Grade Three is Finished Too

Today was Jill's last day of school. Every year seems to have had some weird twists to it since Jill has started school. This year was no exception - but all in all I think it was a good year.

She's a little sad because her best friend, Alison, is moving away to New Brunswick. She is really going to miss her. I hope they will keep in touch though. It will be fun to have a penpal!

Jill got her report card today. She always does very well in school. Their report card marks are numbers 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. She gets mostly 4's and 5's all year long. This time she had a few 3's - and truthfully, I think it's my fault. I've had a bad attitude about homework and clearly she adopted my attitude. Her 3's she got were because she is a bit of a messer (I can believe that...you should see her room!) and because she didn't complete some assignments. All year long they had to do lists with long lists of things they needed to complete. I never really pushed her to do homework. As a result she hardly ever brought things home, and in turn, never turned those things in. I found a lot of the homework was just 'busy work' - and that just turns me off. Sometimes I think I should become a better mother in that regard - but the fact is I don't buy into the effectiveness of homework! (Check out the link, read the book....maybe you'll agree)

Next year it sounds like they're giong to have 3/4 split. I'm quite excited about that. It will be nice for Jill to have some different kids in her class. She's been with the same kids for 4 years now.


....now I just have to figure out what to do with the piles of art work and scribblers and papers she has brought home (sigh)

Finished!

I was asked to work on a project for a couple of teachers that are retiring from Jill's school this year. Sounded like an okay idea to me. I thought I'd get a couple parents to help out and it would be a snap. I sure didn't get much of a positive response though. I didn't find anyone who sews - and the one response I did get only said, "If they wanted a quilt we should have started working on it in February." So I accepted the fact that I was on my own and got to work. Got them finished just under the wire too!

This is the one for Mme Morgan:



And this is the one for Mme Louisette:

Good Bye Scott

Today was my cousin, Scott's funeral. It was nice to go and see everyone. I'm still feel a lot of unresolved feelings though. I feel sad that we did not keep in touch better the past 20 years. I got to meet Scott's partner, David, for the first time. I feel sad that Scott kept that part of his life hid. Of course, I can understand why - but I still feel sad that he felt like he couldn't share his life with us. I'm sure he was afraid people would be too judgmental - which they are.

Besides Nickee, I probably did more with Scott than any of my cousins. Scott worked in Kelowna many summers. We worked together in the motel and at the travel agency. We went on a couple trips together too. He was always so funny and entertaining. He was also really meticulous and hard working. But most of all he was my friend. I've missed him a lot the past few years - and I'll continue to miss him.

Ladies Fest

This weekend Jill and I went to Lethbridge. The adventure started Friday by taking the Greyhound to Lethbridge. Jill thought that was GREAT. When we got to Lethbridge we went right to the hotel and went to bed because we had to be up early the next day for the Ladies Fest Fun Run.

This is all of us at the beginning of the race. There's my mom, my niece Taylor, Jill, Aunt Marvelle, my sister Gaylene, and me!



Jill thought we were too slow so she took off. My BIL took this picture and she said to him she didn't know where anyone was. He said, "Who cares! Just go for it!" So she did. :0)


After the race they had a brunch in the Lethbridge Lodge. They also had a speaker and awards. The speaker was a woman named Sylvie (whose last name I forget!) that represented Canada in the Olympics. She had set a goal at age 15 to go to the Olympics and did it. She talked about having goals and working through set-backs and such. It was really terrific talk.

Jill got an award for being the youngest runner!


This is all of us after the race - not too worse for wear!


Today we're a little sore...and tired...but glad we did it. :0)

We're Expecting

The big news in our life right now is that we're expecting baby #3. According to a number of different on-line calenders the due date is around Feb 19 - 21. The Chinese Gender Prediction Chart says it's a boy. Time will tell!

I'm quite entertained by people's responses. I told Jill Monday. It was just her and I home at dinner time. I asked her what was new in her life and she chatted away a million miles a minute. After a bit she asked me what was new in my life. I told her that I was pregnant. She first thought I was lying. When I finally convinced her it was true she said, "Let's not tell Daddy!" She wanted it to just be hers and my secret. LOL She first said she hopes it's a girl. Later she said, "All I know is I'm not sharing my room!" I told her she better hope it's a boy then.

Yesterday I told Peirce. He said, "I know Mom." I asked him how he knew and he said that he heard me telling someone else. He didn't need to talk about it anymore than that. It's funny to see how matter of fact he is about it.

I sent my sister an email saying that we had news and that we were working on a special birthday present for Sydney this year....a new cousin. (Sydney's birthday is Feb 24) Gaylene called me when she got the email and said, "What do you mean?" She was assuming I was pregnant but didn't want to assume in case she was wrong. LOL

I was just in the process of applying for a couple part-time teaching jobs this fall. I guess I won't bother with that!

A Day With Dad

Peirce loves spending time with his dad. This is Peirce in the van waiting for Allen to be ready to leave for a day trip to Lethbridge, Raymond and who knows where else.

One of Peirce's passions lately is beading. He will sit and put beads on a string literally for hours. This morning we packed up a peanut butter sandwich lunch with apple and slices of cheese and a bucket of beads for entertainment, and he was good to go! He went and got in the van and sat there for more than an hour patiently waiting for Allen. Beads are an amazing discovery in our life!

Today he gets to go play with his cousins. Nothing like an afternoon with Zane and Zoe and Soleil!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day! One thing I find much comfort in is the fact that I can feel great about having my children follow in their Dad's, their Papa's, and their Grandpa's footsteps.

Sleepover

Jill had her first "real" sleepover, as she puts it. Her best friend is moving to New Brunswick and so she invited a few friends over to have a going away party.

Nothing has changed with sleepovers. Girls still do all the same silly things they've always done. It's quite a kick. They eat pizza, play on the trampoline, dance, make up songs, stay up far too late - all surrounded with plenty of squealing and giggling.

Honesty Lessons

Tonight was Jill's last Activity Day night of this school year. Peirce and I played on the piano at the church while we waited for her. Afterwards we all went over to the library so Jill could get some videos for her sleepover tomorrow night. The library is having a reading program this summer all centered around pirates and treasure. They have a display with a treasure box and lots of treasure pouring out of the box. Peirce spent quite a lot of time admiring the display.

As we were leaving I noticed Peirce with his hand in his pocket and a sheepish look on his face. I did a little investigating and quickly found out he had taken some of the treasure from the treasure chest, so right back into the library we went. He cried and cried - but he did finally give it up and gave it back to the librarian. He wouldn't talk so I apologized for him. The librarian was really good and told her she's glad he returned it so other kids could see the treasure too and then went on to tell him about the reading program.

Recently there haven't been a lot of opportunities to reward really good behavior with him - so after he did that, on the way home I announced we were going to stop at the corner store to get a treat to celebrate Peirce being honest. He was thrilled.

The best part though was tonight when he said his prayers. He said: "Jesus (he always talks to Jesus in prayer instead of Heavenly Father) I stole some treasures tonight and then I was honest and took them back and so I hope that I can have some treasure for a prize when they have the pirate reading game this summer. That would be a miracle and I deserve it because I was honest."

LOL

What a kid.

Good news!

Just got a phone call from the Calgary Parking Authority. My parking ticket has been cancelled. Yea!!

Twice in One Week

Well, I've kind of had my fill of the Science Center! Today I got to go to with Jill's class for a field trip.

The reason to go there was because they've been studying India in Social Studies - so they went to the puppet theatre and made Marionettes like what are used in India. It was one crammed hour that first hour - and I think they all really loved it. I just wish I had taken pictures of the finished product!



Then we went and had fun in the Creative Kids Museum!

This is the 'heat' wall. These girls were much more creative with it than what I saw the last time I was there. LOL Nicola, Allison, Rae and Jill were in my group...some of Jill's favorite people (and as a result, mine too)! :0)



There is a big music section in the Creative Kids Museum. In this 'big tin can' (as they described it) the girls were watching a video of Stomp.

Then did did their own performance. Quite entertaining!


I was surprised that they were as interested in the puzzles and building and coloring as much as they were!



All in all we had a GREAT time!


After that we went to the other part of the Science Center. I mostly took pictures of the other kids in the class though.

We had lots of fun. It's days like this that I'm so glad I have the job I have and have the flexibility to go on Field Trips. I had a great time.

My Cousin, Scott

Today my mom called with shocking news. My cousin, Scott has passed away. I can't believe it.

Scott was next closest to my age, besides my cousin Nickee. I always enjoyed hanging out with him...okay, almost always enjoyed hanging out with him. He was slightly crazy and excentric - and always lots of fun. He spent a few summers in Kelowna working at the motel and then at the travel agency. We went on a couple trips together. I also used to go to Lethbridge and work in his travel agency sometimes when he needed someoen because he was going on a trip. I also had times I hated him. I remember chucking a bag of frozen vegetables at him one day because he was teasing me. LOL He used to tape his favorite songs over and over again on one casette so that he could listen to it non-stop....'you spin me right round baby right round' again and again and again and again. I never hear that song without thinking of him. LOL Scott was beautiful...no other way to describe him. We'd go to Taco Time for lunch and the girls would have his food ready for him before we got there. He'd walk in, get his tray. I'd have to get in line and wait to order my food. LOL I remember him teaching me the best way to clean windows....always use newspaper. He was totally a neat freak.....totally took after Nana Hyde in that respect! LOL

We haven't seen him much the past 15 years or so. I've missed him. When I did see him it always seemed like I immediately felt comfortable hanging out again. He always called me DawnDee. I don't know why...that's just what he did.

Apparently he'd been having a hard time recently. He was in the mortgage business, and had also bought lots of real estate - and the last year or so that industry, apparently, has tanked. He was depressed and drinking too much. They don't know how he died. His friend wasn't able to get him on the phone and was concerned so he called someone to go check on him...and they found him dead in his bed. Poor Nickee was the one who got to call Aunt Marvelle and Uncle Clifford to let them know.

I feel very hollow. The weird thing is the past week I've been thinking that we were going to have to deal with a death soon. I kind of dismissed the thoughts. I don't think anything could have prepared me to hear that it was Scott that had passed away.

Lessons I Don't Like

Confession: I didn't like church today.

It all started out good. I had great hair today. :0) I led the music and pretty much got through the songs without having to figure out as I went how I was supposed to be leading. Then SS came along. The lesson was on the signs of the second coming. I don't like that topic. I find it dark and wonder how scary it will be when the Savior comes again because I'm not prepared enough. Then in RS the lesson was on provident living. The teacher focused mainly on having no debt and on having a food storage - both of which we are not good at right now. We've got to change that.

Truthfully, I wanted to leave. But I had to stay to play for choir. Did I mention I don't like going to choir either??

Glad I don't have Sundays like that too often.

Wrong!

As it turns out, my source was wrong (hee hee...doesn't that sound official) LOL

Apparently the picture I posted yesterday was not taken by Nick Ut. It was taken by someone named Carl Larson. Nick Ut took this photo:

Coincidences?

I'm always amazed at interesting coincidences.

The coincidence of the day is the photograph of Paris Hilton today leaving the court house to go back to jail. I'm not a Paris Hilton fan at all - but the fact that the photographer, Nick Ut, that took this picture also took the picture of Kim Phuc, one of the most iconic photos of all time, is interesting. I don't have much sympathy for Paris, but my heart always bends a lot for people going through hard things in life....even more interesting, the photographs were taken 1 day and 35 years apart.

!#*%*$#! Parking Ticket!!

I forgot to write about the one bad part of yesterday at the Science Center.
We had a terrible rainstorm here on Tuesday night (i.e. more rain in one night
than we typically get in the month of June combined!!) There were
lots of washed out roads, flooded overpasses, etc. Quite the exciting
night. Well, the rain continued Wednesday morning. We decided to head
to the Science Center and not be stuck in the house all day.

You have to pay for parking there. So I park, and run over to the
place where you get the ticket...only that machine is out of order.
So I run further down to the next one...and it only takes coins...no
bills. So I run past the non-working machine, past my car, into the
Science Center to get change. I'm soaked by now because one doesn't
run that fast when you're holding the hand of a 5 year old. We get
back out there, run past our car, the non-working machine, and to the
machine that is working...plug in the money and get our ticket. We
run back to the car, quickly put the ticket on the dash board...and
then go back into the Science Center.

By this time we were really wet. My hair goes frizzy when it's wet
out...I'm not feeling too great about my pending hair style when it
all dries out...but luckily I have an elastic...we tie my hair into a
pony tail and we're off.


When we came out lo and behold, there was a $30 parking ticket on my
car. Turned out I had plunked the ticket on my dash UPSIDE-DOWN...so
I got a ticket.

I'm going to try the Paris Hilton thing and see if I can get let off easy. We'll see what happens! Not sure if I have the same persuasive abilities as Paris.

Science Center

Today Peirce and I thought we should spend out rainy day at the Science Center. I think we need to get ourselves an annual pass to this place. There is so much to do that it is impossible to do it all in a day! Peirce loved it. Tonight at dinner he talked non-stop about all the things we did there and I was amazed at how much he learned and the vocabulary he had retained from it. Peirce is really a 'facts' kid. He loves non-fiction books and he loves places like the science center where he can add to the bits of facts he carries around in his brain.

Our first stop was Wow Town. Peirce put on a puppet show. He was especially impressed with organizational system they had inside the puppet theatre for all the puppets. (He's my analytic sequential learner....his sister is the exact opposite! Very visual, verbal and random!)


Then we found a beehive! This was especially timely since we've been reading books about bees lately. This beehive display has a pipe that goes to the outside and the bees leave and gather pollen then come back to this hive. It was quite fascinating! Peirce was really thrilled with the slides they had for the miscroscopes that had Queen Bees, Drones, Worker Bees, Larva, Pupa, Eggs, etc.



There were plenty of machines and pulleys and mechanical things to play with and figure out how they work. I heard a lot of: "Mom! I figured out how this works!" This is Peirce working the conveyor belt in one center.

Then it was off to the water table!! What fun!






We came across this really cool tree-house. The bottom had a ball pit and on the top there was a pulley set up that pulled a bucket up from the bottom. Peirce spent a lot of time there running up and down the stairs. He'd go to the bottom, fill the bucket, and then go up the ladder to draw it up - then put all the balls in a pipe that sent them back down to the bottom - and he'd run down to see them all come out.












We also got to watch a movie in the theatre about sound. I think the things he learned will have a very practical outcome! Peirce discovered that if you whisper you can't feel your vocal chords vibrate...which should finally help define for him, ow he should converse during Sacrament Meeting on Sundays! (This IS a bit of an issue in our lives)...and we MUST take Jill there since she's spent a lot of time studying sound this year in Science.



This was a race track where you could figure out which kinds of cars got the best gas mileage










Learning about what 3 colors you need to make photographs




Peirce the Astronaut. Did you know there is no sound in space?? (After learning that I was thinking perhaps we should move there!)


Mixing (or trying to mix) air, water and oil.

We tried a few different ways to make electricity (wind, solar, etc.)

Then we went over to the Creative Kids Museum. We could have spent all day in each of the 3 exhibits we visited today!






There was a painting and chalk board place where you could paint on the walls! (That says Peirce on that chalkboard...in case you can't tell)





This was a display about the art and the simple beauty found in Alberta landscape...although I seem to have only captured the playground part of it. LOL




Making different images with multiple mirrors



There was an interesting display about 'perspective' Peirce spent a lot of time running through there and 'trying things on' that were weird sizes and shapes.





I hesitated to post all these pictures because there are just so many - but the truth was we did so much more than these pictures even show! It was a great time...and I'm happy to say that Peirce was totally ready for bed tonight at 7:00!! Now that's MY favorite way to cap to a great day! :0)