Wishful Thinking?

Last night we pulled out the ol' suitcase of BBQ tools...


...and had our first BBQ of the year! MMMmmmmm... good ol' Alberta beef (thank you Mom & Dad T!!)


The ground is still covered with tons of snow (and a LOT of slush), but the temperature has gotten up to +6 degrees Celsius (hence the slush). So balmy... it's practically the tropics! We LOVE the shining sun...SPRING IS SPRINGING (we hope)!!

My 2 main mottos:

(betcha can't tell which one is homemade!)

When Dreams Don’t Come True...

...it can turn out to be a HUGE blessing.

As a child/young adolescent, I wished...

1. ...I had cavities. A family friend had the cool silver caps and I wanted to be cool too. When we would have babysitters, I would pretend to brush my teeth by using just water on my toothbrush. Sneaky. Still, I have never had a cavity. I count myself lucky.

My current teethies- cavity free baby.

2. ...I had an indented chest and a slightly protruding belly. I had these wishes when I began to develop and was rather insecure about it. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, if only I had an indented chest and a slightly protruding belly. Everyone would think I was so cute!’ Again, I’m more than thrilled that this dream did not become reality. Turns out that when puberty is over and insecurities have vanished, one has a whole new perspective on chest/belly size.

This is a non-scandalous picture that I hope displays the fact that my dream did not come true. Look- there are even 4 boys fighting over me (hehe).

3. ...I could hang out with 3 giant black guys. I thought I’d love feeling like a little white girl. The men I had in mind were Shaquille O’Neal, the guy from the Green Mile, and another one that I hadn’t specifically chosen.
Oh wait. I still have this wish…

Those are some huge dudes.

Bragging Rights

3 summers ago, just before I began my Masters and loathed the idea of getting a summer job, my parents hired me to help with the landscaping. We had just built the new house, and the yard was a whole lot of MUD.

After gathering several ideas, playing with them on paper, making several trips to Burnco, and having Anthony rip up the front yard with a Bobcat, Mom and I took the inspiration and began our landscaping duty.

The task was rather daunting at first. Our yard is not small, and we planned on doing a full length curvy, tall retaining wall as well as a sidewalk and stairs. So, we armed ourselves with little shovels and began the time-consuming, muscle-building task.

At one point, Eichi & Anthony (our builders/friends who were still around the house all the time finishing things up) took pity on us and offered me a crash course with the Bobcat. One doesn’t turn such opportunities down! I was a little shaky at first, but I think I got pretty good! Although the intense concentration that is evident in this picture was vital.

We worked hard!

We built most of the wall without a wet saw. If we needed chunks taken off the giant bricks, we did it with a hammer (while wearing safety goggles of course). When we got to the top of the wall and building the sidewalk and steps, Dad joined us with a rented wet saw on weekends. That thing was more than a little more effective than the hammer method.

Our faithful doggy Tessie kept us company! :

By the end of August, when it was time for me to leave for the Duane & Karyn’s wedding (en route to the U of A), the wall, walkway, and steps were completed. The only things left to do were to lay the sod and plant the pretty flowers.


Mom & Dad recruited some University (IVCF) boys to help with the sod, and voila!


Then Mom put her miraculous green thumb to work and made the gardens look pretty.



Last year the backyard was also completed. Now... BRING ON THE SPRING!

PS- Hee hee. Mom, remember when we went to rent the tamper? The big huge men at the rental shop looked me up and down and one of them said with skepticism, "Are YOU operating this thing?" To his amusement, I nodded and he teased, "I'll buy you a slurpee if I can come watch you!"
He didn't (as that may have been creepy), but it was funny. Little women can be landscaping wizards too ya know! :)

Love is in the air!

On Valentine's Day, Lowell had a little something something up his sleeve for me. He asked me to be at his place of work by 4pm to pick him up so we could arrive at place #1 by 4:30pm.

Just in the nick of time, we arrived at CTV news studio:


Yes...seemingly very random and odd for a Valentine's Day stop. Lowell ran up these stairs and into the building while I waited in the car, and that's when I noticed it...


THE EZ ROCK 104.9fm SIGN (you have to look super close in this picture)! I presumed that Lowell had gone and won us something off the radio... and my presumption was correct! Lowell came back in the car flashing a $75 gift card for a spa (for ME!), as well as 4 tickets to the Alberta Ballet thrown in because he's a member of the loyal listener club. More on that to come...


Stop #2 was at the Cheesecake Cafe for some din din. Lowell knows me well enough to know that you don't plan much of an evening for me without involving food- so we arrived at our food destination before 5pm to beat the V-day rush. We had ourselves some delicious meals, then inhaled some decadent mocha mud pie (my favourite!) We didn't leave any evidence that there was ever a mud pie in the dish.


Stop #3 was at the movie theatre where we watched definitely, maybe. It was cute. A perfect & relaxing thing to do on a weeknight!


Now fast forward to the next day (Friday). At 7:30pm we met our friends Carla & Graham at the Jubilee in anticipation of Alberta Ballet's production of Dangerous Liaison. We sat front, floor, and centre. CRAZY!


We had no clue what to expect. I didn't know if there would be music or talking or silence and I assumed that the girls would be wearing pink head to toe with giant tutus, and the guys would be wearing something very similar (minus the tutus). Turns out that this story is a lot less G rated than that! I've never seen so much underwear flying around on stage! But we really enjoyed it (not the underwear- the show). I kept forgetting to listen to the story that was being told between bouts of music because I was so fascinated with the way those people were able to move their bodies. They made it look so easy while I was sure that something must've been coming out of a socket that shouldn't have been. Definitely a very cultured experience that I'm thrilled to have under my belt.


You've done it again Lowell. Thanks for a great Valentine celebration!

Latest Bathroom Addition

My Mom liked this picture because it made her think of me on the can (perhaps good memories from my childhood when I made no secret of being on the throne by leaving the door wide open for all to see & hear. I may or may not still do that).

Anyhoo, Mom blew up this picture, framed it, and it now graces the wall of our bathroom.

Thanks Mom!

He's Alive!!

I love murder mysteries (as long as they end happy- minus the fact that someone always dies). Murder She Wrote is a gem, but nothing compares to Matlock- the true diamond in the rough.


I have a (healthy) obsession with Matlock. I remember watching it on Sunday afternoons growing up until Jr High/High Schoolish. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it until Lowell and I discovered it while we were flipping channels in Hawaii. Since we’ve returned to Canadian soil, we found out when it’s on here, and record it every day so we can watch it (sans commercials) at our convenience. I LOVE Matlock…and Michelle…and Conrad and Leann and Julie….the whole gang!

Anyhoo, now for the point of this post. I could swear that several years ago I read an article about Matlock’s (Andy Griffith's) passing. I’ve been mourning his death for years. A few weeks ago, Lowell insisted that we double check this “factoid” (because he didn’t believe it), and guess what? HE’S STILL ALIVE! I’ve never been so happy to be wrong in my whole life.

I would LOVE to meet this man. He has a sense of humour like no other, and has rekindled my love for hot dogs. He’s just a hot dog lovin funny FUNNY man. Would it be kosher to adopt this man as my Grandpa?!?

Cold Equation

Add this up:

1 boot (of mine) :
PLUS

1 juice box :
PLUS

1 set of energetic three year old male twins

EQUALS

Very cold & sticky boots.

Last week while I was on a home visit (for work), a student's Mom (Helen) got me a juice box which I did not finish (big boo boo). When I was readying myself for the cold COLD outdoors, I noticed that the juice box was in my boot. Aw, how cute. The little gaffers wanted me to take the rest of my juice box home. Very cute... until I took the box out and noticed a boot full of JUICE!

"Uh, can I borrow your sink so I can dump my boot out?"

I dried my boot out as much as possible, then headed out to my car which currently refuses to emit any heat. Brrrr.


*** Helen, don't feel bad at all. I really do think it's just funny. A little frost bite never killed anyone :) ***