by describing the boy it is in memorial of (Steve told me later that he said to his friend next to him: "Why are they talking about me in past tense?" Brat! But he was just kidding.) Qualities like attention to detail, doing his best in everything, considerate and caring of others were mentioned. Oh, the look on Steven's face when he was named along with three other students to come up and receive the award - I'd have liked to have had my camera at the ready for that, but it would have been obvious I was jumping the gun.

So the certificate reads: To be considered for this award, students must demonstrate well-roundedness, master new challenges, show potential, contribute to peers, have a love of life, and not be self-centered. Nice, right?

The award itself is to attend a week long leadership camp on scholarship from the school. The teachers are basically saying we believe in you and we want to invest in you and your future.

I know some past recipients of this award, and Steven is certainly in good company. Congratulations, Steve!

A Winning Smile

2011-06-27T06:05:00.005-06:00

Carmen and Chloe had soccer finals this past weekend. Chloe played at 11am on our home field, and Carmen played at 12 noon in Turner Valley which meant Ken and I had to flip a coin - Ken went to Chloe's game, I went to Carmen's.

That's right: two trophys. The 'Hooligans' earned the best record in the league and then went on to win the playoffs as well.

Chloe's team had a very different season. The lost all their games but one, which ended in a tie. She's in her last year of House League where everyone gets a medal at the end, but actually they won their 'final' on Saturday morning, so "if it had been a play off" she still would have walked away with a medal.

Family Temple Day

2011-06-26T11:37:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday we had a ward temple day in Cardston.

I know, not the picture you were expecting to see with the title to this post, but we are lucky enough to have grandparents who are temple workers and have a ranch just outside of Cardston so we popped in on them before we met up with the rest of the ward. Carmen and Chloe found a dead snake. Yum.

Steven and Ken got in a little shooting. (Just pop cans Aunt Kelly.)

Grandma and Grandpa have a new swing in the trees.

We only spent an hour, but it was fun, then Ken and our youth age children went to the temple while I spent my afternoon with the primary children.

Chloe at the temple.

Nice day.

Jaclyn did something amazing this week

2011-06-25T00:07:00.001-06:00

When Jaclyn was 3 years old she asked for piano lessons. It wasn't out of the blue - I was teaching at the time, but I wasn't teaching to that age group. We found a Suzuki piano teacher nearby and away we went. By first grade Jaclyn was practising 45 hard minutes a day before school in the mornings. That was also the year she learned about RCM Examinations - I specifically remember her asking me what was the highest level that could be achieved. She locked in on her goal, and in junior high school she was practising up to 2 hours a day.
This Monday Jaclyn performed her ARCT Performers Examination before 2 adjudicators. We'll get her mark in a few weeks, but the smile on her face when she left the hall said it all.
Congratulations, Jaclyn. It is a major achievement.

At least it's just milk

2011-06-24T07:27:00.000-06:00

Chloe's had stomach troubles for quite awhile. Like long enough that they were just part of life and it almost became invisible. She's also suffered nasal congestion in a chronic way. Turns out they were connected. We finally got serious about getting to the bottom of her trouble which involved eliminating food groups for periods of time, urine tests, and a blood test. We figured out before we left for Europe that Chloe really can't do milk, which isn't so bad. There are many good substitutes (she's having sherbet in the picture) and Chloe has decided she prefers soy milk over rice milk or almond milk. I'm not noticing any difference using soy milk in baking, though the pancakes on Father's Day didn't brown up like cow's milk pancakes.
I'm really proud of how disciplined Chloe has been with her new diet, if anyone in our house can exercise that kind of self control it is Chloe.

Hit the ground running

2011-06-23T07:05:00.000-06:00

We planned our trip to fit between Jaclyn's high school grad and Steven's jr. high grad. We got home Thursday late afternoon and Steven's grad was the next day. I don't know if we were running on adrenaline or what, but we weren't too tired and we had a great time. First dance is reserved for parents.

A couple of days later was Jaclyn's seminary grad. She came downstairs in this dress and I swear all I said was 'OH' to which she responded, 'It's not a wedding dress Mom, he can see me in it before his grad.' It turned out the boy she was referring to wore his grad get-up to seminary grad as well.

We got right back into soccer. (This one is of Chloe.)

And when Carmen missed a YW camp certification night for soccer we made up for it at home.

All in the first 5 days back. It's good to be home!

As if the trip hadn't been indulgent enough

2011-06-22T05:40:00.000-06:00

Ken's parents stayed longer in Ireland, but after nine fabulous days we headed home with a two day lay-over in London - neither of us had ever been. We were staying for free in a flat owned by a company that someone Ken works with sits on the board of directors for, yada, yada, yada. I, for one, was nervous to find it because it wasn't like finding the Holiday Inn, so we took a cab from the airport rather than trying the train. Two days later we were confident Londoners and took the train a couple of times including back to the airport.

Here we are.

I should pan out a bit to give you the full effect.
That's right, totally spoiled.

Our patio in our flat one block off Hyde Park.

Such a charming neighbourhood!

The school looked just like our building only it had a little plaque next to the door with the school name. The school uniform was a gingham dress with the red sweater and socks and a straw hat. Adorable!

London Slideshow

I can't seem to embed the slideshow. If you want to see 32 more pictures (with captions) click "London Slideshow" above. If you don't, well, I'll never know.

Our first day in London we did a hop-on, hop-off tour bus and saw the sights, but by evening I was starting to surrender to a head cold I'd been fighting for a day or two, so we came home early and enjoyed our kitchen stocked with strawberries, eggs, milk, chocolate, sparkling water, yogurt, cheese, and more, I kid you not.

The next day we did more walking and shopping, which almost did me in, but somehow I bounced back and we took in a play in Coventry: Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre starring Rupert Everett. (My Fair Lady was adapted from this play by George Bernard Shaw.) It was the perfect way to finish off London with all the references to the city we'd been exploring for the previous two days. I would totally go back.

This & That

2011-06-21T02:00:00.000-06:00

Just wrapping up the Ireland leg of our trip before moving on to London:

A gas station with a funny name. Do you think Emo has the same meaning there as here?

We had amazing weather - only one afternoon of rain, but I've put the raincoat I purchased to good use here at home.

A door knocker in Killarney - the bottom of the knocker reads ERIN in Celtic font, and I'm disappointed it doesn't show up because I was going to make stationary for my friend (Erin).

These services were available everywhere to exchange currencies, but it reminded us of the SNL skit for First Citywide Change Bank.

Street signs were often a challenge. Instead of posting them on poles at corners they were (sometimes) (hopefully there at all) on the sides of buildings. The gaelic always on top with english underneath.

This one reads Meat Shambles Lane - I'm sure it is lovelier in gaelic.

I really couldn't get enough of the little pink roses, can you tell?

The symbol for road overpasses looked like Inuit sculpture to me, so in my mind this one reads:

No Inukshuk Allowed.

Icecream seemed like a big thing in Ireland, but I never had one - luckily I saw the same plastic cones in London and finally got my soft serve.

In Ireland if you need to go, you're not looking for a bathroom or washroom, you're looking for a toilet. (Really, it's more accurate.) Also in Ireland you aren't looking to rent or lease, you are looking to let. I had trouble adjusting to the european ways or something because I couldn't read the signs right. I put myself into laughing hysterics at one point when I thought I read a sign that said SPACE TOILET.

The exit signs seemed very urgent.

Flavors of India or Relief Society of India?

Dublin

2011-06-20T15:01:00.002-06:00

The first thing I have to say about Dublin is they have a thing for marble statues. There was an island running down the middle of O'Connell Street with just statue after statue. You know the DIY Silhouette thing? If Dublin were in charge the craft blogs would be posting DIY marble statues. For real.

For me the highlight of Dublin, by far, was Trinity College - once again because of the family connection.

Trinity College Library is a world famous library for two reasons: it is the largest single room library in the world (no photos allowed when we went inside) and because it houses The Book of Kells, a transcript from the 9th century of the first four books of the New Testament (also no photos allowed). The family connection to the library is that it was built from the personal book collection of two men, one of which is Ken's family: James Ussher. The broader family connection is that Adam Loftus, the first Provost of Trinity College is family, and the more personal connection is that Ken's Great-great-grandfather graduated from medical school there.

The cost of the tour of campus included the charge to see The Book of Kells, and was not much more money than just paying to see The Book of Kells, so we did a tour. It was awesome. I can't believe I've forgotten our tour guide's name! I'll have to just call him Bryce because he reminded us so much of our friend (Bryce).

These are residence buildings where once an unpopular professor who was living here got into a gun fight with disgruntled students (he gave them bad marks) and the professor was killed. Well, the sort of boys who went to college at that time were from the sorts of families the law went easy on, and the professor was found to be equally at fault and the boys were acquitted and went on to have spectacular careers in the church as well as in politics. Naturally.

I was glad to see that it wasn't just my college that was polluted with stupid pieces of modern art. The students here call this one The Death Star.

Following our tour of Trinity College campus, we moved on to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The clergy and volunteers there were very helpful in finding our family connections in the cathedral.

Ken has an ancestor buried here (name to follow when I look that one up or my mother in law gives me a helpful comment) below the cannon ball that killed him.

Handel played this organ (no, he's not a relative).

Once again marble statues.

A funny, but sad if I think about it too long, sight on a bridge over River Liffey. I'm grateful Ireland is enjoying more peaceful times.

And a more cheerful sight in Dublin to finish off the post.

What might have been

2011-06-19T07:42:00.000-06:00

Take a minute to Google Fota Island. Go on.

The listing alone (wildlife park, house, gardens, resort, golf club) should at least give you some idea of the size.

Well, it was supposed to be ours.

According to Aunt Kitty's Diary (not sure how many 'greats' belong in front of Aunt Kitty's name), we were swindled out of it.

The house was built later, but never mind that - I'm sure 'we' would have built a house at least as impressive if not more.

Think of the ward parties we could have hosted. Or wedding receptions.

Or Easter Egg rolls.

Some time after my father-in-law was handed the purse to carry (c'mon, you knew I was going to include this picture) I started hearing about the way Sue's family had squandered away their wealth.

Ancestor (insert first name here) Smith put Fota Island up as collateral on a loan from his cousin and then the cousin disappeared ON PURPOSE when the loan came due, leaving ancestor Smith unable to repay the loan (no solicitors ???) and thereby defaulting on the loan, and once the said cousin reappeared he got the island.

Including the amazing Arboretum established on the Island - while the family was in the shipping business they brought in samples of trees from lands near and far.

Ken's dad seemed to think that an island might have been a better wedding present than two snow tires. If only the family had been better money managers . . .

Maybe something was planted in my mind at Fota. The island I could live without, but Ballynatray, now that was cause to mourn.

I could have lived here.

Happily.

I mean, I wouldn't be the one shovelling the long drive way!

(Momentary mental lapse, I doubt any shovelling needs to be done here. Certainly not like at home in Canada.)

The groundskeeper's house just before the main house.

Ken and I in the newly planted kitchen herb garden.

The main entrance seems to be a back door. I'm comfortable with that.

Come on in.

More of my favourite fragrant miniature pink roses.

Okay, here I have to confess that though Temple Michael and Molana Abbey were part of the estate when it was in the family, the big house was built after we were gone.

But it would have been one heck of a wedding gift.

Before We Were Irish

2011-06-17T15:57:00.005-06:00

It's hard to say how pure any of our roots are, and how deep they go. Empires rise and fall, countries are conquered, theologies are spread.

Ken's Irish heritage goes back to the spread of Protestantism. His British ancestors (of Normandy descent) were some of the first Protestant settlers in Ireland in the mid-late 1500's. Which is how Ken's relative, Major Hugh Harding, came to tend Ballymacshanero, a Tower House built by Oliver Cromwell - which puts 'us' on the wrong side of Irish history. Though if I learned anything on this trip it is that Ken's ancestors had the political savvy to know when political tides were turning and how to stay on the good side of whomever was in power. (There was the occasion surname change to facilitate things.)

Ballymacshanero now sits in the side yard of Ashgrove House. The current resident warmed up to Sue immediately when she reminded him she'd visited 20 years earlier and recalled the name of his dog at the time (Max). We were graciously allowed into the tower.

(Tower staircases were designed to be uneven on purpose "stumble steps" to give advantage to the person most accustomed to that staircase over a potential attacker.)

Ballymacshanero is now a garden shed. How do you like that? It looks pretty similar to the shed under the deck in my own backyard, minus the history. Standing in Ballymacshanero, Matthew 6:19-20 popped into my head:

19¶Lay not up for yourselves ^atreasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves ^bbreak through and steal:

20But lay up for yourselves ^atreasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor ^bsteal:

Rathcoursey & Igthermurrah

2011-06-16T09:33:00.008-06:00

I'm afraid I'm going to butcher this one because I'm rushing it, but I really have to get to aerobics class this morning. I went for a run on Tuesday and had to walk the last km, which was lame, and even with taking it easy on Tuesday I'm sore now. Vacationing took a toll.

Rathcoursey is an estate that was in Ken's direct family line. Today it is owned by Finn-bar & Claire and their two daughters. They were delighted to have us show up on their doorstep, particularly because Sue was so knowledgeable about the history of their home.

A large estate is impossible for a family to keep up on their own. The grasses and flowers are swallowing up the shorter walls in the former stable area.

Though I'm not sure I'd try to keep it up, there's something picturesque about all the decay.

Ken coined a new phrase while we were there. Something about Rathcoursey being a "5M" or "5 Mexican" estate, referring to the need for hired help to restore and maintain it.

This wall is the oldest part of the estate - the tiny pink roses were so fragrant, too bad there's no digital scratch and sniff options out there.

Clearly the house is newer than the rest of the grounds - it dates as 1773. Like all estates, ruins, castles, and churches we visited, Rathcoursey was built in phases.

A large part of the finances that went into building Rathcoursey came to James Tynte Smyth from his brother, Beverly, who lived at Igthermurrah, but it's a tragic story. One evening Beverly was taken captive in his own home and threatened by robbers to give up his gold. Beverly had instructed a servant to throw his bag of gold into a nearby lake, and refused to reveal his hiding place. This enraged the robbers who threw him into his own fireplace. Beverly was brought to his brother, James' home, where he succumbed to his injuries and died three days later - leaving his gold to James.

Igthermurrah today.

We had to battle nettles and shrubbery, but it was well worth the effort.

Possibly the fireplace into which Beverly Smyth was thrown. It's easy to romanticize the past,

and fantasize about how much my kids would love romping around a large estate, but this
sight was a little sobering.

Irishtown

2011-06-15T14:34:00.000-06:00

There were times that everything in Ireland seemed set up as if we were in a theme park. How could Ireland be so Irish???

(Lunch at The Old Head was not one of those times. Palm trees, sun, surf - so unexpected! We'd had our moments of getting lost along the Irish backroads but how did we end up in Bermuda?)

Most of the time Ireland was:

Sheep,

Quaint shops,

and Shamrocks.

At other times Ireland was:

Military escorted bank security trucks complete with machine guns. How Ken's dad was comfortable chatting him up, I have no idea!

Driving was quite an experience. I managed my stomach on the twisty-turny tunnel vision roads with healthy snacks while Ken managed the road itself.

Look again: double white line in the centre (sometimes a single white line) with dotted yellow lines on the shoulders.

The speed limit on these backroads was always 100 km/hour!

Ken rarely topped 60 km/hour.

One awesome tour we did was of Ross Castle in Killarney, a restored Tower House. All the formal tours we did were very well done, the guides were engaging and knowledgable. This tour stands out for me because later we visited tower house ruins with family connections and knowing what we were looking at in the ruins added to my understanding.

The best tour guides of all, and our travel companions: Ken's mom and dad - Sue & Harry.

I wish I'd taken more pictures like this one. In a perfect world where Ken could collect cars like he used to collect match box cars, he would have one of these: a righthand drive Land Rover Defender complete with snorkel. Ken saw so many Land Rovers, I could have done a whole post. I'm just a little too oblivious to cars, which became more obvious when we got to London which according to Ken was one long parade of spectacular cars that didn't catch my eye at all. It's amazing we get along so well!

Rossmanagher

2011-06-14T09:35:00.003-06:00

Ken's mom is 1/4 Irish, which makes Ken 1/8th Irish I suppose (it doesn't show in his height).

While Ken's heritage is primarily peasant, and all traces of them have been long ploughed under, the Irish ancestors were land owners and gentry, therefore landmarks remain.

Rossmanagher is an estate near Bunratty and was once in the possession of the D'Esterre family.

An interesting thing about Ireland is that it seems the house is always on one side of the road while the stable and other farm buildings were built across the road from the house.

A river runs near the estate, and apparently at one time it was a difficult river to cross, as well as inconvenient to travel around, so Henry D'Esterre built a bridge.

Though you can't see it in the picture, this stone reads:

THIS BRIDGE

WAS BUILT BY

HENRY D'ESTERRE

AT HIS OWN

EXPENSE 1784

The river isn't so intimidating anymore. Pretty, though!

Anyhow, Henry was an enterprising man. He saw the chance to make a penny or two, and since stone is readily available everywhere, in fact he was probably looking for something to do with all the stone he was picking out of his fields, he built a toll booth in front of his bridge and gated it.

Typical oppressive upper class - good thing Ken is only 1/8th nobility - ha!

Again, pretty though. And it gives us a spot to stand and say family once stood here, built this, worked and lived.

Even I could feel it, and I'm not one bit Irish.

City Champions

2011-06-09T02:32:00.001-06:00

(Just a little something we missed while we were across the ocean.)

So it turns out that my presence in the stands isn't as essential to the team's success as I like to believe it is.

Greetings from Ireland

2011-06-01T00:54:00.002-06:00

It''s as beautiful as you imagine - stone walls, shrubbery fences, ruins everywhere. (This is a building at The Rock of Cashel, which we toured on Tuesday afternoon.)

But in the morning we visited somewhere more significant to the family - the home of Raymond S. He and my MIL are distantly related by marriage, and he is in possession of a family coat of arms and the original documents granting the coat of arms to the De Herez Smyth family. It was so exciting and interesting to see, he and his aunt and brother were so hospitable, it was just delightful. Raymond works the family farm that dates back generations and historically changed hands from his mother's and father's side more than once. See the castle in the background? The project was halted in the 1800s by a combination of war and accident. I thought it was so cool, but I wonder if ruins in the back yard are so commonplace here that they could be a bit taken for granted?

One of the original parchments in Raymond's possession.

(Comic relief yesterday at a wollen mill store. The jacket was actually very nice, the hat was just to be funny.)

We slept at our first B&B last night, which was fun in some of the same ways as meeting Raymond - just a closer interaction with the 'locals' than you'd get in a hotel. However, the pillows were lacking, Ken woke up with a sore back. We probably need to raise our standards tonight and get a little more particular about our inspection before we choose where to stay!

Good News

2011-05-26T08:45:00.006-06:00

Mr. Janmohamed is a 2011 recipient of the Alberta Excellence in Teaching Awards!

Mr. J was Jaclyn's Chem AP teacher last year and is really the reason that Jaclyn is majoring in Biochemistry next year. We only found out about his award at Jaclyn's graduation ceremony yesterday - his achievement was mentioned in a speech by the principal. I sat there and thought, "I can't believe Jaclyn didn't tell me!" But it turned out she didn't know either. In fact when Jaclyn crossed the stage and shook hands with the principal (before his speech) and he quietly congratulated her ("Nice work with Mr. J") she didn't know what he was talking about, but tells me she just quietly replied "thank-you" out of politeness.

(Jaclyn was the student who nominated Mr. J for the award.)

Earlier this year I suggested she make the effort to nominate someone as an act of gratitude for all her wonderful experiences in public education. It was a pain-in-the-butt with forms to fill out, a short essay to write, recommendations from other faculty members in the school to collect, deadlines to meet. But how could she not take the opportunity to publicly thank this amazing teacher? The nomination was an expression of appreciation, and a worthwhile exercise for any student.

Mr J. told Jaclyn yesterday that she has, "no idea of what she's unleashed."

Ha!

So he's miserable, and she has nothing to be sorry for, which is so amusing and satisfying.

Congratulations Mr J, you deserve the recognition - even if it's a little uncomfortable.

The Long Weekend

2011-05-25T10:03:00.003-06:00

We had an extra long weekend just past. It was Victoria Day on Monday and to make it even better all the schools had the Friday before as a day off as well. We planted some vegetables on Friday, then on Saturday I took Carmen and Chloe to Heritage Park opening day. It was hot enough for ice cream (yeah!) but Chloe had to have Sherbet because we have established she can't do milk anymore. She's been milk free for more than 3 weeks and she feels so much better.

Anyhow, on Sunday and Monday we took a little trip up to the Columbia Ice Fields in Jasper. I guess we were missing the snow already?

On the Athabasca Glacier

(Maybe a back-up Christmas card photo?)

Sipping some pure glacier water. I wish we'd been advised to bring water bottles up to the top with us!

We learned a few interesting things like the Columbia Ice Field feeds three oceans: the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic.

The monster truck buses that transported us onto the glacier were pretty cool. The road up the mountain bends and changes constantly with the movement of the glacier, and it was steep - a 30% grade.

The view of the Athabasca Glacier from our hotel window. It has receeded 2km in the past 150 years, but it is only a small outcropping of the Columbia Ice Field that sits just behind these mountains.

Okay, this is just for my own personal entertainment. Chloe started playing with the video camera as we drove up, and Carmen jumped in with sound effects. (The rest of us did a really good job stifling our laughter so as not to ruin the video.)

Lucky Me

2011-05-17T16:52:00.006-06:00

Well, I'm going to Ireland! Which turns out to be rather distracting. There's been a little bit of pre-trip shopping: a raincoat, pants for tromping around graveyards and such. Mostly I've just been occupied mentally with planning food for the kids while we're away, arranging rides for their activities. Luckily I don't have to worry about the travel itinerary at all - Ken and his mom are taking care of everything.

We're travelling with my in-laws who have been to Ireland many times (lots of family history in the country) so it's going to be like having our own private tour guides. At the end of our time in Ireland Ken and I are spending a couple of days alone in London, which Ken has covered! Who knew I could be so happy not in charge?

I will miss a few soccer games . . . Chloe has learned to be bold this season, I can hardly wait to see what she can do when I get back!

Thankfully, choir is all done so that's one less thing to be managed while I'm away.

I spent a good part of the concert trying to capture Carmen and Chloe with 'normal' singing faces, which was quite a challenge. Now I don't know what I was thinking - their funny singing faces (which they seem to use most of the time) would be more fun to share!

I need to set up some kind of training schedule for Carmen for while I'm gone. She's signed up for a triathlon on Canada Day so she'll need rides to the pool and I should ask Steven to take her biking. I think we'll skip the running for now - her hip flexors are killing her, I can't imagine why.

Two things I won't be missing are Jaclyn's high school and Steven's junior high school graduations, we managed to squeeze our trip right between the two events.

I'm thinking it would be fun to give the kids my blogger password and post our happenings back and forth while we're apart: "Dear kids"and "Dear Mom and Dad". What do you think, too risky? Might they prank my blog beyond repair?

Roasted Rabbit

2011-04-19T11:30:00.002-06:00

In Cub Scouts last week we had an Easter Egg hunt followed by toasting marshmallows over a fire. What do you think, too morbid to roast Peeps? The boys didn't think so.
("Cool! I melted his ear off!")

Slam Dunk

2011-04-09T14:24:00.003-06:00

Last year our school raised money to build a school in Kenya, and now that we have made that connection I imagine we will continue to fundraise for education in that area of the world. At Christmas we raised funds for desks for the school, and this week we raised money to build a separate kindergarten because the wild elephant herd nearby was making it dangerous and difficult for the small ones to walk to school.

Part of the fundraiser was a dunk tank, which I was sure would be very popular, particularly when the junior high teachers took a turn in the tank. Then a notice came home that students in grades 6-9 could enter a raffle to have their own turn in the dunk tank (yet another way to collect money). I wasn't surprised when Carmen asked if as long as it was her own money, could she buy some tickets for a chance in the dunk tank?

(Funny story: she didn't just enter her own name, she also entered the name of a friend who was very surprised to be selected to sit in the dunk tank, but was a good sport and afterwards told her mom she was 'so grateful Carmen entered me!')

Carmen is a lucky kind of kid, so she also was selected for a turn in the dunk tank:

Ken questioned me allowing this, especially with snow on the ground. Carmen said, "Dad, we're Canadian. We don't wait another day for better weather." Ha!

A couple of boys from Carmen's class took a shot (she had to sit in the dunk tank for 5 minutes and however many dunks that involved). Then Chloe got a turn - she missed, but Mr. M obligingly hit the button for Chloe.

Carmen says you don't have time to feel the fall, just suddenly you're in the water.

The water was heated, so the real cold didn't set in till after she got out. Still happy, though!

(Uncle Kevin recently suggested there may not be any limits to what Carmen would be willing to do for a good cause.)

The Secret Life of B.

2011-04-02T21:06:00.003-06:00

I'm totally converting to Lush products. I got *Big* shampoo for a gift, and I have since added the conditioner, facial scrub, cleansing cream, astringent, and moisturizer. This is a far cry from the hand soap and Vaseline Intensive Care hand lotion I've been using for the past 20 years on my face. Going high maintenance? Throwing pennies in the fountain of youth? Not really my goal - it just smells really good.

We're nearly finished finishing the basement. Ken developed the basement himself in our first house, and it's taken awhile to bite the bullet and pay someone to do the basement for us this time. After we signed the papers Ken told me he felt like a failure not doing it himself. I suggested maybe he should feel like a success that he can afford to pay!

A-ke-la! We'll do our best! I've been aspiring to Cub Akela for 10 years, and it's finally happened. I sorted through the materials from the previous Akela yesterday and found these photo corners, clearly included in the craft supplies because they look like wolf silhouettes (almost as cute as my actual wolf cubs).

Football: the year-round sport. Ninth grade is the beginning of the best 3 years: fall and spring football! In the high school years community football runs in the spring so as not to interfere with school football in the fall. And then Drills and Skills run all winter, and Steven may possibly (hopefully) help coach Pee-Wee football in the summer for 10-12 year olds. Not that we're obsessed or anything - Steven was still capable of making the choice to miss practise on Monday in order to study for a science exam.

I need to dress better on Fridays. Monday through Thursday Ken goes to work in dress clothes and comes home and changes into grungy clothes. But on Friday Ken wears business casual (nice jeans, nice shoes, sharp shirt) and then if we go out on Friday night he looks great, whereas for me, especially if it is a 'spontaneous' outing, not so much. I need to get out of my mom-i-form on Fridays. (Though Ken was a little over-dressed for our Costco date last night.)

I've been practising yoga for awhile now, maybe that's been a secret, but not on purpose. I just don't know what to say about it. Sometimes it's totally invigorating, sometimes it's defeating. I'm always glad I did it. Marie asked me: Isn't it boring? (Not when you're old like me.) Besides, it gives me practical skills I can use like when I'm putting on my second dress boot crouched on one foot of the first high heeled boot and don't fall over in my in-laws front entrance after a Sunday dinner. Plus I'm totally bought in: I'm chanting along at the beginning of class, I feel the earth supporting me, I'm all about allignment and side-body-long and leading with my heart and opening to grace. I've go it bad. (And better muscle tone than anything else I've done.)

Dog whisperer

2011-03-26T14:36:00.006-06:00

Because Carmen's 12 now, she is old enough to volunteer at Petland. She filled in the paperwork yesterday, and then since volunteering is a day-to-day thing, no schedules, she called this morning to see if they had anything for her and she was told to come on down! So she quickly practised piano and voice (oh I love this volunteering thing already), packed a lunch, and I dropped her off. Actually, I came in with her since it was her first day.

Her first job was to walk one of the rescue dogs, so this is how I left her: out and alone in the shopping area (yikes!). She's been there for 4 hours now, and I need to go pick her up soon - I'm a little surprised I haven't had a call saying she's done, come and get her. I can only imagine this volunteer system is what they call a win-win.

It's kind of a big deal

2011-03-23T18:34:00.010-06:00

A friend was telling me this week that at his last speaking engagement he held up a little video camera, took a short self-portrait, and then turned the camera on his audience explaining, "I want to show my kids that I'm kind of a big deal." To which someone in the middle-back stood and starting bowing and repeating, "We're not worthy!" (The entire audience joined him.) Well, my friend LOVED that and said, "Now I'm going to show this to my wife!"

Today Jaclyn got her scholarship notification from BYU, and it occurs to me that friends and family who are not LDS maybe need some perspective. Even just to understand that BYU is one of the largest private universities in the United States - bigger than Columbia or Boston University. And then I guess I need to explain that the Thomas S. Monson Scholarship is the most prestigious academic scholarship offered to incoming freshmen.

So what I'm saying here is that Jaclyn has been selected as a Thomas S. Monson Presidential Scholar, and it's *kind of a big deal*.

(My own smile might be even bigger.)

Little Lessons

2011-03-13T12:48:00.005-06:00

I went away to Vancouver for part of this past week for a dental conference. I was lucky enough to spend lots of time with a friend and former college classmate of mine, and I learned a few things as well (100% Xylitol chewing gum people, it's worth the extra money), but I wanted to share the best thing I heard:

At the end of one session the presenter shared her experience of going around the world to India to spend a week providing dental care in an orphanage there. Her help was very primitive, as a reflection of the facilities and supplies that were available to her. The first day she ended up pulling teeth from 8 children even though as a hygienist that isn't her usual work. She gave each child who got an extraction a piece of gauze to bite on to stop the bleeding and sent them on their way. That night she went to check on the children who'd had a tooth pulled - they were still biting on that gauze! She took the gauze away from each of them, gave them a hug and tucked them in bed.

The next morning when she reached the 'clinic' all the children were lined up for dental work, which slightly annoyed her because she wasn't ready to start that early. She asked the workers from the orphanage why did they bring the children when it wasn't yet time? The adults told her that they hadn't brought the children, rather they'd come on their own. Because she couldn't communicate with the children, she had the orphanage workers ask the children why were they there? Every child replied that they wanted to get a tooth pulled. Well, this hygienist couldn't believe that and had the children questioned again. The children expanded their answer to explain that the ones who had lost teeth the day before got a hug and tucked into bed so that's what they all wanted. She assured them that for the rest of the week she would give each child a hug and tuck them all in bed no matter what dental work she provided.

The thing is there's no way she would have taken on the project of travelling to rural India to tuck children in bed for a week, yet that was the service that the children craved the most. Dental care was just a vehicle to get her there.

It was really inspiring to me and a good reminder that probably quite often my objective in my service or daily work is secondary to the real needs around me.

The Party

2011-02-27T15:05:00.003-07:00

I'm actually in a little bit of trouble that I didn't blog about this FIRST when we got home from Montana. Carmen turned 12 on our last morning in Whitefish, so the night before we invited some of her friends (vacationing with their own families nearby) to come have a birthday party on holidays. It was certainly an effective way to keep the guest list to a manageable size!

Ptarmigan has a swimming pool, which was at the centre of the party. Here we have the girls in the sauna. Chloe was worried about going in the sauna and then back in the pool because her school teacher has told her something about releasing toxins in the sauna and then polluting the pool with them?

Chloe was game to pose for the camera in its underwater debut!

It was crazy cold out, but the older girls still braved the outdoor hot tub. They probably spent more time there than in the recreation pool.

Ready? On 3!

Carmen turned the camera on herself.

The party ended with presents and pizza and all the girls working together to decorate the cake. (Not photographed)
(Instead I'm including a photo of Carmen learning cake decorating at a RS meeting in February.)

The Skiers

2011-02-26T13:53:00.005-07:00

(Token picture of me risking camera loss doing a self portrait on the chair lift with Carmen.)

I call this the $500 picture because it was on our last day, which was freezing, and we only skied till noon, but at least I got this picture of Steven. I hardly skied with Steven at all, partly because he likes different terrain with his snowboard, and partly because he is better than me, but mostly because he met up with friends on the hill and spent all his time with them.

Chloe added poles to her ski skills this year.

Jaclyn and I staged this picture: I skied ahead and then turned around to catch her as she went past me. Normally she's ahead and then turns around and waits for me.

Carmen had the most fun in the trees and doing jumps, but she was also pretty pleased to really get 'parallel' this year.

The real reason we bring Ken along (kidding!).

Ken and I hardly skied together at all - we took alternating turns skiing with the younger and older kids. The one morning we hit the slopes together was a very foggy one: I didn't even try to take a picture.

The Accommodations

2011-02-25T23:53:00.006-07:00

We got home early this evening from a week skiing in Whitefish, MT. I grew up skiing at Big Mountain which makes bringing my own kids that much more fun. The night before we left home Jaclyn and Steven were looking through old pictures and found a few photos in a row of them as small children always posing in what we are now calling *The Crouching Tiger*. They thought the group shot on the first day was the right time to bring the pose back.

My parents used to own a time-share at Ptarmigan village, and though there are many places to stay on the mountain, we always rent there. We landed a 2-bedroom condo for $149/night with access to the newly renovated pool and internet hot-spot in the laundry building (Ken made a few trips to answer work emails). All that and nostalgia, to boot!

The decor in the condo was fairly typical of Ptarmigan, but with a heavier-than-usual emphasis on moose and wolf themed bedding, stencilling, art, knick-knacks . . . after a few days Chloe said to me that the owners must be Native American.

But the big feature was the Jack-a-lope.
(It was covered by a black garbage bag when we walked in the door - presumably the previous renters were offended.)

We took a more practical approach.
.

It's all here in pink & white

2011-02-16T22:29:00.008-07:00

Heart-shaped orange rolls - I got this idea via Be Different, Act Normal (on my sidebar).

Homemade Valentines with fun scratch-off stickers. Funny story: Chloe made these with her cousin Erica and one of Erica's got mixed up into Chloe's pile (totally my fault) so on Valentine's Day at school Chloe heard one of her classmates say, "Who's Erica?"

Carmen's button corsage.

Steven's lunch for the Box Lunch Social at school.
(Jaclyn loved this giant stuffy - she carried it around all evening on the 13th.)

Chloe's quick Valentine's hair-do (it was a bit of a rushed morning).

2011-02-13T17:12:00.003-07:00

"Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true." - Robert Brault

This week Chloe and Steven had opposing experiences at school. Steven had to write an in-class essay on the importance of being kind (the whole class had to write this essay referencing literature they've been studying - it wasn't some sort of special assignment for Steven to remedy him of unkindness or anything like that).

Chloe also had a writing assignment. Her exercise was to write a paragraph with details supporting the first sentence. The assignment read that she could write about how someone she knows is like a monster or how someone she knows is like an angel - but the teacher only gave 'monster' examples of her own sister as a child and Chloe came away thinking she had to do a 'monster' paragraph. I found her in the kitchen doing homework with a cereal box hiding her paper and the most dejected look on her face. It was miserable for her! She couldn't think of the minimum 6 'monstrous' things about anyone and she felt guilty writing down what she could come up with. Poor girl. I pointed out that she had the choice of writing about someone's good qualities (an angel) and helped her start over. Then I wrote a short email to her teacher. What kind of assignment is this to complain about someone you care about? (And for our family, how counter to the love notes we've been doing all month?)

What does this picture have to do with being kind? Ken is on a business trip in Abu Dhabi and he sent me this picture he took with his Blackberry. I'm kind of jealous. He says not to be - it's no fun without me. Well, it's not as fun here without him.

I scored some pictures

2011-02-08T23:17:00.001-07:00

Steven scores points way more often than I score photos, so I celebrated the fact that I caught a basket on camera with a little movie. It's a silent movie because when I add my special Canadian music (by American artists) my movies get blocked in the USA as I discovered at Christmastime.

I'm not sure, I'll have to watch it again, but maybe you can see that our boys are all taped up with pink tape to help support a cancer research fundraising effort by the Calgary basketball officials. If you want you can make a donation here:

http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR/Thirdpartyevent/IFE_AB_General_?px=3770754&pg=personal&fr_id=9811

You'll have to cut the above URL and paste it into your web address bar. (sorry, blogger is giving me a hard time creating links)

Taking Back Valentine's Day

2011-02-01T22:15:00.007-07:00

We could do better in our family expressing love to each other - being positive toward one another.

Valentines is the perfect time to work on it!

I copied the Pottery Barn knock-off floating around on craft blogs and made felt envelopes for everyone in our family. The idea is that from now till Valentine's Day we each write at least one 'love note' to another family member daily.

I've provided the heart-shaped notepad to work from - should be easy, right?

As a bonus, Ken taught the FHE lesson last night from Moroni 7:45 which fit in so perfectly with family love:

And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

In no particular order:

2011-01-31T21:02:00.005-07:00

We got dumped on this weekend.

Jaclyn shovelled the neighbour's driveway (Steven's job) (in her pajama pants) while Steven and Ken were away at a basketball tournament. I started to shovel ours, but my brother-in-law came along and saved me. (Thanks, Bruce.)

In other news, Chloe has gone from rewriting the New Testament (as she reads aloud she substitutes in synonyms that make it 'easier' - move over KJV, prepare yourselves for CV) to total despair that she doesn't understand what she's reading. Family scripture has never been more miserable. It seems like Carmen just came out of this! What I need to do is pre-read the chapter with Chloe before family scripture, but it's hard enough to carve out time for the family let alone an extra 15 minutes for Chloe. I know it's worth it, I just haven't figured out the how yet.

Carmen took the Red Cross Babysitter's Course today. She's already a terrific babysitter, but she really wanted the confidence of the first aid instruction. I took her out of school to make it happen - we're not on the same school schedule as the rest of Calgary - most schools had today off, thus the course offered on a Monday.

Meanwhile I'm doing everything I can to keep Steven from missing any school (cough medicine, extra early bedtime) because he has midterms coming up next week. We've been winning the battle for 10 days now.

Ken's work is driving me a little crazy at the moment. He doesn't know whether or not he's flying to Abu Dhabi at the end of the week. As in it's possible that he might fly around to the other side of the world on a moments notice for who knows how long? I don't know, it just seems to me that this kind of business trip should get a little more notice and planning than jetting to Denver for the day.

Because today was a day off school in Calgary (yes, back to that), Steven didn't have seminary this morning even though he did have school. I got up at 6am to start laundry anyways. It was the only way everything I wanted to do today was going to get done, plus dinner on the table. Ken was sure there had to be another way (not that I woke him up). Makes me think of another quote:

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Quotes

2011-01-28T12:22:00.003-07:00

My niece just started herself a new blog for her quotes she appreciates and wants to share. Funny, I posted a quote earlier this week, and somehow felt restrained from posting more so soon. Why? If that's where I'm at then I should throw it out there! Thanks for the inspiration, Missy. Here's what I've been hanging on to:

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

-- Calvin Coolidge

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

(Leonard Cohen)

What you saw as falling apart was actually things falling into place…

(via Lelly)

2011-01-25T14:11:00.003-07:00

I like this quote I found on the blog 71 Toes:

INTERRUPTIONS

"When you are exasperated by interruptions, try to remember that their very frequency may indicate the value of your life. Only people who are full of help and strength are burdened by other persons' needs. The interruptions which we chafe at are the credentials of our indispensability. The greatest condemnation that anybody could incur - and it is a danger to guard against - is to be so independent, so unhelpful, that nobody ever interrupts us, and we are left comfortably alone."

-Anonymous
from The Anglican Digest

Last week

2011-01-23T14:27:00.003-07:00

Carmen made dessert from a Nintendo DS recipe and it was delicious!
(We'll double the cherries next time.)

The tallest guy on the team was burdened by injuries,
placing Steven at Center.

Steven, Carmen, and Chloe had Western Days at school.

Chloe was the only one willing to pose for pictures.

(Steven didn't actually dress as a cowboy. He dressed as a Mexican in a hand-me-down jacket from his dad.)

And today is the 3rd last Sunday of NFL! (The girls are relieved)
If each of their favourite teams win today, they won't be able
to sit together two weeks from now.

Recently

2011-01-18T08:55:00.007-07:00

Stevens' been playing a lot of basketball.

We've switched to 9am church, which is giving us more time together for things like board games. Carmen won Monopoly (Alberta-opoly, actually). By the end of the game she owned every property and had a hotel on each one.

Grandma (my mom) gave Jaclyn a bell from her collection. This is the beginning of a new tradition (Jaclyn is the oldest grandchild) for grandchildren to choose a bell from Grandma in their last year of high school.

For Chloe I was going to share that she quit violin this month, but it would be more accurate to say that I quit. Chloe is remarkably compliant considering how strong-willed she is, and would have continued for as long as I told her to (probably). Basically, between Christmas and mourning we went for a month without practising the violin and I didn't miss it. In fact I realized that all violin was doing was stealing time from piano and Chloe clearly prefers playing the piano.

While we were quitting things, Carmen quit Irish Dance. The end was near, anyhow, because Irish Dance lessons directly conflict with Young Women's activity night and Carmen is nearly 12 years old!

It hasn't been all quitting. Jaclyn is starting her new tutoring job today and Carmen began voice lessons yesterday. (Poor Steven. He already thought Carmen did too much singing around the house. He wouldn't mind having all sisters if they would just. stop. singing.)

First lesson.

I should have done video and then had you guess at Mrs. Stephen's age. I'd say 75 years old. She's very nurturing but also very proper, which will be awesome for Carmen. (Video also would have been amusing just to capture the vocal warm-up exercises.)

Her Pretty Little Head

2011-01-04T21:20:00.003-07:00

I spent 45 minutes curling Jaclyn's hair on Friday night while she shared what was going on in her pretty little head. (The physics of race car driving as it turns out.) (Specifically how to calculate the banked curves when building the track.)

2010-12-30T19:31:00.006-07:00

Ken's sister, Christy, died this morning. It came as a surprise - maybe it shouldn't have. She'd been fighting a brave fight against the cancer in her body, but we were still hoping.

At her house today Steven noticed the poem that Marissa had framed for Christy's birthday. It holds the thoughts I am hanging on to tonight:

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride,
Forget that He seeth the upper,
And I the under side.

Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.

Twenty Years!

2010-12-27T05:16:00.004-07:00

Park 96

2010-12-26T14:00:00.005-07:00

Park 96 is the perfect place to spend Christmas night!

It was a warm night, but we still enjoyed the ambiance of the fire.

Erica helped Chloe, Chloe helped Jenna (her new Canadian Girl Doll).

I've never gone night sledding. Still haven't, actually. I've just photographed it.

Emma and Carmen took their sleds to the very top.

Jaclyn stayed back at Grandma's and found other ways to have fun.

2010-12-25T10:19:00.002-07:00