under the covers.

I have been on a reading frenzy these past few days. I have been hiding under the covers with books. Last week I happened to catch Elie Wiesel on Oprah where he was talking about his visit to Auschwitz with Oprah in January. I felt compelled to pick up his book and read it. "Night" is a good 3-4 hour read, but it is powerful to read his story. Elie was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in Transylvania and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. He would never see his mother or sisters again, while his father would die in the camp only days before liberation. The hunger, the fear and the terror. This is a testamony to what happened in the camps-one that you can never forget.

On my reading list was My Friend Leonard by James Frey. I enjoyed it, but it is a little harder to read as autobiographical after everything that has happened. I treat this book more like fiction, but then I question every biography or autobiography I read. Questions run through my head, like: how can this author really remember this incident in such vivid detail at only 3 years old, how can they remember this meal, this event, etc.?!

I also started to read "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones, which is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, but as much as I tried, I could not get "into" this book. So many characters and personal histories thrown out in the first couple of chapters that I really had to work at keeping up who was who. Not fun. Maybe this book will "speak" to me at another time.

wealth.

I have been thinking about this concept lately. What does wealth mean to you? Here in Alberta, wealth means expensive houses, hummers, bmw's, mercedes benz, big campers and everything else that represents a pay cheque. West Edmonton Mall represents wealth. A place where you can go to spend, spend, spend.

But i miss the wealth in Nova Scotia. And I don't mean material wealth. Nova Scotia is filled with wealth.

The wealth of beauty.
Oceans and breezes. greenery and blossoms.
There are no crystal blue oceans or salty breezes here. The rocky mountains are beautiful, but here in Edmonton, they are not accessible on an every day basis.

The wealth of space.
You can drive 5 minutes in any direction and be in the middle of nowhere.

Wealth of peace and quiet.
Would love a chance to sleep in where the only sound brought to your ears is the sound of birds.
The noise level of the traffic here is so unforgiving and it drives me crazy at times.

Wealth of small town life.
I love how at home, you can go for a Sunday drive and meander along down a country road.
Forget yourself for a moment here by not keeping your foot on the gas pedal, and people are honking at you and passing. What's the rush? Slow down and feel life. Edmonton is a rat race.Where are all the rats going to in such a hurry?

Wealth of knowing how to slow down and relax. chill.
Here is all about perfect lawns, perfect grass, clean cars, everybody has to be doing something every minute of every single day. When you look out the window on the weekends, it's all about mow, mow, mow and trim, trim, trim. So what if your grass is 1/8 of an inch too high?
Just slow down and stop. Chill. Take it slow. Soak up the sun. Have a beer and just chill.
It is not so easy to find that here.

Wealth is not about the "stuff". It's about quality of life. It's about relationships.
It's not about a pay cheque.

Ron is searching for his wealth in Alberta. Third day in a row he has gone scouting for a fishing lake.

There are lots of things we do like here.

But I can't wait to go home.

Feel a salty breeze. Sleep in to the sound of birds. Go for a country drive. Chill at the Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning.

Hug my family.

blunt.

Man, tonight I was flipping thru the channels when i happend to catch james blunt on mmm in concernt. it was so fantastic. love his music and his message and his purity. does that make sense? just his sense of self and how he is so not rock star-ish. he is just about his music.

weeman is up. he wants a "snuggle". i never want him to grow up. weeman, grow smaller please.

"YCDA"

Yes, as we were finishing supper, Tyler was in the living room singing "YCDA", his version of YMCA, or my version after a marguerita with dinner, whichever you choose.

Kids are downstairs mixing up chocolate chip cookies. What a great activity. It has taken them about 45 minutes to measure everything out. I told them to call me when they were ready to turn on the Kitchen Aid.

Turned into a beautiful day overall. I cleaned the TV room in the basement and moved a few things around. Scrapped a little this morning.

The Oilers will be playing the Anaheim Ducks tonight for Game 2 of the series. We will be tuning in. The kids are wild about the Oilers being in the playoffs.

Love Sundays. Especially when I don't have to go anywhere.

Saturday.

Here are some things that went on around our house today:

Hunter went to skating. We learned that the two dances that she has been working on are probably not "passable" as they are. They need a lot more work. So I have hired another coach who specializes in dances to help her with these dances. Let's pray that we can get them to a passing level in the next two weeks.

Ron went this morning to the sports wholesale outfitters. He came home excited about the cool fishing and camping gear he saw.

Ron and Tyler went to scout Lake M. this afternoon to see if it was a place that they might like to go fishing.

I did a little laundry. Returned some things to the Children's Place. Browsed at Old Navy. Got Hunter's skates sharpened. Made caesar salad for supper. Ron bbq'ed some yummy pork chops and potatoes.
Watched "Millions" with the kids and rented "Match Point" for Ron and I.

All in all a pretty normal Saturday. Cold and windy in stark contrast to the very warm temps we had just a few days ago.

21 days.

It is said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. This means that if you engage in the new habit for 21 days in a row, the new habit should become entrenched. So I am going to test this. I am going to blog for 21 days and see if it becomes as automatic as brushing your teeth. I am also going to try 30 minutes on the treadmill everyday for 21 days. Good luck to me.

We were up super early today. 6am to be exaxt. Hunter had a dance performance at U . She wanted to practice her solo a few times before we left at 7:15pm. We had to leave so early because I never know how long it is going to take to get down the main Road. Sometimes the traffic is just murderous. Sometimes not. So we arrived at the SUB at 7:40, shen we needed to be there by 8:20. Nothing to do but hang out and fix Hunter's makeup. She brought along a book to read. I was not so lucky in thinking ahead. I became a human play gym for Tyler. He just crawled all over me. Her performance went well and she earned a silver medal. This was the last time she will perform the Peter Pan solo. Next season, she will have a new solo.

Tonight I am going to try to scrapbook a little bit. I am working an album about our first year in Alberta and it is about 75% finished. I have some embellishments and computer journaling to add, as well as a few pages to make. I am hoping to have this done by the time we go home on June 28. I love to scrapbook, but the problem is that I usually wait until evening, just after the kids are tucked in, to start anything, except that by this time of day I am tired and I just want to go to bed to read a little and watch tv before I go to sleep. I am not making any progress by choosing this time of day to scrapbook, so I think I need to choose a time in the day when i can scrapbook for an hour or so. Another new habit.