Photo fun

Just having some photoshop fun on a cold Sunday afternoon.

A first....

Today the newly turned 16 year old got his driver's license and drove into town for the first time on his own. Yikes I am so not ready for this life changing event. I am sure it will take a few days for me to stop "worrying" about him driving. He is going to get sick of it and will probably be rolling his eyes at me in no time. But isn't that what mother's are supposed to do? He is a responsible kid so I know that he will be careful, but still.....

He recently had a tournament up on Calgary, here is a couple of pics of the action. The lighting wasn't that good in the gym so the pictures aren't the greatest but they will have to do.
























I went for a walk in the snow today and took my camera with me. I am thinking that I should get ready for winter, it will be here sooner than I want.

An early Halloween

A funny thing happened in the house the other night. We had a visitor from the "that should only happen on Halloween" category. Let me give you a hint about our unwanted house guest. It has two beaty little eyes, some sharp teeth, wings, and hangs upside down. I think he was living in the house for a few days cause I found a "present" on the window sill that I thought a mouse had left for us. So that morning before school I am busily setting mouse traps before I head off for work thinking that a mouse had found his way into the house but also wondering how he got up on the window and why that "present" was bigger than normal. Anyways on Thursday night Rylan pushes up the blind so that he could see the new truck that Kevin brought home for Colton (that's a whole other story). As he gets the blind up to about eye level I see him stumble backwards and he's trying to mumble something that I can't understand. He takes off into the bathroom and then runs back and points at the window all the while on the verge of hyperventalating. I look over to where he is pointing and see this bat hanging upside down from the bottom of the blind. He doesn't move he just sits there watching all of us. Rylan said that all he saw when he was nose to nose with it is pink, his pink mouth opening up to bite him. He was pretty freaked out. Luckily Kevin was home so he got the pliars, grabbed a leg, and set him free. Meanwhile all of us "chickens" were hiding out in a bedroom with the door closed.


Not sure if it looked this menacing but Rylan sure thought so......

My brother's cute family

So this is a couple of the pics I got of the cute little neices and their mom and dad. Luckily they were in a good mood that morning so we were able to coax some smiles out of them. I took my youngest out there so he could dance in the background and make them laugh. They seemed to enjoy his "monkey dance" the most. Can you imagine my brother's life in 5 years with all those girls? Yikes!! Good thing they have two bathrooms in the house.

Bit of an update...

I've been busy camping at the hills, working outside, and helping Kevin a bit on the farm. Spent all of yesterday afternoon in the tractor baling hay, sound like fun?? Made over 150 round bales in 6 hours. I had that John Deere cruising!! In the morning I took pics of my brothers family when I get them finished I will post a couple, he has some cute girls, though hard to get everyone to smile at the same time and not close their eyes. I took Shane with me so he could do the monkey dance and make them laugh. It seemed to work!! The weather has been pretty good lately and we hope to go up to Many Glaciers camping for a few days. The hiking there is great. Summer is slipping by way too fast and I am feeling the need to get out and do more stuff.

Conference update

The week of Love and Logic is nearly over. I've learned a lot. Hopefully I can use some of it to make me a better teacher, I guess that will depend on which students you talk to. I spent the week with some colleagues from the high school and we had some time to go out and explore the sights of Colorado Springs and we had a great time, but I am also ready to to home. I will post some of the highlights when I get home. One thing for sure is that I ate way too much, going to have to do something about that when I get home.

Colorado Springs

I am in Colorado Springs at the moment, going to a conference on Love and Logic, sure hope that it all makes sense after 5 days of hearing about it. Then we have to go back and teach the rest of the staff about it. I am going to have to take good notes and stay somewhat focused for 5 days, I think sometimes teachers make the worst students. A little ironic don't you think.

We are staying at a pretty nice hotel and the convention is right here but the thing that irks me is that there is no free internet in the room, only in the lobby which is where I am sitting typing this thing out cause I am too tight to pay $10/day for internet. The people in the lounge next to me are having way too much fun by the sounds of it. I've decided that I am way too addicted to the internet, I was starting to twitch up in my hotel room with nothing to do. I will have to share my new found knowledge on love and logic in the near future.

Grade Nine Grad

My oldest son, Colton, had his junior high honor night this past weekend. He is a great kid and we are very proud of him. He made the principal's honor roll which means that he got above 90% in all subject areas on all 4 report cards this year. I can't believe I'll have a kid in high school in a few months, at least I can keep an eye on him. I'm sure he'll be dodging me though, unless he needs lunch money or something.

Finally

Kevin finally got my top off.............of the jeep that is. Summer finally feels like it is here. I got to spend some time cruising around town in the jeep on Saturday. I am looking forward to some more of those days in the future. Here is my new t-shirt that I got to celebrate the occasion. I missed the official date, come to think of it we probably had snow then!!

Grad

I had the opportunity to attend the CHS grad ceremonies last night. It's only been 21 years for me but in some ways it still seems like yesterday. Except I don't think I could fit into the dress anymore!!
The six girls in the picture with me are the seniors from the basketball team that I have coached since grade 8. What a great group of girls and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to watch them grow up and become the awesome kids that they are. Definitely one of the upsides to coaching is the relationships that you build with the kids.

Busy Week

The kids have kept me hopping this week. First the 4-H sale and then divisional track meet. The sale could have been better, the kids won't put as much in the bank as last year, but I guess that is the reality of ranching. It is a valuable lesson to learn I think. Now I can plant those subliminal messages of "you need to be grow up to be a dentist/doctor".


It was Shane's divisional meet today and he did pretty good. I was working but was able to slip out and watch him do most of his events. The downside was that I had to run up the Lion's Park hill 3 times today. I managed to actually run up it twice but by the third time I was walking. Definitely got my exercise for the day.

Scuba

Thanks girls for the fun evening out last Saturday night. I'm glad we all got together. You all are way too funny, and I enjoyed reliving some of the 80's with you.

On Thursday I got to take my class to the university pool and do some scuba diving. I passed all the skill testing (see you can teach an old dog new tricks) and was able to finally make it to the bottom of the deep end. My ears were killing me and it took me a while to get down there. The kids were of course way more adventurous and made it to the bottom long before me. It was a bit unnerving to be rely on a tube for your oxygen but it is something I always wanted to try.

I was able to finally barbeque tonight. The first time this year, just did some burgers but they always seems to taste better especially with lots of Montreal Steak Spice. And better yet no dishes to clean up. The kids are getting ready for the 4H Show and Sale on Tuesday. The calves have to be clipped and washed off on Saturday, then they will need to lead them around to make sure they will behave in the ring. It is always an interesting sight to see a 80 lb. young man trying to coax a 1200 lb. steer into following him just by tugging on a little rope. In the beginning the steer usually wins the tug of war, but by sale day we usually have them all ready to go. The kids look forward to it because that is when they get to see how much $$$ they will get for all their hard work. I will post pics of the show next week. Colton and Rylan have a calf this year but Shane doesn't cause his always chased him over the fence, so he got an early ride to the auction mart. He was mean right from the start.

Multi-Tasking

I remember fondly the days when I had time to stand by the toaster and wait for my bread to be toasted to perfection. Now it seems that today and many other ocassions over the last couple of years I seem to get side tracked whilst making toast. I am not sure if I am just trying to do too much multi-tasking or if it is a sign of old age and I just can't remember from one minute to the next what I am doing. I really hate eating cold toast. Just had to vent about that for a bit.

As for the long weekend of camping, it was fabulous. We all came home without any broken bones which is good considering the horseback and the quad riding that we did all weekend long. Not much snow left just a few banks in the trees and I even managed to get a sunburn. Here are some shots from the walk we took on Sunday.

I am Sensing a Trend

So I get up to get ready for work this morning and look out the window to see this.....

I am sure Al Gore has never visited Cardston in May cause then he would have to retract the whole global warming thing. Despite the depressing view this morning I am still planning on going camping this weekend. I get a 4 day weekend. Going to go fishing, kayaking, lots of reading, and hopefully not too much cooking. The boys will have to fend for themselves. Hopefully the furnace works in the trailer cause we may need it!!

Learning to Embrace

I am learning to embrace the spring that is winter or is it the winter that has yet to become spring. I am a bit confused. Either way, the precipitation is in the form of snow. Time for a good old fashioned snowball fight tomorrow, the snow is going to be perfect.

My kind of Race

Just finished watching a funny story on ESPN. At NC State in Raleigh the students put on a race that features a 2 mile run to the local Krispy Kreme factory where they must eat a dozen donuts and then race back to the campus -- without puking. The fastest guy did it in 25 minutes. At the end of the story they showed all the garbage cans they have around so that racers can "give it up" if they need to. It started in 2004 with 12 participants, and this year they had over 5500. I needed a good laugh since tomorrow is Monday morning and back to work.

Out in the Corral

This is one of the puppies , they are enjoying the warm weather too.

The puppies have chased one of the cats up the bush. The cat is kind of camouflaged so look hard.

Shane with one of the 4H calves

This is one of the new calves, he was having a sleep in the sunshine.

The Trip is Booked

The kids have bugged us enough about never going anywhere and their persistence has paid off and we are going to Cancun during Easter break. This is a big step for us as we have not done much traveling that does not include an RV and a road map. So if anyone has any travel tips, let me know...

We are also about half done calving now, and so far so good. The weather has been pretty nice and we have had pretty good luck. With both of us coaching sometimes the cows are on their own to get the job done. I should take some pics of the baby calves tomorrow, they are pretty cute. We'll see how the day shapes up,we have the week off, and I have been pretty lazy the last couple of days.

Snow Day

I know it's only been a week since Christmas Holiday's ended and I also know that most people think that teachers have it too easy anyway but man am I ever ready for a snow day. The winter weather has been crazy around here, blowing snow and making drifts that even the grader can't get through in places. Unfortunately Kevin has been faithfully plowing the road with his big green tractor so we are able to make our way up to the top of the hill every morning (the boys really love their dad for doing this for them). About half my class was missing all last week due to the weather so I will have to see if I get more kids to show up for my class tomorrow to be educationally enlightened. (Can you sense the sarcasm here)

When I first started working full time a couple of years ago, I didn't realize the bonus of a big tax refund cheque that would be awaiting the next spring. So of course I had to spend it right away and bought myself a 1994 Jeep Wrangler. It is too much fun in the summer time driving around with the top off!! I have also had fun in it this winter busting through snow drifts. My two neices posed for a picture after we went for a cruise around the block.

A Fan or Fanatic

I spend alot of time at high school football and basketball games (what else is there to do here on the weekend) and have heard my fair share of unkind words and comments from fans over the years. To me a fan is someone who cheers for their team and its players and can yell at the refs occasionally when calls do not go your way :) A fanatic is someone who yells at opposing teams players and coaches and parents and is usually ignorant (as in uninformed) as to what they are saying. I try not to get too caught up in it all, but will admit that my competitive nature sometimes gets the best of me. I've even had the chance to have a "discussion" with an opposing team's parent after I heard him say for at least the fifth time some not so kind remarks about one the high school football players. Of course, being from a town that is known for its religious beliefs, that somehow always gets thrown into the conversation, even if it is not relevant to the "discussion". This past weekend the girls basketball team that I help coach played in a game against a town that is close by so of course there is some history between the two teams. The history being that we've been beating them since grade 8.
There was a fanatic, er fan, sitting across on the other side of the court, yelling at Steve and then she got going on his wife who happened to be sitting close by. It is just amazing to me that a middle aged woman can behave like that in public. Anyways we beat them by 26 and I am sure there will be more fun when we play them again.

This town that we happened to be playing in has some fond memories for me from high school. I was reminded of a little incident with Captain Cougar and some fans in the "barn". That was a crazy night. Basketball in Southern Alberta, you gotta love it!!

An Addition to the Family

We've had a bit of excitement around here. Well I don't know if excitement is the right word for me but I suppose that the kids are. You see about 9 weeks ago the neighbors dog decided to pay a little visit down here while I was at work. We suspected at the time that "something happened". So a couple of days ago out came 1, then 2, then 3, well you get the picture. Now here we are with six little pups. Of course we are all totally attached to them already and the kids are already trying to come up with names for them all.