duct-tape-and-cover

The Year of the Unfinished Project

2010-01-22T19:07:00.002-07:00

I've decided that this year is going to be my year to finish all my unfinished sewing and knitting projects. I've listed them on the side and I have a feeling that as I finish them and can start to dig out my cupboards that there may be more. I've also banned myself from buying anything for any new projects until the list is done, regardless of what a great deal it is. Wish me luck and hopefully I will soon be marking lots of dones on my list.

Fit for Motherhood

2009-11-08T21:01:00.004-07:00

I frequently wonder why I'm not married and I tell myself all the standard answers. But this weekend, I thought it might be because I'm not fit for motherhood and this is why. My poor roommate that works with pre-school children with disabilities finally got H1N1. We both knew that it was inevitable and were hoping that I would be able to get my vaccine at work soon enough not to end up sick too and that she would get a mild case. Well she didn't get a mild case, but I got my vaccine in plenty of time to not get sick(knock on wood) Friday night she started getting sick and by Saturday she was in rough shape, but managing with plenty of Tylenol and fluids. And then the symptoms got worst and her fever spiked and then she as complaining of chest pains and I was very scared. Because I work for the provincial health authority I get all the scary details that don't get released to the media. So I called one of the medical residents in the ward and asked if he could come and give her a blessing and give me advice what to do. As an aside, I'm very grateful for all the women who let their husbands serve. I know that it can be a real sacrifice. After they left, I felt reassured that I was doing what I needed to to help her and I knew exactly what to look for as my sign to immediately go to the hospital. But has the night progressed and her fever got worst I was very scared. I hardly slept and spent the night alternating between monitoring her breathing and temperature, listening to her weeping in pain and know that here was nothing that I could do and praying that she was going to be alright and I would know what to do. Now I love my roommate, but I don't love her like you love a child and I wonder if I'm cut out to suffer that much. Finally when her fever broke it was such a relief, but I kept wondering if I could have handled a night like that 4 times over. I have no idea what the answer is but I'm glad my roommate is going to be fine.

Thanksgiving

2009-10-12T11:05:00.002-06:00

As many of you know it is Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend. I love Thanksgiving. It may be one of my favourite holidays. It's the only holiday where no one yells at you for wishing them a happy day or that has been taken over by commercialism. It's simply a day to be thankful and eat yummy food. For primary(Sunday school), I spent the week leading up studying what the Prophets and Scriptures have said about gratitude. So when my Saturday turned into a bit of a gong show, I was in a good frame of mind.

Here is a low down of all the things I'm grateful for.

It was the coldest Thanksgiving in 50 years and I was outside selling girl guide(scout) cookies all day on Saturday.

I'm thankful that I own 3 pairs of long underwear, 3 pairs of winter boots for different types of snow and cold, 8 different hats, 6 scarves, 4 pairs of gloves and mittens with some extras, and 7 winter coats(and I'm making a new one).
I'm thankful that I have a new furnace that is keeping my house nice and toasty warm.
I'm thankful for a programmable thermostat to save money.
I'm thankful I have a closet full of blankets.
I'm thankful for hot water that I can use to thaw myself out.

The car I rented got a flat tire and I couldn't leave the store where we were selling cookies because I was needed for leader to child ratios.

I'm thankful for tow trucks that changed the tire and put the little doughnut on.
I'm thankful to the girl from the car rental place that came to the other side of the city to switch out my car.
I'm thankful for the new car that has seat warmers and a fantastic stereo.

I spend my entire Saturday selling cookies, by the end my back was killing me because I was bending over dealing with all the money and standing on concrete and I needed to finish my pies for dinner the next day.

I'm thankful for takeout.
I'm thankful for pay per view movies.
I'm thankful for drugs, lots of drugs.
I'm thankful my roommate peeled and sliced all the apples.

I have so many things to be thankful for. Yesterday, I had a very yummy dinner at my friend's house and today I had pumpkin pie for breakfast and I'm still in my pajamas and it's almost lunch.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving and know that I'm thinking about you.

catching up

2009-09-21T19:58:00.002-06:00

My summer was mostly overcast or pouring rain with brief periods if sun, so I just couldn't write.

To sum up:

On the home front I've dealt with the nightmare of the dealing with the condo board and finally got everything fix last weekend. I now need to put everything back.

On the dating front, "I'm looking for my fourth wife." Why would someone say that on a first date? And "If you voted for Obama or consider yourself a feminist you'er not the girl for me." I didn't vote for Obama because he is too conservative for me, besides I was too busy burning my bra.

On the work front, my organization is undergoing a major upheaval and while my group is secure, there is a lot uncertainty and the fighting in the media is awful.

On the health front, I had a scare and I had someone tell me that I'm "really getting fat".

But the fall is here and I'm starting anew. I've taken up swimming with a goal to swim 1650m. I'm taking a sewing class to make a coat. I'm moving to the teenagers with girl guides. So things should be better.

The damage

2009-04-26T21:08:00.008-06:00

My biggest frustration with my whole water nightmare has been the property management company that my condo board hired. I feel like they are trying to take advantage of me because I'm a new homeowner and don't know much. The property management still hasn't sent someone, but they are starting to realize that I'm not going away. What they don't know is that I have the ability to read, consult experts and talk to my neighbours. So know I have knowledge about how to deal with water damage, I know the law that governs condos and I have the support of my neighbours to get elected to the condo board. And when that happens, the property management company with rue the day I bought my house. I think the other part that drives me crazy is I don't like feeling like I need to be this tough jerk, just to get stuff done.

I got lucking and was able to salvage the carpet, but not the carpet pad. I learned that you have to dry carpet from back to front so the glues that keep it together don't dissolve. So here's the pictures of the damage. My first indications that it was more than just some wet carpet.

The problem corner where the water is seeping in from the foundation.

When I realized that I had mold.

The rusty nails that told me that this was not an isolated incident. According to the insurance guy, it's not the previous owners fault that they didn't notice because the dry wall was doing a good job soaking up the water.

The pile of of molding drywall I riped out.

I don't know if you can see it but the vapour barrier was dripping with water.

This corner is going to be a nightmare. This is before I pulled out the moldy insulation.

You can see where it is coming in.

One of the frustrating parts was that some of the insulation looked fine from the front.

But then I found this on the back.

The frustrations of water

2009-04-18T23:50:00.003-06:00

I'm exhausted. Wednesday evening I stepped into a puddle of water in my basement, of course it was in the finished side with my perfect set up for sewing. Then came the mopping and calls to the condo board. They are responsible for any problems with the windows or foundation. Then came more phone calls and frustrations. Friday, the condo still hadn't sent someone out, so I called my insurance company and they sent someone out 2 hours later. Of course, it's not covered. In any case, the contractor guy was super nice. Turns out I have a water seepage problem at the base of my foundation that has been going on for 3-4 years and the reason no one noticed was because up until the heavy snow that we got after the ground thawed on Tuesday, was just the perfect conditions to create a puddle. He also told me how to clean everything up instead of taking the money that I don't have. So Friday I riped up half my sewing room. And still the condo still hasn't sent someone out. The property management people that the condo hired don't realize yet that I will not stop until it is fixed and if they want to have any peace they will fix it quickly. I'll post pictures later.

a small brag

2009-03-14T16:48:00.008-06:00

Since this is my blog and feel that this is an appropriate place to brag. This week a received an award from SAS, the programming language/software I use at work. I receive the Customer Forum Leadership Award for my work as President of the Edmonton SAS user group. I stepped down this fall and it was nice to be recognized for my work building up the group for the last 5 years. Then that night, there was a big party for the retirement of the organization I work for. There is a huge government restructuring with health care in Alberta. And to pre-emptively answer the question, my job is very secure. There are not that many people in the province that have my knowledge about the administrative data used to evaluate health care. Anyway, this is me a Herta. She is the longest employee at the Cancer Board at 45 years. I have to admit that I can't imagine working at one place for that long. She is a fountain of knowledge and one of the people that really helped me when I started working.

And another brag, one of my co-workers asked me if I had a secret life as a sexy bombshell. I made my dress for the night and I love it. Some of my co-workers even walked right by me. It made for feel great about myself. Below are my friends Anthony and Amy with Herta. Anthony and Amy are my ranting friends from work. When I need to get on a soap box, they are there for me.

Cakes

2009-03-14T14:27:00.007-06:00

My friend is getting married this summer in a small backyard wedding, and I'm making the cake. I've started with my experiments to find the perfect recipes for the cake and to work on my decorating skills.

This is my first try. A chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream icing. The icing was perfect, but the cake fell in the middle, so I'm still looking for a choloate cake recipe. I think is turned out will and was feeling pretty good about my skills. And then there was the disaster. A plain vanilla cake with lime icing. The cake was dry and the icing was way too runny and I could just add more icing sugar because it was a boiled icing.

Girl Guide Winter Camp

2009-03-14T10:20:00.018-06:00

This year I decided to step down from my position as a girl guide leader with a weekly meeting. The best part has been that I can keep doing the things I love best and avoid the things I don't like. And the thing I love best is camp!!!! So every year in the winter we head out to a camp that the Girl Guides own. In the winter we stay in the fancy lodge. The girls are only 9 to 11 years old and their parents couldn't cope with the girls sleeping outside in winter. This year the group has 11 girls. We had tonnes of fun. Some of the girls goofing around when they should be in bed.

The girls at camp do all the cooking. They love it. Most of them aren't allowed to cook at home, so this is their chance to do it. At camp, the girls also do all the cleaning. We divide the girls into patrols and they take turns doing all the duties at camp. You would think that there would be much moaning and complaining about the bathroom cleaning, but that is one of their favourite jobs. They even fight over who gets to do the various jobs. The bathrooms at camp are also the cleanest bathrooms ever, because over the course of the weekend they get cleaned 3 to 4 times.

The girls making bead hat crafts. We had an insane number of beads in the craft boxes, so I came up with a bead horse and bead cowboy hat. We always plan a couple of crafts for the girls to do during the down times.

We worked on the chemistry badge. The girls loved the experiments. We did a chemistry magic show for the Brownies (7-8yrs old) and the Pathfinders(12-15yrs old) that we using the other lodges at the camp. I forgot to get some pictures of the show. But the best part was when our first year guide, lit the match for her experiment. I was a little nervous, because normally there is a lot of crying and fear about using matches, but she had no problem. She was actually the first guide I've had that had no fear and just know she could do it.

This is a video of the girls trying to get the baking soda and vinegar explosions going.

More beading. The girls are always bugging do work on them.

We worked on the life skills and the bird watching badges. So to kill two birds with one stone, we made bird houses. For most of the girls this was their first time using a hammer. There was a lot of pulling nails out and straightening them out on the part of the leaders.

There was also a lot of holding the part of the leaders. I think I may have been temporarily insane to hold a nail while a kid hammered for the first time.

It was very difficult to convince the girls that if they held the hammer at the end instead of choking up on it, they would have more success.

We also give the girls what we call a challenge book. It's another thing to keep them busy when they are finished their duties or between activities.

The food line up. You would think we starve them, given how quickly they come for meal times.

The girls laying around in the snow.

This is the pile of stuff . It's amazing how much we bring out for one weekend.

The girls love sliding everywhere. It works out great for us. Once they finish cleaning we kick them out of the building, so the leaders can do the final check out.

All of us at the end of camp.

Christmas in England

2009-01-20T21:17:00.007-07:00

I know this post in a long time coming, but here it is.

This year, my mum and I went to my sister's house in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire England. I didn't get any pictures of my sister's house, but it is a interwar bungalow. It is movie cute. The only problem was that the house had no heat. This may not seem like a big deal since it is not nearly as cold in England as Edmonton. But let me tell you. It was COLD.

I left for England on the 18th. Oddly enough, it doesn't take that much longer to get to my sister's than it does to my mum's in Ontario, since they have a direct flight Edmonton to Heathrow. I got there on the 19th to find my mum, who arrive a couple days ahead of me, very sick (norovirus) and my sister also sick, but at least only a cold. So I spend the first part of the vacation taking care of the sickies and freezing while waiting for the plumber to finish the radiators for the heat. Finally on the 23rd, we had heat and the value of my sister's house doubled. Probably the best improvement she will ever make to her house.

Once everyone was feeling better, we went to York. This is me on the top of the Tower of York. The view of the city is amazing.

I'm always amazed that these old castles and towers are still standing. Below is my mum and little sister.

I did take a couple of pictures of my sister's house. The lay out is very simple, wide foyer/hall way. Two large rooms off each side and a bathroom at the end. Off the dinning room, you find what the estate agent called a "conservatory", but it's really just a drafty enclosed porch. Off the conservatory is what is called the out building. The out building has the original toilet, the coal room that my sister has turned into a laundry room and the kitchen. Having a separate room for the laundry is very unusual in England, most homes the laundry is in the kitchen. I think it's weird to have dirty underwear in the kitchen. Anyway, one evening my sister was in the bathroom in the house and my mum needed to use the bathroom, so she went to the toilet outside. Anyway, after while my sister and I heard my mum yelling for us. We both thought she wanted help in the kitchen. Since my sister was on the phone and I was playing just a game, I shut my game down and went to help my mum. As I was going by the in house bathroom I could hear water running, so I asked my mum her there was something wrong. She replied with a "you are a useless daughter, who clearly doesn't love her mother enough to come and help her". I was very confused, so I told her "I was coming to help in the kitchen, I was just shutting down my game and I didn't know what her problem was." Then she said "Well you weren't quick enough, go look in the toilet." Now I was even more confused. So I went to the toilet. And this is what I saw.

At first I couldn't figure out what the black stuff was on the floor in front of the toilet. And then I was thinking "is that part of the toilet seat cover". So I walked in and looked in the toilet and found the following.

That's right the rest of the toilet seat cover and my mother's slippers. And I just started laughing and laughing. I could barely move I was laughing so hard. I finally walked back into the house and choked out a "what happened?" to my mum. It turns out that the antique toilet was having some issues flushing and my mum in her great wisdom thought it would be a good idea to close the lid and stand in the middle on the lid and try to get the flusher to work. While the lid broke and she feet got wedged in the toilet. Apparently she was yelling for help for ten minutes before we even heard her. And then because we thought she was yelling for help in the kitchen, I didn't rush. By that time she managed to get herself unwedged. I pointed out that it wouldn't have matter if we heard her right away, because we would have been laughing too hard to actually be any help at all. The best part was that for the rest of the vacation, my sister and I would just start laughing every time one of us thought of it.

This is my sister being silly, while we are getting ready to go to London.

Noelle in the Black cap in London.

And my mum laughing at me taking pictures.

My mum and sister outside of the Gaol Museum.

For Christmas, my mum gave my sister and I tickets to see Billy Elliot on New Years Eve. If you ever get the chance to see it, I would highly recommend it. The singing and dancing was phenomenal.

Christmas Present for DiAnn

2008-12-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

DiAnn is one of my best friends in Edmonton. She is one of those timeless people, that it is hard to believe that she is old enough to be my mother. She is one of the kindness person I know. One of the fun things about her, is because she is finished raising her kids, she has money to do things and her husband travels for work, so she has time to do things. I have the benefits of having a single friend that can do things, but the benefits of having a happily married friend to give me hope. So trying to figure out a Christmas gift for the woman who has everything is next to impossible. One morning in the shower it came to me that my roommate and I should babysit for all of DiAnn's grandchildren, so she can go to the temple with all her children and their spouses and then for dinner. We told her in November to give DiAnn lots of time to coordinate everyone. Sadly the week before we were to babysit, DiAnn's mother died and our great gift turned into a relief of what to do with the babies during the funeral and then what to do with the older kids, so the adults could share memories without being constantly interrupted.

Here are some pictures of us with the kids. 11 kids between 18months to 10yrs. And the 18month olds are twins. There were some serious moments of "what were we thinking?"
This is Rachel painting a star. Each kid painted and decorated a star and then put their favourite scripture on the back. We hid them all over the place for DiAnn to find.

Jake after he woke up from his nap. He was having some issues with the paint brush so Alison is helping him.

Tommy and Sidney working on their stars. Tommy was very decisive about his scripture. It had to be the one about the "man who paid for the hotel for the man that was hurt". I thought it was interesting that he focused on that part of the story of the Good Samaritan. I made a comment about how well all the kids knew the scriptures and Sidney pipped up with "well of course, we read the scripture every day". To all the parents out there that question whether there is any point in having family scripture study given how hard it is, there is your answer.

Dianna and Heidi. They were such a big help. Heidi is the oldest of 5, with the twins as the youngest. She has in some ways born the brunt of that and but for the most part is very positive about the whole thing. Anyway, we were deciding on a scripture for one of the twins and Heidi asked if there was a scripture for "cry babies"? We put "Cry unto the Lord" for her.

Jake, Jack(31/2) and Tommy(3). Jack is a bit of a wild man, but he is also so kind and gentle. Tommy was having a hard time spelling his name, so Jack started to help him. It was so sweet. They had to double check about how to print an "M" and I was impressed at how willing they were to work together and there was no pride about who knew more or receiving help.

We did make your own pizzas and we let them drink pop. The older kids were loving the pop.

It was a fun and exhausting day, and I would definitely do it again.

Primary Gingerbread Party

2008-12-04T20:34:00.010-07:00

This year I decided to have a Gingerbread Party for my primary class. It was lots of fun. In addition to having the kids currently in my class, I invited the two girls that moved to another ward part way through the year. It was so great to hear everyone cheer when I said they would be coming.

I had planned to make Gingerbread Houses first and if there was time decorate my house for Christmas and maybe some quieter games. I bought gingerbread kits from Ikea and I would highly recommend them. They are small and relatively inexpensive, the perfect choice if you want everyone to have their own. I decided to put the houses together before the kids got there but there were some construction issues. So my friend Jason took over the kitchen and I got the kids busy on decorating.

This is Jonathon and Donovan untangling the lights. Donovan has been the only boy in his class his whole life so this year I suggested we pray for another boy to join the class and Jonathon is the answer to our prayer. His entire family were baptized this September. And Donovan has made sure that Jonathon has felt welcome. Anytime he isn't at Church, Donovan calls to say he missed him, drops him off stuff from sharing time or our lessons. They play together all the time. It's been great!

We discovered that Jonathon is better at tangling than untangling. Maggie(she moved part way through the year) took over as she got frustrated watching Jonathon. Don't worry, Jonathon got to go in the kitchen and help with construction.

More untangling/tangling.

Zoe is a creative genius. She is one of the reasons I had no problem letting a bunch of 9 year olds decorate. As a matter of fact, I think they did a better job than I would have.

This is Dianna, another kid that left us part way through the year. When we finished decorating, the constructions were not fully resolved, so I pulled out this book call "The conversation piece". It has all sorts of questions, some serious, some silly and everything in between. Each kid got to pick a question to ask everyone and then everyone answered. There was a lot of laugh. Especially about the question about what two sports would you combine to make a new sport.

Maggie gleefully decorating her house. I don't think Maggie knows how to frown or walk. She skips everywhere laughing. It's wonderful how contagious it is.

Young Joo was very serious about her house and making sure she had the right candy. Her family immigrated to Canada 2 years ago and she is a shining example at how quickly kids learn. She reads as well as anyone in the class and she spoke no English before moving. This was her very first gingerbread house. She had lots of questions, because she wanted to make sure she explained everything to her family correctly.

This is Claire and the "little miss trouble" t-shirt explains everything. Boy is she fun. She was covered in icing by the end and it was like she thought she was the gingerbread house.

More serious Young Joo. This is soooo contrary to her true nature. Normally, I can't get her to stop giggling.

Jason helping Claire out.

Zoe was all about the thin layer of "snow".

So this is my friend Jason and the mess of melted sugar. The back of the boxes said to melt sugar, and instead of becoming gluey, just went mushing. It was a mess.

As a side note: please don't ask about Jason, it is very complicated and totally inappropriate for me to write about on a blog. But suffice it to say, I'm currently dealing with a broken heart.

Temple Worker Devotional

2008-12-04T18:22:00.005-07:00

For the past five years, some friends and I have helped out with the annual Temple Worker Devotional. It's lots of fun because some of the people I don't see except at the devotional. The workers drop off the food and then while they are in the devotional, we get to make it pretty. The pretty food.

Mandy, the expert sandwich person.

Barb, the person who likes to think she is boss. We just do what we want anyway, so there is no point in letting her think otherwise.

Wedding Rings

2008-11-23T22:14:00.002-07:00

I have always been under the impression that the purpose of wearing wedding rings was to indicate to the world and most importantly to single people that you are married. I have had people say no so nice things about single women being after their husbands, or accusing me of flirting with married men. Well, I'm getting sick and tired of men not wearing their wedding rings to church, activities, volunteering in the community, and at work where there is no danger of losing a finger. To the men, if you are too fat for your ring, go to Walmart and buy a new one. And if really hate wearing a ring that much have "I'm Married" tattooed on your forehead.

A Canadian / Honourary American Perspective

2008-11-05T21:12:00.004-07:00

As many of my friends are disappointed in the results on the US Presidential election, I thought I would write my perspective on the election as a Canadian and someone who loves the United States as her second home.

Over the last 8 years, Bush has systematically undermined the relationship between the United States and Canada. I will give you some of the "lowlights". This list is by no means complete. It started with failing to know who the name of the Prime Minister of Canada when he was elected. This may not seem like a big deal, but we are next door neighbours and the largest trading partner of the US. Then he failed to recognize the contribution that Canada made in assisting the US with relief during the September 11th terrorist attack. This after we were the first country to arrive, plus taking all the diverted planes and their passengers in like family. Then there is the ongoing tension about the contribution Canada is making to the mission in Afghanistan. In 2004, the Ambassador to Canada from the US actually interfered in our federal election. He stated that we needed to vote for a government that would be more sympathetic to the Bush administration. This sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable. The homeland security act has given the US government the power to arrest Canadian citizens without cause. The official position is that the US Constitution doesn't apply to non-citizens. This is how the government has justified the torture and terror they have inflicted. And sadly this has happen to at least two people. I think this is one of the things that upsets me most. I believe that the US Constitution is the most inspired document besides the scriptures. It pains me to think that the President of the United States believes that your place of birth determines whether you have the blessings and protections of the US Constitution. This is not my definition of justice.

As you can imagine the resentment that has been building up among Canadians towards Americans is very high now. My heart breaks every time I hear a derogatory comment about "Americans". Bush and his administration is not representative of the people that I love and served and lived among. The people I know are kind, generous, tolerant of others beliefs without compromising their values and fierce defenders of all that is right and good. For good or evil, the republicans are equal to Bush in the minds of Canadians. In order to start rebuilding the great relationship that our countries used to have, we needed to have someone that wasn't a republican to open that dialogue. Just like the US needs another Lincoln to rebuild the trust between republicans and democrats, the world needs a Lincoln to rebuild the world's perception of the United States. I believe that Obama and Biden are the ones that can start that healing.

I hope and pray that the United States will realize that despite the economic downturn and the troubles that they are experiencing that they are the most blest people in the world and with that comes the responsibility to put aside differences and be the world leader in compromise and unity. They've done it before and I'm convinced it can happen again.

I have great hope for what the future holds.

Canadian Illegal Immigration Problem

2008-10-08T14:23:00.002-06:00

As many of you know I'm a "bleeding heart liberal" bordering on communist according to my father. Anyway, someone send this to me and I thought it was hilarious. To my liberal American friends, if you can make it over the rough terrain, you can stay with me.

Canadian Illegal Immigration Problem

From the MANITOBA HERALD, Canada (a very underground paper): The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration.

The possibility of a McCain/Palin election is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O'Reilly.

Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.

I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota .The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. "He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken.When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?"

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. "Not real effective," hesaid. "The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn't give milk."

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves."A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. "They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though."

When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.

In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers on Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney hits to prove they were alive in the '50s."If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age," an official said.

Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies."I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them," an Ottawa resident said. "How many art-history and English majors does one country need?"

coffee+tylenol cold=survival

2008-09-22T17:40:00.004-06:00

On top of the insanity of trying to finish unpacking and settling in, I've been travelling a tonne with work right now and there is no way I could survive without coffee and my tylenol cold. Many of you might wonder how the survival of a nice lds girl and coffee are related, so let me explain. There are lots of terrible smells on air planes. There was the lady who took off her shoes and the smell was a terrorist act as far as I was concerned and another flight had the awful throw up smell. And the worst part is there is no where to go. But fortunately I have discovered the miracles of coffee. I ask the flight attendent for a packet of coffee, take the plastic off, put it in hanging out over the seat pocket and voila, air freshner. The best part of the coffee is that it doesn't just mask the odours with coffee smell, it actually absorbes the odours. I think this must be the purpose God was thinking of when he created the coffee bean.

Given all the stress needless to say my body is losing the battle against of the viruses out there, but that is where the tylenol cold is saving me. I'm all about control symptoms at this point. I'm hoping that this is the end of the craziness with work, but it can be hard to sometimes.

Bathroom Reno's

2008-09-09T18:00:00.001-06:00

Putting a bathroom back together is much harder than tearing it apart. Let's just say there were a few nervous break down tears. My beautiful large tub. It is 38" wide in the middle. Well not exactly 38". I made the discouvering that the measurements on the box is not necessarily completely true. The tub is 24" deep, but that means from the bottom of the tub to the top of the tile flange and not how deep the tub actually is. The tub was actually very tricky to get into place because it is wider and deeper than the previous tub. The trick is to roll the tub into place.

These are my sinks and counter in the linen closet. It was soooo heavy that we had to get the movers to carry it upstairs.

This is my dad and the dog zack in the chaos called the living room.
More chaos in the dining room.
Me installing the denssheild behind the tub. It's better than concrete board. It's lighter and easier to cut and install and more water tight. Even if water gets behind the tile, the denssheild never rots.
My dad contemplating how to get the 60 and 1/8" vanity into the hole that goes from 60 and 1/4" to 59 and 3/4". We ultimately decided only to put the drywall above the vanity on one side to give the extra bit of room we needed.

Zack supervising the work.
The vanity in place. It actually went in pretty smoothly.

The counter and sinks is never coming out without a sledge hammer. Besides being incredibly heavy, it is wedged in.

Me tiling and yes I'm wearing a shower cap. I didn't want to mess up my hair.
I started off putting the morter on the walls, but found that it was alot easier to back butter the tiles and then place them on the wall. I'm glad I went with large tiles. It was so much work. This was one of my nervous break down days. I was a basket case by the end of the day and I still wasn't done.

Me putting the last tile in place. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
The shower done!

My friend Laura teaching me how to grout.

More grouting.
The beginnings of the cork floor. The key is to make paper templates for the curve around the tub. This part actually went in very easily.
The hard part was putting in the last row. When I bought it, they failed to mention that I needed a pull bar to click in the last row against the wall. I ended up going to 5 different hardware stores looking for one, because every where was sold out.

My done tub and walls. I was painted the one Saturday night till 11:30, so I could have a shower the next day for church. This was another one of my nervous breakdown days. I just really wished I had some moral support. I love my shower, but I'm not sure I ever want to do renovation again.

My mostly finished sinks. I still need to caulk along the tiles.
My new light fixture.
New towel racks. I still have a bunch of finishing to do like base boards and trim etc... The fan is a serious problem, because it has to be install from the attic. For now I'm just keeping the window open.

Right now I just feel like renovating and moving at the same time is just a bad idea. I might feel differently a couple of months from now, but I'm writing it down so I remember, so I never do this to myself again.

Outsmarted

2008-08-14T21:40:00.002-06:00

I bought a heavy duty tape dispenser for my boxes and have been completely outsmarted. Why on earth would they sell a tape dispenser without instructions on how to load the stupid thing? I went to the scotch tape website to see if they had any instructions and nothing! So now I have a totally useless tape dispenser and I'm still fighting with the roll of tape and scissors. URG!

A better frame of mind

2008-08-10T13:18:00.002-06:00

I'm in a much better frame of mind now and decided to take off my previous post. I think all the stress of buying and renovating my house, just pushed my frustrations of dating over the edge. Now that I'm thinking clearly again, I've decided to issue an invitation to all my friends that want me to visit. I have one free plane ticket any where in North America and will use that ticket to visit the person that can find someone for me to date that meets the following criteria.

Worthy priesthood holder and all that that implies.
Smart. I would ideally like someone smarter than me, but will settle for as smart. Also, smart in different ways than me would be ideal.
Has a sense of humour. When the dishwasher explodes and I'm up to my armpits in suds, does he swear or does he have a hard time running to shut the water off because he is laughing.
Has a means to support a family. This doesn't need to be luxurious, a modest home and lifestyle is all that is required.
Completely irrational about how beautiful I am. Please feel free to show my picture from my blog.

My wish list:

Willing to relocate to Edmonton
Loves to camp and canoe
Enjoys art and opera
Willingness to have a diversified palette.
Preferably never been married. Or at least no ex-wife that I would have to deal with. I don't have a problem with kids, I just want to be the only mum.

So start looking, get your husbands looking, leave no stone unturned. As a side note: included in my visit will be one night of babysitting so you and your husband can have a hot date.

Bathroom Demolition

2008-08-05T19:14:00.005-06:00

This is my friend Rebecca's husband Terry. She was good enough to spare him for the day to help me out. He was in charge of capping off the plumbing. Note the hole in the wall. There was the appearance of the access panel for the bathtub there, but when Terry removed the panel the wall was completely solid. Needless to say a hole was cut. This is my friend Marlene, the demolition expert. She has been known to tear down walls while her husband is at work. It's a good thing her husband is a put back together expert. Next to her is my neighbour and very good friend Jason. He was getting a little frustrated with my constant reminders to wear the safety glasses I bought for everyone.
This is Terry pulling the tub out. We thought this was going to be the biggest problem, but it turned out to be fairly easy.

Jason trying to drain the toilet. A small funny. I asked Jason multiple times if he had shut off the toilet valve. He assured me that if had. So I'm down in the basement turning the water back one to test to see if the caps worked that Terry put one. And all of a sudden I hear "TURN THE WATER OFF! TURN THE WATER OFF!". I get upstairs and guess who didn't turn the valve to the toilet off and was now a little bit wet.
This is the rotten wax seal from the toilet. Turns out the toilet was leaking and the floor around the toilet was rotten and the dry wall from the ceiling in the half bath below was rotten.

Taking out the sub-floor. This turned out to be the hardest part of the day. If the rest of the house is build as well as the sub-floor was, I have nothing to worry about.

This is the hole and plumbing for the toilet.
This is the plumbing for the sinks.

Or should I say the bank's house

2008-07-21T22:59:00.002-06:00

Tonight I signed all the paper work for the house. Everyone told me that I would probably be having an anxiety attack while I was signing and would second guess myself, but this just feels right. My lawyer, who happens to be one of my best friend's husband, kept commenting on how calm I was. I think the Lord knew that I would need time, and so it took me over a year to find the right place and get my money together. Not to mention the 5 weeks of haggling over the price. As I was signing all the forms I couldn't help but think how unnecessary all this would be if everyone were honest.

I think I may also be starting to have decision overload. Between picking paint and counter tops and outlet covers, I'm starting to worry that I will make the wrong choice. I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter in the end, but I can't help being a little crazy.

My house

2008-07-13T17:31:00.017-06:00

I just bought a townhouse. I get possession on July 31st. It's in what Americans call Escrow. All the pictures are for my mum's benefit who gave me my wedding money to help with the down payment. Let's just say, if I get married anytime in the next few years, it will be peanut butter sandwiches. The picture don't do justice to the dirt, although it is much better than I thought is was going to be given what it looked like when I bought it. The tenants had 2 cats and all that that implies. It is a great location. I'm now a little further from church and the temple (17 minute walk), but closer the the grocery store, bank, library, dry cleaners (17 minute walk). Across the street is a great park that has the best playground equipment according to my primary kids. The bus stop is just out at the end of the complex. So let the tour begin.

My house is right ahead, with the blue car in front. My parking spot is next to it.
This is the front entry.
Turn right and here is the half bath. I really like having a bathroom right as you walk in for those times that you are pee-pee dancing from the bus stop. My plan to redo do this bathroom next year.

Turn left from the front entry and you are in the kitchen. I'm so excited to have a double sink.
The appliances are a little old, but still work. I won't even begin to describe the disgustingness of the burners.
The fridge is empty, but still smells.
This would be the cabinets that I will keep bumping my head into. Why would someone put cabinets at both doors to the kitchen? I plan to put a kitchen table underneath to try and force myself to walk around instead of trying to cut corners. The cabinets are very ugly.

This is the dinning room. The door on the right is to the kitchen and the window on the left looks out on to my back patio. It's large enough for me to put all the leafs in my table and to have my china cabinet and one day a buffet.

Turn around from the last picture and this is the step down into my living room. I'm painting the entire house with the exception of my bedroom and the bathrooms, a creaming yellow called cornsilk.
This is the ugly fire place. Another one of my projects. I want to redo the mantle and ledge.

Next we go down into the basement. This is going to be my sewing room/library for now. My long term plan is to make this my tv room, but since I'm going to rent out the bedrooms to help pay for all my renovations, I will be sewing in the basement.

I love my laundry room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can wait not to pay 4$ a load.
The unfinished half of the basement. I place for my camping stuff, food storage and Christmas decorations.
My furnace and hot water heater.
More space for storage.
And still more storage space.

The stairs to the second floor. Note that there is a landing and the stairs turn and go downstairs. This is going to be the tricky part for painting. I only have an articulating ladder, no scaffolding. I found a special edging roller which I'm hoping with work. If you have any suggestions for painting high walls over stairs let me know.

This is my bedroom. I'm going to paint it Raspberry Lemonade, ie pink. I decided this is the only time I'm going to get pink room, because the minute I'm married I will be painting again.
The extremely ugly closet doors. Yet another thing I'm planning to replace eventually.

The iron burn in the medium size bedroom. I plan to replace all the carpet hopefully in the next 2 years.
The medium size bedroom.
The small bedroom.
The linen closet.

The awful vanity. I'm putting in a maple vanity that is stained cherry. It turns out my mum has the exact same one. The flooring is going to be natural ribbon cork. Cork is great here because it is warm on the feet in the winter, without having to be in in-floor heating.
The reason why I got such a good price on the place. I'm gutting the entire bathroom. Aside from the massive whole in the wall, this bathroom ranks up there of one of the dirtiest bathrooms I've seen. And that is saying something given what I saw on my mission. I'm putting in plain white tile with a glass blue accent row. The walls are going to be painted blue to match the accent row.
The tub in going to be a soaker tub.
The toilet is replusive. I'm putting in a Toto toilet. My plumber friend said that they are the best low flush out there.
This medicine chest in is a wall that separates the toilet and the vanity. The wall holds the venting for the plumbing so I can't take it down. I'm going to take out the chest and just fill the fix the hole.

Personal Worship

2008-06-29T16:04:00.007-06:00

I was asked to speak in a special priesthood/relief society meeting today on personal worship. It was a hard talk to write because when they asked me a couple of weeks ago they said the whole Sunday was centred on things the Bishopric was concerned about and that the other talks would be about sacrifice, keeping covenants, mercy, and committment to Christ. I felt alot of pressure, because I wanted to make sure that whoever they wanted me to speak for heard the message that they needed in their hearts. I think one of the people that needed to hear the message was me. After reading my Ensign last night, I decided to post my entire talk for you. Hopefully, someone else will need this too.

Personal Worship

We learn in Moses 5:5 that one of the first commandments that Adam and Eve were given after they left the Garden was “that they should worship the Lord their God”. The commandment to worship our Lord remains in effect today, although the means of worship no longer involves the sacrifice of our flocks, but the sacrifice of our hearts and minds. This can sometimes feel like an impossible sacrifice to make in the day to day grind of things, but President Hinckley taught “It is not so much the major events as the small day to day decisions that map the course of our living … Our lives are, in reality, the sum total of our seemingly unimportant decisions and of our capacity to live by those decisions.” (BYU, 26 Oct 1965). In the Doctrine and Convenants the Lord said, “You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.” D&C123:16 Like the ship being directed by the small helm, I have found that by deciding to worship the Lord on a day to day basis that when the Lord asks me to sacrifice my heart and mind in a new level of worship that it is actually possible because I already have a habit of worship and sacrifice. I have broken up my personal worship into four areas:

1. Worship through daily scripture study.
2. Worship through daily prayer.
3. Worship through regular temple attendance.
4. Worship through service.

1. WORSHIP THROUGH DAILY SCRIPTURE STUDY.

As stated in the introduction to the Book of Mormon, it is the keystone of our religion and it needs to be the keystone of our lives. I have always loved the Book of Mormon, but early morning seminary opened my eyes to the potential impact that a serious study of it would have on my life. President Benson promised in October 1986 General Conference that “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.” I will admit that the words serious study can sometimes be a real challenge, but I also know from personal experience that serious study will only happen if you are opening and at least reading everyday from the Book of Mormon. It was many years of just reading a chapter here and verse here every night before I had a real awakening to the power that the Book of Mormon in my life. And while I would like to say that one verse nights and weeks without a spiritual experience with the scriptures don’t happen anymore, they happen more often than I care to admit. But I also know that despite the one verse nights, I have been protected in more ways than I will probably ever realized in this life and this knowledge helps me to want to increase my daily scripture feast.

Specifically on my mission I developed a better understanding of who Jesus Christ is through the Book of Mormon and I have tried to continue that relationship. President Benson spoke of this in the October 1987 General Conference “We have an increasing number who have been convinced, through the Book of Mormon, that Jesus is the Christ. Now we need an increasing number who will use the Book of Mormon to become committed to Christ. We need to be convinced and committed.” For the most part I believe that we all have been convinced, but now is the time for us to become committed. The development of our commitment to Christ and His Gospel is what shapes lives. We need to be better in how we use the Book of Mormon to reaffirm that dedication to the Gospel.

In the words of the apostle Paul we find the same message, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I frequently receive my reproof and corrections from the Lord through the scriptures and for me it is always easier to take because I know that it is truly from the Lord, Himself.

2. WORSHIP THROUGH DAILY PRAYER.

Interestingly enough, our worship through daily scripture study is in separately linked to our worship through prayer. Elder Eyring, then a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles said in the October 2001 General Conference: “We can and must go often and carefully to the word of God. If we become casual in our study of the scriptures, we will become casual in our prayers. We may not cease to pray, but our prayers will become more repetitive, more mechanical, lacking real intent. Our hearts cannot be drawn out to a God we do not know, and the scriptures and the words of living prophets help us know Him. As we know Him better, we love Him more.” I know this to be true from my own life. As I immerse myself in the scriptures, I become acquainted with the language of God and am able to communicate with Him on a much more intimate level.

I came across a beautiful Psalm:”The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” Psalms 9:9-10. How can we expect to know the name of the Lord in times of need if we have never sincerely called on him in times of joy?

In the Doctrine and Convenants we are told that if we,"Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.” D&C 10:5. It is humbling to think that by such a small thing we can have power over the adversary. The prayer that is necessary to tap this power from heaven is not just hours of time on your knees, but as Alma taught “Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.” Alma 34:27. May our hearts be always filled with prayer.

3. WORSHIP THROUGH REGULAR TEMPLE ATTENDANCE.

Temple worship begins long before you enter the temple, it begins with living your life worthy of a temple recommend. I love the feeling of rummaging for a card in my wallet and seeing my temple recommend and knowing that I’m worthy of it. And that feeling is available to all members regardless of whether or not they have been endowed or they have a limited use recommend. The next part of temple worship involves actually going. The Lord has blessed us with a temple in our mist, let us wear it out, let us force the temple open more hours because of our diligence, let us prompt another temple to be built in Alberta. The Lord will provide way, so that you may attend to the needs of your family beyond the grave. And as we do so, the Lord will assist us with the work that needs to be done in our families that are here. For me this has meant having my heart soften to forgive those in my family that have hurt me.

Now the downside to having miracles happen in your life as a result of your temple worship is that with it comes many trials. The early saints were particularly sensitive to this phenomenon and were very reluctant to start building a temple in the Salt Lake Valley. President Young told them, “Some say, ‘I do not like to do it for we never begin to build a temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.’ I want to hear them ring again.” I testify that they will ring as you worship in the temple, but that you will receive a power far greater than anything that comes from yourself to face your trials and you will overcome them is ways beyond your ability to understand.

4. WORSHIP THROUGH SERVICE.

One of the ways we worship through service is by sustaining our leaders and one another in our callings. Elder George Albert Smith, a former member of the quorum of the twelve apostles taught what it means to raise your arm to sustain the prophet. “The obligation that we make when we raise our hands under such circumstances is a most scared one. It does not mean that we will go quietly on our way and be willing that the prophet of the Lord shall direct this work, but it means -- if I understand the obligation I assumed when I raised my hand – that we will stand behind him; we will pray for him; we will defend his good name, and we will strive to carry out his instructions as the Lord shall direct him to offer them to us while he remains in that position.“ I suggest that this applies not just to the prophet, but to every position in the Church. Are we carrying out the instructions of our bishop or relief society president; are we making sure that our children bring their scriptures to primary and Sunday school? I lived in a ward once that was exceptional in accepting and fulfilling assignments and callings. In fact so exceptional that for eight consecutive months we had 100% home and visiting teaching. Some may say that numbers don’t mean anything, but in this case they do. Let me share what our Bishop told us at the end of the school year. He had been a Bishop of singles wards over the years for a total seven years. This was the first time that he had not had one single case of immorality. As a result of individual members decisions to sustain our church leaders and one another in our individual assignments, we as a ward brought about a miracle.

One of the greatest services we can give is kindness to one another. When we have an attitude of worship, we focus on people’s hearts and desires. Criticism disappears, and we are filled with patience and understanding. It’s the difference between being irritated by the bratty kids behind you in Church and thinking “my children never behaved like that!” Or seeing a family who are struggling to teach their children about reverence.

In closing I’d like to return to the analogy of the ship with the small helm. The storms of life will come and we will never be able to think of every possible scenario where the Lord is going to ask us to sacrifice our hearts and minds, but with the helm of personal worship grasp firmly in hand, we will have the power to steer our lives in the way the Lord would have us go.

”Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. “ D&C 64:33.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are strange things are done in the midnight sun

2008-06-21T21:53:00.005-06:00

For those that aren't up on their Canadian poetry. This is a reference from the poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service. I jumb at the chance to present at a meeting on Thursday up in Whitehorse Yukon. I arrived at 11:30pm and it was still bright out. You could still read a book by the light and not strain your eyes. My first truly Yukon experience was getting from the airport to my hotel. I walked out of the airport and look for a cab. I couldn't find one, but saw this beat up limo with a smashed up windshied with a burly, rotund guy with a long white ponytail and a big bushy beard standing in front of it. He asks if I needed a ride to town. Part of me was thinking, this is a bad idea (I've had some really bad experiences in big cities with cabs), the other part was thinking what could go wrong, this is a small town. So I hopped in. He introduced himself as Woody and started to tell me about the weather in Whitehorse. "Nine months of winter and three months of poor sledding". Let's just say he was a true Northern character.

Thrusday I actually had to do work, but Friday I got to go canoeing on the Yukon River. I fell in love. It was so beautiful. Below are some of the pictures. We saw some bald eagle, golden eagles and falcons. I'm already saving for an expediation canoe trip.

Over on the left is one of the bald eagles I saw.

Dinner Club

2008-06-16T21:30:00.002-06:00

I get together with 4 of my friends about once a month for Dinner Club. One person hosts. The host decides on the theme, the recipes and does the main course. It's one of the things I look forward to the most during the month. This is our chance to try out recipes that have expensive ingredients and take a little longer to prepare. Aside from the great food, we have so much fun. At some point, I usually want to cry from laughing. Some interesting facts about our little group. We are all the same age, we are all oldest children and none of us likes cats.

This is Karen. She is one of the most considerate people I know, she never forgets a birthday or any important moment in someone's life.

This is Tawnia. She was telling one of her hilarious stories about work. She is an HR/Safety coordinator for an oil/gas. She is also one of the most compassionate people I know.

This is Rebecca. We have known each other since we were 13 and have been friends for the last 10 years. She is the person I can call in the middle of the night if I'm sick or when I'm devastated about something. She is the next best thing to having actual family around.

This is Joanne. She is in the "one of the smartest people that I know" group. To put in context her back up for grad school is Harvard. She is 2 Nephi 9:29 "But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God."

Date Advice

2008-06-16T21:02:00.002-06:00

My primary kids are very concerned about my dating life. Just the other week they wanted to know if the guy that I had gone out with was a good guy. Then they wanted to know if I was going to marry him, and I pointed out that it was a little soon since it was a third date. They had all sorts of advice about how long I should date someone before getting married. It was quite funny. It is no surprise that I sometimes have a hard time getting them to focus on the lesson. Anyway, one of my kids on Sunday wrote up her advice for me. I wish you could see the hand writing. I've put the list on my fridge. The order is the same and Claire keeps getting confused about max and min. So here it is.

Date Advice

Choose a man
See if he's the right one
Go on a date
See if he's nice
Choose if you want to marry him
13 dates max or more
Wed

To: Sister King

From: Claire

Dating Rants

2008-06-07T22:33:00.003-06:00

I'm starting to really hate dating. Right now I'm completely freaking out. I just got back from my 3rd date with Nathan. I have no idea if he is into me or not. I have no idea if I have communicated effectively whether I'm into him without being one of those aggressive girls that I don't want to be. As I get to know him better, I get more stressed about not knowing exactly what is going on in his head. And then I get mad at myself, because it's a 3rd date. I hate that I feel just as insecure dating now as I did when I was in my teens and early 20's. I'm a strong independent women that can go and present to rooms full of highly educated people and be put on the spot and grilled about my work with ease and composure and I'm falling apart over a guy that is just a 3rd date. I should be through with this part of my life. URG!!!

The "Other" Ten Commandment

2008-06-05T16:15:00.003-06:00

There are times when you need to laugh at the nastiness that sometimes comes from others. Sometimes it is very hard and other times they make it easy for you.

Today, I received an email that as I read I couldn't decide if I wanted to cry because I was so hurt or punch the person in the face for being so out of line. But they ended the email with the following line "As you should be well aware one of the 10 commandments is, “Do unto others as you would like done to you.”"

I just started to laugh outloud. I could not help but think, if you are going to call me on something and use the scriptures to back up your point, you had better make sure you get it right because I will be able to find it. And in this case, I had it memorized from seminary.

Lest any of you worry, I did not send back a nasty email, tempting though it was. I took a page out of Pahoran's book (Alma 60-61) and just apologized.

How to Raise Useful Children

2008-06-01T16:36:00.008-06:00

I just got back from yet another fun/frustrating weekend at Girl Guide camp. The fun stuff will be to follow after I get the pictures worked out. The frustrating part has resulted in me wanting to shake some parents. Since I'm clearly a perfect parent with perfect children, (ie I have none) I have compiled 8 tips for raising useful children based on my numerous experiences at camp.

When you a struggling with something around the house or yard, ask your child for help. This will prevent your child from standing around with looks of mild interest as their friend or leader tries to figure out how to hoist and secure an archery net with no pulleys.
Have your child help fold towels and sheets. This will help your child understand and act on instructions such as fold in half lengthwise the fly and make sure that there are no winkles.
When you ask a direct question to your child, expect an answer. This will assist your child in providing answers to questions such as "Is this your water bottle?"
When your child spends the night or travels anywhere including family trips, have them pack their own bags. By the time they are 8yrs old, they should be able to follow a list, fold and make fit all their own stuff with minimal supervisor. This will prevent, "but my mum didn't pack my rain gear" and "I don't know how my mum got it to fit" in a whining voice from being said.
When you travel with your child have them carry their own bags and help with the general family bags. This will prevent the "its not my bag" attitude.
When you ask your child to do something and they respond with "do I have to?" in a whining voice, your response should be the mum death stare. If you do not have a mum death stare, get one. This will reduce the number of "do I have to's?" that adults, who do not think your child is nearly as wonderful as you do, have to hear. Thereby increasing the chance that said adults will think your child is wonderful.
Go on regular dates with your spouse, leaving your child with a babysitter that is not a relative. This will help your child to be independent of you.
Every few years, go on an overnight with your spouse without the children. Be unavailable to phone calls. This will further develop your child's independence.

Rally Point???

2008-05-29T21:51:00.003-06:00

In grade 9 gym I spent hours studying the rules. I had it figured out that if I got 100% in participation and in the written portion I could pass the class. My teacher even told me that knowing the rules would help me in real life because I could be scorekeeper for work intermurals.

Last night I was scorekeeper for the Corporate Challenge volleyball tournament. So there I was scoring away using the rules I learned in High School. All of a sudden, time outs are being called and people are freaking out. No one was yelling, but that's because you get kicked out if you yell, but you could tell they were doing some serious suppressing. It turns out that the rules for scoring have changed since 1990. Now it is Rally Point. After a quick lesson in new scoring rules, I was good to go.

But this does prove what I always suspected, that high school gym was completely pointless for me.

Blogging incompetent

2008-05-21T20:58:00.001-06:00

I'm a blogging incompetent. I can't figure out how to add pictures to my posts. Every time I try, they all end up at the top and I want them after specific paragraphs. I have no problem figuring out complex manipulations to millions of rows of data, but this is completely beyond me. So to all my blogging expert friends, please send me some instructions.

My Pilgrimage to Southern Alberta

2008-05-15T21:19:00.000-06:00

Since I moved to Edmonton seven years ago, whenever I played the game about three strange facts about yourself, I would always say that I had never been to Southern Alberta. People would be shocked and would usually reply with "But the temple is there!" There is also a temple a 12 minute walk from my house, so why on earth would I drive 6 hours to attend the temple. Anyway, this weekend was the Victoria Day long weekend, so my friend Karen and I headed south for my first ever trip to the Mormon Mecca of Alberta: Cardston. Some interesting facts/impressions about Southern Alberta.

No mormon shall live within 20 miles of the City of Lethbridge. This law is still in effect.
The largest LDS seminary outside the Utah/Idaoh corridor is in Lethbridge.
The small towns surrounding Lethbridge were settle by saints sent by John Taylor on settling missions.
There seems to be an attitude of "the Prophet sent my family, from our beloved Utah, north and I'm going no further north ever!!!!!"
There seems to be an attitude that Southern Alberta is the "other" Zion.
It's really windy.

I met my friend Karen 13 years ago in Ottawa when I was dating her nephew. Last year she moved into my ward and we've become close friends.
This is me; Wanda, Karen's sister; Karen; Brother and Sister Bennett, Karen's parents. This is after we went to the temple. What makes the Cardston Temple unique is that as you move through the temple towards the centre, the wood gets darker. Most temples, the rooms get lighter towards the centre. The windows do get larger, to allow more light in to try to counter act the effect of the dark wood. The reason for the darker wood is because it is more luxurious. In the celestial room the tassels on some of the curtains are made out of real gold. It truly amazes me what people sacrificed to build the temple. I sometimes wonder if one of the trials that we have now is the ease with which temples are now built.

After the temple, we headed to Waterton National Park.

Wanda being crazy in the car again. I'm starting to think that women without their kids are the most crazy people out there.

Wanda almost getting blown away.

This waterfall will be almost a trickle by the end of the summer. The mist is icy cold, because the water is from glacier run off, plus the weekend before there was a huge dump of snow. The smell of snow melting, and things starting to grow is purely divine. I wish I could somehow capture it. It would be the perfect pick me up in the dead of winter.

More of me getting blown to bits. This is a glacier lake. Apparently, this is a very calm day.

I love how the wild life just marches into the town site. We went into this furrier and had fun trying on coats that we clearly can't afford. And lest you judge about the whole fur thing, try waiting for the bus at -40F/C plus wind chill. This is some of the snow still left just outside of the town site. One of the great parts about Alberta is that it can be 20C and still have snow on the ground.

We also went to a Hudderite colony on Sunday. It was very interesting. For the most part, they keep to themselves and as a result there are all sorts of rumours and nutty lies about them. One of which is that they don't believe in taking pictures. Which is why I didn't take my camera. Imagine my surprise when they pulled out wedding photos. They told me I could come back because I asked so many questions and clearly had more. They told the Bennet's that most people come and just stand there and say nothing.

It was a great trip.

The Perils of a Busy Life

2008-05-12T20:09:00.000-06:00

I have season tickets to the Opera and about a month ago was looking for someone to go with. So when my visiting teacher asked if there was anything she could do for me, I asked her to set me up. She came through big time and I had a great time with Nathan. Afterwards, he told her he was going to call me to ask me out and then there was nothing. I had pretty much written him off. You can imagine my surprise when he called tonight to ask me out for Wednesday night, but I have my last sewing class Wednesday. Then Nathan asks for for Tuesday night, but I'm doing math tutoring. (I exchange math tutoring for cleaning). I could hear in his voice that he thought I was just brushing him off. I tried to reassure him that that wasn't the case. So he asks for Thursday night and I have to go visiting teaching. After 3 tries, he gave up, which means that now I have to come up with something to do so I can ask him out, so he knows that I'm interested. I also had this awful realization that I'm busy every Friday and Saturday night for the next 3 weekends. Urg!!!

A special movie night

2008-05-02T22:25:00.000-06:00

I just got back from the best friday night and I had to write right away. In my primary (sunday school) class, we have a goal to read from our scriptures every day and to complete the reading for our lesson each week. We get stickers for effort and additional ones for completion. After someone gets 30 stickers, they get to do one free activity of their choice with me. As luck would have it, Zoe, one of the girls in my class, and I both got 30 stickers at the same time. So we did home pizza and popcorn and a movie, The Chronicles of Narnia, at Zoe's house. Zoe showed me this very dangerous book called "The Girls book: How to be the Best at Everything" What makes in sooooo dangerous is the section on "How to persuade your parents to let you have a pet." And it works! And Zoe has the hampster to prove it. She was very understanding about me not wanting to touch it. We got a little carried away with talking about books. I love watching movies by myself, but there is something extra special about having someone's feet touch your leg or putting your arm around them and snuggling in to stay warm. At the end of the movie, when Aslan crowns the children and gives them their titles. I asked Zoe, what she would prefer to be known as: valiant, just, gentle or magnificant. She picked gentle and I would agree. The world needs more gentleness and Zoe is definitely going to provide that. Since I don't own a car, her mum drove me home and told me that Zoe had had a hard week and that our night together was something she had looked forward to. It was another example about how the Lord puts you in the right place to bless someone and then blesses you ten fold more for just being there. Spending time with Zoe filled up my soul and reminds me why I'm so grateful I get to go to primary.

Being Vintage

2008-04-28T20:52:00.000-06:00

I've discovered that I'm now vintage. When I was a girl, I would go to girl guide camp and we always cut the wood with a two-person cross cut saw. This was hilarious because if you push the saw, it bows and gets stuck and resulted in lots of yelling and laughing. Eventually, we would get the hang of taking turns pulling and we would start showing off our sawing prowess. This year I decided that my unit needed to buy some wood cutting equipment for my girls. Off to Canadian Tire I go to buy a saw. I looked all over and finally asked for help from this man that must be on his way to retirement. "Oh, we haven't sold those in years." I asked around at Church and the only people that had any idea what I was talking about were part of the High Priest group. I looked on e-bay and almost all the two-person cross cut saws were labeled as vintage. And if cross cut saws are vintage, what to the boucherons (lumberjacks, it's funny that I only picture boucherons as french canadians) do now? Do they just sit around eating giant stacks of pancakes with maple syrup and singing "Un canadien errant"? My poor girls will now just have to cut wood with a buck saw and miss all the fun of cutting wood with a partner.

Welcome to my blog

2008-04-21T22:23:00.000-06:00

As I've enjoyed reading my various friends blogs, I've decided to start my own blog about my very exciting life. Actually, when I found out that I could download a blog into a book and have it printed; I thought this could be the solution to my journal issues. I manage to write in my journal about the deeply personal stuff in my life, but never get to the interesting or entertaining parts of my life. The title to my blog is for all the friends that have mocked my car circle checks, what if questions, and the multiple colours of duct tape that I always take camping. You know who you are.