Paleontology, archeology and digging for treasures....

The children had fun digging for treasures in sand this afternoon......it was good fun! I loved seeing Taylors eyes get wide when he saw a bone or arm of his Mummy in the sand and it was so sweet every time Kylie screamed with excitement when she a dinosaur bone in her sand!!! :) So much fun :) Poor Stacey had to deal with the sand setting her nerves on edge the whole time but to be honest it felt like sweet revenge for the fact that she has gorgeous nails and I don't ;) hahahahaha!!! sometimes life just isn't fair hahahahaha ;) OMG her nails are so gorgeous - naturally gorgeous - I mean how unfair is THAT?? lol!

j/k Stacey ;) see you soon :)

Singin' and dancin' with Santa!!!

Today Sam and I went to spend the afternoon with Stacey, Taylor and Kylie!!! We had sooooo much fun! They have this giant dancing Santa who sings, and we got to dance along with him! The first time we switched him on, Sam wasn't too sure what to make of him. He didn't exactly run away, but he did go and get a book and pretend to sit and read and act like he just wasn't interested at ALL ;)

Then a little while later Sam got used to santa and joined in with the dancing but the children were dancing so fast and furiously that they didn't stay near Santa long enough for Stacey to get a picture! So I joined in the dancing to try and get them to stay with me near Santa - but that didn't work either!

Staceys family just had the most gorgeous family pictures taken for Christmas!!!! Sounds like they had quite an adventure getting them taken, but it was well worth it!! Beautiful pictures Stacey!

Thanks so much for a great afternoon Stacey - hope to see you next week :)

I've been naughty!

Talking to mum yesterday I was saying how this will be the first year we don't have a proper Christmas pudding - no one has visited us this year and brought any over.....and yet she has 4 sat in her pantry including a large one waiting for someone to bring it over for us! Olly isn't coming over in time :(

Lloyd said to get Mum to Fed-ex the puds over and we'll pay and I was thinking about that and then I started looking online at the British Import stores. The local store didn't have any decent puds on Sunday - $20 for a tiny one that had some weird sauce with it, and it was a make I had never heard of! So I may as well pay $10 in Safeway for theirs! But thats a gamble for Christmas Day!! So I looked online and found a place that sells all Marks and Spencers goodies, and I've ordered two M&S puddings!!! Also two cans of Lucozade original WOOHOO!!! Ad a big tube of jelly tots :) Oh I am so spoiled :)

I looked for Lloyds favourite goodies and they didn't have anything really that he liked :( So tomorrow I will look for him! Maybe the place in Calgary will do his favourites!

But woohoo - we WILL have Christmas pudding - it isn't Tesco but at least it's M&S!!!!

In our thoughts....

We had news from England yesterday that Lloyds Granddad has been in hospital now for five weeks with pneumonia.

We have been trying to phone him but there has been no answer and they could not find our contact numbers, but then got our address when our Christmas card arrived (I assume) so wrote to us but that has not arrived yet, and then finally found the emergency contact numbers and phoned us yesterday.

The pneumonia has been treated now but he keeps getting recurring infections now. He is 94.

Please keep him in your thoughts. He is extremely independent and will NOT be happy in hospital - he will desperately want to be back at home in his apartment by the sea. I hope he is home for Christmas but it doesn't sound like he will be :(

There are worse things I could do......

Tonight we all curled up in front of the fire with the lights glowing from the Christmas tree, and we watched Grease. Abigail LOVED that she knew some of the songs from her tap dancing routine and couldn't believe that John Travolta did some of the same moves as her (hahahaha) even though (as she put it) he looked a little like a vampire (hahaha)!

The children were laughing at me because I was singing aong to all the songs and knew all the words and was saying how I had always wnated to be Sandy. I used to have a poster of John Travolta in my bedroom when I was Susies age - from 'Look-in' magazine!!! I told them that he is now the voice of Bolt!!!

It was fun to watch Grease again - I guess it was the 'High School Musical' of our day ;) Actually it was of my sisters day as I was too young for it really. But I did love it :) I remember watching it on video at Tizzy Cartwrights birthday party - her Dad was showing off that they were the first in the village to own a video recorder!!! Too funny!

This song by Rizzo is my favourite song from the movie - by my favourite character!!! I may have wanted to be Sandy but if I had been in the movie I think I would have played Rizzo......I'm NOTHING like Sandy lol!

The finished houses....

And here are the finished houses.....each team with their own house...and Chris trying to pretend he was with the girls team because their house was the better house hahahahaha - ie it stayed together, the tree wasn't snapped in half and they actually remembered to USE the gingerbread men!!!!  All in all it was good fun!!!  And yes as you can see, Sam was sneaking candy the whole way through - he is TOTALLY wired on sugar!!!!

Our Saturday

Chris invited a group of friends over today...but in the end only a couple of them came...probably because the temperature is -26c and the windchill is (ie it feels like) -39c and some of them were coming from Edmonton on the bus!!!  But his friend from school came and a friend from the village here and I think they had a good time!  They had a gingerbread house making contest - girls against boys.  Max is quite used to our mad house as he has been here several times, and knows Sam and the others well but Kiray is an only child so probably thought she had entered a mad house with candies being thrown around the place (yes even at me) and Sam chasing people with Santa signs and lots of noise and chaos.....but at the end of the day she said she WOULD be venturing back here again!!!  So I will take that positively ;)

Laurence escaped with Lloyd for the afternoon - they went off to buy some more straw bales for Charlie.  I had the Christmas music playing, finished decorating the Christmas tree, worked on some VERY special scrapbook layouts I'm doing!!!  And on some more Snowman soup and things I'm doing!!!

It's been a lovely 'at home' day - staying snuggly and warm on a bitterly cold day.  The children have had fun - Susie and Abby also made Christmas cards.  They watched 'The Polar Express' as well and listened to their Disney Christmas music cd.

My latest craft project

So this is what I have been working on lately....packets of 'snowman soup'.  They are little baggies that contain a sachet of hot chocolate, some mini marshmallows, a hersheys kiss and a candy cane.  On the back of each packet is a label that explains what snowman soup is.

And On the front is stamped a row of snowmen - a stamp from Stampin Up that I got from my fabby Stampin Up demonstrator Tess!  She's such an amazing sales girl she actually forgets to charge you half the time hahahahahahaha!!!!  Ooooops!!!!  ;)  Problem is that I have found this website with this girl who comes up with a new idea every week using Stampin Up products and I LOVE her ideas, so now I see myself spending a small fortune in the next year :(  

I see my new scrapbooking island being well used anyway (what was that Lloyd?????  You mean that island in the kitchen is for COOKING???????  Oh.......REALLY?????????  wow.....who'd've thunk!!!!!! )

Anyway, the children are excited to dish out these packets to friends over the next week :)  I've enjoyed making them and making the most of my new stamps - finding new ways to use them!  

Hhhhmmmm?

Not a great picture but I thought it was funny...I wonder what Abby was talking about with this boy.  At one point she giggled and called over to me 'He's scared of me'!!!!!  Very wise ;)

Susannahs class!

Here is Susannah in her tap class!  I couldn't believe how tall and elegant she looked - and how much like her dad Nigel and her Grandma Patsy she seemed!  She has her dads long hands and fingers and her Dads long legs!  She towers above the other girls.  So different from me!  

We bought her snow boots yesterday and she is wearing the same size as me (7) and she is not yet 11!!!  

Dance Class Open House...

Last night we went to the girls Open house for their dance class.  This is how they celebrate the end of class before Christmas.  parents are invited to stay and watch the class and see how much the children have learned so far.  It is a first glimpse at their dances and to see what they will dance in the Spring recital.  We then get to have refreshments and treats and enjoy a little bit of a Christmas party with the children.  The children don't wear costumes or anything - they can basically wear whatever they want!  

Here is Abigail in her dances - so far she has been doing tap dancing, and after CHristmas she will change to jazz classes - all her tap dances were to music from Grease!  

Meeting Santa....

There was no way I could have gone to the party with my back hurting so much, but I WAS very sad to miss seeing the children meet Santa this year. Susie might not want to go and see Santa next year.

Sam didn't go up to see Santa. He never has I don't think. Always too scared. Maybe next year!

Decorating trees at the party...

One of the crafts at the community league party was decorating miniature trees to take home!

Community League Christmas Party.

Today was the Christmas party at the local hall. I didn't get to go as my back was really hurting me. Yesterday it was fine and I thought it was healing nicely but today has been a bad day :( Not helped by al the ice everywhere outside :( sidewalks and parking lots are a nightmare EVERYWHERE because yesterday everything melted and then today it froze again :(

So I soaked in the bath and took two Tylenol 3 which didn't really help except to make me very sleepy. Lloyd took the three youngest to the party. Laurie stayed home with me and brought me a cup of tea up to the bathroom. Chris worked all day.

Last year I helped organize the party and had great fun doing so. This year it was being run by a certain couple who seem to ahve taken over the running of the village AND the school. Sadly this is one of the reasons that less and less people are helping out with ANYTHING here :( They are now in charge of everything here and run it 'their' way :( Lloyd said there were very few people at the party - much less than normal. So sad as last years party was wonderful. This couple seem to feel they have to run everything in the area. The woman is sooooo bossy and opinionated :(

In the summer when I did the photography for the racing cars she even gave me her thoughts on the fact that my children have to walk from the corner of the road where the bus drops them!!!! OMG!!!! She said I was a cruel Mother for making them walk so far (she was NOT joking!!!! I mean WTF??????? Its like a five minute walk if THAT!!!!! And they almost always cut through the back of our yard...omg no wonder kids these days are so out of shape!!!!

No wonder people don't want to volunteer for this women when that is how they are treated when they DO volunteer :( I didn't even get a chance to respond because after she finished saying her piece she turned and walked off!

Five years.

Five years ago ago today Lloyd and I were living in Clarkdale Meadows. We went out to Home Depot around 4pm or so. I remember I sat in the car while Lloyd ran in to the store. It wasn't snowing much when he ran in to the store but by the time he came back to the car, the snow was coming down REALLY heavily....the change was amazingly dramatic. We could barely see the road on the way home and I was very glad that it wasn't far home.

The next day I got phone calls from two friends, Kerry and Michele, telling me that my friend Mandy had been in a car accident - smashing head on with a big truck/ semi on highway 21 in the bad weather. Her partner Curtis and her Son and Cameron had been killed instantly, and her daughter Ashley had died soon after the accident, while waiting for emergency workers to arrive.

I phoned a friend of ours and let her know, and the next day a few friends from Calgary came up and gathered at my home before we all headed into Edmonton to go and see Mandy at the hospital. I was also able to meet Curtis's Mom there.

A few days later I attended the memorial service with friends and we all stood with Mandy as she read Ashley and Camerons favourite bedtime story. ' Love You Forever' by Robert Munsch. It felt like a real honour to be included with Mandy friends as I had only known her for such a short time and had only been in Canada for a year.

A few weeks later I visited Mandy at her parents house ad she would spend time at our house. This lasted for a few months...unfortunately after a while Mandy started shutting all her old friends out of her life - a coping mechanism I'm sure as she faced life without her children and her partner. A little digging online five years later and it seems that this shutting people out isn't necessarily working though :(

I hope one day Mandy finds a way to let her true friends back in and finds peace. There is room in her life for the past, present and future. Sometimes old friends are the most comforting.