My Boy

Blake has been writing us stories lately.  It is one of his money making ideas.  He tried standing out on the sidewalk yelling to everyone that passed by.  Scaring some of them.  I didn't want him to sell them because I thought they were awesome and wanted to put them in his scrapbook.  So I ended up giving him some money for them.  Here is one story.

Jane the Rabbit

One day a rabbits hole got filled with water.  The rabbit started to cry

The next day the rabbit found a hole.

The kitchen was fine.

The bedroom was fine.

The bathroom was good.

Good night said rabbit to his self.

:)

Blake asked me to sign him up for the Little Souls Marathon this year.  He had to run 40 km in the month before hand then he did the final 2 last night.

He really had a great time and was very excited to do it.  He was really happy to get a shirt.

Swimming

Blake has been desperately wanting to go swimming for weeks now.  Yesterday despite Cora and I having lovely headaches we decided to go.  We weren't sure were to go since the last two times (and I believe once when Rachel went) we got kicked out of Stan Siwik when a kid pooped in the pool.  We like that pool the best however and decided to risk it.  We made it through with only one incident.  As we were going off the diving board, Cora had a boy about her age start to follow her around.  He kept trying to swim right next to her.  It was a little creepy.  Then she was last in line and we were all in the pool he ran up behind he and said he wanted to kiss her.  She quickly jumped in and swam to us.  This boy followed her and was right behind her and I though he was blowing on her.  I told him to leave her alone.  He ignored me and kept following her until Dave turned around and told him to go away and leave her alone.  He said, "owww really?"  I was about to smack the kid.  We kept a close eye on her and made sure we knew where he was in the pool the rest of the night.  I can't guarantee that I would not have smacked him if he even came near her again.  We don't know if he was dared by his friends, it was a huge group and they were all being stupid, or if he was just being stupid on his own, but Cora was a little freaked.  After we took them for ice cream because after you exercise you must eat ice cream:)  Sorry about all the post lately with no pictures.

Divisionals and "Healthy" Milkshake

Cora went off to divisionals in the pouring rain yesterday.  They even had hail, thunder, and lightning at some points during the day.  I was sure they were going to move it to another day.  She hid out with her friends in the equipment shed until they got kicked out then they hid in the bathroom until they got kicked out.  I had sent her some money in case she needed anything.  She ended up buying all her friends a cappuccino and herself a hot chocolate.  She said,'I don't know what a cappuccino is but they all wanted one.'  I told her what it was and thanks for buying the coffee for everyone. That is exactly how I wanted my money spent.  Cora is soooo generous she would give anything to anyone.  While I want her to share and be kind and not be greedy this buying things for people ALL the time is starting to get on my nerves.  Once in a blue moon when her friends buy her something she always pays them back the next day.  I want her to want to do stuff for people and I really don't think the friends she has are taking advantage of her, but how do I teach her before someone does without ruining that giving spirit??????  Any advice would be great.  Anyways Cora was in tears the night before she was so nervous.  She really did not like high jump and didn't want to make a fool of herself.  Out of 16 kids she ended up getting 3rd.  She was happy she did that well and said, 'now I never have to do high jump in my entire life again.'

Blake has this amazing bruise on his thigh.  I keep forgetting to take a picture of it.  He has no idea where it came from.  I assume soccer but he only remembers getting hit in the face. It completely covers on side and wraps around a little to both front and back.  And it covers just a bit more than three quarters of his thigh.  Blake's bruise is just coming out of the purple stage and into that pretty yellow green.  It still looks painful.

A couple of months ago on Pinterest I had seen how to make your own smoothie packs.  I have been using these lots and really like it.  In a cupcake pan fill each slot 3/4 with yogurt. (I used vanilla the last time) and freeze.  Then put it in a plastic sack (or baggie if Katherine is reading this:)) add to it about 1 cup of any frozen fruit you want.  I had frozen sliced bananas with a little lemon juice and added those to frozen mixed fruit from Costco.  I love this.  I add some OJ and protein powder, don't even need the guava nectar this is sweet enough and blend.  It makes two glasses full.  Perfect for my breakfast and lunch.  I just add a little toast or veggies or whatever.  Anyways this is getting long.  I had left over frozen strawberries and frozen yogurts.  My kids had really wanted a milkshake so I finally bought some ice cream and decided to try and experiment.  I used milk, a little ice cream, the frozen yogurt and strawberries and guava nectar.  Then mixed it all up.  Nobody could even tell.  Dave who can always tell when I try something didn't even know.  They were surprised when I told them after.  It used way less ice cream and it was still really thick and creamy.  We have also tried chocolate.  I think this may be the only way I make milkshakes from now on.

Pay it Forward

Cora and Leah walked down to our local gas station a few days ago.  They wanted to get a Slurpee.  We practically never get them, so my kids had no idea how much they cost.  They were standing at the counter discussing if they had enough money,  I know it is really bad that my kids don't look for prices anywhere, when they lady told them that the man in front of them had payed for their Slurpee's.  They tried to run out and thank him but he was already gone.  Both girls were so impressed that some one would do that for them.  They decided that they wanted to do things like that for other people also.  I guess paying it forward really works.  Now I want to see the movie again.

We finally got our garden planted.  Part of it was done in the rain,  but crazy for Alberta is was a warm rain and didn't last long.  All three kids really got in and helped this year.  It was great.

We just got back from Costco.  With a little of our tax return we replenished our food storage.  It was a big job and I have never spent that much money at Costco in my life.  Today I was a very good consumer. Doing my part.

Track and Field

I have been waiting years and years for my kids to have a Track and Field.  I always loved this day growing up.  It was like a day for the whole family.  Everyone got the day off school and every bodies parents showed up to watch.  Grade 7 and Cora finally got to have one.  She had to sign up for 4 events, I got to do everything growing up and it was more fun.  She did 100m, 200m, high jump, and shot put.

Cora was not impressed with Track and Field at all.  Not a whole lot of effort went in to this day.  She absolutely hated the high jump.  The look of relief when she was done was quite comical.

Some of her friends where trying to plan to run together.  I said no way this is serious stuff.  Cora just raised her eyebrows at me. She made it into the final heat for the 100 and 200 and was very disappointed.  I asked her if she was sure she was my daughter.:)

She did get some ribbons and much to her delight (haha) she is going to divisional in the high jump since she placed second.  If it would have been any of the other event, she may have had a grain of excitement, but not for high jump.

The principal thanked me three times for coming out and support my daughter.  When I told Dave that he asked how many other parents were there.  I was the only parent for the entire school.  We got great sunburns, it was a beautiful day.  Next week I am going to HillSpring to watch their Track and Field.  Kailey is going to try to beat my record that I still hold for the Grade 7 200m run.  I hope she gets it.  I think it would be fun to hand out the ribbons for that event.

Blake felt that he was absolutely going to die if he did not get this paper Titanic with book from Scholastic.  He had been really good the last couple of day, before he ordered defiantly not after.  So Dave and I decided to get it for him.  It came in while Dave was away.  He really, really wanted to do it with his dad and so he waited.  He would read the book every night before bed and as soon as Dave walked in the door he asked him to help.  Tuesday they finally got a chance to sit down and work on it a little.

I should have taken pictures of the process.  It really is neat and they did a great job.  Now hopefully Blake won't wreck it anytime soon.  He is bound and determined that it is a toy not a display no matter what we say.

Pictures from Texas

Dave visited the place that JFK was shot.  I did find it a little funny that I had put the movie 'The Kennedy's' on hold several months ago and it came in the week he was gone.  So as he was there, I was watching it.

He said they just keep these white x's painted on the road.  Dallas hasn't made a really big deal out of it.  I think you can even go up to floor 6 were the shooter was believed to have been.  It was closed and Dave didn't get to go up.

The new equipment they are working on is classified.  The company making it had these red tarps up so other customers coming in would not see what they were working on for Frito Lay.  Once it is up and running, Frito Lay Lethbridge will be the only ones in the world with this technology.  Pretty cool that my husband is the one in charge of it.

I have no idea where this is:)

My kids love seeing the pictures from the plane.  This is mostly what Dave brought back for them.  He had taken a camera from work so most of the pictures I am not allowed to put up.  You know the whole classified thing.

Yaaay!!! He is Home.

We were soooo excited when Dave drove up yesterday.  Two weeks was a long time for him to be away.  I just happened to look out the window and saw the car.  Everyone ran out to meet him.  Dave brought back us all a souvenir from his trip.  As I mentioned he had seen the Roughriders play baseball.  These shirt are from the Rangers.  We don't know who the players is that we are wearing, or if they are any good but we are wearing them with pride.

While I was in Utah I had picked up some Big Red gum.  It has always been one of my favorite.  (I have never seen it up here if anyone knows were to get it let me know please)  I gave some to the kids while Dave was away and they LOVED it.  Really how could you not:)  One night when Leah was talking to her Dad she asked him to bring some home.  We asked for a couple packages or a years supply, you know either one, we didn't want to ask for too much.  He totally brought us tons.  Dave just kept pulling it out of his suitcase.  Like clowns in a car.  I don't think it will last the year, but we will try to chew it sparingly.

Dave got home about a half hour before the girl's piano recital.  They both did a good job. Cora was worried about one of her song, she didn't know it as well as she would have liked.  But did a wonderful job anyways.

The recital was one and a half hours.  Way shorter than I had thought it would be.  After all the numbers the students did a mini musical.

The musical turned out really cute.  They hadn't had a chance to practice all together, but it was great to watch anyways.  Some parts even made it more fun as they had to readjust and lower mikes etc.

Leah had a blazing headache and a really bad sore throat.  It was hard for her to sing her parts and talk loud.  She did make it through and went straight to bed when we got home.  This is quite the weekend to get sick for her.  She had recital yesterday, is singing at Emry's baptism today and has a talk in church tomorrow.  I hope she makes it.

We are so glad to have husband and father home.  He was greatly missed.  Dave took lots of pictures and I will be posting those next week when I get a chance.

Homework Rewards

I should have waited one day to post the crazy place I live.  I woke up to snow again this morning on May 10th.  And tomorrow it is supposed to be 18 degrees. ?!?!?

Cora has been very frustrated the last couple of months at school.  She has been coming home complaining that every one else in her class just talks during class time and they don't have any homework.  They play around and still seem to get the work done.  She said that she tries to work very hard, sometimes she gets it done, but sometimes she has homework. She was frustrated that she had to work so much harder than everyone else.  Tuesday she had her math teacher call 5 kids (out of 26) to the front of the classroom. Cora was one of them and she was a little nervous.  He told everyone to take a good long look at them.  Then give them a round of applause.  Those five kids were the only ones that had done there homework all year long.  As a reward they got to go outside and do their math in the beautiful weather with chalk on the sidewalk.  It happened to be her really good friends that were with her and they had a blast.  The next day another teacher brought a big bag of candy and put it on the desk.  Everyone who asked for a piece didn't get one.  But again those that had done homework consistently the whole year got some.  Cora came home with quite a bit.  So she learned the lesson that all is not as it seems and she was very glad that she had done the work.

This Crazy Place I Live.

May 5th

May 8th

Need I say more!!

I went on a field trip to the Aggie Days with Blake's class.  It was kinda fun, but really when you grow up on a farm it is not so cool.  It is good for all the kids that have no idea where peas and chicken and so on come from.  Blake loved petting all the animals.

There was a booth set up by Fortis Alberta.  They tell stories about kids kicking soccer balls into power lines, etc and how they get electric shocks.  They have a little demo set up and they shocked the plastic people. Blake and his buddy thought this was hilarious.  They went to this booth 3 times.  I am not sure they learned anything.

Here are some pictures that Dave has sent me from Dallas.

 

I had a really fun mother daughter night at YW with Cora last night.  We played the newlywed game and That's my mom.  It was great.  We did OK.  On the way home I asked her about some of her answers.  Most of the time when we didn't have the same answer she had thought they said something else.  We probably could have done better, but nobody kept track.  I also enjoyed spending time with the other mothers.  There is 5 YW and so 5 moms.  Only 2 leaders were there.  A small group but it was perfect.

Boredom Buster

Things have not been going quite as expected for Dave in Dallas. They have had a few set backs.  Still he has been having a good time.  He realized the other day that when he went down town he had only been 2 block from the temple.  Dave was disappointed, he would have like to see it but they aren't going back that way again.  He said it was so hot they went to the beach on Saturday.  Not a soul was there.  He had wanted to got to the water slides that were close but they don't open till end of May.  Which he thought was funny since it is so hot.  He did go to a baseball game last night.  The other guy from work is a big Ranger's fan and  he really wanted to go to a game.  Unfortunately all the Ranger's games are away these two weeks, so they went to the Rough riders instead.  That is their farm team. As he was telling us about the beach and the baseball we were looking out the window at this.

I told the kids that if it snowed a little more they should go and build a snowman.  Blake was all for it but the girls absolutely refused.  They said that there was no way they were going to put on snow pants and build a snowman in May.  I guess they are protesting.  It is totally melted and warm today:)  Everyone had gotten up really early and chores were all done.  They were starting to get bored and a little testy with each other.  Blake is really out numbered with his Dad gone and I think it is hardest for him.  They had already done some sewing and some crafts and it was to early for a movie.  The kids were playing down stairs.  I grabbed some yarn and sneaked (snuck?? I can never figure that one out) up stairs and built this laser course.  I then got my camera and sat on the other side.  I asked if they could please come up for a minute.  They were super surprised and loved it.

  Two hours later they were still playing and no fights.  If I didn't have to walk through all the time I would have left it up for a couple of days.  We thought this would be really fun to do outside for Blake's birthday in the summer.  

Dave keeps teasing me about Pinterest.  Every time I do something, try a recipe, or say a quote, but it really is awesome.  I figure everybody gets ideas from people anyways.  Now mine are just put together were I can always find them.

A couple of years ago I had wanted to try chocolate waffles with caramel sauce.  The recipe I found was not very good.  I was sure that it was a good idea, if I could just find a better recipe.  So I found this on Pinterest.  Yes I know:)  It is just cake batter in the waffle maker.  It was really really yummy.  And way faster then waiting for a cake to cook, cool, and ice.

Tooth Fairy

Yesterday as we were walking around the school for the Spring Open House, Leah looks at me and said,"Mom, my tooth fell out!" "What??"  "My loose tooth just fell out."  "Oh, you had a loose tooth?"  I really had no idea.  We wrapped it in Kleenex and got it safely home in my pocket.  While we were there she was talking to a friend and she had just had one fall out at school also.  They decided that they were going to write letters to the tooth fairy.  A couple of years ago I made my kids something to put their teeth in.  It hangs on the bedroom door, it is a tiny pillow with a pocket on it for the tooth. It was quite late when we got home and they went off to bed.  I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered that she had this tooth.  I was trying to be quiet and find some money for her.  I sneaked into her room and reached into the tooth pocket.  No tooth.  I had no idea were she had put this thing.  Here I am searching in the dark for a tiny tooth.  I finally found it on the window sill.  And there was the note.  I remembered seeing a picture of a tiny note from the tooth fairy on Amber's Pinterest page.  I thought that would be a cute way to answer. (Thanks Amber) But it was 2am.  I decided to do it anyways.  So here I am again, 2 in the morning writing tiny letters and trying to make an envelope.  I was a little tired this morning, but she absolutely loved it. It made it all worth while.

Updates

Blake did awesome at his soccer game yesterday.  He actually chased the ball and kicked it more than one time.  He ran after it, like you are supposed to, and kept kicking.  He even stood in front of people to block the ball. It started to rain just as we started to mow the lawn yesterday.  That was fun, but it really needed to be done.  When we were done the sun came out and it was beautiful for the game.

Leah auditioned for the school talent show with a song that she wrote herself called 'The Moon'.  She made it in and is singing it today.  Yesterday Leah had a field trip to watch Ukrainian Dancing.  She said she really enjoyed it and the boys were way more interesting to watch then the girls.

As most of you know the Arrowood School burnt down over the weekend.  The elementary has been collecting school supplies to give to them so they can continue till the end of the year.  Cora and her friends got together and asked the teachers in the High School if they could have a bake sell for the Arrowood.  The teachers thought it was an excellent idea and she is organizing that right now.  To be held next week.  I wonder if I could find something that would pass off Personal Progress with that.  I will have to look.

After a grand 7 hour wait at the Great Falls airport, Dave finally made it safely to Dallas last night.  He was supposed to fly out at 6 am.  They had plane trouble and didn't actually leave until just after 1. (On a different plane). He said there was one poor family there with a toddler.  Bet that was fun for them.  He found the hotel with out any problems and said his hotel room was really nice.

Me:  same oh same oh.  My life never changes.  I did laundry and vacuumed today.  Mopped and dishes.  Ran 4 km.  See my life is super fascinating.