Pumpkin Painting Prodigies

Nearly every autumn, my artist of a sister (Carlynne) paints a beautiful scene or landscape on a pumpkin, and my parents proudly display said pumpkin in the front entry.

Well, now Carlynne is in Ottawa, and it’s impractical for her to create an artistic pumpkin and ship it to Alberta. I know my parents love this little tradition, so I thought I’d do my part (since I live less than 2 blocks away and the word impractical is not in my vocabulary). I’ve painted a vegetable or two in my day and I quite enjoy it. I’m no breath-taking-landscape-painting-artist, but I DO have an uncanny ability to paint googly eyes on giant vegetables- I’m somewhat of a prodigy that way.

What can I say…. I tried!

Good Things Come in Fours

Four months ago, Lowell and I were a happy-go-lucky-couple-traveling-the-globe with 4 adorable nieces back at home (all on Lowell’s side).

When we came home to Canada, we came home to the reality that Canada appears to be having a baby boom. But not just Canada is general, but specifically our families.

First Lowell’s sister, Janelle, and her husband Dave let us know that they’re expecting baby number three. YIPPEE- another niece/nephew to spoil. We were thrilled.

Then my constantly-in-some-other-country brother and sister-in-law, Marc & Kylie, announced that they’re expecting their first child- who also happens to be the FIRST baby on my side… THE G FAMILY IS FINALLY REPRODUCING! Thank you, Marc & Kylie, for spreading our impeccable genes at last.

THEN… Last month Lowell’s sister, Lori, and her husband Dave announced that they’re expecting a baby in March. OH BOY! THAT MAKES THREE NEW NIECES/NEPHEWS!

Lowell and I have been thrilled about these announcements. A little disappointed that no one took our advice to make a Kiwi baby, but still over-the-moon.

But that’s not all.

Last night we received a phone call. There’s ANOTHER one on the way that gets to call us Uncle Lowell and Auntie Julie Renee. No, it’s not Shareen or Carlynne or Marti or Julie Anne… LORI’S HAVING TWINS!! TWINS!!!

This is a top-down view of the two babies. Not one but TWO babies!

My brain was already overflowing with joy, but this delightful piece of news put my poor little brain into overdrive- in a manic-type state, if you will. Sleep eludes me, my heart continues to race at a dangerously quick rate, and the smile couldn’t be wiped off my face if a piano fell out of the sky and directly onto my head. I’m soooo excited (and only like 3% jealous)!

Provided that I can keep my faculties about me and not step in front of a bus while dreaming of babies… between late December and mid March, we’ll have FOUR little babies to jack up on love and candy then hand back to their parents. Yesssssssss!

I love babies.

International House of Aprons

I may as well just come right out with it loud and proud—I have an apron fetish. It began in high school when Shareen brought me a funky apron from Austria.

I wore it so much- whether in the kitchen or not; whether indoors or outdoors; whether with pants or without- that the rest of the family (but still mostly Shareen) continued to feed my addiction.

I have two Christmassy aprons…

A denim one that is currently MIA…

A denim/floral reversible apron that I made for Lowell less than 24 hours after he insisted that I become his girlfriend (what every guy dreams of I’m SURE).

The denim side is for when he’s feeling like a manly man…

And the floral side is for his more feminine days…

I purchased an apron in New Zealand…

Then one in Thailand…

And Marc & Kylie brought me one from Holland…

I’m kicking myself for not getting one from Australia. At that point I was strictly following my “ONE SOUVENIR” policy, so my sole Australian purchase was a pair of Uggs. Genuine Uggs, mind you. Maybe when they’re too worn out to be suitable footwear, I’ll somehow fashion them into an apron. Perhaps a kangaroo-style apron with enough room to stuff a baby (or two) in the front.

In the meantime, however, I shall continue to enjoy the heck out of my current apron collection. Just like I'm enjoying my multicultural jammie collection.

(not) Ultimate Thailand Explorers

Remember our application for the Best Job in the World?

Remember how we got in the top 200 out of 35,000 applicants, but DIDN’T win?

And remember how that was such a bummer?

Well, we got a second kick at the can. Not the SAME can, but a similar one. We submitted our 60 second application video to be “Thailand’s Ultimate Explorers”. Given that this competition was basically on the heels of the Best Job in the World—and we kind of felt like dweebs—we decided not to tell people about our application unless we made the top 25 (at which point we would’ve begun to regularly harass each and every one of you for votes).

As it turned out, we did not make the top 25, but decided to share our video anyway. We had a hootin rootin good time making the video, and even got to use the green screen at the University of Lethbridge—our alma mater. If we don’t share the video, then it’s just time down the drain… and who likes time a-wasted?!



So, that was our second kick at the can. I can’t guarantee that it was our last kick at the can though… we’re Lowell and Julie. This is what we do.

aMAZEing

The maze at the Puzzling World of Wanaka (in NZ) confirmed our love for mazes. When we caught wind that the Lethbridge corn maze was open for business we were THERE!

We began the maze by relying on our own devices (i.e., our brains) but after walking in several circles and having NO CLUE where we were or how to get where we wanted to be, we realized that we needed more than our little brains to overcome the looming corn stocks.

We also needed more than a little corn snack to re-power our brainage.

(You’re not supposed to touch the corn, but this pitiful, wilted reject had already been tossed —naked— on the ground).

Lowell pulled out his ipod which he had secretly downloaded the map of the maze onto (he is very sneaky that way).

This is the picture we used...

We finally figured out where we were and 46 minutes and 2,746 steps later (I was wearing a pedometer- I didn’t count each step on my own), we successfully navigated our way through the maze.

SUCCESS!

There was also a cow train and a petting zoo, but small children were starting to take over the place, and we didn't want to get in the way of their cow-train/animal-petting fun. Plus, there's no guaranteeing that we'd even FIT in the cow train...