Befores and Afters

I picked up 3 more baskets of flowers today that are now along the left side of the house. Fills it in nicely. I used them as decorations for a bridal shower we threw tonight on the way home!




Nice, hey? Not bad for a little face lift! We need to redo the grass and the fence, but it was nice to get this little bit of a cosmetic fix before we are able to take on the big jobs. In this last picture notice how nice and flush to the grass the fireplace patio stones are... And we came home tonight to find the lights shining!

Now some close-ups:


I like the pattern on those stones. Now I just have to get some black BBQ paint and repaint the fire pit and get rid of that rust!

Finished the big one!

There is some leeway in the end date of the course I'm working on, but the official date is today. I just finished the 14 page paper that I've been working on forever (except for polishing the footnotes, but that will come) and it will get sent in today. I am thankful for that!! Then one more 6 pager and a bunch of text reading... Soon it will be done. Soon.

This also means that I can play with my pictures later and show you some!

Today we

LANDSCAPED!

It started out with me saying yesterday that maybe on Monday I was going to get some pots and flowers to put out front. Sean suggested we go look around at some stuff this afternoon, so we did... nice to have him around to help decide stuff like that. My 'pots of flowers' plan turned into 9 packages of wood chips, 80 landscaping bricks, four paving stones for under the fire pit, 6 solar lights and 2 decorator thingies for in front of the deck. Oh, yeah, and 4 pots of flowers - already done and colorful!

You will see pictures soon, but not yet, because I am working on school work. Soon. I promise. Now you have to come back! ha ha ha........

Home Again

and SO looking forward to sleeping in a real bed. Camping was good. It always it, to get away from all the routine of home, to relax, eat differently, see new things, exist in nature, soak in the sun, see animals...

We are home, unburned (low 20's all week, it rained only on Friday), unbitten (though there were lots of big stingers that threatened) and unstressed. We saw deer, but no bears. I know, that's a good thing, but we were hoping! Duck Mountain is a great place - I'd recommend it! But maybe don't go over a holiday. It was blissfully quiet for the first half of our stay, then on Canada Day the partiers and the families moved in. The partiers were loud at night and then the families were up and loud bright and early. Ah, yes. Great combo.

We have a new Canada Day tradition. Last year we were camping over Canada Day at Spruce Woods in Manitoba, and we headed in to Brandon to see the fireworks, since you can't do fireworks in a provincial park. This year we headed off down the road and ended up in Roblin, MB, where we took in part of their festivities, including a concert by a crazy good 12 year old (or so) fiddler and M got to bounce and slide on the inflatables. We didn't stay for fireworks, but it's a fun habit that we might continue, to find some random little town to join for Canada Day fun.

I'll upload our pictures tomorrow and share some. Love you all!

At the Track

We had a long day today. A good day. The alarm went off at 4:20 this morning and we were on the road by 5, heading up to the Saskatchewan International Raceway. We got a good spot in the pits and Sean got all his stuff set up. A typical race day starts with 3 passes for test and tune, then in the afternoon it's on to eliminations. This is Sean's first race day of the season; he missed out on one earlier because parts broke on the dyno when he was testing it out after all the work he did on it over the winter.

It's better now, back in the car, and this year the nitrous bottles are bigger. Right off the trailer, he made 9.06 his first pass. At 150 miles an hour. FAST. The next two passes were slightly slower, but still impressive. This set up is working great for him - the fastest time last year was 9.60 (at 140 mph). The way eliminations work in bracket racing is that you have to pick the time you think you'll make the pass in (based on how things went in your test passes) and 'dial it in.' You race against that time; you want to get as close to it as you can without going faster. The guy on the other side of the track has a different time, and you each get the green light at different times to make up for it. If you 'red light' or leave too soon, you're automatically out. If you go too fast, the other guy wins. Otherwise, it's whoever comes closest to their time.

Sean was out in the first round today, but it was a great pass and a good race. The other driver had a .007 reaction time off the lights, which is amazing, and he got really close to his time, too. Not bad for his first weekend behind the wheel of his dad's car. Sean got his best time ever - 9.04 at 150 mph. And that was with a headwind, too, and not as much nitrous as he could have used. It wasn't that long ago that he was doing his best to make it to the 9's, and now we might be in the 8's at the next race. Crazy. I guess that's the point - faster, faster and then faster again.


I'll leave you with one picture. This shows the parachute, which got used for the first time today. Notice the 'remove before flight' tag? Using the parachute on all 4 passes means we got to learn how to re-pack the parachute... fun. :) At the bottom of the picture you can see a contraption coming out from the bottom of the back of the car - that's the wheelie bars. So when the car launches and the front end lifts, it won't go too far.

Have a great week! We're off camping, but I can update twitter from my phone, which is basically a condensed blog post, so if you come by here and it looks like nothing's changed, check the twitter feed on the side. If we get cell reception out at Duck Mountain, I'll update. Maybe. :)

MARA GRACE

We now have FOURTEEN nieces and nephews - and the oldest and youngest have the same birthday!

Mara Grace was born to Sean's brother Aaron and his wife Monica on Wednesday morning, June 24. She was 10lbs, 4oz.

Today Summer Starts

Madeline finished grade 4 today. She brought home a decent report card and lots of work which we've already gone through, looked at and recycled. She got off an hour earlier than usual, and Sean worked a little overtime, so it felt kind of like a summery afternoon. Nice. Proud of my girl going into grade 5. Or 5e as the french kids say.


These are my new dishes. I've been meaning to take a picture for a few weeks to show you... We went out browsing some home stores getting ideas and this was a quick fix on the 'we need to do renos!' feelings. Bring out something new and fun three times a day and it's all good.


And these... these are what brought the camera out. Of course they were empty by the time we got home, but, PIC A POP. When was the last time you had a pic a pop? We went out to Dessart (our favorite ice cream and retro sweets shop) to celebrate school being done and splurged on ice cream AND pop.

And the best for last:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SILAS!!!

Here's a page I did of Silas and I from two summers ago. This is the kid that made me an aunt, 12 years ago today. He's also the crazy good runner that just finished 13th in the Manitoba Super Run on Sunday. Love you!

One more day of school...

...for the kid. And I must say I am slightly jealous. The reason I haven't posted for a while is because every spare minute is being spent working on this assignment so I can get to the next assignment so I can get to the reading and then be DONE. I'm trying to get as much done as I can before we go camping next week. I don't mind taking a textbook along, since it will get mixed in with all the fiction I picked up at the library today, but I sure won't be working on a paper out there. And it will be nice to enjoy summer with no school. I will get there. I will.

I'm not sure yet where we're going camping next week. Sean was going to call and book at Duck Mountain today - that's plan E so far, I think. We will just be happy to be away and relaxing.

Soccer is done. We had 5 games last week; Tuesday and Thursday wrapped up the regular season, which we finished with 7 wins, 5 losses and 2 ties. Then we played in a tournament on the weekend: lost Friday to go to the B side, but then we won 2 games Saturday to take the B side championship. And here's the scoop on the trophies, since I should update after that last rant... The trophies were given out according to the tournament standings. We got little stand up plaques that say B side Champs. So, yes, appropriately specific. I agree with Alexis (see her comment on the last post) that acknowledgment for participation is important, especially for younger kids; what I didn't like was every one getting the same thing regardless of how they did. I don't know what everyone else got, but I liked that ours was specific to how they did. I don't even think they kept stats on the league play - it was just for fun all around. And now my season as coach was over. Tune in next year to see if it happens again!

Ok, off to my paper.

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Updated to add this funny story so you can laugh at me:
This morning I put in the first contact lens (opened a new set yesterday; nice & fresh!), then got the second one ready, and was having a bit of a tougher time getting it the right way round when I realized that there were TWO contacts there. The first one didn't make it into my eye and now the contacts were mixed up and I didn't know which was which. Has this ever happened to you? Or am I the only one? I tried them both ways and couldn't really tell (one eye is 1.25 and the other is 1.75, so not that big of a difference...) I picked what I thought was best, and I didn't notice it all day, so I'm thinking I picked right, but... and the kicker is that it's a brand new pair - if I got it wrong, my eyes will be so weird when I switch them up next month.

Ok, there you go, have a good laugh at my expense. What a dork.

One more day of soccer...

...and if the run like they did tonight, we won't have to worry about game two tomorrow, as one parent put it tonight.

We finished the season yesterday with 7 wins (but last night's win was sketchy. Could have been a tie, but we'll go with what the ref said), 5 losses and 2 ties. Not too bad, especially since we were at 2 wins and 5 losses at one point!

The tournament started tonight, all the players were out, but there was a sad lack of hustle on the part of too many players, and we lost 2-0. Happily, it works out for my schedule tomorrow, since I'm supposed to be in 2 places at once! We have a city wide young adult event where we're helping the local Rescue Mission get their new building closer to being ready to use. It will run well without me, but I would like to be there. This way I get to be there to start things off, and then our soccer game starts at 11.

If we win that we play at 2; if not, it's straight to the hotdogs and trophys.

Wish us luck!

One mom made cupcakes for our team - they were AMAZING! The icing was green grass, they had little jerseys with the numbers on them (and one that said coach!) and little soccer balls made out of icing that even had the black spots. Wow.

Here's a question. Do you think everyone should get trophies for participation? Or is it ok to hand those out just to the winners? I think that they become meaningless if they mean "Congratulations, you showed up!" We've already thrown out 2! Shouldn't you know how to run, dribble, and kick a ball before you win trophies for it? I think you can over affirm a child to the point that they never feel like they need to try harder at anything. And I think that's a crying shame. Ok, off my soapbox and back to work, but please leave me a comment with your opinion on this!

Compassion Follow Up!

Good News!

Remember the Compassion child I was sent by Compassion and asked to find a sponsor for?

I had mentioned it to my mother-in-law on the phone and she had commented that she'd always wanted to do that. I emailed her the info and didn't hear back and forgot about it until she came for a visit a few weeks later. It came up again, and I showed her the picture, and she said, "Let me take this home with me..."

And I forgot all about it again. (Notice a pattern here?) Until tonight. She just called to check in with us and at the end of our conversation added, "Oh, yeah! We took on that Compassion child!" That's good news, but it gets better:

They had decided one morning that they would do it, and later that day in their Bible Study someone had brought an article which ended with an encouragement to take on a project and specifically mentioned Compassion. So she added her two cents and told their story, and another lady now has joined up and is sponsoring a mother and child.

So there you go, Compassion. Your little ploy to get more kids sponsored by sending out packets to existing sponsors worked well here. This time.

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Update: Please leave a comment with your own story - who do you sponsor, through who and in what country? (Thanks, Mom! Good idea!)

Proof

I can't believe it's our last week of soccer - we play Tuesday and Thursday like usual, then Friday night and Saturday is our windup tournament. When that's over I think I will be shocked to realize that there are only 3 days of school left!

Here's me being coach!

M taking another turn in goal.

Gifted and Called

"I am a gifted woman and I have been called by God."

A goal of the seminar I was at last night and all day today was that all the women present could stand and say that with confidence. Also, that she would know how she was gifted, and what she would do to develop her gifts.

As well as a spiritual gifts test, we did a color-survey about personality types, and put those together, doing some exercises to see how we can work well together. We also talked about change, which is an important part of a weekend like this; if you teach those ideas but not how to change and adapt to using them, it's less likely to have lasting impact.

It was a good weekend, and I'm glad I went. My gifts, by the way, according to this survey, are Service, Giving, and then 4 tied: Administration, Evangelism, Leadership and Trust (or Faith). I would lump service in at the same level as the others, looking back at the questions. Giving (or Poverty in other words!) and Faith have been the highest before. I've chosen to focus on trying to develop the gifts of Administration and Leadership in my life.

Leave me a comment - does this sound like me? What are your gifts? And if you're feeling brave, are you using them? Or do you need to begin to play the part you've been called to?

I can't help you!

Someone said something to me this week that really stood out.

Across the Lewvan from my house is a Bible School that very generously allows me to borrow books to use when I need to work on papers for my own schooling. I had been there the other day and picked out a few books for this next monster of a paper, and the librarian had stepped out for a moment; another teacher tried to help me out, but I was just a community member - I'm not surprised she couldn't figure out the system. That was no big deal, I would just go back later.

A few days later I went to rescue my books from cluttering the shelf behind their desk, and waited a few minutes for the librarian, who was nowhere to be seen. The library was full of students, and then their teacher showed up, walked over to me with a shake of her head and before she even got to the desk said, "I can't help you!"

I immediately felt guilty for putting her in a position of such anxiety! I didn't expect her to know how to use the system; maybe she might have known the answer to a simple "Do you know when the librarian might get back?" which, yes, would have been helpful. I felt sorry for this lady who maybe I just caught at a bad time, but who apparently didn't know that TRYING to be helpful even if you couldn't actually help makes life quite a bit nicer for the people in your path.

Moral of the story: A smile and a "Can I help you?" goes a long way. Even if you don't work there.

(This was first published on my church blog.)

Scrapping and Scoring

Can't blog now, busy scrapbooking! (I got nothing done this morning with the girls, but I'm on a roll now - hope to have stuff to show you soon!)

Oh, and my kids rocked tonight - we won 12 to 2! That brings our record to 5-5-1. One boy had a birthday today and scored 3 goals (and he's never scored yet this season!) How's that for a happy birthday? I bet he's sleeping with a smile on his face.

Today I....

Sometimes I wonder about you people who come to visit... I love that you come, but do you really come to hear all about my day? If you don't, you can stop reading now, because that's what today's post is all about. Maybe another day I'll talk scrapbooking or my job (*hint* there's some news coming there soon, I think...) or something random that I found online, but today it's all about life as I experienced it today.

Went to work first thing this morning, which is unusual (have I mentioned that one of the things I appreciate about my job is the flexible hours?) because I had an appointment with my hairdresser at noon. That might be more exciting if I had a picture to show you, but I don't. Maybe soon. It's not that different, just trimmed up and a few blond highlights in the not-quite-as-coppery-as-I-was-expecting brown... (I'm not going to tell you that there were gray bits here and there that needed covering, cause we're just not going there.)

The salon was more of a laugh than usual today - not many customers, and lots of gabbing by the girls. Treena said to me at one point, "They obviously don't know what you do for a living, hey?" At one point, she got embarrassed by a story they told and got them back by letting them know that I was a pastor at her church. It was pretty comical to see their reactions as they realized all the things they had been talking about. Interesting, hey, that the presence of a 'pastor' changes how you think you should behave, or what your standards are?

I finished there with an hour and a half until M got home on the bus... free time! It's a full weekend, so I took advantage of it and went down to 13th. I stopped in at a cute little shop to check out a certain purse for Treena, then a few doors down at Dessart, our favorite shop in the city where I got an iced mochachino and some candy for class tonight. Then off down the street to the Paper Umbrella, another favorite place of mine that sells notebooks and not much else. Paper and pens and heaven. I picked up a new Ecojotter that will probably stay empty for a while. It takes a really good idea to mess up a brand new notebook. Last stop on 13th was at Safeway where I picked up some sushi for supper for M and I. Sean was going to be out with the guys, so I thought I'd surprise her.

Saw Sean off to Jerry's stag out at the Denzin's - Jerry's off to Mexico tomorrow morning to get married to Gaby on the 20th. We've met her and are looking forward to having her move here (and join us scrapbooking!) - and then M and I had our sushi. Not enough to fill us, so we had nacho chips & salsa & sour cream. We eat good when there's no meat and potatoes required! (Or bad, but bad is good in my books.) Half of a Grandma Schneider's Butter Cookie for dessert (because we'd already been into them for an after school snack) and we were good to go. M is over at a friend's for a sleepover, and I went to class.

The computer ate an hour or so when I got home, then I got my second wind at 11:30 (go to bed early when I'm the only one here? Yeah, right. You don't know me very well.) So that's when the laundry and dishes got done, and now I'm here, blogging away at almost 1 in the morning. This makes me happy. (And I have candy, remember, to keep me awake in class tomorrow!)

And that was my Friday. Aren't you glad you spend the time here? :) Love you!

Dori Fee Photography

Check out this link to my friend Dori's photography page on Facebook - Dori Fee Photography - there are a couple more pics of me and M in her 'Together' album, and she's got one of us in the 'Layouts' section, too. Go have a look!

Beautiful Faces

Madeline and her cousins Mataya and Kasden from last weekend - I love the new zoom lens!
And one from last Thursday's soccer game. One of my favorite parts of the games are at halftime, when the kids all gather around me like I've got something to say. They don't listen well at any other time, so I've started using this as my prime teaching time. (Like today's tidbit of wisdom: You can't throw the ball in to yourself.) I really am having fun coaching. Sean and M came today even though we wouldn't let her play. She stayed home (at G&G's) today again, but she'll be back at school tomorrow. She sure likes when you comment about her. (Almost as much as I like ANY comment. lol!)

Monday bits

* Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! Forty one years today - that's awesome. (We're at half-way to five...)

* Madeline has bronchitis & is home from school today. She's not that sick, but coughing quite a bit and I don't want the kids at school to catch it.

* Sean signed up for facebook this weekend. He held out for a long time, but finally got tired of missing out on things because they were only on FB and nobody emailed or called. Some friends, hey?

* My face cream reminds me of Grandma Schneider's bathroom. It doesn't smell like roses, but enough of the scent that I remember her just about every morning.

* This weekend was nice and sunny and quiet. We enjoyed it extra because I am going to BUSY every weekend from now until school ends. Oh, well. This weekend is class and COMEDY NIGHT!! (Wanna come? Tix are $10.) and Kayely's ordination service, next weekend M is off to girl guide camp, Sean is off to the races in Saskatoon and I'm attending a Gifted and Called seminar (why don't you come with me?? It's only $40.) and speaking at our service at Wascana Rehab Center, and then I've got both our young adult city wide clean up day at Soul's Harbour Rescue Mission's new building and a soccer tournament on the 20th. All good stuff... I can relax during the week in between weekends, right?

* Looking forward to scrapbooking with the girls tomorrow - maybe I'll even get something done to show you. FYI - if you live around here, we are going all through the summer, so plan to join us Tuesdays at 10 at the church. Your kids are welcome.

* I'm off to blitz clean the house and tackle my papers; sounds like a good procrastination day, so I'm sure I'll be back. Maybe with some pictures...

Highlights from my week

Kenyan Shoes - On Sunday I went to a shower where one of the other guests was an African lady. She has been here for some time, but still was wearing an African dress, and had made an African dish for the snack table. I was not sitting by her, and so did not get to talk to her until the end when we were leaving. I noticed her shoes were similar to mine (that I got in Kenya last year and was wearing for the first time this season). I asked where she got her shoes, and she said in Kenya. How fun to say, "Really? Me too!" She is from Zambia - I'm glad I got a chance to meet her.

More Africans - Tuesday morning I went to the Ladies Coffee Connection at church and sat at a table with two African ladies, and the one month old daughter of the one. Sometimes I'm not sure how to ask where someone's from, because I don't want to offend by assuming they have immigrated when they've been here their whole lives. So I asked the lady I was sitting beside (the cousin of the one with the baby) if she has lived in Regina long. A safe question. And no, she's only been here a month. So I asked, "Oh, where are you from?" I think I did laugh out loud when she replied, "Winnipeg." She came to visit and help when her cousin had the baby. I never did find out where in Africa they were from, but found out we did have something in common! I'm from Winnipeg, too...

We Win!!! - Tuesday we won our soccer game 3-1. And I think it was our first warm game, too! Our record is 2-4-1.

The Lost is Found - Tuesday after the win we went to DQ to celebrate, then to shoppers to get something, and then to another shoppers when the first didn't have what we were looking for. Then I realized my cell phone was not in my pocket. Hours of driving and checking and phoning later, we get a call that it was found at the last store. Big relief. This whole experience was more a negative than a highlight, but the getting it back was a relief.

Italian Prayers - Yesterday morning I put M's breakfast on the table and went to get her Bible (because I read a chapter to her while she's eating, since I eat earlier with Sean). I get back to the table to find her angelically praying with her eyes closed and hands clasped in front of her. Then she opens her eyes and says, "I said grace with an Italian accent!" Dear-a G-sus...

Green Trees - As I drove from our back lane onto the street, I was struck by the fact that the trees lining the street (and it's on older neighborhood, so there are lots) were GREEN! Not full leafy summer green, but they were definitely covered in new spring green. That was good for my soul. I drank it in all the way down the street.

Ultimate Fun - Last night I joined the young adults and youth at the legislative buildings to play some Ultimate Frisbee and had a GREAT time. So good to run around with friends. I'm glad I went and am planning to go again next week!

2000 Visitors!!! - When I checked here last night (when I should have been writing my paper that I never got around to) I noticed that my counter was at 2000. That's pretty awesome. Thanks for wanting to read what I have to tell! I started the counter last fall, when I started blogging more often, so that doesn't include the first two years of visitors, (but I'm not sure there even were any, then).

I've been thinking all week, "I should blog that!" and so now here you have it. FYI - if I just have a little snippet to share, I'll 'twitter' it - I'm treating Twitter like a mini blog, so check out the side -----> for the mini posts. Have a great day, everyone!

still learning the language...

M is off on a field trip today, and she's wearing a bathing suit under her clothes, because she thought the 'adequate' clothing on the packing list had something to do with 'aqua'...

Trippy Test

Found this link on another blog: it's a test to see how well you can see color. I got 8; lower is better with 0 being perfect.

COLOR HUE TEST

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I was playing around to see how I could schedule this post to show up tomorrow (and if you know, let me know, as I haven't found it yet) and I stumbled on the 'compose' button beside the 'edit html' button on the create post page. WHY have I not noticed this before??? On this page I can do bullet points, change the font and size and color of the font, I can justify... Crazy. Funny what makes me happy. Why have I not noticed this in all these YEARS of blogging?

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Where do I find all these other blogs that have all these cool links that I send you to? Well, in an attempt to increase visitors to my blog (what? It's true...) and because sometimes I have stuff that people might actually want to read, and because I like to check out all their blogs, once I post, I go to SIStv, my online scrapbooking community (where I am ranked a "fashion plate" for my 321 layouts, posts and comments) and I find the thread in the forums that says "Friday bloggers?" or something like that, and I leave a note and a link to here so they can come visit. And then I go check out the others that have been updated. And then I come back here to share the cool stuff they've found.

Moods and Emotions

Over the last two days I have experienced lots of moods and emotions.

Sadness. Wednesday night the date jumped out at me and I realized that the next day would be May 21st. There are lots of dates on the calendar that hold different memories, and May 21st holds a sad one. Madeline's little sister Lucy was stillborn at 23 weeks on May 21, 2001. Eight years ago. Every year I picture what it would be like to have Madeline and another one two years younger, and yet, my memories of her will always be of a baby. I wanted to do something with the emotions, and I figured a trip to the cemetery would be good. To go, be there, have a cry, let myself feel, and then get on with my day. Carla met me there and it was good to be there together. (And let me add too that I know there are a number of you who read this that have lost babies, and I am feeling for you and praying for you today.)

There has been one topic lately (which I will fill you in on later) that has had me on edge. Thursday I had a conversation with one person, and left feeling anxious and unsure, which had me in a really low mood all night, and then another conversation today with another person changed my perspective around (which I hoped it would!) and made me feel optimistic and confident. (I sent Sean a text after that and let him know I felt better and it was safe to come home today!) Can you say roller coaster?

Happiness and joy. Yesterday morning Madeline and I watched a cat in our yard stalking a squirrel. We almost made ourselves late it was so fun. The cat chased the squirrel across the yard where it ran up the tree, and then sat watching with it's tail twitching, just ready for it to come back. The squirrel was right into it, coming down the tree and teasing the cat; she even chased it up the tree at one point. Watching that simple drama outside in our yard was so good.





And I got out the new zoom lens to play. This one was taken from the kitchen window; she's out on the street on the way to the bus.



Some other emotions were concern for a friend who was getting test results back, and relief when they turned out to not be what she was worried about. (Imagine Arnold: "It's not a tumor!")

I suppose you're wanting an update on my soccer team. Aren't you?? We tied on Tuesday and lost on Thursday. Our record is 1-4-1. Maybe next week things will change! I helped out at M's track meet this morning; there are 4 of my team at her school - M and J (a girl) in her class, then G and A, both boys in grade 5. At one point, I was timing a race that both the boys were in, and A, who hadn't seen me yet, sees me there and says, "Hey, you're my soccer coach! G, look, it's our soccer coach!" I felt pretty special. :) I also felt special when I noticed another girl in M's class was using a bag I had sewed for her as a birthday present one year. She said she loves it and always uses it for swimming and special things like the track meet. I should do that again - M has a party to go to tomorrow and I copped out with a gift card. I should make the handmade pledge...

Here's the layout I made this week. Start to finish done at the church on Tuesday morning, which rarely happens.



Have a great weekend!

So sad you couldn't tell...

It's a Fisher Price little people face! I might have to change that if it's not obvious that that's what it is (up there by the web address, in case you missed the last post).

Here's a question:
Have you ever been mentored? Have you ever been a mentor? Please leave a comment and let me know how that experience was for you.

Savouring Sunday Silence

I just finished my last assignment for my Life of Christ class. Finally. I am VERY happy to have that wrapped up. Too bad the next one (Pastoral Ethics) has already started and has deadlines looming. But I will take a minute here to celebrate the one being done.

Sean was off to the races today and is on his way home from Yorkton, and M left a couple of hours ago to go to a sleepover, so I'm enjoying a few hours of me-time. Although is writing a paper what YOU would do with me-time? I needed to and I will relax with Sean when he gets home. And now I'm relaxing and hanging out with you. That's fun in my books!

I needed this quiet right now because today the terrible horrible no good very bad monster in my child beat up and took over the sweet obedient loving girl in my child and ruled her for a few good hours. I managed for the most part to stay calm and firm and I won. She knows I have to, but she put up a good fight today. Worse than in a long time. Maybe because Dad wasn't home to put her straight with one word, and she thinks I'm more of a pushover...? Whatever, I won, and all is good. The monster left and the sweet girl was back well before she left for the sleepover. (Or you know that would be gone, too.)

Enough of that hard real life stuff - did you notice my new little icon beside the name of the blog? Check up top in the web address. Please leave a comment and let me know if you know what that is!!!

One other thing I've been meaning to point out - I noticed in my archive list (below) that I have written more posts this year than I have in all of 2005, 2007 and 2008 combined. I've had a lot of fun playing around on here, writing and changing up the layout, showing you my stuff and just messing around. Thanks for reading and commenting (that's the part I like the best!) I'm excited to see all the dots on my map, too - it was up for 3 days then got lost in a transition, but I've added it again. The count is skewed, but a few more weeks and I won't notice. I love seeing where you all come from.

We almost bought a vehicle yesterday. This was the closest we've come yet, but we decided to wait until there's something we know for sure is meant to be. We test drove a Ford Escape, a Dodge Avenger and a Ford Fusion. Someday, maybe. For now I will be happy with the one that is paid for.

What we saw in the backyard...

Saw this guy (not THIS one - this is a handy dandy stock photo) in the back yard yesterday. Madeline and I got out our bird book and figured this is who he was - the Common Flicker, a type of woodpecker. Nice change from the usual robin!

Soccer Game #4 & Photo Shoot

We were up 5-2 at one point.
I thought we tied, but apparently I missed one of theirs.
And we lost. 6-5.
So sad.

Today, because we had pictures scheduled, we had rain in the forecast.
So I was emailing parents the plan A, B, C...
The rain held up, and we got to go with plan A, but it was cold like winter.
Poor kids.
But I actually had a lot of fun.
Getting to know the kids and their personalities, and some of the parents; there was a lot more interaction today.

We went in the van, because I had all the soccer stuff in the back already (we usually take the truck when we're all together). In the second half, Sean went for coffees. (Yes, he rocks.) When he got back, somewhere in the juggling of 2 coffees, his keys, my keys, and locking the door, everything ended up outside except my keys. The van keys. Which were safe and sound in the locked van.
:)
Sean asked one of the other parents to give us a ride home so I could come back with the truck; slick plan, except that we jumped in the truck and halfway back I realized that I needed to get the SPARE KEYS from the house, and not just the truck. So we're even. We're both dorks. And that's ok, too, because when he got coffee, he also picked up a big yummy cinnamon bun for us to share later.

I can hear him warming it up now, so I gotta go! Yumminess calls. (And he's got a cinnamon bun!)

Five Layouts

Down By The Bay

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelons grow,
Back to my home,
I dare not go,
For if I do,
My mother would say...

Did you ever see a bear
In his underwear?
Down by the bay!

Do you remember this song? We had so much fun singing it tonight - It popped into my head and I started singing it; Sean gave me a funny look, like "I remember that!" and joined in. M didn't know it, but caught on pretty quick (even started to do the echo without being coached!)

We couldn't think up too many that we remembered, so just made them up:
Did you ever see a Ward, driving a Ford?
Did you ever see a pig, dancing a jig?
... D o w n b y t h e b a y!

What are your favorite verses? Or come on, make some up!! Leave us a comment with them!

In other news...
Mother's Day today. I received a beautiful purple birdhouse, hand painted by M at school. She tried to give it to me last night she was so excited. (And maybe trying to stall bed time a bit.) I didn't expect anything else, except a carnation from church, which is pretty predictable, but when I got downstairs there was a gift bag on the table in my spot. It had two cards in front of it, one from each of them, and two gifts inside. I picked M's out first - I recognized the wrapping from the night before. Then I was surprised to find that Sean bought me the zoom lens for our camera!! How exciting. M's friend T came over for the afternoon and I went to the park with them and took some pictures. So fun.



A funny thing she said...
Yesterday started out chilly, but warmed up enough to enjoy finally raking the lawn. I couldn't get enough being outside, so M and I went for a walk in the evening, too. As we were walking, she said, "Mom, I don't want to go camping in the mountains." (We're planning to go to Jasper for a week for this year's big camping trip.)
"Why not?" I asked.
"I'm afraid we'll fall off. And of the bears."
HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! She's afraid we'll fall off the mountain!!!
"Madeline - Have you ever been to the mountains?" (I'm her mother - I already know the answer to this.)
"No."
"It's not like that. And we'll camp at the bottom." (HA HA HA! I'm still laughing.)

Coming tomorrow...
I finished five layouts tonight; I'll take pictures tomorrow when the sun's up and I don't need a flash and will have them up tomorrow for you to see. They were mostly done at scrapbooking on Tuesday, but needed finishing touches at home, so I did that tonight.

This is M stuffing cannelloni for supper the other night.


And her she is winning the game of musical chairs at the last Girl Guides meeting of the year on Wednesday.


What's that? You want a soccer update?
First game we lost 6-1, second game we lost 6-3.
It can only get better from here!!!

Ok, I'm done.
Talk to you tomorrow!!

Picture of Pyetra

Here is the little girl from Brazil that I would love to find a sponsor for. I've told you about her but now you can "meet" her.



Mother's day is coming up - I heard of one family where the husband and kids picked a child to sponsor and that was their gift to honor their mom.

Dancing Matt

Have you seen this video yet? I think it's great & just saw it again today, so I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Our Compassion Story

Our story starts in 2000, when Neil and I decided to sponsor a child. Madeline had been born the year before, and we expanded our family to include a girl in Mexico, too. We picked Mexico thinking that it might be the most likely place for us to get to if we were ever to visit our Compassion child. This is Lucina when she first became ours, and the latest picture:





Fast forward to 2004. Neil had been gone one year, and Madeline and I decided to sponsor another child. This is Maria:



One year later, in late 2005, Maria and her family moved out of the area of the project she had been a part of, so Compassion sent us Roberto:



In early 2007, when Sean and I were newly married, Compassion had to shut down the project that Lucina was a part of. She had been ours for 7 years! You can see from the pictures above (the first and last of 4 that we got) how much she grew in that time. We sponsored Abigail next:



Only one year later (early 2008), Abigail's parents pulled her out of the program. We decided not to take another child at that time, so just had Roberto. Later that year, Roberto's parents moved, and Compassion sent us Damian:



In April of this year, I was browsing through the kids on the Compassion site. The author of one of the blogs I read is a Compassion Advocate, and mentioned once that she looks through the unsponsored kids and prays for them every week. So that's what I was doing (since I had to log on to update my email address anyway) and I started punching in our birthdays... Well there was only one child that had the same birthday as Madeline, and she was a girl, and she was even born the same year. A twin! And she had a cute name, too: Salomey Coffie. I went into the other room and jokingly told Sean that I found a way for us to spend some money, and told him about Salomey. He reminded me that when we didn't take another child after Abigail left, we said we would again someday when money was less tight, and that it wasn't, so why not? That's how Salomey came to join our family. We haven't heard from her yet, but I've got some stuff for both her and Damian ready to go in the mail today. Salomey is a break from our Mexican habit, too; she's from Ghana:



So that's our long complicated Compassion story. I've found that although we haven't had many long term relationships with most of our kids, we have had a chance to get to know more than just one or two. In most of the cases, too, someone from the project has written to us to let us know why they have left and to thank us for our involvement - that's a nice touch and wrap up, I think. We love getting letters in the mail, and now that M is old enough, she can write her own, too, instead of just sending along pictures. I hope she and Salomey develop a neat friendship.

I told you a while ago about some mail we got from Compassion asking us to help find a sponsor for Pyetra, a little girl from Brazil. I think I might have found one tonight... I'll keep you posted on that!

Two of the writers whose blogs I follow happened to be going on a Compassion blogger trip to India lately - they just got back, and it was pretty interesting to follow their stories. I have a good friend here in town who is an Advocate, which is a volunteer who works to try to get kids sponsored. If this has raised any interest in sponsoring in you, I encourage you to check out Compassion Canada - I think that link should get you to Karen's Compassion page.

Have a great night - I'm going to print off a few pictures to send in my letters to Damian and Salomey now!

Need some help here.

Playing around again...

I need you to help me pick a header. I made this one, but when I matched the page color to the grey it was a little too much, and the other colors I used were picked from the tea colors. It's not perfect, though. It's hard being a perfectionist.

So here are a few of the headers I've made - please leave a comment with your favorite and maybe I'll use the one that gets the most votes. I said maybe. But I do value your input!!

Oh, and look up by the web address... it matches the teacup!! How fun is that?

**********
M got sick and had to come home from the birthday party sleep over she was at tonight. Poor kid is crashed and sleeping... hope it doesn't last long.

I don't understand.

Some things just fix themselves.

This blog was messed up yesterday - I couldn't change things, messed up the code somehow... so when I got home from class tonight, I saved the template code as it was, messed around with new templates, tried downloading another one... nothing worked. I came close to having something I could live with for now, but had to go back to this damaged template to copy the widget codes, and *poof!* some fairy godmother waved her wand and it's back.

I don't understand it.

But I'm happy! Now to change a few things, and then I will get back to blogging about something other than my blog.

Like scrapbooking, and the fact that it is National Scrapbooking Day tomorrow, and I'm in class all day. That happened last year, too. It's been a while since I played... soon, though. Papers are not the only things in my life. There are pages, too...!