Another Baby Card!

I'm not so sure if I like this one or not. Hmmm....

Oh well, I can make more!

Congratulations to my cousin Sue and her husband Whip on the safe arrival of Brady William! A baby brother for Coby and Evan!



(By the way, this card was made with Core-dinations paper. For some really great examples of what you can do with this paper check out Lydia's Blog:
Scrap Notions)

Midterm

Writing my midterm today. Wish me luck!

Back to School Shopping!

I love back to school shopping!

This year we went up to West Edmonton Mall to do our shopping. More than 800 stores to choose from!

We try to make a special day out of it for Cassidy and she gets to be involved 100% in picking out her new outfits.

This year we didn't really need a lot since Cassidy had a growth spurt at the end of the last school year and needed all new clothes in June. Clothes that still fit! (Thank heavens!)

We still got quite a bit:



2 pairs of pants, a skirt, 3 long sleeve shirts, 2 short sleeves, indoor shoes, church shoes and a backpack. (Okay, the church shoes aren't for school but aren't they cute?)

Also, thanks to a wonderful school district, I only need to buy one more thing from Cassidy's school supply list: a box of tissues. Woot!

Another quick card

Just a pink version of the baby boy card I posted a while ago.

Congratulations John and Andrea! Welcome to Tabitha Rose - a little sister for George!

Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump

One of the neat things about the foothills is the history. We have some great museums and some amazing historical sites.

One such place is Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump .

This particular buffalo jump was used by the Blackfoot tribes for almost 3000 years.

Here's the view from the top:

And the view from the bottom:

The museum at the site was really well done and I learned quite a bit of local history that I didn't know! (Did you know that when the Europeans came to Canada, they would look for buffalo jumps and mine the base of the cliffs for the phosphurus found in the bones?) I was also able to pick up a stone tool identification book and some archaeology field reports from the Lethbridge Arcaeology Association.

Here's a few more of my favorite photos from the trip:

999 Challenge - update

Here's what I have read so far!

1. Course related books
1) The Western Humanities, Volume 1 by Dewitt and Platt. This was for my History 201 Course which was the course that inspired me to change my major from History to Anthropology. Yuck

2. Books written by men
1) Assegai - Wilbur Smith I've read the majority of his books and this one was one of his best. Not as violent or as gory as some of his others and I'm OK with that!

3. Vampire books
1) Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
2) Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
3) Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
4) Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris...Yeah I'm going through 1 of these every day.

4. Books by Kathy Reichs
1) Cross Bones
2) Death Du Jour
3) Devil Bones - So Far I've liked this one the best!

5. Non-fiction books
1) Ancient Futures - Helena Norberg-Hodge. AMAZING! I highly recommend this book to anyone. It was very eye-opening.

6. Historical Fiction (my favorite category!)

7. Authors I've never read (the scariest category - venturing into the unknown!)

8. Classics
1) The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne. This was a harder book to read than I thought it would be. I guess I'm not used to the writing style of the mid-1800's. My copy of this book was bought at an antique shop and doesn't have a publication date so I don't know how old the book itself is.

9. Business/Leadership (I have several that I have never started)

My Baptism - Part 2

As promised, here are some pictures from my Baptism on Sunday!

This is Pastor Bryn and Sharky. Pastor Bryn is the one with the wiiiide mustache on the left!



There were five of us baptized. Here we are listening to Pastor Bryn explain how things are going to work. Why do I always look so unimpressed with everything?



I was lucky enough to be baptized in a river - just like in the Bible! This is the Little Red Deer River just north of my home. I grew up on an acreage a little further north from here and spent a lot of time in the summers cooling down in this river!



Here we are getting out of the water. It wasn't too cold which was nice! Fortunately the thunder and lightning didn't start until after lunch.



Pastor Bryn presented each of us with a brand new Bible and a certificate.



I'm so thankful that I had this opportunity - as Pastor Bryn said "It's been a long time coming".

999

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to attempt the 999 challenge. Since I'm starting so late in the year though I'm going to cheat a little and count the books that I read earlier this summer.

Basically, if it hasn't made it's way from the living room to the bookcase in the basement, I'm going to count it!

Here are the categories I'm going to try for:

1. Course related books (textbooks and other required reading)
2. Books written by men (I don't read a lot of books by men. I wonder why?)
3. Vampire books (My BFF got me hooked)
4. Books by Kathy Reichs (my new favorite author!)
5. Non-fiction books (non-fiction that doesn't fit into #1)
6. Historical Fiction (my favorite category!)
7. Authors I've never read (the scariest category - venturing into the unknown!)
8. Classics (the older the actual book, the better!)
9. Business/Leadership (I have several that I have never started)

Baby Card

Just a quick little card for a coworker. Congratulations Mishar!

My Baptism

Today I was baptized!

Yes, I finally made the trek down the river bank, told the members of the church about my commitment to Christ and let the pastor dunk me!

I was asked to give a testimony but I was so overcome with emotion that the most intelligible thing to come out of my mouth was ``I am ready``

Pictures will be coming soon as the church website is updated.

100%

That's the mark I got on my latest Anthro test! :-) I really thought I flubbed the first one though. I kept mixing polygyny and polyandry up.

Now I have three essays and a midterm to write...

999

9 books in 9 categories in '09.

81 books.

Do I have time for this?

Probably not.

Could I do it in 4.5 months?

Not likely.

Am I going to try it anyway?

Of course.

999 Challenge on Library Thing

Why Anthropology?

I am a student of Anthropology at Athabasca University. I'm also taking anthro classes at the U of C. I'm often asked "Why Anthropology?"

My answer is found in this quote:

"The purpose of Anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences" - Ruth Benedict

That's why. I can't imagine a world without human differences. I wouldn't want to.

We are so busy "civilizing" the world that we're destroying the diversity that has allowed us to thrive. I want to learn what I can from other cultures before they disappear completely.

Anthropology has many different areas of study. Archaeology, linguistics and primatology are just a few examples that are often considered part of the Anthropology department at various universities.

My area of study is Cultural Anthropology: the study of human behaviour. Why do we do the things we do?

My hope is that as I learn about other cultures and how they behave, I'll learn about myself in the process.

Maybe I'll also learn why I do things like this when I think no one is looking:



PS - Yes, I realize that shirt isn't very flattering but it's super comfy. I promise I'll change it before I go out in public again

PPS - Pictures like this are what happen when you don't hide your telephoto lens from your husband.

If your age increased everytime you celebrated your birthday...

My 8 year old would be 30 by now.

Seriously. I blame my lack of updates on all of the birthday parties we've done recently.

First was the party with Robert's family. His sister and brother live in the northern part of the province while his parents and we live in the south. Since Robert's niece also has a March birthday, we thought we'd all meet in the centre of the province. Birthday number 1

Next came the actual birthday which we celebrated with my family. Cassidy recieved lots of Star Wars goodies - her current passion. Was this good enough? No. We had promised her that we would drive to the mountains and go out for dinner. An afternoon in the mountains is another one of her favorite things to do (and mine too!) Due to a storm and crummy roads we had to postpone.

Next was the party with her friends from school. Whose bright idea was it to take a bunch of second graders to the pool? Oh yeah...mine.

Finally, the weekend after, we made it to the mountains. 4 weekends worth of birthday celebrations. At dinner we toasted to the completion of another birthday season.

We also thought it'd be a good time to get a family photo done. I can't believe my little girl is 30!! Um...I mean 8! :-)

Menu planning

I've recently started planning my menus and I'm wondering why I didn't do this earlier!

Benefits I've noticed:

1) One grocery trip on Sunday instead of several during the week.
2) Cassidy can help pack her own lunches, she just needs to read what I've posted on the fridge and she can put everything in her lunch bag.
3) It satisfies my obsessive need to organize every little detail of my life.
4) Less stress after a long day at work
5) I can passively aggressively make my husband help in the kitchen by simply typing "Bob makes us something yummy" in one of the dinner blocks
6) I can use all of those fancy cookbooks I have since I'm planning instead of scrambling.
7) I can ensure everyone is getting a heatly, balanced meal.

This week is easy, I'm only cooking twice. :-)

Anyone else out there a menu planner?

A very busy week

After baking cookies the other day, I still needed a few more. Wednesday after work I decided to go the easy way and use some store bought dough. Apparently "convienient" does not equal "easy". The dough wouldn't roll properly and when I lifted the hearts onto the cookie sheet, the hearts stuck, ripped and cracked. Finally, when I got the cookies in the oven, they expanded!

I think it's safe to say that store bought dough also tastes better raw than cooked. I have no idea why though. Great. Now I have a sudden craving for cookie dough ice cream.

The cookies (another homemade batch) were finally completed on Thursday night. Thank goodness I didn't leave the baking until the night before! They were a real hit by the way!

The other crazy little thing I decided to do was these:



They weren't too bad but the little baggies were very difficult to open. Cassidy gave them to her classmates and to the support staff at her school.

I had help with them though:



He's my Valentine. :-)

Then, just to prove to the entire world that I was crazy, I did this for Cassidy's lunch:



Yes, that's a heart shaped hard boiled egg. I don't know if I want to gag or giggle.

FINALLY, if anyone ever needed definitive proof of my craziness, this is what we did on Valentine's Day:



We adopted Sniper...



...and his brother Nemo.

O_o

Baking

See these cookies?



I hate them.

I don't like baking but I like the idea of baking. Therefore, I own fancy baking tools and ingredients but I hate the actual process of baking.

With cooking you finish a dish and you're done! Woot! Commence eating!

With baking you finish a batch of cookies and....you have to put another batch in the oven...and another...and another...

It's 9PM. I started these cookies at 6PM.

3 hours for 21 cookies! (Truthfully, an hour of that was spent at Canadian Tire while the dough chilled)

3 hours for 42 cookies actually:



See?

Freaking sandwich cookies. 2 cookies and a tablespoon of jam per person. 21 times.

Want to know the worst part?

I need 30 cookies. Guess I start all over again tomorrow.

Getting there...

We're almost done getting everything out of the old place. One more load should do it and then the cleaners can move in and do their thing.

The new house is wonderful! More room, more lights and a beautiful view! The best thing however, is that Cassidy is back with us full-time. No more weeks at Grandma and Grandpa's and weekends at home. She's with us all the time now! She still stays with Grandma before and after school but the rest of the time she's ours!

On a totally different note, Maureen from Dolphin Designs posted a challenge over at the Pea Board. The challenge is to share an experience of a scrapbook store going out of their way to serve you.

My local scrapbook store is the Scrapbook Pantry. They are a wonderful group of ladies who have always made me feel welcome. (I hear they missed me while I was away stressing about my move. So sweet!) They've allowed me to register for classes over the phone when I can't get to the store, let me change classes when I couldn't attend due to illness and have gone out their way to help me find the perfect embellishments for my layouts.

In fact, they've been so good to me that I decided to be good for them. This morning they were on a local TV show and they asked for customers to come visit - at 6AM!! I of course had to stop by and was able to enjoy seeing them film a live segment for CityTV. Very fun and worth getting out of bed at 5AM for!

2 more sleeps!

Am I the only adult that counts down to big events by the number of sleeps?

Last night was Cassidy's last night in our city home. She set up a tent in the living room and slept on the floor since her room is packed. Robert and I have two more nights here. I've convinced him that we should leave our bed up until the day we move. Well, I'm not sure if I convinced him or his sore back from moving convinced him.

Either way I'm happy!

I'm still thinking about decorating for the new place. I think I'll start with the guest bathroom. I'm thinking browns and robin's egg blue. That thought led me to these soaps - what do you think?



I think they're cute!

The view

Just a quick note to say that the picture in my blog's title is the view from our new backyard.

Hopefully I'll be able to stick a picture of the snow covered mountains up here soon!

One less thing to move

I sold my mess dress uniform today so I officially have one less thing to move!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the military, it's our most formal uniform and it is not suppplied by the military. You have to have them custom made to the tune of about $550. That doesn't include buttons by the way. (Why? I have no idea)

Here's a picture of me in my mess dress:

Not the best picture of me but it's one of the few I have that shows me in that uniform. Also, please excuse the cheesy grin. I had just recieved my squadron challenge coin and I was posing. What's a challenge coin? Here's a link for you: Challenge Coin

I'm still technically a member of the military but I'm not active duty by any means. The mess dress uniform is an expensive piece of gear to have laying around gathering dust and I'm trying to declutter! I was able to sell it to a member of my former squadron so I know it's gone to a good home.

This all reminds me...I'd better go tell the military that I'm moving....

The lawyer

We went to the lawyer yesterday and I must say this, no matter your opinion on lawyers, after the stack of paperwork we did yesterday, the law firm certainly earned their money!

There's a few outstanding documents but we'll be able to do them all without having to go back to the lawyers so I'm considering this step done!

I also went to work out with my trainer yesterday. Go me! I can really feel it in my shoulders today! I think when this move is done I'm going to spluge on a couples massage. I know I could use one and I'm pretty sure my husband could too.

Mmmmm.....post-moving massage!

Black and White

We did our final walkthrough today. Everything looked pretty good. A few minor nicks in the paint to be touched up but nothing major.

Nothing major until you get to the kitchen that is.

Our appliances are all white. I have nothing against white appliances but we ordered black so this is a bit of a problem. (It also reminds me of a bad joke: Why are wedding dresses white? So the dishwasher will match the rest of the appliances! Ha ha...)

We also have no gas line to our stove. Not a problem at the moment since they also installed the wrong stove but it will be!

So, the builder has a week to fix the kitchen. Cross your fingers that it'll get done!

I've also been thinking about decorating. Here's what I have to work with:



Lots of neutrals. Hopefully they're easier to work with than the funky colours I have now!

Tomorrow - the lawyer!

Packing, pinching and winning

We're making progress here.

Lots of boxes have been packed. Suitcases have been filled. Garbage has been sent to the dump. I even have proof that I've packed:



Ok, so it's only two boxes but there's more downstairs I promise!

I will admit that I took a break a little earlier than I wanted to. Mostly because I'm being such a baby. I was taking my shelving unit apart and snapped one of the clips off with the pliers. I then pinched my thumb in the pliers and gave myself a nice big blood blister. (No pictures - it's kinda gross).

While taking my injury induced break, I checked out Princess Laserton's blog.
You can see it here: Princess Lasertron She makes the most amazing button bouquets and is one of the most creative people I've met online. (You must check out her wedding pictures!) Earlier in the week I entered a giveaway and I won!

Check this out:



I can't wait to create something with it! It'll be the perfect thing to "christen" the new craft room don't you think?

SOLD!

It all starts with this. A black and orange sticker on the real estate sign. Our ticket out of the city and into our new home in the foothills.

My hope is that this blog will be a record of our new home for many years to come. First though, there's packing to be done! 9 more days of lawyer's visits, boxes, new house walkthroughs, boxes, cleaning and more boxes.