Friday, January 29, 2010

Photos of our week.


Here's my new ride...  I was waiting to show you until I could get a better picture than this, but this will do for now because my dad wants to see it!  It's quite nice to drive - smaller and easier to maneuver than the van, but still roomy and practical.  It still has the same 'I'm up high and can see everything' feel, but way more sporty.

 

This was our Monday.  M getting her first look at all the snow that had us stuck at home.

 

Outside playing in it.

We shoveled the walks as part of our 'game' - we survived a plane crash and had to go look for other people or roads... It was very long and involved forts and sos's on top of the race trailer...
This was pre-shoveling, obviously, and by the time we got to the front to do this part, the neighbor had done it with his snowblower.  :)
This was the third time in 3 days that we shoveled the walks.


A little Wii after the snow, with some happy results.

The school buses didn't run all week, and today (Friday) is a day off, so I drove the kid to school Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, and then me into work until it was time to pick her up again.  Being in the office for 6 1/2 hours instead of 4 sure had more of a full time feel, but with Monday and Friday at home, I'm still pretty spoiled.  There are definitely perks to working a flexible part time.

In other happy news, on Wednesday night I sent in the last paper for my last class for the program I was in through Carey Theological College.  I will graduate with everyone else here in the Regina satellite campus this spring, and then I'm planning on taking at least a year off before I decide whether I want to pursue the full masters or not.  I've got 13 courses under my belt now, so if I were to continue with the Masters of Pastoral Ministry program I initially signed on for, I would have 5 or 6 courses left.  If I upgraded to their new Masters of Divinity program, I'd be about half done now.  So we'll see in a year or so what I'm feeling like doing!


 

And this is Christine's house, where I went last night for a 'Sew Whatever' party.  How fun!  Heidi, Kari, Jenn, Karen, Jill and Suzanne were all there, too, and that's Christine in the blue in front.  I won't tell you what I was sewing, cause that might spoil the surprises in the mail... but Jen, if you want to send me a picture of it on her when it gets there, I'd love to have one!

Monday, January 25, 2010

SNOW DAY!!!

The schools are open, but the buses are not running.  The funny thing is I was planning on driving her today anyway, because I was going to go on a field trip cross country skiing with her class today.  But if the buses aren't running, then there's no trip either, so we stayed home.  No point braving the roads and other stuck drivers if we don't have to.  I called work and Henry was the only one there... with M having a day off on Friday, I guess I'll be working 3 full days this week.

So far we have:
  • done the dishes
  • gone over math times tables
  • practiced piano
  •  had cinnamon buns for a morning snack
Now we're going out to play in the snow (and shovel).  I'll be back later to update this post with the other adventures in our snow day!
Part 2
We were outside for an hour or so - Madeline said her favorite part was that I made the chores be part of our game.  When she first said let's play that we were in a plane crash and we have to figure out how to survive in the wilderness and all we have is..., I thought it makes me feel old that I'd rather just get the shoveling done than use my imagination and play in the snow with my kid.  How sad.  But I did make the right choice, people.  We used 'pieces of the plane's wing' to clear a path to the area where we thought we heard some other people, Madeline made us a fort to sleep in while I made a big SOS (clearing the snow off the top of the trailer), and then we explored to see if we could make it to that big road or runway over there...  It was fun, and good to be out in the fresh air.  When we got to the front to shovel the last bit, the neighbor had already attacked our front walk with his snowblower! 

I worked a little bit while lunch was making itself on a couple of projects - can't check anything off our list for that, but, like a puzzle, they are a couple steps closer.

Now, it's room cleaning time for her and paper time for me.  Pray for FOCUS!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

<< contented sigh >>

What a good day.

We were up early to take M out to Dallas Valley Ranch Camp for the Girl Guides camp, and the new vehicle stood up to the challenges of slick streets, lots of new snow and rural driving.  Sean and I went out for brunch and browsed around at a couple of stores (including picking up some stuff to make for supper, making later easier!) and were home by noon.  Normally after sleeping in on a Saturday and doing all that, the day is half over!

When we got home, there was a call from our hair salon advising us that we'd need to change our appointments since Treena was in an accident and would be out for a few weeks.  What??  Treena is a good friend, so I followed up and sure enough, she fell on the ice and broke her leg and was in the hospital.  :(  That's obviously not what made it a good day, but it was so nice to have the time and freedom to drive down and have a visit.

Funny story from there - another friend had knee replacement surgery on Thursday, so I thought I'd find out if she was in the same hospital and pop in to see her, too.  Not only the same hospital, but the same ward, and next door!  Treena and Rose had their heads up against the same wall!!  What a funny coincidence.  And so I got to visit with Rose, too.

At home I got a few chores done, work prepped for tomorrow morning, and a good hour in on my paper, along with taking a big chunk of time to sit and read.  That's why it's such a good day - still hours to do stuff, but so much accomplished and so much relaxing done already.  Nice.

Here are some pictures for you:



This is M all prettied up for dress up day at school.  I picked up a new top and shoes for her (she had 0 pairs of dress shoes and was lacking in the dressy top catagory, too...) and with her sweet pants, new headband and sparkling necklace from the Friesens and earrings, she was beautiful.




This is one of my favorite shots from the last month - sledding in the valley by the farm on boxing day.


And M and cousin K.  The hand-me-downs we took at Christmas will take a while for her to grow into, but she was pretty thrilled to get them, I think, and it was really cute to see her in this one!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Black Clouds & Silver Linings

My van is done.  Head Gasket.  It's a sad day - not because I love my van, just because it costs so much to replace!!  It was having problems early last week, and Sean tried a couple of things, then it was still acting up, so I had it towed from my place into my mechanic, who ruled out the lesser gasket problems and said, at 5 to 5 on Friday that it was the big bad one. 

I think Sean's going to call him tomorrow morning and say not to even bother fixing it - we won't even get as much on it as a trade in as it would take to fix it...  We'll see on that one.  Bottom line, I'm getting a different vehicle.  We went shopping all afternoon and have it narrowed down pretty good.  Sean's been online and tonight and already found a better price for the same vehicle we were looking at, so hopefully tomorrow evening we can pick that up and make it mine - amazing how fast something like this can go.

Yuck, car payments.  Yay, new car!  Of course by new I mean new to me.  The one we're thinking of is a 2009, though, which is pretty new in my books!

I'm going to go get on the treadmill to try to improve my mood.  This, rather than chocolate, is my new method.  (Let's see how long I last...)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Helping Haiti through Compassion

We sponsor children through Compassion, and while neither of ours is in Haiti, there are many children in the Compassion programs there.  This is what they have to say about the earthquake that happened there this week:

The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.
 
Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.

Compassion International is working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:
• Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
• We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
• We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.
 
We need your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.
 
If you want to make a donation to help Haiti and the families affected by this earthquake, go to Compassion's Disaster Relief Donation page.

Thank you for helping Compassion International help Haiti.
 

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Spring in January and the Molympics

Yesterday it was +6 degrees!!!  Today I only saw it go to 2 above, but wow, what crazy January weather!

That's partly why M was outside playing after school yesterday for so long.  When I went out to check on her, she said, "Mom!  Come out and see the sports I made up for the Molympics!" (That's pronounced moe - lympics.)

The first one was sliding down the pile of snow on the back deck to the grass, on her back, head first.  She had crafted a nice little curve at the bottom, and said this event was for speed.  The next one was a two-step-and-flip-over-your-head move from the sidewalk to the snow pile on the side of the walk.  I wasn't about to try either one, because I wasn't dressed for the snow... But I did try the third one, and walked away in my Sorels with a Gold Medal in the long jump off the deck.  I had her by a foot.

Tonight M is off to Girl Guides, Sean is off to play shinney with a bunch of guys, and I think I'll start on my last paper...  The tree came down last night and as soon as the box is gone from the living room, Christmas will be over for another year.  While I was doing that, M was laying on the couch doing homework and Sean was being Mr. Fixit, installing weather stripping stuff around the doors and doing other odd jobs.  A productive night all around!

My friend from the office next door is in the hospital with appendix issues.  He's been in almost a week, and he's got a ways to go before he's fully healthy again.  If you're a pray-er, lift one up for Byron and his family.  He's the youth pastor, and his sponsors are doing a great job carrying things along.  (Since he was away and Henry was at a retreat and David was at a course and Janet's in Hawaii, Darren and Elizabeth and I had staff meeting at Roca House today...  :) )

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Snow People and Torches!!

The big paper is done and in and I feel wonderful!
One more and I'm DONE.

*************************************

In more important news, we got to be part of the fun of the Olympic Torch Relay today, as well as the Ice & Fire Carnival.  Here's some shots of the day:


Most of the kids in the group.



 The Olympic Mascots!!



Look at that video camera in her face!



Here's the group in action...



and M in action.
Check out the snow sculpture in the background of kids
(they're fake - it's just clothes!) and the giant snowball.


M and Sean after the performance.



The Olympic Party in Regina...



and the torch right in front of us!

The Ice & Fire Carnival continues tomorrow, so if you're around, M's dancing in the processional at 3 and then performing again at 4:30 and 5:30 at the circle stage.  (This is all at the Rider practice field between the Mosaic Stadium and the Lawson Aquatic Center.)

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Aarrgghh...

Can't blog now... writing a paper... why is this so hard???

But I will be here soon with my word for the year, with some holiday photos, and maybe a story or two from the trips to see our families.  So stay tuned!

Oh, and so sad that the US beat Canada in the World Juniors - there's nothing like going to a game to get you in the spirit of the tournament.  Nothing like having it in your back yard to make going to a game possible!  (I was writing my paper, not watching, but I did catch a few of the replays after things erupted in the living room...)