Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Manitoba Blowout


The Hero spent the first week in August in Manitoba on a well control job. It was his first call out since being appointed to HSE's ~ Safety Boss well control team. Thankfully, for me, it wasn't sour and didn't catch fire. It was hard work with long days in high humidity but I think he enjoyed the whole experience overall. You all know how Troy loves a good adrenaline rush.


On the way home they had to make a pit stop in Dog River, SK. The scene of CTV's "Corner Gas" comedy.

Iceman is 5!!!!!!!

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Iceman celebrated his 5th birthday at his Grandma and Poppa's house. They are finally back from their visit there so we had a mini celebration for him. He is very thrilled to be 5!! For his birthday he wanted a new cowboy hat and a cowboy belt. Thanks to his Great Grammie and Papa he has a fancy new belt. Mom,Dad and the sibs sprang for the hat. Of course it goes without saying that he was completely spoiled at Gramma and Poppa's.

International Air Show


The Hero through the company he works for spent the last weekend in July helping with the fire/rescue at the air show. He had a great time and thankfully there were no incidents.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

The Songs We Sing

"Train up a child in the way he should go,And when he is old he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6

A woman had a daily time of devotion with her grandchild during a time the child was living with her. They would sing some songs, read a story from a Bible story book and pray a while. One day, the grandmother was singing a song to her grandchild having to keep track with a printed page of lyrics. Meanwhile the child who couldn't even read was singing along perfectly."Honey," the Grandmother asked, "How is it that you know these songs so well?" "Because, Grandma," the child answered "You sung them into my heart."Children are a gift from God and a stewardship as well. Many of us have children of our own. Others have children in our lives in our roles as aunt, uncle or friend. Thequestion is: what are we singing into their hearts. Children watch us. They listen to what we say. They do what we do. They pay more attention to us than we sometimes know. Every day with each word we say, each act we take, each song we sing, we sing something into their hearts.The grandmother in this story sang the songs of God into her Granddaughter's heart. She could just as easily been "singing" deceitfulness, hatred, doubtor fear. She chose to sing the love of God. Today, we will meet many people. Some will be children. Some will be very like children. With all of them we will sing something into their hearts. What will your song be today? "Lord, let the children in my life hear the songs of Zion from my lips today." Amen and Amen.

This touched me today so I had to share it with you.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Happy Birthday Kodiak!


Dear Cody,

I can't believe that you are 10!! The time has flown by. You are such an amazing young man. You have a great sense of humor and I love to hear you laugh. I am so proud of how loving and sensitive you are towards others. I can usually find you with your nose buried in a book and that makes me very happy. Your brothers really look up to you and you are usually very patient with them. La Diva is becoming more girly and you are rolling your eyes at her lately. You still get along but I am seeing that you are both growing up. School is still very interesting to you and you do very well. I can only imagine what interesting things you will have to share with us as you grow older. Some of your interests, besides reading, are soccer, collecting rocks, archery and Freedom.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy.

Love, Mom

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Freedom's Excellent Adventure

Saturday was quite the day for Freedom. The Hero's mom and sister were visiting from the west coast so we went into the city for the day to go swimming. It was a lovely day in the city but apparently there were wicked thunderstorms out here in the sticks. To say that Freedom is not fond of loud booming noises would be an understatement. Poor baby was terrified and shredded the screen door to the patio trying to get into the house. She also chewed the handle right off trying to open the screen. She then bolted over the 5 foot fence and went off in search of us. She made it half way to the city but only stayed at this place for about 30 minutes. We arrived home 6 hours after this spotting of her to find the screen shredded and Freedom gone. Panic ensued... Kodiak trying to be the big man but worrying himself silly. It took over an hour to reach the fellow who had left the earlier message about her. It was very frustrating to then discover that he didn't think to tie her up and she'd taken off. The Hero and a friend went out looking for her and they had just made it to where she was last seen when I received a call saying she was at a farm about 2.5 kms north of our house. The Hero turned around and retrieved a soaking wet and sorry dog. She was very happy to be home. Other than some runs from who knows what she ate and drank during her countryside tour she came away unscathed. We hope that this doesn't mean we have to tie her up whenever thunder may be in the forecast. We are very happy to have her home.

And the Award goes to.....


Excellence in French Posted by Picasa

Kodiak received an award for Excellence in French with a 92% average. This is a huge deal because this was his least favorite subject and one he really struggled with. His French teacher (not pictured) said that he really has a natural ability for languages. We are really proud of his accomplishments. His report card was also impressive with A's and B+'s. Off to grade 5... gulp...


Citizenship Award Posted by Picasa

La Diva had an amazing year in Grade 2. Her teacher was fantastic, so much so that I wrote a letter to the principal about her. La Diva really cashed in at the awards ceremony with medals for: Honours, the Citizenship Award and a silver in Music. Her report card was straight A's and she is off to grade 3. Of course we are very proud of her as well.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The Many Faces of Turtle


Cutie pie Posted by Hello

Turtle is such a silly little guy. Mr. Personality who is sweet and adorable one minute and then grumpy and sour the next. He wants to be so very independent. I, of course, want to hold onto my last baby for as long as possible. He is always running after his sibs and trying to be as "cool" as they are. In these photos he is mimicking Iceman the cowboy.


Sourpuss Posted by Hello

Monday, June 20, 2005

Iceman goes to Kindergarten


Orientation Day for Kindergarten Posted by Hello

I can hardly believe it, another bunny is ready to leave the Hutch and go to school. Waaaaaaahhhhh!! They are growing up way too fast. Iceman was very excited to go to ECS Orientation on the 15th. He choose his wardrobe - jeans and a spiderman shirt, put in his request for his lunch menu- PBJ, carrots and dip, cookie, juice box and "nola bar", packed his backpack and was ready to go with his older sibs first thing in the morning. "Is it time to go?" was the mantra until 10:00 am finally rolled around. Turtle was devasted that Iceman was leaving him. Iceman of course was all talk about how he was going to go and see the Principal and let him know that there should be no girls in his class. After the room started to fill he was less sure of me leaving him. Miss U read the Kissing Hand and then had them say their goodbyes. He did very well and can't wait until September when he can go again. Helping Turtle cope with Iceman being away made it easier for me to let him go. Of course a new Batman shirt made it all better for Turtle.

The Pianist


Ode to Joy by Cadence Posted by Hello

June 12, 2005 was our first music recital. La Diva did very well and performed both her songs by memory. She looked so small at the grand piano. We were very impressed as she only started lessons in April. Kodiak opted not to perform at the recital but he did play at school in the Grade 4 music festival. He did a wonderful job. His Star Wars piece actually sounded like Star Wars which is very far from when he first started practicing it.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

H2O Warz, Revenge of the 4th Graders

Soggy Sweat Pants Race Posted by Hello

Kodiak had his 10th birthday party on Saturday. Thankfully the rain of the last few weeks held off and the day was beautiful for the Water Wars. Six boys had an absolute blast. Soaking wet, lots of laughs, roasted hot dogs, ice cream sundae bar and Jones Soda made for a great day.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Kodiak future Soccer Star!!

I thought soccer season was over but it looks like we may have a star in the making. Kodiak's Coach(also Coach for the HS) says he has huge potential and recommended that we put him in the summer league in the Hat. He loves to play, works really hard and could be an excellent player with some more coaching. The league out here is pretty much just for fun and appears to be an after school babysitting service for most of the kids. Kodiak is really keen to play so we are going to look into getting him in summer league. The upside is that they don't have the 6 am practices like hockey and the equipment is pretty cheap. I think it will be awesome for his self-esteem too.The rain is still coming down in sheets. I never thought I'd see puddles in the gravel down here in the southern desert. I hope that it clears up by the weekend or I will have 6 disappointed 10 year old boys to deal with. Kodiak is having his Wild and Wet Birthday Bash on Saturday. The plan is a water fight the likes of which this tiny community has never seen. So far the forecast is only predicting scattered showers for Saturday.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Rainy Days and Mondays

The weekend always goes by so fast. Monday morning has me dragging and the rain makes me want to hide under the covers with a good book. The crew has decided otherwise.

Today is the last day of soccer and the first time it has rained during the season! La Diva was beside herself this morning because she could ride her bike to school. Not the most ideal day but they are having registration of bikes with the police at noon. Kodiak was less enthused because he has only recently mastered the balance of riding a bike. He had to drag along 2 packs for the day so he opted to walk it to school.

Iceman and Turtle are unusually silly today. They are probably still on a high after having Daddy home for 2 whole days. One nice thing about the rain is that it holds up work for Daddy. They began the day jamming on their guitars to the sounds of U2. After a few wars with hot wheels, complete with bumps on the head they are settling into some quiet time with books.

I'm hoping this will be a better way for us to keep up with all of our friends and family.

Bear with me while I figure it all out.