Wednesday, August 31, 2011

...August Long...


...yep, still catching you up with us...
:)

July 30 was my dear friend Tracy's ( aka BRAT ) birthday!!
we ended up having her and her charming hubbie Robert out to the cabin for the day to celebrate
"BEACH STYLE"!!!!
(this makes me happy)

...and a little surprise for Tracy upon her arrival was Tara and Johnny sitting in the yard!!

SURPRISE!!!!

( and later in the afternoon we were joined by the Pinter Trio too!!!)
we had great weather...and lots of fun, laughter and good food!!!

Happy 50th once again my special angel....
MUAH!

...the Pinters ended up staying the night with us and the fun continued on the next day...
...or evening...bahahaha!! -Hic!


...man, i LOVE going to the lake...
( and company just makes it all the more enjoyable ...Hi Nikki! )

...Miss Courtney...little sun bathing beauty...

...and of course the boys and the toys were going all weekend too...

...and the girls...


...LOOK!!!  a photo of ME!!!!
( can u believe it?)
Aug.3...we came into the city for my weekly wednesday visit with Lynn...and also because Courtney was dancing in the MHDA presentation in Folklorama that night!
( courtney-in red- and her pal alex doing the irish jig )

...and also danced the sailor's hornpipe...

...with alex...
:)

...courtney's dance teacher, Susan, was the MHDA spokesperson and presented the dancers...
AND she even danced herself in a few performances as well!
( in purple) BRAVO!!!
:)

(courtney, kailey and alex )

...and WHAT would be the Pavillion of Scotland without some Scottish grub?
-Irn Bru pop for the kids ( like they had in Scotland)
-scottish imperial cookies
-raisin scones
-scottish shortbread
-and my dinner of mince, mashed potatoes/gravy and mashed turnip - YUMM-O!!!

...and by 1am, we were back at the lake!!!


...be back again soon...
:)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Courtney's East Coast Hornpipe - Premier 12 years


...just thought i'd share a video of one of courtney's dances while competing in nova scotia...
enjoy!!!
(she is in blue...#882 -on the left)


...more summer...

...back we go a bit...
after nova scotia, we were finally planned and packed to go to our family cabin at gull lake for 5 days...
the kids were ecstatic to get their first summer ride on our jetski!!!


...and the next day came the phone call that my sweet Grandma had passed away that morning.
so i called mike to come to the cabin to finish packing back up as i needed to get to the city to go to the hospital and be with my Mom...
the rest of that week was the heavy hearted planning to make the neccessary arrangements for Grandma...the cremation, the service, the music, the flowers...everything was really overwhelming and I wished with all my heart to cancel it all and just have my Grandma back with us....
...and in the midst of all our sadness with our loss, we had to stay strong and on our feet because the same week as Grandma's death was also the much anticipated wedding for my younger brother Curtis and Erith!!
so we all did our best to focus on the happy upcoming occasion and got through our rough week together as a family.
curt and erith's wedding rehersal was on july 22...the day after grandma's memorial service, and was also curt's birthday as well!!!! 
we KNOW in our hearts that grandma was with us all through this week, and would not miss curt's wedding she was looking so forward too...she just just had the best seat in the house from Heaven...

...july 23 was their big day...
I had the honour of being their photographer and did my best to capture many happy, loving memories for them...


( out of respect to curt and erith, i could only post a few photos for you on my blog...)

...and a few days after their wedding, and also having the privelege of driving them to the airport to send them safely off on their month long European honeymoon, we were ready to have a few quiet, restful recovery days at the lake again...


...this was our first time taking our NEW TO US fishing boat out on the lake for some attempted fishing...
( boat kindly donated to our family from Uncle Les and Aunty Maureen Griffin !!! )
we bought the kids their own fishing rods as one of their "passing the grade" gifts and they were quite happy to try them out on the lake...

...daddy was the only one who caught ( and released) a couple little jackfish that day...

WOW.
i have much more to update here....mostly just some fun happenings of the summer.
which is good.
i prefer laughter to tears anyday!!!!

...be back soon...
:)

Friday, August 26, 2011


..TODAY...

I SAW...that my scrapbooking stuff in my basement was in dire need of TLC - cleaning, organizing & purging!!!

I HEARD...some of my favorite songs on Itunes whilst I worked on my mess!

I TASTED...a toasted peanut butter sandwich for breakfast ( ...and just realized i skipped lunch...-workin' hard, ya know!! )

I FELT...tears on my cheeks as I prepared all of last years Christmas cards for our Kindergarten craft donation and came accross our homemade card from my Grandma...it will now be her last one we received to cherish always...( every year, i always give the 'fronts' of our last years cards to the K's at Tyler's school for crafting with! )

I SMELLED...Partylite's Honeydew candle burning whilst i worked in the basement...heehee

I LEARNT...that as hard as i try to be organized, i suck. 

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

...be back soon with another summer update...
xoxo

Thursday, August 18, 2011

...today...

...amongst my blog catch up comes a hard day today to face...
most of you already know that on monday, july 18, our family sadly lost the heart of our family.
today is one whole month already that she has been gone from us and i wake up every morning in disbelief that she is really gone.
Grandma became ill in June with a very serious infection called Ascending Colongitis.  she was admitted on fathers day, june 19, for treatment and we were given a heavy prognosis that this infection had a high mortality rate, especially in the elderly.
but Grandma being Grandma, fought the infection as long as her poor little body could take it and we all heavy heartedly lost in the end.


i could go on forever sharing with you my love for grandma, and how my world is just not the same without her here in it anymore.
how her love and devotion to her family will forever affect who we all are now.
how her examples of loving kindness, forgiveness, and selflessness make me want to be more like her in every way possible.
how my children miss their nana terribly every day.
and how much our family holidays now will always be missing her homemade cards and knitted dishcloths!!!
so many things from my childhood, my own childrens memories and our entire family's memories, will always and forever hold special all that she gave of herself in every little detail.
i am sooo sooo very sad that god took her from us and miss her and think of her every day.
but i believe that she is in a better place with him now with no more suffering or pain.
and that she is with her two children that she untimely lost years ago and is waiting to see us all again...
but not yet.

(these photos with grandpa were taken on thanksgiving 2010...one of our last family gathering dinners with her.)

...she passed away 15 days before their 70th wedding anniversary...
they truly were the loves of their lives.

...and i will always remember her love of fun, laughter, jokes and good times...


...Santa Grandma...
( i will miss THIS )
...so being 1 month ago today, i thought it appropriate to celebrate her memory and to tell her in my own way that ...
i love you to pieces.
i miss you every day.
i will never forget how much love and joy you brought to my life.
x0x0x0

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

O.M.Geeeeeee!!!!!

Okay....
so there is absolutely no point in taking part in the fight against time.
i lose. every. time.
:)

so....i am just going to start catching up my blog for you with the end of antoher school year for the kids!
both the kids happily and successfully passed their grades and are looking forward to starting grade 4 and grade 8 in september...
this is the mini album i made for tyler's teacher at the end of june from her classroom...

...every page had each students photo i had taken and a sweet little hand-written page they each wrote for her...they loved seeing the finished project starring their classroom on the last day of school and tyler's teacher loved her special keepsake!!

...the kids each got an awesome new beach towel and their first fishing rods ( and some good ol' cashola ) for passing another school year with flying colors!!!
YAY!!!!  let the summer begin!!!

...most of you know that courtney and i traveled to Antigonish, Nova Scotia for the first week of July for her to compete at the Scotdance Canada Championship Series competition....
so, this blog post is going to be a catch up from that little trip!
(and THEN i will be doing lots more updating - hahahaha!!!!)

JULY 2
courtney and i left for our first visit to nova scotia!!!



JULY 3
after opening ceremonies, our group was off to see our first spectacular glimpse of ocean scenery, and to indulge ourselves in our first taste of the East Coast as well...
Boyd's Seafood Galley...in the harbour!
my dinner....YUMM-O!!

...our group of Manitoban dancers...

...we had an early night as the competitions started the next morning...

BREAKFAST!!!!

...stretching and warming up...

this morning's competition was Pre-championships.
...and after a very exciting and anxious morning, in a class of 23 dancers, Courtney got an awards callback!
she placed 2nd in fling, 4th in sword, and 7th in reel.
and in our surreal excitement, she also finished her morning being tied for 1st Runer-Up!!!
soooooo soooooo proud and happy!!!


...courtney also danced again in the afternoon for another Open competition.
she competed again in the restricted premier group and this afternoon had 22 dancers in her group!
( on stage, ready to do her sword dance )


......waiting for awards callbacks...


...and to our excitement again, courtney got another callback!!
she won 5th in her fling, and 1st in her sword ( and didn't place in her reel ) and also finished as 1st Runner-Up again!!!!
GAH!!!!!

...what an incredibly exciting and proud day...

...the next morning, i did some updating in my little travel journal for this trip...
SEE?  i can and will scrapbook anywhere, anytime!!!
HAHAHAHA!!!!
...a couple of the dancers from our travel group were competing this day ( july 5 ) in the Inter-Provincial Championships as Manitoba reps...but courtney was not dancing today...so after everyone came back we all went to Pomquet beach for the afternoon to have some beach fun together!
...watch out for jellyfish, even the dead ones!!!

...i was pretty excited because as we walked along the shoreline, i found for courtney a whole, in tact, sand dollar!!!!  ( ps, this is courtney's first bikini!!!!  daddy's polishing up his baseball bat...)

...in the evening, the rest of our group was going to a rep banquet and dinner...so i had made other plans for courtney and i to take a little scenic road trip up the coast for photography and to take in a couple lighthouses too!!!

...St. George Lighthouse...

...and from here we went on to the town of Arisaig to see another lighthouse...
and in my plans, i brought along courtney's highland costume to snap a little photo shoot at Arisaig...
:)


...arisaig lighthouse...

...and then we were back on our hour drive back down the coast to Antigonish...

...antigonish sunset...
'nite.


July 6
...Nationals competition day...
23 dancers in courtney's class...and antoher callback!  YAY!!!

...she placed 2nd in her awesome jig, and 8th in blue bonnets ( and didn't place in village maid ).
she also finished 1st Runner-Up again!!!
i can't tell you how great a feeling it is to have your kid win ANY medals at this huge, tough event!!!
courtney is quite proud of herself and happy to bring home some hardware!

...this afternoon was also the East Coast Hornpipe Challenge...
...and with 32 dancers in her group, and only 6 finalist opportunities to move on, she put up a good fight to enter, but maybe next year....she did a fabulous hornpipe nonetheless!!!

...now all our groups dancing has come to it's completion and we were on our way for some touring...
after packing up costumes and suitcases, we were on our way to take the ferry accross to Prince Edward Island...

...ferry harbour sunset...

...on the ferry...

...July 7...
we woke up to BEAUTIFUL HOT weather on Prince Edward Island and were anxious to start our day of touring the island...starting with a peek of the ferry we came accross on the night before...

...i had suggested a peek at Wood Islands lighthouse since our hotel was only about 10mins from it, and also since nobody else in our group had yet seen a lighthouse in the Maritimes...

...this is a mermaid SANDCASTLE that's sits beside the lighthouse...every year the artist comes to make a new design...

...fresh farm strawberries to nibble on our drive...

...after the lighthouse tour and a gas stop, we were definitely in need of some BRUNCH!
we went to Charlottetown for some grub and went to
Lobster on the Wharf to eat...

...my lunch...garlic shrimp alfredo...
OMG - so good!!!!!

...after lunch, we were off to Argyle Shore to take in some of PEI's Red Shore Sands...

"courtney. wuz. here."

...we all collected some jars of red sand and rocks to bring home...heeheehee

next stop, Anne of Green Gables National Historic Site.


...and as the evening approached, we finished our day off on PEI with some souvenier shopping & stocking up on snacks for our drive back to Nova Scotia...accross the Confederation Bridge back to New Brunswick first...( toll fee $45 per car! )


...80kms/hr, 12 min drive over the atlantic...so cool.

...July 8...
last tour day of our trip.
we spent the entire day in Halifax.


...we did the harbour hopper ( land and sea ) tour - AWESOME!!!

...and spent most of the afternoon on the harbour shopping and site seeing...

...and having lunch!  ( mine = tai chicken salad wrap! )

...for our last dinner, we went to Salty's and treated susan ( courtney's dance teacher ) to her lobster dinner - at last!!!!! 

...and a walk on the harbour in the evening brought us to a Cow's Ice Cream shop!!!
WOW.
now THAT's ice cream!!

...this one was mine - Mooey Gooey - and courtney had a cup of Birthday Cake ice cream....
what a fun and delicious place!

...we had a late night in our hotel room and were up early to finish off packing and head off to the airport.
...where courtney received THE MOST HILARIOUS 'makeover' from susan and jillian...
NO comment!!!!  Bahahahaha.....

...good bye Nova Scotia...

...hope to come back again...

...courtney's nova scotia treasures...
:)

MUCH more to catch up on so i will be back soon!!!