"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.

Birthday Party Toy Day.

Today was "Birthday Party Toy Day" in Tyler's kindergarten class. Every child in the class can bring a toy from home to school today and the birthdays of the month are celebrated. There was only one other child who had a birthday in February besides Tyler-Faith. Tyler chose to take his blue transformer to school today and I brought 24 cupcakes, teddy grahams for James and Jimmy Neutron napkins and plates. Tyler got to wear a birthday crown and he got to go to office for a special birthday treat. The school secretary told him he had to "dance or sing" for a treat.She had no sooner said "dance" when Tyler's feet started moving wildly. Took lots of pictures, but the one thing I didn't get on camera was Tyler at the bathroom door of his classroom with his pants and underwear wrapped around his ankles shouting, "MOM! I need some help in the bathroom." Such a proud moment for me.

Tyler's Birthday

Last Saturday 9 (Feb.11) was Tyler’s 5th birthday. We decided to throw caution to the wind and invite 12 children to the Mall for a tour of the Sea Life Caverns and Sea Lion Show followed by cake and stuff. We were fortunate enough to have 8 parents help us out.

A few of the highlights:

The kids saw an octopus, and were wowed by the 8 appendages it used to move around.

We viewed 3 very cute crocodiles that were actually found at a pawn shop in Edmonton before being seized and given to the Mall Marine Life Division.

We watched 3 large turtles being feed romaine lettuce by 2 marine divers. The turtles are hand fed every day by divers.

There are no photos of the Sea Lion show since it is a “copywritten” show, and therefore, photos by personal cameras are prohibited.

We are so fortunate to have wonderful friends to help out even though we have been here only a short time. Speaking of our born and breed local friends-they have never been to see the Sea Lion show before, if you can believe it.

We are so thankful that our party was last Saturday. This past Saturday, the Mall played host to auditions for Canadian Idiot Idol.

In other good news, I booked my tickets HOME ( Yippee!) today for June 28 to August 10 and then from August 10 to August 16 to Chicago to visit my cousin Kelly and her family. She is expecting a baby boy in June. He will have 3 very excited BIG SISTERS.

Halloween 2005

Well, we set off last night at 5pm. We went down the street to the entrance to the park and back. We collected a good quantity of treats and now we are in sugar heaven. We got home at 6:15 and then the kids watched the movie “Winn Dixie” until bedtime. A nice Halloween overall. We gave out treats to about 50 or so kids. We took pictures with both the Digital and my regular camera but the digitals did not have enough light and turned out very poor. Tyler had his turn for “Show and Tell” at school the other day and he took his “Shrek” Checkers that Ron brought back from Florida. He told the kids all about the “rules” for playing checkers. I took Hunter to Ballet tonight and she forgot her Ballet slippers, so she had to dance in her white stockings. After class, the teacher came out and asked if she could talk to me in the “staff” room. I thought “oh oh” but went in. She asked if Hunter would like to dance a “solo” in the Dance Festival and two other dance festivals in the spring. So, I asked Hunter if she was interested and she said “yes”. Then her dance teacher, whose name is “Scotia” (rather unforgettable name, don’t you think) explained that she and Hunter would get together for private lessons over the Christmas break. So we signed the “permission sheet” and Scotia went off to teach her next class. THEN I started reading the fine print on the back of the info sheet and it said private lesson fees for Miss Scotia-get ready for this (gulp) $70/per HOUR. So I went back up the stairs and got Scotia out of her dance class and asked her how many hours would she need to teach Hunter this solo. She said 2 hours maximum for a 2 minute solo. Whew. I think we can afford that, but my mind was racing and thinking that this solo might cost $700 bucks or something. Can you imagine, you would come out after Christmas and there would be no Christmas tree, no presents because we got this outrageous bill for a dance solo. Haha.

Scenes from a Weekend in Winnipeg

Hunter & I just got home from Winnipeg where Hunter’s skating club competed in “Westerns”. This is the finals for the Western Division teams to compete for a spot at nationals. Our club sent 6 teams ranging from 9 year olds right up to 60 year olds to compete. Here are some fun facts from the weekend!

Hunter’s team, Juveniles, finished 6th in a flight of 8 teams. This is great considering that 85% of our skaters are first year synchronized skaters. The Juvenile Team consists of 9-12 year olds. No where to go up from here!

The Junior teams placed 5th in a flight of 17 teams and they get to go to Nationals. Hunter’s “big sister” in the club skates on this team, so this is exciting news for big sis, Genene!

The “Open” team, which is the really “pro” skaters, who skate 5 days a week, won gold.

Winnipeg is cold! -27 when we went out to our car on Sunday!!!!!!!!

I managed to pass “bun-making” 101! My final exam was achieving a bun on Hunter’s head at 5:30 AM. Next year I graduate to “false eyelash gluing”. I made an attempt this year, but after ending up with eyelash glue all over my pants, and eyelashes placed on “backwards”, I was fired! False eyelashes have a “right’ side and a “left” side! Who knew!!!!

Yes, the prairies are flat, flat, flat. I was navigator in our rental car and my main instructions to my pilot went like this, “turn left, go straight, turn left go straight,….. turn left, go straight”. I think you could actually fall asleep and not go off the road.

The best thing about Synchro is that it such a fun TEAM sport! Love that.