Family Photos

A couple of weeks ago my family was all together at a family camp for the weekend. It was so good to be all together. Here's a group shot:

So good. That's us with our girl, my brother Clayton and Jen and their girl, my sister Jess and Dave and their 3 boys, and Granny and Papa in front.


This is what always happens when the Schneiders get together. A pile on - the more bodies the better.


Here are the 5 cousins. I love love love all these kids.


Now a pyramid - a nice shot, not the one with Solly kicking Levi in the butt and Granny's finger pointing into the shot. Although that one is too funny... I should post it.


And, they are true Schneiders!
Thanks Jess for all those pics. I didn't have my camera with us for the big shoot, but I didn't think we needed 3 cameras going; two was plenty.
Finally, here's one I took of the cutest girl ever pointing out the dragonfly on the tent:



Check out this link to see pictures of our girl and her McCall cousins. The England branch is in town for 2 weeks, so Carla arranged for a photographer to take some shots out at the homestead. I'll post just a sample, then go check out some great shots at her site: Valley Portraits.



Hopefully someday soon we can get a shot of the Ward cousins all together - there are 8 of those, so a little harder to get everyone in the same place. That would make a nice grouping of photos somewhere in the house, hey? Three cousin shots? I'll have to get on that...

Links to Cool Things

Hey, friends!
Here are a few links that I've been collecting to share with you:

The Uniform Project - Something to watch that will inspire you.

Operation Nice - Something to read that will inspire you.

The Breathing Earth - Something to make you think about the world.

Bomomo - Something to play around with.

Stormtrooper a Day - Something just for laughs.

Have fun!

Techno Bloopers

Tonight I thought I'd submit some of my scrapbooking layouts to a magazine that had a call deadline tomorrow. It's been a long time since I submitted anything (except 2 specific ones last month), so I was on the computer for a while, sending 19 different layouts in.

The problem is that I usually use the desktop at home. It's just more comfortable than our laptop. But when we got the laptop, Sean was in the habit of using the computer in the evenings, and I would use the laptop sitting in the comfy chair in the office. So we started putting all our pictures on that one. Cause I used it more. And I do more with the pictures.

Then he discovered the couch. Couch + laptop = new evening routine. Which leaves me the desktop. Whenever I want it. So this evening I was on the computer (and Sean was in the garage doing car stuff) when I decided to submit some of my stuff. So I called up the site to refresh myself what they were looking for, opened up my email, and got stuck. Because my layouts are on the OTHER computer.

So I left this on with the page call list handy, and opened up the laptop on the desk, and got busy emailing and submitting, submitting and emailing. I think EVERY time I went to open a new email I grabbed the mouse - for the desktop. Does nothing on the laptop. Nevertheless, I continued grabbing it, right till the last email, which is about when Sean walked in and burst out laughing.

I turned to see what he was laughing at and yeah... I looked pretty funny sitting here at two computers at once. He said, "I'm going to clean up a bit and then... can I have a computer?"

Technology makes life so much easier. Yeah, right.

(And I don't have high hopes of getting published, but you can wish me luck anyway!)

The NEW Job!

I have never known what I wanted to do when I grow up.
I have always had faith that God would show me what role he has for me at the right time.
This is one more example of that.

I have been the pastor to young adults at my church for the last 4 years. For the last year or so I've been ready for a change; I knew a change was coming, but I didn't know what that was going to look like. In the fall one of our staff team left, and through the process of looking at a change in our staff team, I was pretty optimistic that a change would be happening for me, too.

So after many conversations with the boss, who I'm thankful was willing to explore possibilities with me, and many drafts of a job proposal later, here we are. It was announced this past Sunday that our new staff member is confirmed and that has freed me up to make my shift public. Today I sent the word out to my young adults and the prayer team I had set up, and the next step is to do a bit of a write up in the fall newsletter I am working on.

I will be working in two main areas: one is Sunday morning services, and the other is communications. For Sunday mornings I will serve as the creative arts or worship arts director, involved in the planning and design of the services as well as each of the sermon series. The communication part has two parts to it - for the external I'll be mostly focused on the website, and for the internal there will be lots of pieces that I will have input into.

I am pretty excited to be moving in this direction. There are still some things to be nailed down, but we'll work them out. One of those things is that we still have to nail down a job title. Any suggestions? I will have a prize for the person who suggests a winner!! To have continuity with the other church staff it would have the word 'Director' in there somewhere.

The Layouts I Promised

The journaling under the picture says:
they help each other out
try to beat each other
and repeat!


These 2 are from our camping trip again. The circle one is just a circle (that background is a chair from our patio set - I took these pics outside this morning.) And the writing on it says "She's such a water bug! She spent all our beach time swimming."


I love this one. So simple and pretty. Great fun photos - her expressions were so great. The dragonfly on it? I printed out a random color image from online this morning and cut it out. And the word 'Dragonfly' is Basic Grey undressed chipboard (and adhesive backed, which is awesome!) that I sprayed with glimmer mist. Possibly my best use of it so far. This is one you'll need to come see in person.

Thanks for looking! Hope you enjoy.

My 3 favorite foods. And an update on life.

Pringles.
Sunflower Seeds.
Honey Nut Cheerios.

That order changes, and as far as real food goes, Pizza and Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are tops. :)

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I got a message on the phone today from the camp. Yeah, the one that is looking after my kid this week. They said she's fine, but they wanted us to know what was going on... Hello? Yeah, fill me in! They took her into the hospital yesterday because she hurt her wrist. Doing handstands in the field. She went over the wrong way and hyper extended it. Just a sprain. What a dork. (I say that lovingly!) Handstands are her new thing. And now, as if camp wasn't memorable enough, she's got a hospital trip and x-rays to remember this year by. They said she's got a tensor bandage and is icing it, but that her counselor said she was scrambling up the gravel pit with the rest of them no problem, so she's good.

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We have confirmed that Darren Andres is coming to join our pastoral staff this fall doing Adult Ministries; now that it's confirmed, I can tell you about MY change! The boss is going over my draft of what I'm going to send out to the young adults tomorrow, so as soon as I do that I will let you in on the news. How's that for leaving you hanging?? I could spill the beans here first, but we haven't nailed down the title, and that might be a good place to start. So I'll leave you hanging and you can check back tomorrow!

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I finished 3 layouts yesterday - one just needs a dragonfly embellishment, so as soon as I find that I will take pictures and post them for you. Two from camping, one from racing. I'm excited to share!

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Since M's away, it's date week. Monday we went out to a new restaurant for dinner, and then to a friend's for a bonfire with a bunch of people. Yesterday we went to Starbucks in Chapters for a drink and some browsing. Tonight we're out to a dessert place with a bunch of friends, and then tomorrow night we'll be packing to go to family camp. Maybe we'll get done in time to take a walk to Tim Hortons... And with M going to Winnipeg after family camp, we'll have date week part 2 next week! We are still newlyweds, you know - it's only been 2 1/2 years! (Although we'll still be dating when we're old and grey...)

Leave a comment:
What is your favorite date night date?

or

Did you ever have to go to the hospital from camp?
or
What are your favorite 3 foods?
or
Are you excited to hear what my new job is?

Milestone Day

Today is Madeline's 10th birthday. A big milestone - double digits! We had a great day together, and I should have spent this last hour blogging and sharing pictures, but I was catching up on other blogs I read and getting inspired... So sometime soon I will be back with something for you. Fair warning though, it might make you cry. I'm almost, just thinking about it all.

God is good and life is beautiful; He redeems all the junk.

We're off to Saskatoon to the races tomorrow, then Sunday after church M is off to camp for a week. I'll be packing in many hours at work while she's gone; I don't take my full quota of holidays off, but rather spread them out over the summer and work less hours each week. The weeks and days she is elsewhere is when I try to get as much done at the office as I can. (And I'm loving that she likes Play Escapes - a free drop-em-off-to-play city program - that helps me get the hours in, too.)

She Names Things

On our camping trip, Madeline named the dead fish floating in the lake near where she was swimming Bob. (Bob got removed by some park rangers, and I think she was a little sad about that.)

She named the dragonfly that she saved from drowning Moses because she rescued him out of the water. She then proceeded to build her sandcastle one handed for the next 10 minutes while he recovered enough to fly off.

The leech that attached itself to her heel was Fred. (M: "Get it off!" Sean: "Do it yourself!" Me: the hero that grabbed it off with a towel.) I think he was named AFTER the fuss.

The dragonfly that landed on her shoulder and stuck around to visit became Billy.


And the chia pet that the kids got to make as a craft was Leah.


Until the grass grew. Then it also became Bob. Cause, you know, girls don't have facial hair.

Download some Classics

Check out the Kiddie Records Weekly website to hear lots of great classic kids records.

The Visit

7ykgv vfglkyg;k ;yg gbbk,l;hb;bghg lhjuhn'/h (That's my husband's attempt to be funny. Very funny, honey. I bet he thought I'd delete it, but no, I'm leaving it so you can see how funny he is.)

So my parents came out for a quick visit (and brought along my nephew who's the same age as M). We had a rainy cool couple of days, so spent it indoors mostly; we went to the RCMP Heritage Center yesterday and to the Science Center today.

The photos above were from the RCMP place; I didn't take my camera today but got some shots on my phone (I tried to upload them but they are not cooperating) of Levi, Madeline and my dad on the gyroscope. Fun times, oh my goodness.

I asked everyone their favorite part of the visit:
Mom - playing with the puzzle on the floor with the kids. (We picked up a new 500 piece today).
Dad - the steak dinner last night (but the spaghetti tonight came close!)
Levi - the Science Centre (and the gyroscope thing)
Madeline - "Spending time with family." Awwww... sappy kid.
Sean - the fact that they came (we don't get very many visits from family).
Me - getting my dad on the gyroscope. hee hee - he wanted to. I just asked the girl if there was time for one more since lots of the kids in line had bailed out before their 2 minutes. Madeline was last in line, so there wasn't a crowd or anything. She said sure, and Dad said (to me) you better hope I don't hate you for this! Ha ha - he was glad he did it.

And one more story. The first thing I noticed when they got here was that MY DAD GOT HIS EAR PIERCED. How crazy is that? When my brother got his done my dad didn't speak to him for two weeks! He wants to get a cross earring to wear, because he didn't want to get a tattoo. That's funny. That's awesome.

Thanks for coming, you guys!

A Kenya Flashback

We just got home from a race day in Saskatoon and I was helping Sean unload the trailer; I wheeled the spare tire into the garage for him so he could fill it, since it was a bit flat, and the fun of rolling it brought back a vivid memory of one day in Kenya...

These kids were playing with tires. As toys. At their school. Part of me is sad that their toys are old castoffs, but part of me knows that they are unaware (and therefore not jealous!) of the colorful play structures at the parks here. And playing with tires is fun!

Just thought I'd share that memory and those photos!

Pictures and Layouts

Here's my girl making herself eggs for breakfast. She's good at eggs. Sean had her cooking on the camp stove last week, too.

Here's the new flowers out front. Nice and colorful!

Here's two drowned rats after our walk this morning. It started raining when we were at our farthest point, let up enough for us to play at a playground for 10 minutes, then came down pretty good, with lightening and thunder! Fun. Carla knew we were headed out for a walk because we had talked just before we left, and she called my cell while we were walking to see if we needed rescuing from the rain. Nice, hey?

And now some layouts. I did this first one two weeks ago, but hadn't opened my bag since we scrapped last, so got a nice surprise yesterday - a finished one!


The journalling is about the all-nighter they did as Girl Guides and how she crashed in the morning.


This one says "one nice spring day, two friends, one mom with a camera. May 10, 2009"


And this just says "Canada Day 2009 - camping at Madge Lake in Duck Mountain Prov. Park" She made the one on the left and mine is the one on the right.

$3 Worth of God

I read this in my textbook last night - it was about 2 pages before I started nodding off. I flipped down the corner of the page so I'd remember to share it with you.

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God - not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup or warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of God to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please." (Wilbur Reece)

Wow. How many of us think that way without realizing how wrong it is?

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...