Do you recognize...

This city??

It's Montreal!!! Now why would I have pictures of Montreal? Because I just went there this last week. Last Wednesday my boss came into my office and asked if I wanted to go to Montreal for a conference, she apologized because it was really last minute, but there was an opening they needed to fill and they wanted to know if I would go - on the company of course. So without even thinking about it I said "YES, of course I'll go, need you even ask?" My boss then went on to tell me that it wasn't as much of a business trip but more of a retreat, and to top it all off we were staying here (Fairmont Queen Elizabeth) and I was allowed to bring a Guest. So of course my first thought was Ben. Of course I'd bring my husband, who would be crazy enough not to bring their husband to Montreal? So I called him and invited him on this all expenses paid holiday, obviously I wasn't convincing enough because he said he couldn't go. I should understand though: he runs his own business, it's really new and he's really (really -really) busy right now. He just can't leave his clients without heat and water when he promised it a week ago. I really understood. So I then tried to think of who would really enjoy a city like Montreal and I quickly thought of this person:

My Mom of course!! She's just the type of person you would want to take to Montreal. She speaks French, she appreciates the architectural beauty of old cities and she can shop for hours (cause really, that's what Montreal's all about). So she agreed and we flew out together bright and early Sunday Morning prepared for a fun week. The conference started out with a welcoming reception at Le Parquet, which was a very modern building built around some very old traditional Montreal buildings. There was so much good food there that I was sick by the end of the night. The next day, we spent the morning in classes. Now this might sound boring to some of you, but it was really sooooo interesting. Then with the Afternoon free, Mom and I went shopping. Let me tell you, shopping in Montreal is quite an experience. We shopped all up and down Sainte Catherine Street, which is basically the central shopping district, a place where all the stores want to be. So we definitely saw the best of the best. Then on Monday night we went to a Caban a Sucre party up on Mount Royal. The view of Montreal was breathtaking from the top of this "Mountain", just stunning (check out my pic at the top of this post). The party was fun too, especially the lumberjack competition:

Tuesday was activity day and we could choose from tons of amazing things to do (golfing, spa, race car driving, white water rafting etc.) but of course I chose the shopping tour. Our tour guide took us all through downtown Montreal and we shopped our little hearts out. Montreal has this amazing underground shopping centre. There are at least 2 levels of shopping completely underground, hence the name "the underground city". It was so fascinating because just when you thought you were done shopping, there would be another whole underground level that needed to be explored. We also checked out the traditional Montreal stores like Simons, and Ogilvy which were very fun!

Then Tuesday afternoon we went on a bus tour of Montreal and saw lots of neat things like the Biodome, the Botanical gardens, the site of the 1976 Olympics etc. Oh and we stopped and took pictures of the St. Josephs Oratory, which is supposedly really famous (I'm not that cultured though so I have not idea how famous)

We saw lots of really neat stuff. But the best part was when the tour was done and we went for dinner at Reuben's for their famous smoked meat sandwich. Can you say delicious??? It was heavenly.

So Wednesday was another day of classes which we skipped for a good cause: Shopping! I just NEEDED to make it to H&M which is much more important that networking and making business contacts, right? Anyway, us poor Western Canadians are seriously so deprived because this store Rocks!! Then after our shopping spree we went back to the Hotel to get ready for our Masquerade ball at Windsor station. We got all dolled out. Here's a picture of the night. Although we all had our masks, there was a lady there that thought we needed hats too (hence the crazy hats on our heads).

Anyway, I'm sure this is just super long and boring for all of you so I'll wrap it up. Our last day (Thursday) was spent in Old Montreal where we got to see all the old (really old) buildings from when Montreal was originally built hundreds of years ago. It was seriously so beautiful.

The best part of it all was when we were walking back to our hotel and you could see this great mix of old traditional structures right next to new modern buildings. This was neat, especially since it's now a rule that any renovations of old buildings must maintain the orignal exterior so as not to lose any more history. We won't be seeing many more "new" buildings in Montreal and it will maintain it's current charm.

Anyway, that was the trip. I hope you enjoyed my novel!! I know it was long, but I'm just so excited that I got to go to Montreal on my company and even more excited that I got to bring my mom. It was really neat to see one of the first areas in Canada that was settled and all the great Canadian history that Montreal holds. Canada's a pretty cool country, eh?

I cook...

Not Bake.

So yesterday, while Ben was busy outfitting his new work van, I was busy outfitting our countertops with all sorts of baking. I had big plans in mind. Well as it turns out the countertops weren't exactly 'outfitted' by the end of the day. I blame the garbage can, which being the greedy monster he is, ate most of my baking. I'll explain:

My first attempt at the mini chocolate chip banana muffin recipe resulted in flat and very dense muffins (hockey puck material). I guess I forgot the Baking Powder. So I tried again and was careful to remember the baking powder. But, since I'm still in training it's no surprise that I put a bit too much batter in the muffin tins. As you can see they looked sort of like muffins on steroids. Then finally, as the saying goes, "third times a charm", I managed to perfect the recipe - at least I think. The muffins were delicious and wonderful, mmmmmmmm. Anyone want the recipe?




So, if you think the "Third Try" muffins look good, why don't you stop by my house on Saturday at 11AM for a little taste? Oh, and while you're here, (WARNING, shameless promotion coming up) you should have a look at the Shade Clothing party I'm hosting. The clothes are awesome and the food will be great (that is if I can convince Becc to bring some cinnamon buns). Anyways, I hope to see you there! Call me if you need directions.

Favourite Pictures

So, I'm definitely not a photographer or anything, but I just had to post these two pics cause Marcus is sooooooo cute in them. He seriously has so much personality - I love it! The first one's him laughing at Ben, I think all Ben's doing is give him the old 'shifty eye' look. Something about it made Marcus go crazy, he was laughing for so long!



This one's just another example of how cute he is. He's just so sweet.

 

Zoo Time

These last few weeks have been pretty busy around here - I'm hoping things start to slow down soon. But regardless, here are some pics from the Zoo a few weeks ago. We went with the McCance grandchildren and had tons of fun. The kids were cute and I think they really liked all the animals - although Carson did sleep through half the trip. Emily got to do everything, serioulsy everything. She played at the park, looked at all the animals, fed the Giraffe, went on the train ride and most importantly ate some sweet icecream. I have to admit, I was a bit jealous of the whole Giraffe thing, I never got to feed any animals when I was little. The day was lots of fun and very tiring. I think that had something to do with Carsons 7 AM wakeup call. But it was all worth it because we love those kids so much!!! Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Baby Alexander

Alexander Kenneth is here!!! We're all so excited that Tan finally had the baby and that Marcus can finally see his new baby brother, cause we all know he was so excited (j/k). He is so cute!! The funny thing is, he doesn't look like Marcus, yet Marcus is so cute too. Anyway, Tan looks great, Alexanders perfect, Marcus hasn't noticed and Nates a great dad (well Tan's a great mom too).

Here are some pics (I didn't take any of these, and since they were emailed to me the qaulity is a bit low - but the cameraman is great!!)

In the Hospital

Baby and Dad (Nate)

Marcus checking him out

Me and Alexander

Sarah, Matthew and Alexander

Grandpa and his Grandsons (except Marcus - where is he?)

Tan (the Mom), Becc and Alexander

More Pics of the Wedding

I just want to point out how gorgeous and graceful Emily is and how much of a dork I am - you know, I was just letting her shine on her wedding day (J/K)

Emily's Wedding

I know, I've been completely MIA for a long time - the sad thing is I don't have much of an excuse. I've been pretty busy though with lots of stuff like Girls Camp, Emily's wedding (which we had to perform at), recovering from some seriously painful wakeboarding injuries and trying to recover a stolen car (no luck yet). So that's why I've been gone - plus I've been super (super super super) busy at work these last few weeks - big promotion and raise here I come!!!
Anyway this last weekend my Emily got married. Ok, I know you all think I'm a total chease wad, but she really was "my" Emily, that is until she met Gary and decided to sign up on his team. I'm ok with it cause he is such a nice guy and he really really loves her. But he'd better know, she's my favourite cousin which is a title he can never take from me. Anyway, the day was gorgeous, Emily was stunning and it was lots of fun trying to get Gary to smile for a picture. He's got a great smile, but he's one of those people who just hasn't figured out how to make it work in front of a camera (you all know the type). We all had so much fun that day and I think we will all remember the hours we spent dancing at her reception (mostly Sarah, Becc, a very pregnant Tanya and myself). We danced the night away - seriously we did. Anyway, here are some of my favourite pics from the day. The thing I love about weddings, is that no matter what, the pictures look great. So, Enjoy!!

Memories

Just when I thought I was ok. Just when I thought I could go to church and sit through another baby blessing without crying, just when I thought I could handle the fact that I don’t have my children with me and everyone else has theirs, just when I thought that I could handle still not being pregnant, I get reminded how hard life really is. Seriously it’s so hard.

This last week a friend of mine just found out she was pregnant. She’s been trying for years and after two failed IUI’s (intra-uterine insemination) she finally got pregnant on her third IUI. I was so excited for her; she’s one of those people who just deserved it so much. She was so happy too, because this way she wouldn’t have to move onto IVF (in-vitro Fertilization) like they’d planned; she was done with trying and she would finally get her baby. It turns out she still needed to wait though. She had an early miscarriage and lost all the dreams and hopes that she created within days of finding out she was pregnant. I think what most people don’t understand is that it hurts so much no matter how far along you are. From the moment you find out you are pregnant you start planning the next phase of your life. You instantly think of things like names, first steps, first kisses, Universities, grandchildren and so on. It’s silly that you think of all that stuff, but you really do. It truly only takes a minute to create a life of dreams for an unborn child, it also only takes a minute to lose all those dreams when you lose a child.

So I’ve been thinking about how I dealt with my loss and what was hard about it at the time and what is hard about it today. I know the pain is not nearly as raw today as it was 6 months ago, in fact it’s not nearly as raw today as it was 3 months ago. But let me tell you, it’s still not fun at all. It’s really strange, I can go for days being fine, and then I go for days being just OK, and then I get hit with the memories of how hard it all is and I go through a few days of sadness and longing. It’s things like seeing a friend of mine lose a baby she so badly wanted and then seeing someone else mistreat a child they didn’t want that remind me of how hard life is. It’s knowing that no matter how good of a person I am, I can’t undo the events of this last year. It’s both the knowing I’m not pregnant each month as well as not knowing when I will get pregnant. It really is just the fear of the unknown.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I (someone who now knows better) should act when others go through similar experiences. I’ve decided that there isn’t much you can say to comfort anyone – all you can do is be sorry for their loss and acknowledge that their pain is valid and real. I remember the day before we went into the hospital to deliver Emma and Jayne, Ben and I stopped by where Nate was working that day to visit him – and just get some hugs. I remember the minute I saw him he started crying, and then he said how sorry he was, that he missed them already, and that he wished he could take my pain away. I don’t think he could have said anything better. He knew full well that he couldn’t take my pain away, but if he could, I know he would in a second. That meant so much to me at the time and it means so much now, it also taught me an important lesson. We really need to do all we can to help each other, we need to be sensitive to others when they are happy, and when they are sad. Mostly we just need to care for those around us.

This brings me back to my friend that just miscarried, I also told her that I wish I could take her pain away and feel it myself. I really would do this if I could, partly because I know it’s so hard and I really would never wish that on anyone else, but also because I know I could handle it. I’ve handled it before and I know I can get through it. I know if I lose another baby, I will get through it. We truly are comforted when life gets rough. I know I was. I made it through because I know there is more to life than what we can see right now, I know there is a plan.

A Chocolate chip a day...

So this last week we've had Ben's brother Chris staying with us. He was originally down in Kansas for the summer selling Alarm systems but decided to come home early for various reasons(I think there's a certain girl in his life that may have influenced this decision). Anyway, he has no where to live right now so we've lent him our spare room. Here's the background to my story: At the beginning of the week I was sick with some sort of flu/heat stroke thing or just some mystery puking illness. Anyway, we weren't sure what it was and just assumed it was heat exhaustion since I had that last year - mostly we didn't think it was contagious. Turns out we were wrong. Chris got sick this week and was up Wednesday night puking (thank you earplugs). Anyway, he had the house to himself all day Thursday and had to fend for himself. I just assumed he'd found food to eat because I know Chris isn't shy about digging around in our pantry or fridge - plus I offered him food when I got home, which he refused. I think I may have been wrong judging by what I found on Friday. So Friday morning Chris had gone home to Claresholm to get ready to head down to Echo Lake with his girlfriend's family (she's really nice by the way). Since he was gone for the weekend I thought I'd be a good little housewife/host and clean up a bit around the house. I tidied the living room and kitchen, organized the pantry and then decided I'd tidy up the spare room. Well I walked into "Chris's" room and this is what I found:




Seriously, it was too funny. This it the type of food a grown 23 year old eats when he's sick: a handful of chocolate chips and an un-cooked Pop Tart (He's like a little Chipmunk). He really needs a wife, someone who can take care of him when he's sick.

Anyway, that was my humour for the week. Nothing else exciting has happened besides that and finishing the fence. Today we're headed off to Nate and Tans new house for Nates 33rd B-day. I'm kind of excited to see it with all it's new furniture, it will have me itching for a new home (like my 1 year old house isn't new enough). But you know what I mean.

*Chris if you read this, please don't take offense, just be happy you made me laugh, it really is funny!

Fence time

So these last few weeks Ben and I have been working on our fence and we are almost done. Right before I went to the lake our neighbour came by with his bobcat and asked if we wanted to build a fence. Of course we did and of course we would LOVE the use of a bobcat to dig our holes. Need he even ask? So he so kindly dug all our post holes which seriously only took a half hour. We thought we were home free after that...Or so we thought. You'd think that with a handyman for a husband this fence would have been done in a day (also judging by the size of our yard). But no...we had some setbacks. The first was when our other neighbours not only refused to pay for their side (understandable) but when they also refused to help. I know he's a handy guy too, so it seems ridiculous that he wouldn't even help. Oh well...we'll put the nice side facing us.

Anyway, I went to the lake and Ben stayed behind to work. In the evenings he would work on the fence all by himself. Let me tell you, leveling a fence post is not an easy job... for two, and very likely impossible for one to do. But he tried anyway. SO to make along story short, the posts weren't level so we had to dig them up (which was ok since we didn't use cement) and then we had to put them back in. This seriously took so long. Right now we have all the fence posts in, and I think by the end of this coming weekend we will have the fence built - how exciting!!! Our first Fence in our first home!! So here are some pics:

Sylvan

You’d think that a full week of Holidays with days and days at the beach, a million things going on at once (ok, I lie, just two things going on at once – the beach and the water), a different bathing suit almost everyday, all my siblings together under one roof, three Grandsons (5 ½, 1 ½ and 6 months), a full moon every night (you have to know my brothers to get it) and a fancy digital camera would result in some serious photo opportunities, but you’re wrong. After this last holiday, I somehow managed to only get a picture of Marcus with a pink cowboy hat on. Seriously, why even have a camera? I remember going on this holiday thinking how I was going to take so many pictures and then post them on my blog and fascinate all my readers (although I think it’s just Mom and Tan reading cause no one else ever comments) and somehow this is all you get. ENJOY!

So the week was fun, I said Goodbye to Ben on Sunday when he dropped me off at Nate and Tans. I really (really) wanted him to come, but I guess when we prayed his business would be successful we should have been prepared for it to be this successful. We had a nice little drive to the Lake and met the rest of my family there. That night was fun because everyone was there (but Ben of course). We did the usual Woodruff stuff, like watching a video Jeff made of Moths up in Crowfoot (sick…seriously sick) and then playing Dominos. I think we ate our junk food rations for the entire week in that one night. Who’s idea was it to have a healthy week anyway? Some one crazy that’s for sure.

We spent most of the time at the beach relaxing, floating, building sand castles, and dreaming of KFC. We honestly stayed out all day long – most nights we didn’t eat dinner until at least 8:00PM – some days I didn’t eat lunch at all, I was just having too much fun soaking in the rays. Some how I thought it was quite the feat to be the “only one who stayed at the beach all day”- I think my sunburned body would disagree. Every night after dinner we thought of all the wonderful things we could do as a family at night, but somehow Becc's Favourite “So you think you can Dance” and other various TV shows took precedence – which was ok because our “UNO” games, Ice Cream trips and midnight swims made up for it. We were so grateful for out lighthouse (mom) on those midnight swims. She definitely knows how to work a flashlight, especially when she used the brightness of the full moon each night to reflect light for all us swimmers (you have to know Nate to understand). I tried so hard every night to stay up late with the “singles” but as it turns out I’m just not young and fun any more, all I could think about in the first few minutes of the nightly 2 AM movie was how badly I wanted to sleep, the movie always lost that battle especially since I knew I needed to be prepared for Marcus’ daily 7:00 AM wakeup call – I’m surprised Josh never learned that lesson after his first 7:30 AM wakeup by Matthew. Some people never learn.

So Jared Came Thursday Morning, Ben came Thursday night and Sarah left for her camp Friday Afternoon. We joked about having soooo much fun once she left, but she’ll be happy to know that we didn’t do anything exciting. Although that's when Jeff and Yuka came - they were fun! Oh... we also went Go-karting, that was fun too! But it’s just not the same without Sarah, I don’t think I can even count the number of times someone said “I wish Sarah was here”.

So the week ended with a day at the beach, a forgotten much needed application of sunscreen and the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Let me tell you, an air conditioned theatre does nothing for a sunburn – I had no relief.

In summary: The beach was fun, the sunburn wasn’t; the kids were cute, the 7 AM wakeups weren’t; the ice cream trips were great, the mint paddies not so good; the Cabin was Wonderful, the spiders in the bathroom were horrible;

But mostly – it was great to be together again, the week was just a lot of F-U-N!! What’s the plan for next year?

It's Stampede time!!

I love the Stampede...actually I think I love the memories of the Stampede more than the actual Stampede itself. Now, for how much I love the Stampede, I thought maybe I'd get out of it this year just because I'm lazy - but no such luck. Somehow, my two week Holiday erased my memory of all the work events going on this summer - particularly the one planned for today. So as it turns out EnCana decided to take us to the Stampede!! So I brought my camera, my Cowboy hat, and a smile - I was ready for fun! We had a nice buffet lunch, went outside to watch the Rodeo, and then I took a $55 cab ride home - thank you EnCana. The cab driver (who was very nice) Actually thanked me for living in Okotoks...who knew anyone cared? I figure, if I"m not using the free drink tickets, I might as well use the free taxi ride.

So here are some pictures from the day. Sorry they are so small, but for some reason my BLOG won't let you click and expand any of my pictures unless they are in the small format. It seems like everyone elses BLOG can do that, any suggestions?? So all you have to do is click on the picture and it will open it in another screen a lot bigger (hopefully).


So, here's the "Burning" CS (Calgary Stampede for you Rookies)





Here is one of a saddle Broncin' cowbot






A Bull Ridin' Cowboy






And me (I'm on the right (for you Rookies)- the other girl is Christina, a coworker of mine)





Anyway, I know I promised a BLOG about the lake, but you just need to be a bit more patient. I'm actually working on getting ALL of my pictures organized for that one. You'll see.