Tuesday, March 23, 2010

City of Edmonton Torch Relay Leg

Edmonton Stop on the Olympic Torch Relay

Group Shot before the Torch arrived in Sir Winston Churchill
Square.

The Hare Krishnas of the Torch Relay passing out
these cool light up, bang together balloon thingys!


D behind the Canadian Flag


D and the torch lit behind him.


Daniel and Hyrum taking in the festivities!

Daniel and his friend, Hyrum and I went into Edmonton over a month ago to take part in and see the Olympic Torch when it came to the City. It was very cool! We decided after the torch arrived to see how close we could get to the stage. During this process, we were adopted by a very small Asian lady who was obviously using me as her way to the front of the stage, she even at one point even said "I sorry, but you big!!!". Glad that I, as a strong well built Canadian girl, could be of help to one of our new immigrants at this great display of National pride.

MARLA



This is Marla. She is the daughter of a couple that are friends with my friend, Dena Friars. Dena got to babysit Marla for a week while her parents went on a lovely vacation to Florida. I LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL!!!!! For starters, she has red hair and green eyes. She is also a bit of a terror, or as Dena likes to call her "The Terminator". I truly believe that this child was meant to be mine. I know, go take my meds (sigh). No plans to kidnap her...... yet.

Girl's Day Out

About a month ago, I took the Friar girls and Claire for a day at the West Edmonton Mall. The highlight of our trip was Build-a-Bear. If you have no idea what I am talking about, it is a store where you choose a flat plush animal and have it stuffed complete with a plush heart that you have made a wish on. You then get a Birth Certificate for your new best friend and then you can pick clothes, accessories and anything else you can think of to make your new friend feel truly loved and to drain your mother's bank account! We also went to Triple Flip(think Lululemon for girls) just to try on clothes! So fun!!

Eve with the Stuffies the girls made. Eve's is the pink
Unicorn, Claire's is the Cheetah and Emma's is the bear.

Claire with the new stuffed buddies

And last, but not least, Emma

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Quadbogganing

This is your new word for the day "Quadbogganing". This is what my friend, Delphine, and her family, call pulling a sled or toboggan behind a quad at high speeds. Carlam is also very familiar with this outdoor northern Alberta sport and introduced Claire, Daniel and I to it recently.

Claire and Emma got to try it out one weekend when Emma slept over. This was their inaugural run and they weren't going very fast so, don't worry that they don't have helmets on.

One thing we have learned is that Chester cannot take part in this sport because he thinks it is fun to try to remove the slider from the sled and has ripped some jackets and even some skin!!!

Emma coming out of the pasture.

Claire getting ready to give it a try.

Claire still hanging on as she approaches the end of the lane way.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Christmas 2009

The Pollock/Patience/Greenreich 2009 Christmas was spent at the Patience house and for the 1st time in a long time, spent together, all in the same location!!!! Mom and Dad arrived on the 19th and Matthew, Stephanie and Aaron followed from Seattle on the 21st. It was sooooo great to all be together for Matthew's 1st Christmas. Curtis came to open prezzys Christmas morning, which was really important to the kids and I and Carlam joined us Christmas Day night after spending the day with his family and that was wonderful!!

Unfortunately there was something else that either arrived with one of the travelling parties or was at the Patience house waiting for everyone.......... THE FLU!!!!!! The only three that were immune were Daniel, Claire and Carlam. Everyone else got it. It was a bummer because Matthew was sick on Christmas day. As I have told many, the drink of choice for Christmas 2009 was Schweppes Ginger ale!!! So.... because of our extra guest, it was a very quiet Christmas, which isn't really that bad anyway. We were up around 9:30 Christmas day and those of us well enough ate a great Christmas day meal.

Boxing Day, everyone except Nana and Matthew trouped off to the West Edmonton Mall to Watch Avatar in 3D. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I will forever have the image of Claire sitting on the edge of her seat in her 3D glasses glued to the screen. It really is a great movie just because of the special effects and the 3D. Other than that just another Cowboys and Indians movie.




On the 27th, Carlam took Stephanie and Claire and Daniel sliding down the Onoway sledding hill. They had a great time and didn't have to walk up the hill every time they slid down because he pulled them back up with his quad!!!! Can you say Spoiled!!! I didn't go because that was the day I had Mr. Flu visit me. They also did some Quadbogganing, which is the sport of being pulled behind the quad on a sled. Very fun!! I am hoping Stephanie will have some pics of the sledding, but if she doesn't I will get them from Carlam and post them. Stephanie, Aaron and Matthew headed home on the 28th and Mom and Dad followed on the 30th. The kids and I followed Carlam home on the 31st and spent New Year's Eve with his friends in Hines Creek. They all have kids my kids' ages so everyone had a great time. It was back to work and regular routine on January 4th.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

Matthew opening his prezzy from Claire


And here it is, an owl she sculpted, painted and fired. I have to admit that I was a little jealous that Matthew got this owl and I, her mother, did not!


Matthew and Steph Christmas Day


Daniel getting goodies out of his stocking.



Claire getting into her stocking Christmas morning.


Claire and Matthew


Carlam opening his prezzys on Boxing Day


2009 homemade gifts for Teachers and friends. Every reindeer had a story written by Claire or Daniel. Claire's was western themed, Daniel's was about a reindeer that needed to collect Worker's Comp. Don't ask, because I have no idea.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I know, I know, as Stephanie very kindly pointed out yesterday, my blog is sad. I have been ridiculously busy and frankly, just have not had the time to get this done. BUT TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

Really, there hasn't been that much going on in our lives since my last post. Daniel turned 12 on the 22nd of October. There wasn't much fanfare and he couldn't decide what he wanted to do for a party so, we just had cake and ice cream at Curtis' and he got to open some sweet prezzies and that was it. I think that he has reached the age where he doesn't want to have a party supervised by his MOM and is still not old enough to party on him own (thank goodness).


Daniel has taken part in a couple of karate tournaments (1 bigger, 1 smaller). Claire is doing her voice lessons and had a recital before Christmas. She sang "Out Here on My Own" from Fame and did well. I will try to post video later this week. She also had a major part in the school Christmas play called Santa's Playlist. She did awesome and Nana and Papa even made the trip out to watch. What a thrill!!! Again, I will post pics/video this weekend.


The dogs and I are well. My old cat, Freedom is hanging in there and makes an appearance every weekday morning for his canned cat food treat. His hearing and eyesight are going so, you have to be careful not to surprise him, or he yells. Our garage cat, Tracker, has pretty much moved into the house. His manner are impeccable so, I guess he can stay. Our little gray cat was not at the door when I got up this morning so that is concerning, but hopefully she is there when the kids get home from school. Will keep you posted.


I am doing well and enjoying not having to answer to anyone and being in charge of my own life. I have to say, I seem to be handling everything out on my acreage just fine on my own. I have met a really great guy to hang out with. I met him on the Internet and we really have a good time together. His name is Carlam and he has passed the family test and the kids think he is "pretty cool". Daniel had vocabulary homework last night where you had to match the car parts with their meanings. Well, let's just say that is very out of my league so, he called Carlam and they figured it out together. Carlam lives about 4 and a half hours away from me so there is some travelling involved if we want to see each other, but so far have been able to make it work. He is divorced and doesn't have any kids, which I have to admit, is nice. We are just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.