Day 177 Provincials in Calgary

Every year we make the trek to Edmonton for provincials. This year they are in Calgary!

That is Jill in lane 8. Getting ready for 200 free. 

Day 176 Breakfast Together

Today everyone from school met at Cora's for breakfast. Good food and good friends. Loved it!

Day 175 Last Day....tired teacher

Truth: I didn't make or create this. 

But it is truth!

I really loved my class this year. I will really miss them. If I could, I would take that group all over again, easily!!

....and now I think I need a nap. 

Day 174 T-1....

We have a tradition on the second last day of school. We go swimming at the outdoor pool across the street.

This is the life!!

Day 173 Ward Visits

One of the things I am really enjoying about my stake calling is visiting different wards. Today I was in the Chestemere ward. They had a visiting teaching conference. I would have gone just for the brunch (serious...they had a brunch!) but I really enjoyed the program too. 

The theme was "Seeing as the Lord Sees". 

Every place had a little goodie bag with ideas for service inside it along with salt water taffy. The glasses on the table are a sugar cookie.

Center pieces had glasses. They had chips in the table to snack on before the program started.

Becauiful (and delicious!) cupcakes.

The podium even had glasses to remind us of the theme. 

Every presidency has different talents. The RSP in this ward has a catering business, so having brunch seemed obvious for her. I loved it!

The message was wonderful too. They had invited the YW and talked about how VTing is really just about making friends. Their Bishop is Doug Sullivan (and old YSA friend of mine) and he spoke about the parables of the lost sheep. The RSP also did a special musical number called The Woman at the Well. She was quite emotional and the message was really beautiful. A wonderful morning!

Day 172 Youth dances

We spaced our kids just right so that we could get 8 full years of youth dances in. Jill no longer goes...but it's right up Peirce's alley!!

Three great guys: Brennan, Peirce and Riley.

And my marriage tip of the day: marry someone who can handle doing all the driving to youth dances and still function the next day!

Update: the boys had a great time and were proud of all the girls they had asked to dance.  

Funny story: it was Brennan's first dance. Turned out the first girl he asked to dance was a chaperone. He might get ribbed about that for a long time! 

Day 172 Awards Banquet

We had a good time last night at the NCSA awards banquet. The club has really grown over the last two years and there are some wonderful things going on. 

The banquet was held at The Wild Wild West. It was raining like crazy, which was probably good because it would have been really hot in that tent if it was a regular spring day!

Jill was second place for the aggregate award in her squad.....such a close finish! She was also second for the Timmermans award. If she would have won it would have been a three-peat for her. Saman I won though and that was a great thing. Jill was also recognized for being a national swimmer and Allen and I received a lifetime membership certificate. I think that means they still want us to volunteer even after Jill has graduated. LOL 

Peirce enjoyed visiting with his swimming friends too. He misses them. 

We visited with some great people and really had a great time. 

Day 172 Leisure Mornings Ahead

It's coming!! One of my favourite things about summer are the leisurely mornings. I like to get up early while my kids sleep in. I make them breakfast, exercise, read and do a little tidying up. These days morning swims are not their usual painful 5:30 am start....they are a relaxing 7 am start! No seminary. Later swim practices......life is good!!

This is one of our favourite breakfasts: puff pancakes. I couldn't even get to taking the picture before half if it had been gobbled up. It is good stuff to wake up to!

Day 171 words words words

Sometimes in my enthusiasm for a topic I talk a lot....or, as I'm this case, write a lot.  I must remember that sometimes it is better to keep it simpler.

Found this under the reading no response I shared with my students this week.

Touché, my friend. 

Day 170 Poor Chico

People or Chico. Those kids do like to torture him. 

No wonder he is such a crank. 

Day 169 Deliciousness

I am reading a cookbook called How To Make EverythngTaste Better. It is working! Delicious cucumber salad for dinner today! 

Day 168 Bobby

Confession: this picture wasn't taken today  Bobby went home on Saturday  I think this was Thursday    We miss him today though.....so I'm using it :)

We miss Bobby. We all do. He is back home in China for the summer.

Day 167 Fathers Day

Special breakfast this morning was steak, fried potatoes oranges and grapefruit. In our house, food is love. 

We sure love the dad in our house! He is really a great dad. I love him for many reasons, and especially for that. 

Day 166 Cheesecake Oops

Last night I had a wonderful dinner party to go to. I made three cheesecakes to take for dessert. One was cherry, one was peach and one was strawberry. I asked Jill to help me carry them out to the car. It didn't go to well:

Oops. Two cheesecakes would have to do. 

(It was still delicious though!)

Day 165 Company Trip

We're going to Florida!! 

Day 164 Reader

Another one of the reasons I love Allen......he is a voracious reader. This is his bedside table right next now:

Day 163 Book Club Gala

Every year, we hold a gala to celebrate the books we have read this year. We pick categories (best character, favourite animal, best plot twist, best villain, best overall book of the year) and vote. The winners are announced at the gala. We dress our best, bring finger food to share, and have a great time!

Day 162 Rice!

Peirce tripped comng up the stairs with a newly filled container of rice. I should have taken a picture of the spill. It was everywhere!!

Oh well. The stairs needed vacuuming anyway!

Day 161 Addiction

I'm happy to say that exercising really has become a routine part of my mornings. I love it. 

Day 160 Butterflies

We have been raising butterflies! It has gone quite well this year. Today we released them. Lots of "Bye bye butterflies!"

Day 159 Side Benefits

It's hard to get up at 4:30 to drive Jill to swim practice but oh the side benefits! The view on my walk this morning was really good for my soul.

Day 158 Handwriting and technology

I really really love using technology to make my life easier. Today I came up with the great idea to video tape myself showing how to write a letter in cursive. I uploaded it to vine and logged on to my smart board computer. The loop played again and again. As I went around if someone was doing something not quite right I reminded them to just watch the video a couple times and voila! Everyone did a perfect job!

Day 157 Talk Talk Talk

Spent the evening on the phone with Gaylene. Maybe we need to do that more often!

Day 156 Butterflies!

We have butterflies! In my class, we have been observing caterpillars.  They turned into their cocoons and this morning when we got to school we had about 10 butterflies!

The spots on the bottom are drops of blood that dri from the cocoon. Gross. I know.

Day 155 School Blog

Today a blog post I wrote was posted on our school's blog!

Day 154 BBQ in Sparwood

Today the kids and I drove out to Sparwood. The nelsons were having a BBW to celebrate Jordan's grad. We first stopped in High River to go to sacrament meeting. I always enjoy seeing people there. Today though, the chapel was dark. When we got here, we realized they were having stake conference! LOL WE stayed for an hour of it then continued in our way.

Day 153 RS Conference

Mmmm! Dessert. My friend, Karyn, is amazing!

Today was our stake RS Conference. It was a good day. I have lots of ideas for when we get to do it again!

Day 152 FIrst Sun of the Year

Today was Ever Active Day....it is the first day of the year where I get a sunburn.  I even put on sunscreen. 

It was a great day! Man, am I tired though.

Day 151 Hair cut!

Jill cut her hair off today! Early in the day she texted me and said, "Guess what?!"

Then she didn't answer. 

Then she said she would just surprise me later.

Boy, was I surprised!

They had a "shave your lid for a kid". They tied her hair into s pony tail and chopped it off!! Wow! What a kid!

Day 150 Relatives

So I'm in Superstore and I decide to check out Sharp magazine. Allen's cousin, Greg, is the executive editor. I thought it was awesome that Joe Hill's book was out....he is the author in the interview I transcribed for Greg. Greg has amazing writing. I love reading his articles.