Alberta Bound...

Our Beautiful Province.....

and:



Of course Lloyd watches and says "See it looks really nice there, but they don't show it when its shit and like -500c" lol......well, no matter the cold and snow, this IS a beautiful part of the world ;) I feel VERY lucky to live here...to HAVE lived here...even if it isn't home forever, I am glad we lived here :)

The place we call home.......

and an older version:

Snow Buntings?

We keep seeing flocks of small whiteish birds flying around.....they look white while in flight and slightly brownish when at rest....never seen them before this week and now a flock is flying about here quite often....in the surrounding fields and in our front paddock.

I wasn't sure what they were, but on further invesigation I think they are Snow Buntings.....

Anyone know for sure? I think I will write to John Acorn and ask him.

So now I feel bad.......useless even ;)

This guy was taking pictures of snowflakes in 1885!!!!!! OMG can you imagine! Over a hundred years later with all of todays technology and I am struggling to get a decent picture!
snowflakebentley.com/

Practice makes perfect...but....

I still can't get the PERFECT flake picture grrrr........problem is you don't want the flakes to melt so you HAVE to do it with the window wide open and your hands get so cold and its hard to balance to stay really really still.

When the temperature warms up more I plan to go outside when it snows and set up my tripod and a black mat on a table and then I should get some better pictures....you have to be directly above the flake to get it in focus and that isn't always easy...sounds simple but if you are even slightly off direct then the flake is blurred.

Macro photography of things THIS small is NOT easy but I LOVE it :)

feelin flakey ;)

It's snowing!!!

Which means SNOWFLAKES!!!!!

Snow mini album....

I decided to use the mini album for pictures of Amber and Rosie in the snow. I'm pleased with how it turned out :) I may add a few extra embellishments to the pictures before it is complete!

A couple of sunsets from the last week...

Sunday...

I am still laughing about something I posted to you Rhonda...... ;)

It has been a nice weekend. Last night I scrapbooked - well, I added pictures to that snow mini album that I bought.....I will post pictures later. And I also worked on a special project for a certain someone but I can't post picture of that yet. I also finished Susannahs birthday invitations and they go to school with her tomorrow.

Today we lazed in bed watching housey reno shows on tv and drinking coffee..then slowly got up and headed into town. Lloyd had to have his hair cut at 12:30pm so Chris and I went and got him some new basketball shoes as Rosie chewed up his other pair the other day. After that we got some bagels and coffee and then headed to pick up Laurie...then took a drive out to pick Susie up from her friends house....it is quite a way out really but the road is so pretty out there.

Home and tidied up and did some laundry etc.....Lloyd is roasting some beef for dinner and it already smells gorgeous! We're having roast parsnips, roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings too :) YUM!!!

Talking of yum, last night we had chicken and bacon satchetti in a rose sauce with spinach salad. It was delicious!

This afternoon I decided it was time to stop procrastinating about summer camps and so I got right on it. Hopefully by the end of this week they will be booked. Chris is doing a week long film studies course while Susie and Laurie go to a week long camp with horse riding, zip lines, swimming etc etc....it will be their first time at summer camp :) It's a treat from my Mom and Dad! Hopefully we can get all three in to camps the same week.

Last night I sent an email and some pictures of Charlie to the people we adopted her from. They said they'd love to hear how she does and it's been a while since I updated them. I sent them my favorite picture of her from last summer...so I will add it here too :) Charlie is out and about right now taking a stroll around...so long as it stays warmer than -20 she seems happy to get outside and stretch her legs!

Saturday...

Its so beautiful outside - sunny and clear blue skies and the snow is sparkling in the sunlight - just gorgeous! -16c so its cold but no wind and as I said...just beautiful.

Lloyd and I had an appointment at the bank this morning - had to sign a mountain of forms but it was fairly painless....only took a few minutes. The business is expanding so fast at the moment - I'm so proud of Lloyd. Headed to Staples for a few supplies and then to Smittys where we sat and chatted over brunch :)

After Smittys I went into Scrapbook Diva for a few Valentine supplies....I got a free gift for shopping there today - an icicles alphabet in 'lemonade' :) Worth $5 so definitely worth going for :)

Lloyd ran in to Home Depot and got the curtain poles for the girls bedroom so I can finally get their curtains done! Thats a job for tomorrow!

After a few groceries we headed home - via a quick tour of the house we've been watching them build. Not much has been done since we last looked though.

Now we are home and I'm about to drive Susie to her friends home - she is sleeping over there tonight and spending the day tomorrow. Laurie is sleeping over at the twins house again.

My head feels very fragile from the imitrex last night.

Lloyd is going out on his tractor and I plan to get Susies invitations done and then work on the Valentines projects I'm doing.

Not sure what Chris is up to tonight.

I bought a globe in Staples and Abigail and Sam have been sat looking at all the countries on it....with the Chinese New Year this week we are looking at China - as well as Peru for our little sponsor child Margori.

Thats my Saturday - what are you up to?

Going to bed.....

Just finished drying my eyes after watching 'Reign Over Me'...omg what a sad sad movie...about a man who lost his entire family (including the family dog) in the Sept 11th tragedies.

Depressingly sad movie....I think Don Cheadle is an amazing actor - really good in this again :)

Was wonderful to come online and see Cheryls news about Colleens new baby :) Such good news :)

Now I can go to bed happy.

WE went swimming this afternoon - it was great fun - roads were horrid coming home though. Was glad to get home. Ended up with a bad migraine and had to take another imitrex. Needless to say with the roads and my imitrex, we didn't make it to the games night.....

Now I am exhausted and off to bed.

Thinking of you Colleen. So so pleased for you!

Colleen!

Cheryl thank you so much for posting! A boy!!! Oh my goodness that is sooooo wonderful!

Oh CONGRATULATIONS Colleen.....a little baby brother for your beautiful girls :)

Wonderful news :)

Friday ramblings...

Sam wears pull ups at night - because he sleeps with us still and because we have a brand new bed/ mattress, we were worried about accidents. Every morning his pull up is dry but you just never know....

Anyway, last night we forgot to put one on him...and this morning he was dry - in fact while I was chatting on the phone to Lloyd, he gets out of bed and takes himself to the bathroom!

So maybe we will put a towel under the sheet where he sleeps and he can go pull-up free from now on....we'll see.

I told Lloyd this morning that after 1 year and 1 week of marriage, I have had ENOUGH!!!! He has to stop hanging his pants over my mirror! I have this lovely free standing full length mirror in the corner of my bedroom and occasionally I like to USE IT!!!!!!!!! grrrr....he has always hung shorts etc on the knobs at the side, but lately he has started hanging his pants (trousers) over the top of the mirror!!!!

Of course then he laughs and says that he will start a list of all the things that I do that annoy him - and he said because the list will be so long he may be late home from work!!! Hahahahaha! Lol!

Last night we sat in bed and watched 'Keeping Mum' a movie with Rowan Atkinson and Patrick Swayze.....it was sooo good - kind of bizarre really but slightly funny and sad too. About a murderer who takes the position of housekeeper for a Vicar and his dysfunctional family in a little village in England.

It snowed this morning....from 3am until about 8am. The roads must have been quite bad this morning because there were several spin outs in town - including one where the driver was flung out of the car - I'm sorry but if you don't wear your seat belt you're an idiot! There are obviously a lot of idiots around because frequently here they report that the driver in accidents was not wearing their seatbelts - like the big accident on Baseline the other month where 4 people were thrown out of the car as it did somersaults across the road :( it's so selfish because so many witnesses saw that happen - so many people probably still see that when their eyes are shut...and the poor paramedics and police that have to deal with it....

Today we will probably go into town - swimming maybe, library maybe.....lunch out maybe....tonight if Chris can babysit we have a games night to celebrate Samanthas birthday at Lori's house. Its Lloyds turn to drive so I can drink :)

Tomorrow we have an appt at the bank in the morning to sign some papers about the business...and then we are having brunch out and then hope to go to the reno show....then we have to drive Susie out to her friends house as she is going on a sleepover.

Sunday no plans except picking Susie up from her friends house.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!