My other lucky day

So, it's the 18th, and some of you faithful blog readers may be aware that somebody else had a birthday in our house this past week. Thankfully, he has not said "where's my blogpost?" Not to be outdone, here's our Ode to Owen:

8. His nickname is Ocho-or some derivation of it. Don't ask why...we don't know, but it's stuck. Ocho...he's 8... Kinda cool.

7. He has always cheered for this team, but it comes as no surprise that he lives and breathes this sport.

6. He could give the Energizer Bunny a run for his money. This kid can go all day long...and then some!

5. He is trying to master this song on the piano right now. I just wish he'd stick to his regular music homework, but the boy sure has an ear. He's loves being our family iTunes DJ, too.

4. He's his father's son: he has a gift for quoting movies, running fast and making us all laugh :)

3. He HATES getting his haircut. It must be a Samson thing.

2. He's his brother's hero.

1. He's getting baptized this weekend.

Ochi- we love you. Happy belated birthday

MY lucky day

I've heard that some people think today is a lucky day, being 10/10/10, but I KNOW it is. At 10 minutes to 10am, on 10/10/10 Dean will be celebrating his 10th birthday. In actuality, he was born at 9:56am, but we are rounding down for dramatic effect and sheer awesomeness of it all!

All those 10's are screaming out "Top 10" list to me. So without further ado, here is today's 10/10/10 Top 10 things about Dean you may or may not know (in no particular order)

10. He dislikes yellow peppers, guacamole and jalapenos (I try not to hold any of that against him-his tastebuds are still developing)

9. He's loyal. Through the good (but mostly) bad times, he has cheered for this team!

8. He has the best sense of humour, if you can catch his quick wit.

7. He has a good, kind heart and a smile that makes me melt.

6. He's his brother's hero.

5. He's a wealth of knowledge. Ask him anything about any sport, world record or country and chances are, he knows it. (Good luck on Jeopardy one day!)

4. He won a trampoline!

3. He loves Sunday morning pancakes (he's his father's son).

2. He can tickle the ivories and loves playing this song.

1. He loves to be here and here with his family and friends.

I could go on and on about this great kid of mine. But I'll just say "Happy Birthday, Deany. We love you thisssssssssssssssssssssss much" :)

Is this how it felt at the Inn?

Tonight Bru and I were looking forward to going to hear the 30 Aldermanic candidates at the library. We were excited. It's hard to read sarcasm or real true feelings over the computer. But, I'm being serious...seriously. We are by no stretch of the imagination political pundits, junkies or thumpers...just 2 citizens of this fine town trying to be as informed as we can when we go to vote (reminder: Mon Oct 18).

Apparently, we were NOT alone.

We got to the forum right on time, unfortunately. A typical, prim librarian kindly informed us that there was no room.

No room in the main hall.

No room in the overflow.

"What?!?...We need to know who to vote for though."

"I'm very sorry. Here's a list of other forums you may attend" stated library lady.

"But, this is the only one we can get to.."

I realize by now I am not the only person who has tried to tell her that tonight and, honestly, that she doesn't really care.

I've been thinking though, that perhaps it wasn't a bad thing. Atleast I know there are other people out there trying to inquire about the varied platforms of each candidate. It's not like we were shirking our civic responsibility. We tried, really we did.

If any of you have any insights, let us know. Seriously.

We didn't leave empty handed though. Bru grabbed a few candidate leaflets. And me? I grabbed Season 1 of Friday Night Lights. It's a little guilty pleasure of mine ;)

why the long face?

Today was a nice day. We watched Church conference at Heather and Justin's this morning while they hosted a yummy breakfast. Then we came home to watch the last session. Tonight, Owen was procrastinating doing his homework and I helped him in the effort. This is what we came up with:

In between his laughing we made some more pics in the photo booth:

And then everyone in the family wanted to get in on the action:

We've never used this feature before. I'm sure the boys are going to have some fun with it. Look out for our Christmas card picture. It may look something like this:

How did you spend your day?

hodge-podge

Last night I was talking to a friend and she reminded me that I had not blogged about a certain experience my family had this summer. Later, when I looked at my desktop where I keep pictures that I want to post I realize that I haven't posted about several things. So... here's a mix for your morning of 3 pictures that put a smile on my face.

My boys are growing up SO fast! Playing on the playground now is very different than it was a few years ago. Here they are posing in their fiercest warrior poses!

Something yummy! Warning- do not try to eat your computer screen. My lovely Mr always says if he was a baker he'd be 300 lbs (or is it 400??) Had he been in Portland with us this spring, I would have feared for his waistline. These donuts (and the shop they came from)were like nothing else.

After hanging at Cannon Beach for a day (remember the fish we ate that day?!-Why are some of my favourite memories wrapped in food!) I saw this license plate in the parking lot. I love its sentiment.

So faithful readers, today my wish/challenge for you (and me) is to give it a try and MN8 JOY. Feel free to leave a comment about how the day went... if your life was irrevocably altered in any way, pretty much stayed the same or anything in between...(Bruce has to give a talk in Church on Sunday on Gratitude-anything you write may be used!!)

August Mourn

I have a friend that loves Neil Diamond. Every day for the month of September, she plays his song September Morn while her kids get ready for school. Well, tomorrow is the first day of school,but wait...it's not September. Now, some of you may say "My kids started last week. " To that I say that would be fine if we got out the beginning of June.

But, we didn't.

It was June 28

11:50am, to be exact.

And, to global warming I say : Where were you this summer? I really needed you in those rainy months. The dog days of summer never came. I never got tired of the heat, never yearned for the feel of a Fall sweater, never really thought "when does school start 'cause (fill in son's name here), you're driving me crazy".

And that is why tomorrow I will mourn.

Bye boys. It was fun while it lasted!

Heritage Day

Monday was Heritage Day in Alberta- probably more commonly known as "the holiday in August"! Well, to celebrate we went to the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association event. There were display and craft booths from 20 or so ethnicities. Our favorite were the food booths, though. We ate Vietnamese wontons and fresh homemade perogies from the Polish Association. We should/could have been more adventuresome as there was Afghan, Sudanese and Filipino food as well as 12 other nationalities. For dessert we ate Keke (Tongan donuts) and mango lemonade from the Polynesian hut. It was a great day.

All that eating was followed by a long bike ride- had to burn it all off some how!