Thanks everyone...

Thank you for all your comments on my last post....I am going from feeling fed up and disappointed one minute to angry and frustrated the next. I think the whole way they 'hired' me was a total joke in the first place. Perhaps if they had bothered to INTERVIEW me I would ahve had a chance to ASK questions and get ANSWERS and I would have known everything back then - but no - they didn't bother and I was left to scrape together information from friends and people I met who worked there....and all along I was told that having Sam was great and not an issue and he could come along with em so long as he was signed up for the classes.

I tried and tried to get answers at the beginning and you don't get a reply to your voicemails or emails for so long it was ridiculous.

And now I'm wondering who they can find to run the class because its so badly paid and badly run that the only people interested were Moms with little ones at home - and because there are two classes being run they will HAVE to find someone with a 4 year old (one class is 3 - 4 years and one class is 4 - 5 years) so their child can sign up for both classes...and these classes are not cheap and all they are offering is a discount on the class!!!!! OMG!!!! Thats over $400 just until Christmas!!!! And then again after Christmas and again after Easter!!!

Who is going to run this class???????? Its crazy and the money they pay is not taxed so you ahve to pay your own tax out of it too!!!!!

I wasn't doing it for the money - I was doing it because I thought it would be a fun little 'hobby' for me - something I could do with Sam, something to give our weeks structure once Abby is at school......but most people will be doing it for PAY yet there won't be much pay anyway - and as its all the way out here they have to find someone willing to drive out here- which means it needs to be someone local really....

If they had INTERVIEWED me and given me the chance to ask questions and speak to them then maybe this mess would have been sorted out properly to begin with GRRRRRRR

So fed up :(

I am no longer going to be a preschool teacher :(

They got back to me today and have said that I can no longer take Sam with me to classes. The pay is so useless and we live in the middle of nowhere, so childcare for him is impossible and the whole point was that I was told this was ideal because Sam could come with me (he joins in the classes just like the other children)

I am so disappointed and so frustrated - and the girl who was going to be my assist was also going to take her young daughter with her (who also sits and joins in just like the other children)

And what makes me sadder is this afternoon whle out buying school supplies, I stocked up with big glue sticks and pens and crayons and scissors for the preschoolers to use....I ahve put my heart and soul into designing a wonderful curriculum for a preschool class and a pre-K class that would make the most of living in a rural area.....and now its all been for nothing and I feel like I have been mislead and conned the whole way along.

The way preschool education is run by this county is DREADFUL. I was hoping to make a small change to 40 children in this area and now I won't........I am so so disappointed.

The weekend is over :(

Another Sunday night is here and Lloyd will be back at work tomorrow. Its been so nice...we've sat outside each night by the fire until after dark. We've relaxed and pottered about and enjoyed being at home for the most part. Yesterday we headed into town for the meeting and today we headed out to Nisku for a while....but apart from that its been a quiet time at home.

I'm always sad when Sunday night arrives. Only a few weeks until Lloyd is on holiday though and will be home for two weeks.

The weather this weekend was gorgeous too - Sunny and warm and no rain since Friday so it was perfect :) This morning we lazed in bed and watched the movie 'Dreamer' which left us both wanting to run out and buy horses lol....but we didn't ;) we kind of need fences and a horse box before that lol!

We had a wonderful roast dinner tonight - roast chicken, roast potatoes and vegetables with yummy gravy....we haven't had a big meal like that in weeks because of the heat.

Friday we had the heating on because it was cold, yesterday we had the a/c on because of the heat....crazy weather :) Todays weather was just right :)

Well, Lloyd is showering and I am about to make some chicken salad sandwiches for Lloyd to take to work tomorrow.

Have a great week everyone......oh and what did you all do this weekend?

Animal rescue...part 2 :)

As we were driving along the highway this afternoon we saw the cutest tiniest coyote pup coming down the bank of grass towards the busy road. Then we spotted another coming out of the bushes following the first....

We drove along the road a little and I was saying 'OMG OMG they are going to get hit by a car!!' so Lloyd kind of sighed and rolled his eyes and said 'come on then, lets go rescue some coyotes!' so he turned the car around and we headed back towards the pups, pulled up alongside them and saw a third coming down beside the road as well. We opened the window and I started clapping loudly...two of them ran into the bushes again but the first one, who seemed a little too brave for his own good, just stood and looked at us, so Lloyd got out of the car and ran up towards it and I beeped the horn - and then it ran away....away from the busy highway and hopefully will be a little more wary of busy roads, people and cars in future!

But OMG these little coyote pups were the cutest things EVER - like tiny little grey foxes with that cute coyote face.....you can see pictures of coyote pups like the ones we saw here:

http://www.wildernessprints.com/storybook_pups2001/coyotepups.html

www.skolaiimages.com/wildlife/coyotes.html

Post secret - mini movie

Little friends on the porch...

We spent much of the afternoon out on th eporch with our little feathered friends. We had three female Hummingbirds out there and one male....but it seems impossible for me to get a picture with any of them together....the closest I could get was a blurry picture of two in the same shot....and the male seems to be very unwilling to have his picture taken. What a shame as his red collar would look so gorgeous in the sunlight!

The birds and the bees......

Click on the picture to see this much bigger - a wasp chasing a Hummingbird from the feeder :)

Another design meeting.....

TV Design shows always make the planning of renovations and meeting with arc hitects and designers look really exciting and interesting...

Today we met with our builder again and went over the plans...again....and talked numbers...again....
and talked dates...again. We also ran into a kitchen counter store to have a look at samples of different colours and edges and materials....

And it's all stressful and tiring and....boring! I feel like its constant window shopping which isn't my kind of fun.....and Lloyd and the builder get into discussing measurements of beams and walls and windows and all that.....

I just want to pick out cabinets and flooring and get it DONE already....I just don't want all the hassle in between....and now we are looking at timescales and I will not have a finished kitchen for Christmas - thats almost definite.....even if the kitchen cabinets are in, the counters will not be ready....and the grading and patio and all the outside 'stuff' won't be done until next year....

And then we discussed doing the addition over the garage first and then the kitchen next year.....because the master bedroom/ bathroom and the bathroom renos and laundry room etc won't have quite as much of an impact on Christmas compared to a house with no kitchen and all the work taking place downstairs....

So who knows....and my head hurts.

It will all be worth it in the long run - or so everyone keeps telling me.....

Louise - Marks and Spencer

Hi Louise! We don't have M&S here in Canada - they used to but I was told that the last one closed a year or so before we arrived in Canada. I think they sold a little food and some clothes etc - not sure what else but I don't think they were quite like the M&S stores back home....

The Thomas sweater was a gift from Lloyds parents.....the children get quite a few clothes from M&S as gifts from Grandparents or as hand-me-downs from my Sisters Son Isaac.

A lot of Canadian Moms I know look on Ebay for Next, Monsoon and M&S childrens clothing to buy used and have sent over - its really popular because its a little different to the clothing here and for the most part the clothing they sell here is really poor quality.

We've had quite a few comments on Sams Thomas sweater....oh and thats another thing thats different - here in Canada Thomas is called Thomas the Train!!!!!! I still find that weird - I'm so used to Thomas the Tank Engine lol! It took me a while to figure out what a caboose was over here.....(a train carriage). Considering they speak English here for the most part, its still like learning a whole new language....but we're getting there and right now I kind of speak a blend ;)

Charlynn - coffee cake recipe

Hi Charlynn, the coffee cake is a simple white cake recipe - I simply dissolve a couple of teaspoons of instant coffee in a little boiled water and add that to the wet ingredients at the time you would add the vanilla - I often add the vanilla as well as the coffee flavouring.

The butter icing is normal butter icing again with the same amount of dissolved coffee mixed into it.

The icing is confectioners sugar dissolved in a little of the dissolved coffee. Decorate with walnuts - supposedly so that each slice has a walnut on top.

Marks and Spencer do a lovely coffee and walnut cake if you are ever in the UK :) But then they also do a lovely toffee cake too mmmmmmmm

Coffee cake and candles....

Christopher asked for a coffee cake for his birthday cake - and coffee cake to us Brits means just that COFFEE cake lol...whereas here in Canada coffee cake is a ring shaped cake that can be any flavour that (I'm assuming) you eat with coffee!! So coffee cake here doesn't taste of coffee - it can be chocolate or blueberry or lemon etc etc (yep Canadians are weird lol!) And Chris wanted traditional coffee and walnut cake :)

Our chickens have stopped laying eggs because of the drop in temperature this week so I had to keep sending the children out to see if another one had popped out! By 2pm we finally had the 4 eggs we needed for the cake...one was so fresh it was still all warm :)

Anyway, the cake doesn't look brilliant but tastes divine...with coffee flavoured buttercream in the middle and coffee flavoured icing on top and walnut halves to decorate :) Perfect for my coffee addicted teen

Yum :)

Amazing to think I have a child old enough to get his drivers permit - his learners at least ;) We've said he can get his licence but that does NOT mean we will allow him to drive!

Date night....

Coming back from date night on Wednesday, we came across a HUGE Elk on a corner of Ellerslie....it was HUGE!!!! We weren't sure if it was from a wild herd or from the Elk farm along that road, so we drove down to the farm but no one was home, so we drove back up to the Elk to scare it away from Ellerslie which is a road where cars do quite high speeds....

When we got back, a whole herd of Elk raced out of the trees and jumped the fence and ran into the road!!! So we kind of scared them off of Ellerslie and onto a side road...they then went across the road and jumped into the field on the other side and took off away from Ellerslie....one of the Elk stumbled coming over the fence and fell...so we made sure she was ok before we headed home and as we drove we could see them all walking across the field....

Whether they are a wild herd free to roam (they were tagged) or an escaped herd from the local Elk farm, they were at least safe for another evening and away from the busy road - they really were huge Elk so if a car hit one of those at 100km an hour then it would be a very nasty accident fort all involved :(

Beautiful animals!! I've heard on the radio a few times that a herd of Elk was on the move in that area and in our area.....but it was amazing to see them running free away from the Rockies!

Puppet show time

Abigails gift to Chris, for his birthday, was a puppet show.....she made little stick puppets and performed from behind my big chair.....

Wednesdays sunset for you....

Our new little girl....

Josh Classen, our local weather man (My Mom really likes him lol) is supporting World Vision right now and during August is trying to get 3200 children sponsored by families in our city of Edmonton....

So I am thrilled that yesterday we sponsored a 5 year old little girl named Margori. We picked Margori for a number of reasons - She lives in Peru - a country that Susannah studied at school last year and Abigail will study in a few years.....Margori is the same age as Abigail and she loves mathematics and ball games - Abigails favourite activities!

We have wanted to sponsor a child for so long but were just never organized enough to do it, but now its done and I can't wait for the welcome pack to arrive :)