I realize it has been a while since my last picture post, but here are some pictures of the antics that happened in our lives …

Wee Blonde Child got her ears pierced

Healthy Weighty Wee Man got to drive the “Mighty Machines”!

and The Husband got a shock when I climbed on a tractor and informed him I was taught to drive on one just like it when I was 10.

‘coz I gotta tell ya its exhausting!

No really, its a lot of work trying to be beautiful!  You have to eat the right things, drink the right liquids and at weird intervals during the day, you have to primp and preen and rub weird lotions and potions into your skin.  Under your clothes you have to wear the most weird and all too often constricting underwears and contraptions that zap your saggy bits.  And at night … how can you look all sexy in bed after you’ve just exfoliated and put on night cream on your face, under eye lightener on those dark bags growing under your eyes, Botox in a bottle on your frown lines, crows feet eraser on those lines that jut out from the sides of your eyes that apparently look like a fowls foot, rubbed body contouring treatment on all your saggy bits, slathered your hands and feet in goopy gloppy stuff that smells like you’ve just crawled out of a mud pit and then put on special footies and gloves to keep it there.  I gotta tell ya, that some kinda sexy!  Come here Honey, gimme a smooch.

Yes I have to agree about the drinking water, but does it have to have added stuff?  And eating a properly balanced diet should just be a given regardless your age or level of health.  But really when it comes down to it, what is beauty?  According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia beauty is defined below:

(For beauty as a characteristic of a person’s appearance, see Physical attractiveness. For other uses, see Beauty (disambiguation).)

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. As a cultural creation, beauty has been extremely commercialized. An “ideal beauty” is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture.

The experience of “beauty” often involves the interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this is a subjective experience, it is often said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”^[1] In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one’s own existence. A subject of beauty is anything that resonates with personal meaning.

The classical Greek adjective beautiful was καλλός. The Koine Greek word for beautiful was “ὡραῖος”,^[2] an adjective etymologically coming from the word “ὥρα” meaning hour. In Koine Greek, beauty was thus associated with “being of one’s hour”. A ripe fruit (of its time) was considered beautiful, whereas a young woman trying to appear older or an older woman trying to appear younger would not be considered beautiful. ὡραῖος in Attic Greek had many meanings, including youthful and ripe old age.^[3]

^{Then there is that adage, “Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder”.  The Good Book says, Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30 (NIV).}

^{The makers of all the lotions, potions, smelly sprays and anti-everything creams would tell you it is one definition, but what is the right definition?}

So today was the teachers Luncheon for which I sent in $3, donated a door prize & main course item for the meal and volunteered my time to help.

Apparently I can cook.  I donated a Pork Loin Crown Roast, we had been given one and as my husband doesn’t eat pork and it is really large, there was no way the kids and I were going to be able to eat it and while I’m sure I could have waited until we had guests, only The Man Himself knows when THAT is going to happen, so I thought to myself, “Self, what a better way to use up that Crown Roast in the freezer that is awkwardly shaped and taking up space.”  So never having done one of these types of roast and not having my cookbooks yet, I looked to the good ol’ internet to find me a recipe.  I came across this one and it turned out great!(if I do say so myself)  The way all the teachers went on about it you would have thought Gordon Ramsay himself had done it up. 

I am assuming that my Avon gift basket went over a treat, as I have not heard otherwise.  I have to say it was nice to meet other parents as having been here a year I haven’t met many outside of the few from Oldest Large Child’s class friends.  Maybe I’ll have to start making a regular habit of this volunteering at the school thing ….

One would think that with the last week of school it would be all about slowing down.  Yeah ~NO!  During this last week of school, there is a luncheon for the teachers and Sports Day/Last Day.  Like could they put more in to a week?  And my children aren’t in to organized sports yet!  I felt somewhat guilty when the notice came home asking for volunteers, donations of door prizes and/or $3 to help with costs, and/or a donation toward the meal itself, and me not having given back tot he school all year long.  Well as it happens, I didn’t hand in a vetting form to be cleared to volunteer at the school, because you know I didn’t want the school finding out that I had actually stolen my children from the land of nod when we lived out of the country for so many years. Hmmm I wonder if the “real” parents want them back … can I give them back? I wonder if they were even missed …..

This weekend starts the season we call summer even though I have heard that really we live with the “seasonal” weather that would correspond to the appropriate season six weeks before the first day of the season. And seeing as each season is about 12 weeks long we only have half of it in the “proper” time lines.  Not sure if that is exactly true, but that’s what the weather man on the Calgary CTV News has said.

But this weekend also marks the day we celebrate Dad.  All Dad’s the ones who made you, the ones who helped mould you, the ones who taught you to fish, shoot a rifle, ride a horse, skate, ski, ride a bicycle, the ones who held your head all night long while you were sick in a bucket.  So on Sunday don’t forget to call  your Dad, be he your birth-father or the man who loved you regardless.

okay about this time last year I posted about how big the sky is here and how it feels like it goes on forever.  It really does feel that way until you get into the mountains and then you feel … hugged.  Not claustrophobic, but welcome and wrapped up in a blanket if whispering pines, well okay more like shouting pines the wind can be so loud at times its almost deafening.  But there is a stillness there that is a welcoming calm like you’ve just arrived at granny’s house in the country.  But I am digressing again!

The Alberta Prairies, not to be confused with the Saskatchewan or Manitoba Prairies, are a whole other experience.  It really is endless to the East and seriously brings new meaing to “Home on the Range”.  I realise I am Canadian, The Husband reminds me of this almost everyday, but this is not like either of the areas I lived for any length of time duringmy life that I have great memories of (apparently we went to Saskatchewan a lot when I was little, but I don’t really remember that other than my Auntie’s cat scratching my eyes so bad I couldn’t see for a few days… but  thats another post altogether!) those visits about how open the space felt, in fact I don’t really remember them at all.

However I must say while it is weirdly calming to drive out in the open spaces and be able to see for great distances, its kinda creepy in a way too!  It is almost awkwardly calm …. but then again I think I read too many horror books when I was younger.  I keep expecting some ghoule to pop out of the end of the drives that we sail past!

Okay I know I just had two days off in a row and that this happens every five days, but OH. MY. GOD. 

I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. 

Now we weren’t exceptionally busy, just busy.  Saturday I spent the day cleaning doing laundry and hanging out with the Monsters and once the The Husband got home, took Healthy Weighty Wee Man to Urgent Care (which was a waste of time!) and then Sunday, HWWM and I went to the walk in clinic once it was open as his face was worse!  I wasn’t expecting it to get better over night, but not worse!  His wee eyes and nose were so swollen … it looked painful, even if he didn’t seem bothered by it, it looked that way. 

Once that was taken care of we borrowed a bike trailer/jogging stroller and went for a family bike ride.  The trailer was borrowed because we have been going for family bike rides and Healthy Weighty Wee Man just can’t keep up with his wee legs.  And he gets distracted by squirrels, birds, cats, dogs, people, cars … well he just gets distracted wile riding and more time is spent waiting for him to either catch up or getting him caught up!  After seeing the whole apparatus set up, The Husband now thinks this is a grand idea and now thinks we should get one too.

ps: pics of the bike ride will follow.  they don’t seem to want to up load right now!

So sometime yesterday Healthy Weighty Wee Man got a bite from something on his forehead just above his left eye.  This is what he looked like this morning…

His nose is usually more defined and not so …. flat looking.  And there is normally definition to his eyes.  So off we went to Urgent Care when The Husband got home from being at work.  And to be honest I’m thinking it was a waste of time as the doctor didn’t really bother much with him and just recommended giving HWWM Benadryl.  So we will see where that takes us.

Last night Wee Blonde Child begged and begged and begged The Husband to remove the remaining stabilizer from her bike after the family went out for a bike ride.  So while the Monsters were getting ready for bed, TH removed the stabilizer and then brought out WBC to try out her bike with only two wheels. 

Yeah didn’t happen.  WBC could not go 1 foot without falling over so we wrapped that up and got the Monsters to bed.  Then today, after Oldest Large Child got home from school, The Husband went out to the garage to put the stabilizer back on Wee Blonde Childs bike and dicovered this …

and this ….

needless to say the Husband was gobsmacked ….

Whoa. 

Where has time gone?  

It was on the 9th of June 2008, we boarded a plane (just!) and made our way to Canada.  I’ll not deny it was a rocky road.  I had my doubts and at times still do, but we’re here and I am determined to make the best of it regardless.   If I stop and let my self think and feel I can still vividly remember the thoughts and feelings I had last year leading up to that event.  It was and still is life changing.  I do miss Ireland terribly at times, some times more than I care to admit.  But I also very much enjoy life where we are now.  I may search for the direction we are to go in, I may not.  But then again, that’s not really for me to say when it comes right down to it. 

What God wants God gets. 

I have come to learn that.  Now I just need to make my heart know it too.

We have done and experienced so much in the past year and there is still much to live, learn, love and laugh about.  Looking forward to one more year.