October 22-28, 2012

Hello!

Summing up this week:   SNOW!

Tuesday, Tamara wanted me to drive her to school as she had to go early for a field trip.  The problem is that I made an appointment to get my snow tires on but not till the beginning of November and it snowed (On the 23rd of October!) a half foot after it rained so that turned to ice underneath the snow.

Well I got to her school okay but I knew getting back to the house would be a problem as our house sits on the side of a bowl.  It doesn't matter what direction I go in, I eventually have to climb a hill to get home.

I thought that if I drove on a street that was more travelled that I would have a chance on making it home.  I took a street that is a bus route so the sanders/plowers usually take care of those roads.  I couldn't make it all the way & over the hill on Bus Route Street.  So I tried to come around from the 'bottom' of my street.  I made it to about half a car length from the end of my driveway and I got stuck.  I thought if I reversed and got a little run I might make it into my driveway.  I slid a little sideways and I was even further from the driveway.  Tried it again.  Same result.  So I reversed down my street and saw an empty parking spot and thought the pavement might be a bit drier that I could get a run at it.  Nope.  And my car insisted on sliding towards the car that was parked behind me.  So I decided to park & give up on it for awhile.

Then a couple of hours later, the car that I parked in front of moved which meant I could back out down the hill. I made it all the way around to a Bus Route Avenue (sliding all the way) to the street above my house, down my avenue to the drive way, but managed to slide past it.  I could not reverse and go back as I would just slide.  So I continued down the road, turned left to head to the Bus Route Avenue only to get stuck, sliding into the sidewalk at that little intersection before it.  Again! Really stuck! Then I had three guys plus myself push my car sideways so that I could go back down the hill (an avenue between mine & the bus route avenue and I turn right on a couple of streets down, pick up speed and make it up to the avenue behind my avenue.  Can not drive up it.  Spinning out.  I'm thinking, how the H E double hockey sticks do I get up the hill high enough that I can approach my driveway?  Gotta try Bus Route Avenue again.  Turn around on the street that I was on and I took a little run and made it to the Bus Route Ave.  (YEAH!) - still spinning my wheels every foot. Finally made it to the street above ours again. This time approached the driveway extremely slow and MADE IT!!!  Whew!!

 What an adventure!

We went to Yuk Yuk's on Thursday.  A fundraiser for one of Myron's co-workers.

On Sunday it was a Workshop Weekend with the Youth Singers.

I'll be so glad when next Friday comes and my snow tires get put on my car!  =) Lisa

October 15 - 21, 2012

I have a bunch of pictures to share this week.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I made some layouts but I hadn't posted them yet as they were a gift to my brother & sister-in-law and I didn't want to ruin the surprise.  Here are the layouts:

Wednesday evening was the premiere of the movie, 'Gettin' In'.  The movie that a few scenes were filmed in our house.  Remeber these?:

Here's a few pictures from the premiere:

As well as a link to their FB page:

Gettin In Premiere

And a news article in the Calgary Herald about the movie.

A poster about the movie we saw in one of our neighbourhood restaurant/pubs:

It was really interesting and fun to see the movie up on the 'BIG' screen.  Hopefully it's successful.

On Friday, the weather that was being predicted was snowy & cold.  So I decided I'd best decorate for Hallowe'en before it got too cold:

Don't have our pumpkin yet.  But will take pictures once we do.

Friday evening, Myron & I went to Kristi's birthday (one of his employees) that she was holding at a country bar called 'The Ranchman's'  Danced a bunch of songs!  Haven't done that in SO long.  Had fun!

On Saturday it started snowing:

Looks like October is going to end snowy!  =) Lisa

Oct 9 - 14th, 2012

Myron felt well enough to go back to work this week.  That was good.  On Wednesday the temperature dropped and it snowed in the evening.  Friday I made oatmeal zucchini cookies.  (diabetic friendly)  I took Tamara's grandma's recipe and a recipe from my diabetic cookbook and combined them to make the cookies.  Tamara thinks they look like dog poo, but they really taste great.

On Saturday Myron & I ran to the garden centre.  I was looking for burlap so I can wrap our cedar trees plus I wanted to get some compost to help mend the soil in the vegetable garden.

Sunday I went golfing and Myron was going to just walk around.  I received an e-mail invite from  Shaw cable to attend a Shaw event for afternoon football because I purchased the NFL ticket for Myron.  This is what he got invited to:

He went with our friend Wayne, and won this:

As I mentioned, I went golfing, enjoyed scenery like this:

I started off wearing a bunch of layers and ended up dressing down to a t-shirt.  The weather was beautiful.  When I got home about 5pm, it was plus 17:

My neighbour Liz gave us wood and I was going to help her pile it up but she did it before I got home:

Beautiful weekend and things are starting to get back to normal again.  =) Lisa

Oct 1- 8, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Tuesday, Myron returned from hockey and I was still in bed and he tells me that he had an accident.  I leaped out of bed exclaiming, 'What??!!!'  ready to fire a bunch of other questions at him.  I am of course thinking, car accident when he tells me that it was his back.  So I think to myself, 'Oh no!  Not again!'

So that pretty much sums up my week - taking care of my husband.  Which I don't mind, but to suddenly experience having my husband who can take care of himself to needing me to help him with everything, was a bit of an adjustment.  I am lucky in that this will only be for a short period of time and that he will recover.  Thank God!

I also found it tough at times when Myron needed something and Tamara needed help with her homework, as I felt like I was spinning in circles & pulled in two directions and not enough time for me to breathe.  But I made it through, a bit on the tired side but I did it.

Myron has slept on the floor of our bedroom since Tuesday.  Thursday, I took him to physio and then to a walk in clinic.  Myron said that this is the worse his back's ever been and felt that something more was wrong with his back and thought perhaps a trip to the ER would be required.  But after talking to the physio-therapist, decided that we would just go to a walk in clinic.  The doctor at the clinic thinks it's just a really bad muscle strain and has issued anti-inflammatories, pain relievers & muscle relaxants for Myron.  And lots of rest, ice & heat.

The car ride to physio, to the medical clinic and quick stop at his work to sign some papers and then back to the pharmacist (who are right beside the walk in clinic) and then the ride home nearly incapacitated him.  We decided that we would have to change our Thanksgiving plans - we were supposed to go up to Edmonton and spend Thanksgiving with my Aunt, Uncle & Grandmother.  But there is no way Myron would be able to tolerate the 3 or 4 hour car ride.  So we called my Aunt & Uncle and had to cancel our plans with them.

So since my poor husband is house & floor bound, I set him up to be a bit more comfortable:
I set up a small TV so that he could watch the news or sports, a magazine, home phone, his blackberry and a tray for food & drink.  He ended up camping there until Saturday night when he finally felt like he could sleep in bed.

He ended up camping there until Saturday night when he finally felt like he could sleep in bed.

This past week we had a couple of nights with a hard frost so I rescued my one pumpkin from the outdoors and hope it'll ripen in the house:

This week I also made a couple of apple pies (diabetic friendly) using the apple from our apple tree:

You can tell I cheated a bit using store bought shells but they baked up looking pretty good:

I thought it tasted pretty good.  And Myron & Tamara must have felt the same.  I put one pie in the fridge to keep for Thanksgiving and it was eaten up by Saturday.  Good thing I froze the other pie.


On Saturday, Myron was able to get up and walk around for a few minutes.  One of the guys from work dropped by to give Myron a present.  He was a good sport and showed off his gift:

David was coming over for Thanksgiving dinner this weekend but couldn't make it till Monday because of work, so I decided to try a recipe that I've wanted to try out for a bit.  It's loosely based on this though I increased the sauce by cooking 2 packages of ground chicken/turkey and used two jars of pasta sauce. And instead of uncooked quinoa, I added about a 1/2 cup cooked (leftover) quinoa. I left out the spinach, mushrooms & tomatoes as Tamara doesn't like it. I added a sprinkling of parmesan & grated mozzarella cheese to each sauce level - if that makes sense. Everything was cooked except for the noodles. Then I 'cooked' it in a slow cooker on high for 4 hours. Everyone thought the meal was great. 

And then last night was our Thanksgiving dinner.  I asked David to bring his camera & tripod as I wanted to get a family picture for our Christmas card plus I wanted some individual ones of David especially since he doesn't have school pictures anymore.  I won't post the family picture yet as I want that to be a bit of a 'surprise' for a little while still.  But here are a couple of the kids goofing around:

And finally I was able to complete a few layouts that will be a gift for my brother & sister-in-law that I've been meaning to do.  Though I will post those pictures in another post as this one is so long.


Have a great short week!  =) Lisa 

Sep 24 - 30, 2012

This week was spirit week for Tamara at school.

Monday was Retro Day.  Tuesday was Twin Day.  Tamara has a friend who has the same top as she does, so they dressed up as twins:

Wednesday was Western Wear day and Tamara borrowed one of my shirts that has a western look to it and she put her hair in braids, Thursday was jersey day and Friday was school colours.

This weekend was the Jump-start weekend for Tamara's Youth Singers Group.  Being in grade 12, she joined the student council this year.  For the weekend they planned an 'Amazing Race' game and it seemed like the kids had a great weekend.

On Saturday, a handful of us from Second Chants and Encore went down town to be part of Calgary's Sweet City Lip Dub Experience.  It was a great experience and I would do it again.  Here's a few snapshots of what I saw around me:

And then you can watch the video here:

Sweet City Lip Dub - Calgary celebrates Cultural Capital of Canada

You can see our group at 1:35 minutes in.  We are the waving 'pool noodle' flower.

Enjoy!!  =) Lisa