Sasha's Reality Dial On The Net

Playing around with Apps

2011-10-05T12:54:00.001-06:00

Bored

2011-07-30T23:23:00.001-06:00

I am lying here SO bored on a Saturday night... I'm old.

Alberta 2010 Budget

2010-02-11T23:35:00.003-07:00

So here is the outcome of the 2010 Alberta Government Budget...

Money Government gives themselves: Municipal Affairs- Budgeted program expense for Municipal Affairs is over $1 billion in 2010-11, an increase of $421 million or 69 per cent from the 2009-10 forecast.

Campaign Donors!: Energy- Budgeted program expense for Energy is $456.5 million in 2010-11, a $50-million or 12.3–per-cent increase from the 2009-10 forecast.

More Donors... Finance and Enterprise - Budgeted program expense for Finance and Enterprise is nearly $1.1 billion in 2010-11, an $82-million or 8.2–per-cent increase from the 2009-10 forecast. The increase is mainly due to the costs associated with the Teachers’ Pre-1992 Pension liability.

Students... Advanced Education and Technology - Budgeted program expense for Advanced Education and Technology is over $3.2 billion in 2010-11, a $205-million or 6-per-cent reduction from the 2009-10 forecast.

Workers... Employment and Immigration - Budgeted program expense for Employment and Immigration is $1.1 billion in 2010-11, an $87-million or 7.3-per-cent reduction from the 2009-10 forecast.

Homeless... Housing and Urban Affairs - Budgeted program expense for Housing and Urban Affairs is $490.8 million in 2010-11, a $112-million or 18.6-per-cent reduction from the 2009-10 forecast.

Seriously ... that's not so impressive...

FULL BUDGET HERE

Cracked Eggs

2010-02-02T17:01:00.011-07:00

So I was given this really valuable egg about a year ago to take care of for a while. I'm supposed to watch over it until it is ready to hatch . I was really happy to get this egg cause thats what I do... watch over valuable eggs until they're ready to hatch.

Some of the eggs get a little bit battered up on their journey to get to me but I've got a pretty good set up to put them in and with some care and attention and sometimes a little bit of ointment we can usually get them cleaned up and healthy again before they are ready to hatch and move along. I thought this one was in pretty good shape but after looking at it really closely I noticed that it was cracked in quite a few places.

I figured that was okay cause like I said I have a good set up and lots of ointments and stuff so I thought I could get it cleaned up at least enough to hatch and move along. The eggs pretty much look after themselves but everyday at least one of us on the team will pick up the eggs to clean them up a bit and then we sit them back down and get on with the day.

About six months ago I had to pick up the one little cracked egg cause it's cracks started opening up and well it was basically cracking to pieces. I picked it up and held it carefully in my hand so the pieces all stayed together.

Now don't get me wrong I did not just simply hold it. I tried to put glue in the cracks to hold them together, I taped the outside of the shell to give it more strength, I put sensors on it so I know if the cracks are getting disturbed... My team did everything we could think of to just hold it together and mend it so it could hatch and move on. It became really hard to work and take proper care of all the other eggs with one cracked egg clenched in one hand... some things you need two hands for... somethings you just can't do with a cracked egg in your hand. My team was really happy that I picked up the egg when it first cracked and we did a great job of thinking up ways to fix and reinforce it - but my boss came in and said we need to give the egg back because it was too broken for us... we are an egg hatching facility and not prepared for if an egg were to start cracking and leaking they said we must give the egg back. I cried and fought because I had put a lot of work into the egg and getting it patched up, I had spent a lot of time with the egg and knew just how original and valuable it was and secretly it had become my favorite egg... I really wanted to see this one hatch.

I put the egg down but also got to keep it. It held together pretty good but it also didn't seem to progress... it doesn't seem to want to hatch. Then a few months ago it started to crack again... I picked it back up and started working one handed once again.. my team starting to question why we were holding it again... they say that surely we have put enough measures in place that the egg should be able to be put down... but I am worried about the egg. I am holding it and it doesn't feel very strong at all. The team says that it should be ready to hatch by now since we have had it quite a long time... they think I should put it down or give it back to it's owner cause the other eggs are suffering... I just can't do certain things with one cracked egg in my hand. I do think that logically they have a point but the egg is cracking again new cracks that are developing while I'm holding it in my hand! I clench harder to give it more support but it still cracks more... so I clench harder to really give it more structure but it keeps cracking and I think WAIT am I now cracking it by holding it to tight??? I don't think I can keep this egg anymore... I can't get it to hatch and I can't get it to stop cracking so I think I am going to have to give it back to it's owner before it gets broken.

I pray that my egg is stronger than I think. I pray that the glue and tape and all the ointment I have smothered on it are enough to hold it together until it hatches and has healed it enough for it to hatch well and strong. I ask for a hundred and one angels to go watch over it if I can't anymore... and I just really hope that it doesn't crack and break... cause that would break my heart more than anyone knows.

Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."

United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.

Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.

"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.

"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people to know what's going on."

An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.

With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports.

The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be "a broken mess."

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centred about 10 miles (15 kilometres) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometres), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.

The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.

"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best."

President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in case humanitarian assistance was needed.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers

Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died.

"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.

Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force there.

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.

"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."

The Shadbolts Come To Town

2010-01-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

AVATAR!!

2010-01-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

Drinks With Rick The Mechanic

2010-01-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

What Color is Your Bra???

2010-01-07T20:37:00.004-07:00

I received this message in my inbox on facebook today from my friend Andrea Stewart:

It says: I'm not normally one to send forward-type emails, but thought this one was kind of fun! Some fun is going on.... just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. And send this on to ONLY girls no men .... It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status... Haha

It spread like wildfire and the one response that made me laugh for about 5 minutes this afternoon was this one from my friend Jeff MacMillan: Oh... I see everyone is playing a color game... Okay... I pick Gold, the color of real wealth and if you are paying attention at all to this world... you would have some. But everyone thinks I'm crazy... here's a nice video that explains just about everything that is wrong with the economy and politics. But none of you will watch it, because it is two hours long and "You don't have time" Gonna have time when it costs $200 for a loaf of bread?

I laughed so hard I almost cried!

Sending Dad To Holland

2010-01-06T23:33:00.002-07:00

I took the day off today to drive my dad to the airport. I suspected it would take forever to get through the line up and I was right! The biggest excitement was when some lady showed up after we had been in line for about 45 minutes and was so shocked at the length of the line that she insisted to see a supervisor. The dumb ass supervisor decided to let her skip the whole line to just get her to shut up which ended up pissing the rest of the line up. Not a very smart customer service decision by KLM!

We got him to the security gate after about an hour and a half and said our goodbyes. I really want to see the new AVATAR movie in IMAX 3D so I talked my mom into going for dinner and then going to check out the movie with me. I decided to go pick up tickets before we headed to dinner in case it was still busy and it was SOLD OUT for all the shows tonight! I still went for dinner with my mom and we have a plan to go some time this weekend. I REALLY want to see that movie - I have heard amazing things about it.

Losing Uncle Jan

2010-01-05T23:48:00.004-07:00

I got the kind of call at work today that you just never want to get. It was my mom at the other end not sounding very happy at all saying there was bad news. My cousin Arco had just called to let us know that his father, my uncle Jan, had passed away.

They think he had a heart attack... they are not sure when. Jan did not show up for work on Monday or Tuesday and people started to get worried. The police went to check on him and he was found in his apartment. That part makes me sad... I wish he wasn't alone... I wish there was somebody there to call an ambulance. I wonder if they are going to find me like that one day.

Uncle Jan was DEFINITELY my closest relative on my dad's side of the family. My dad moved to Canada from Holland in his early twenties and married my mother in Canada. After the wedding the family went to Holland few times to meeet all of our relatives and cousins, and the family in Holland made a few trips to Canada - but Uncle Jan MOVED to Canada and even moved in with my parents for a few years. I was already out of the house by then but my little brother Kent was still at home and was Jan's roommate in the basement at my parents home.

Jan was a happy, eccentric man when he arrived. There was a joke that you better not go for a walk with Uncle Jan because everyone who did came back "in love" (even if they were related!) it was odd to say the least but still kind of funny. My Uncle Jan eventually married his cousin Joan - it was a memorable ceremony like none I had ever been to before - it was Ba'hai and there was no booze... well at MOST of the tables... at our table me and my dutch cousins had figured out a way to "spice up" our beverages! It was a nice ceremony and a really great day.

The relationship broke down after a few years and as I said Jan decided to stay in Calgary and moved into my parents basement. My brother Kent was in his EARLY twenties at the time and it was funny that he was now sharing his space with his eccentric dutch uncle who had a habit of hanging around the house in his tighty whitey underwear - it was humorous for us (not so much for Kent) when he would bring friends and girls home after the bar. Jan also shared a passion for singing with my dad. I remember walking into my parents home and hearing the two of them downstairs on the organ practicing away (bright and early right outside my brothers bedroom door lol). I saw bits of Jan in my dad and bits of my dad's personality in Jan. They were close brothers and while they disagreed about quite a few things they sure enjoyed each other and you could see and hear the love! Jan was a smart man - he read a lot - he studied SO many things (both practical and spiritual) - he had unique tastes for fancy ports and unfiltered cigars - could be so happy and so grumpy depending on when you caught him - undeniably he was passionate... and we will miss him!

Rest in Peace Uncle Jan... I hope you are somewhere much better than this world... and I hope you are sitting with Oma, Opa, Uncle Pim, and his little sister Alli (1) somewhere enjoying their company and having a beer. You were loved and you will be missed terribly.

Wellington Stars

2010-01-03T13:17:00.007-07:00

I am at work today. I came in last night to cover off and agreed to stay until the houseparents get back from their Christmas Holidays at 4pm.

I decided to start taking down the decorations and started with the Christmas Tree Stars. The Christmas Stars was a new idea that I came up with this year and that I absolutely love. At the beginning of December one of the youth at the house moved out into one of our more independent programs which left a bed open at Wellington. The intake process did not end up going well for the open bed and I was predicting the month may get pretty chaotic so we decided to take the opportunity to celebrate the kids and staff at the program and just what a great group we have. I thought that it would be good to boost ourselves and do some team building BEFORE the stress started! We gathered around with cut out stars and christmas trees and wrote down appreciative messages. It was really awesome to be able to randomly pull messages and read them over the holidays and today I read them all over again as I took them off the tree. I think we should do this again next year!

These were my messages from this year:
Sasha, you are a great listener/advice giver and you have a great laugh
Sasha you are such a positive person and always make me laugh
Sasha Thanks for being always willing to help.
Sasha you share a lot of ideas, appreciate your non-ending humor
Sasha Thank you for your help with YAP. Thanks for your rides and spending time with me.
Sasha I love your food prep stories + experiences Tim
Sasha. The greatest schemer ever!

01.01.10

2010-01-01T20:06:00.005-07:00

Well it is the first day of a brand new year! I have a new years resolution to get back to journalling so I am going to post - even when I don't feel like I have anything to post about!

I am not working today and am having a really lazy day overall. I was up until about 5am so I had a late start and stayed in bed until about 12:30 when I was awoken to the sound of my cell phone going off. It rang a few times so I thought I should get up to see who was calling. It was my weekend relief staff at the group home wanting permission to go to a movie and by the time I returned the call they had called my boss and got the okay. The stove stopped working two days ago so they also wanted to go to McDonald's today and order a pizza tomorrow... it made me cranky... I told them if my boss already said yes to all their request then whatever but that I really can't understand why no one can figure out how to feed themselves using the microwave and crockpot that they seem to be able to use every other day. And so the year begins :)

I spent most of the rest of the day (as I seem to do most days off) just browsing around on the internet. I watched an interesting documentary on youtube called "Who Killed The Electric Car" about General Motor's EV1 and the way the whole program and the production of electric cars in general was eliminated (not proven but obviously due to pressure from the oil and gas industry). It reminded me of the CF-105 Avro Arrow that the Canadian government abandoned in February 1959 despite it's success and development putting Canada in the lead of the race to space. It just doesn't make sense - it stinks of corruption, greed, and evil - it makes me sad.

I am going to clean the house up a bit and go for a long shower now... and welcome in a bright clean hopeful 2010!

The End Of A Decade... and the rebirth of mydial

2009-12-31T12:35:00.004-07:00

I have a new years resolution. It is to get back to blogging... to writing... the recording this adventure I call my life.

I wish I had a record to review the last decade cause it sure has been an interesting one! This is my own decade in review... this is what I remember.

I remember December 31st 1999 pretty clearly as I am sure most of you do! It was the millenium and many people were wondering if the lights and all the computers were turning off at midnight! My cousin Ronaye and my godboys were tucked away in Caroline fully stocked and prepared for big changes in the morning - some thought they were crazy but I knew where I was heading in the morning if things went bad! I still think they were the smart ones cause they would have been the most prepared if something had happened and in the end all the food and supplies were used anyways and they were no worse for wear for having been prepared. I remember sitting at home watching broadcasts from around the world as each city celebrated coming into the new millenium... it was absolutely amazing. When it turned midnight in Calgary I was at this strange little party on 11th Avenue Downtown. It was a storefront that was vacant at the time and someone had rented it out to host a 2000 party. It was a magical night because I was surrounded by most of my best friends in the world. It would be one of the last times that we would be all together celebrating and it was kind of a coincidence that we were all even back together for the night! One of the strangest things was that my best friend from high school Patsy Boychuk also just happened to be at the same party. I had not seen her for years and it was so out of the blue - as teenagers we had talked about how we would party for new years 2000 and fate ended up making it so!

January 3, 2000 - I began my job at AADAC Youth Services I was living with Kelly Janzen and Brent Desjarlais in the pool house on 58th Avenue SW Calgary (Brent may have just moved out). Wayne Leontowich was in Calgary staying with us as well while waiting for Lyn to move from Saskatoon to Calgary. I had tried to quit my job at Reliance Technical Recruitment to work at AADAC but they talked me into working nights for them as the night recruitment supervisor. I hired Wayne as my only employee and well we did not get much work done - in fact I think we closed the office and just left most nights shortly after the day staff left. We quit in May 2000.

September 2000 - I moved out of the pool house and moved into Ronaye's basement suite in Rundle with Johnnie (?) after the drama summer from hell. Put my beloved cat Wyckham to sleep and got my new kitten Jaike.

Summer 2001 - Ronaye moved to Saskatoon for like a month and then moved to Kelowna and I moved back into my mom's basement for a few months. I decided I wanted to buy my own place and started to look around. I put an offer in and purchased 9810 26th Avenue and my sister Genitta bought 9820 26th Street!

September 11th 2001 - I woke up at my moms house and watched the planes hit the tower as I got ready for work (it was a Tuesday and I started late that day). I got to work at AADAC and caught some of the news from the tv in the group facilitation room by the kitchen. It was a memorable day. I remember for the next few days when I was driving around I saw so many small acts of kindness everywhere, little things like people letting others into lanes, people just being kind. I remember feeling a lot of sorrow and a lot of peace. The world and life changed over night.

September 2001 - Moved into my new house! I signed my mortgage at 7.75% in August and watched the rates plummet after 9/11 to under 3%... shitty!

Summer 2002 - Things began to change at work. My manager Barb Davis took a promotion and moved to Edmonton, my supervisor Betty took a new job outside AADAC and moved on as well. Sonia Badger, whom I knew and did NOT get along with, was hired as the new supervisor and Silvia Vajushi was hired for the management position. I struggled with the change and things went downhill fast! Ronaye left Anthony and Avery came to stay for the summer. Ronaye came to Calgary by September and moved in with the boys for a few months. Lyn was staying with me as well at the time so it was a VERY full house and Lyn soon left!

December 2002 - AADAC changed my position from contract to permanent and posted the position. I applied for my own job but they chose another candidate :(
I got to stay on contract until the end of the business year (March 2003) in a new position helping out Mark Miyamoto and the Action Program... then I was unemployed.

May 2003 - Took a job at Telus Mobility in the call center. My sister was working there and the call center positions paid pretty good. I was super depressed, had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and had no motivation left to decide or care. I also started volunteering at the Distress Centre in the Public Education Program as a gambling and drug educator as I had learned tons at AADAC and thought this would be an interesting way to share it. I also really wanted to do some front line addictions work and this gave me a chance.

August 2003 - Claudia Canales, the Public Education Program Coordinator at the Distress Centre, had the opportunity to go overseas with her husband for a year and called to ask me if I would be interested in covering her position at the Distress Centre while she was gone. I jumped at the chance and my life changed again. I began at the Distress Centre September 4th 2003.

January 2004 - Shortly after beginning at the Distress Centre I was offered an extended contract. Shama Doyle (now Joynt) who was the Training Coordinator wanted to return to school and I was offered her position while she was away. Shama did not end up returning to the position (POLITICS!) and I was offered the training position permanently. Training volunteers for the crisis lines was amazing and I ended up learning much more than I taught.

May 2004 - Ronaye, Craig, Avery and Jordan move into their own condo that I could see from my back deck. Genitta was living next door and I was surrounded by family.

August 2004 - Ronaye, Craig, and the boys purchased a house in Cedarbrae. I could not see there house from mine anymore but they were still just up the street.

September 2004 - I decided to return to Air Cadets after 10 years and volunteered as a training officer with 604 "Moose" Royal Canadian Air Cadets.

September 16 2004 - My cousin Rob and his girlfriend Becky add Payten Shandler to the family!

July 10 2005 - My sister Genitta got married and became Genitta Freeman. I got a new brother in law named Tavis.

September 10 2005 - My cousin Melissa and her husband James introduce Sophie Kimbell to the family :)

October 8 2005 - My cat Maxx went into cardiac arrest and died... I cried. I adopted a new kitten Benji at the end of the month.

November 2005 - Everyone left. Genitta and Tavis moved to Richmond Road and Ronaye, Craig and the boys put there house up for sale and moved to Saskatoon. It was a lonely time.

September 2005 - Claudia Canales left the Distress Centre to return to school. I jumped at the opportunity to take over the Public Education Coordinator role once again!

February 5 2006 - My niece Tevin Brooke Freeman was born!

March 2006 - I went out to Saskatoon to visit Ronaye and the boys, saw her house in Alvena and the new community centre/barn she bought. This was also the last time I saw my auntie Chantaal.

May 2006 - Kelly moved in for about a month. I was hoping he would be there over the summer so he could watch my cats while I went to Europe but he moved in with Crystal right before I left!

Summer 2006 - Went on my last big family vacation with Mom, Dad, and Kent to Holland. Went to my cousin Iris' wedding. Spent good time and got to know my cousins Laura, Rudy, Sophie, and Eef. Had a beautiful time in Paris.

February 21 2007 - Benjamin Kimball joins the family. He joins mom Melissa (my cousin), dad James, and big sister Sophie!

May 2007 - Went on a back country hike with the cadets on the May long weekend. I was scared I wouldnt make it and it was hard but I did. We couldnt do the whole hike as the higher we went up the mountain the more snow we found. We woke up to a snow blizzard and hiked back down the mountain pretty fast!

June 15 2007 - My nephew Talan Cole Freeman was born!

June 2008 - Went to Kelowna with Genitta, Tavis, Talan, and Tevin to visit Grandma Lil. It was the last visit we were able to have with Grandma Lil.

August 2008- Resigned my position at the Distress Centre. Took a new position with McMan Youth Family and Community Services as the Program Supervisor for the Wellington Place Program. A residential and community support program for homeless youth.

April-March 2008 - Went to Mexico with my mom to visit my godmother Bonnie at her new home in Peurto Vallarta. It was beautiful :)

January 2009 - My aunt Chantaal Shandler passed away after a long courageous battle with breast cancer. I lost a very important person in my life :(

February 2009 - Purchased my second home 3732 Cedarille Drive SW. Moved in and rented out 9810 to my brother Kent. Genitta also purchased a second home in Oakridge and began renovations!

Summer 2009 - Rough time at work. Spent lots of time at the Foothills Hospital with a suicidal youth in my program. At times thought I was going to lose my mind! My grandmother Lillian Leach passed away. A second HUGE loss for me in one year.

Recently: The doctor's suspect that my nephew Talan may be on the autism spectrum and he is going threw many assessments, tests, and diet changes. I am looking at new vehicles and trying to decide if I should purchase one in the new year. My position and program have been refunded for at least 12 more months!

And that's it folks... that is my decade in review!

A Visit With Grandma Lil

2008-06-08T21:22:00.006-06:00

The DC Annual Picnic

2007-09-16T17:53:00.000-06:00

My sister Genitta and brother in law Tavis

Opa and Tevin hanging out having some fruit.

Tevin discovers the toy bag :)

And decided that these skipping rope things were kind of cool.

Talan decided to stay up and hang out with us too for most of the morning :)

Vince was on grill and kept us well fed with burgers and sausages!

Once again the picnic was full of kids and pets.

Lawrence brought his super bird which was once again the hit of the party.

I even got to steal him away from OMR and hold the little guy this year!

I think his biggest fan though was little Lucas.

Parinder and her husband enjoying the burgers!

My dad got excited when the games started and joined in for the spoon and egg run.

The line up for the "men's round.

Lorne won (but we all know he totally cheated and held the egg down with his thumb!)

Then it was the three legged race.

The kids competing in the sack races!

And finally the infamous pie eating contest :)

It was a really fun picnic. Then on the way home my car broke down and I could not get it to run even after I boosted the battery. I ended up sticking the booster pack into the engine and used a cable to hold down the hook as much as I could.

It was probably totally illegal to drive it like that but at least it got me home and off Sarcee Trail where I almost got driven into like a dozen times in the hour and a bit it took me to get the thing running...

I think it was the battery and I'm hoping to get it charged up and running for me to get to work and around tomorrow... so wish me luck :)

I Finally Made It Around!

2007-08-04T15:31:00.000-06:00

I moved to Calgary when I was six years old and grew up in the community of Cedarbrae. Since it is literally down the street the Glenmore Reservoir was kind of like a big lake to me when I was a kid. By the time I was about eleven in grade five or six I was allowed to go down there with a friend and ride our bikes down and sit on the docks and fish (I never caught a SINGLE fish!). The summer when I was twelve I decided to ride by bike around the whole reservoir... I packed a backpack with sandwiches and water and headed down the hill , onto the bike path, and away on my trek - all was good until I got to Heritage Park and totally lost the bikepath when it turned into the parking lot. I looked around bit and then just turned around and rode back the way I came. I tried again the next year too but could not find the damb path once I hit Heritage Park!

I got my new bike last month and have had fun riding it over to the 7-11 and up to the library and Wal-Mart but one of my goals for the summer was to go on a few good bike ride so I decided that I finally needed to get around Glenmore Reservoir and headed off down that same road this afternoon just after noon.

It was a nice ride and the first part of the path in South Glenmore Park had lots of shade in between the trees.

It is really neat to be in the middle of the city and have it feel like you are in the middle of the woods :)

The path climbed a bit and then there was a nice fast downwards hill that went down to the river and over a little bridge. That's where I saw a few people fishing and canoeing.

Then the path got pretty steep as it climbed back up on the other side. In the upper right hand corner of the next picture you can see the bridge I was standing on in the last picture.

My new bike has an electric motor on the back tire that really helps reduce the resistance on hills but you still have to work pretty hard on hills so when I got to the top I stopped for a little break to have some water.

That is where I saw this cute little gopher living under a picnic table :)

This is the big boat at Heritage Park sailing on the reservoir.
(I made sure to get a few pictures for my friend's daughter Meagan who works on this ship!)

It really was a beautiful day... not to hot and not too cold... just perfect!

This is the pathway thru North Glenmore Park.

This is Heritage Park from the north side of Glenmore Park... I love Heritage Park!

I got to the Glenmore road construction and the bike path was closed down so I had to cross Glenmore and follow a detour. Did you know that the new pedestrian overpass says FLOAT on the top of it??

The detour took me past the water treatment plant into the park near Sandy Beach and 54th Avenue where I used to live.

Then the path curved and went back over Glenmore up behind the Rockyview Hospital where there were tons of patients hanging outside enjoying the sun. If I ever have to hang out in the hospital I want to go to Rockyview - they have such a nice area and view at the back.

I almost got lost after the hospital when the path again disappeared into a residential street but I spotted another biker and then a sign that got me back to the path which ended up at the Heritage Park parking lot a few minutes later... I HAD FINALLY FOUND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOST HERITAGE PARK PATHWAY!!! I knew where to connect to the path on the south side of Heritage Park so I did so and continued on the path.

Right after Heritage Park the path is right beside the water so it was cool to be able to see all the sailboats and people in the water.

I made a stop at Glenmore Landing to grab a burger and then headed off on the final leg of the trek.

Here is another nice picture of the boat for Meagan taken from South Glenmore Park.

I got home just after 2pm so it was a good ride and a really fun day. Next time I might head north at Sandy Beach and head downtown or maybe over to my sisters :)

Family Visits

2007-07-14T23:38:00.000-06:00

Avery was able to stay in Calgary for an extra week after Ronaye and Jordan headed back to Saskatoon. It was awesome to have some time to hang out and we also got over to Genitta's to see G, Tevin and Talan.

Tevin really enjoyed playing with Avery and even let him have her cuddle bear... but she got annoyed with him for sitting on her Dora chair while playing PS2!

My cousin Melissa and her husband James had us over last Friday for a goodbye bar-b-que for Rob. Payten had fun playing with his cousins.

James' mother was in Calgary visiting from England so it was really nice to see her again and also to meet James' aunt. (I hope they enjoyed the Stampede!)

My grandma and grandad also showed up for the bar-b-que so it was surprizing and really nice to see them :)

The kids had a good time out playing in the sun :)

Rob, my uncle Neil and Tarps were all pretty red and sunburnt from loading up the U-haul truck in 30plus weather all day!

I think my mom had a good time visiting family and showing off her new grandson :)

Tevin really enjoyed this rock pile the most. She had a blast throwing the rocks everywhere. In fact when it was time to eat Payten took a look at her in the rocks and exclaimed "she just needs to play!".

It was a great visit and awesome to see everyone again!

Look Who Came To Visit!

2007-07-12T20:35:00.000-06:00

I had a couple of surprise visitors at the end of June! Ronaye, Avery and Jordan decided to drive down to Calgary for the week and have another quick visit.

My cousin Rob was preparing to move to Saskatoon so I was very lucky to get in a couple of visits with Rob, Becky, and Payten before they left.

Avery also got a chance to visit with his "biological" father Geoff and his grandmother Donna while they were up for the visit.

Ronaye just cannot be seperated from her infamous "PING" hat...

I also got a chance to see Vince and Leighton while visiting the Shandlers.

We had a lot of fun and a bit of excitement while Ronaye and the boys were here. My neighbor Rob, his "dead bodies" and crazy friends entertained us one morning as well. This is Andrew trying to wake up some chicks who were passed out in Rob's car... this was before Todd came over and started a big brawl in the back!

It is so nice to be on holidays :) Jaike and Benji are definitely enjoying the sun!

A Quick Trip To Toon

2007-06-26T20:39:00.000-06:00

I was talking to my buddy Nav at work a few weeks ago and he told me that he was planning on driving up to Saskatoon to attend his friend's bachlor party June 24th - 26th. I asked him if I could come along for the ride since I had the week booked off and really have been meaning to get up and see my godsons. I have vacation time that started on Monday and goes until Wednesday July 4th so I got my on call covered for Sunday night and off we headed to Saskatoon on Sunday afternoon at about 1pm.

Nav was great conversation. We decided that we just HAD to stop in Hanna for gas and to get a picture of US in the town that produced NICKLEBACK (this is quite a big deal I guess!).

The stop over in Hanna was pretty quick and we got back on the road... and back to some more great conversation :)

This was our awesome view of Saskatchewan flatness with the added pleasantness of squashed bug guts on the windshield that we experiences after Hanna...

Our next stop was in Kindersley. Nav had a very favorite gas station to stop at in both Hanna and Kindersley... I think it is inspired somehow by greyhound buslines...

We got to Saskatoon just after 8pm so we made really good time. Ronaye did forget I was coming somehow so when I got there I got a hold of her on her cell (she was at pike lake) and told her t get her ass back to Saskatoon... she got back with the boys... I visited them for about half an hour and then we drove them back to their dad's house and headed out for the night.

It was Sunday night and not much was open... we headed to Bud's on Broadway but it was closed so we ended up at a bunch of other little pubs along Broadway... we kind of bar hopped around all night but the strange thing was that there was the same people everywhere we went so I guess everyone else were doing the exact same thing.

On Monday morning we woke up to tons and tons of rain. Ronaye had about a million errands to run so we drove al around Saskatoon all day long... it was kind of fun :)

At 3:30 we rushed over to Montgomery School and picked up frick and frack for some fun. We decided that it would be fun to go bowling and then out for a buffet dinner!

Ronaye couldn't really play because she was all broken with a numb leg...

But Avery, Jordan, and I had a blast first with a game of "traditional" bowling and then with a game of "challenger" bowling!

I got my butt kicked but it was a lot of fun to hang out with my favorite boys for a few hours!

Look at my little teenager!

This is Jordan's "STRIKE CELEBRATION" move :)

Ronaye did have one attempt at the pins before we left!

After we got tired and finished up with bowling it was off to the "Smilley Buffet" for some chow... it was not the best buffet I have been to the boys both ate a ton and we had good conversation so it was still a great dinner out.

We had to take the boys back over to their dad's again once we were done dinner so we did that, went for a quick visit to my Uncle Neil and Aunt Cathy's and saw both of them and my cousin James and then headed back to Bud's on Broadway...

We met up with Ronaye's friend Nat and had a few drinks at Bud's... headed over to Riley's for a few more.... and then back to Bud's after hours for just one more... it was a busy night... we finally got home just after 4:30!

I slept until noon this afternoon until Nav called me to tell me he was on his way to pick me up. The trip home was just as good as the way up but I was too tired and lazy to take any more pics... and that was my quick trip to the toon!

TALAN COLE FREEMAN

2007-06-24T10:20:00.000-06:00

My nephew has been officially named and introduced to the world... I announced it earlier on Facebook but forgot to announce it on MYDIAL...

Please welcome TALAN COLE FREEMAN !!!

The Nephew Update

2007-06-18T11:55:00.000-06:00

I stole this picture from my sister's blog because I liked it! I went to visit my sister and the baby (no it still does not have a name!!!) on Saturday... Genitta had a bit of pain and complications but I jut spoke to her and she is starting to feel much, much better and her and the baby are now at home!

I can take off my hospital bracelet now (I was the designated "special support person") and will go visit them all again on my way home today :)

Work is really not going so well today so hopefully the end of my day comes soon!

There has been a name recall...

2007-06-16T12:34:00.000-06:00

The new baby boy Freeman does not suit the name Ashton and has requested a name recall... he will let his parents know what he wishes to be called shortly and once he tells them I will tell all of you :)

Welcome Un-named Baby!

2007-06-15T20:17:00.000-06:00

I would like to introduce you all to my nephew who was born today June 15th, 2007 at 3:24pm (15:24 for you military folk!).

Un-named baby came to us almost three weeks early but he is at a really nice weight - 6lbs 6oz. Both my sister Genitta and baby are doing really great :)

I did not get a picture of the baby with his grandmother but here is one with his very proud Opa!

We had a very quick visit and then decided to let mom and baby rest but I got a cool green hospital bracelet and have been named "special support person" so I can go back as much as I want!

Isn't he gorgeous. I really love him and he sure made today a really great day!

Today... In Facebook Updates

2007-06-05T23:55:00.000-06:00

So I have become a bit of a facebook addict lately... especially since I have been in my office with not a ton of "need to get done right now" work lately. I have the regular month end and year wrap up stuff to do but since the school presentations have been slowing down and came to a halt on Monday I have been feeling like I need some kind of "project" or something a bit out of the mundane to motivate me and get me going. I've been asking for a "creative, challenging project - but not just everyone's crap work that they don't want to do" for about a week now and it made me laugh when I read through my updates from today... they pretty much say it all :)

This was my day on facebook:

I was supposed to go to this CANN meeting way up North of 36th Ave in the NE this morning from 9-11am. I got to 90th Ave and 14th Street SW at 8:20 this morning and at 9:15 I called work and told them I was just coming there since I was JUST getting to Glenmore!!!

FACEBOOK UPDATE: Sasha is at work after trying to fight traffic and missing her meeting this morning... now looking for a creative project to do so she doesnt get bored today! 10:39am

I read my emails, went for a visit and smoke with Robyn, then with Irwin, talked to Joan, looked for Blair, checked my email's, checked my facebook again and:

FACEBOOK UPDATE: Sasha is at work but has not found a project... 12:34pm

I emailed my volunteers, called and spoke to a few of them, printed off mileage sheets, then went for a tour of the office and found THIS...

I have no idea where it came from but we pretty much have this exact hat it our crisis call centre phone room. It's been there for a while and in my wanders around the centre today I found it and decided that since I was was not too busy I would be the FIRE WARDEN!

My HR manager told me that I looked ridiculous in the hat, and then came back an hour later and asked why exactly I was wearing the hat... I told her "because I have some time and am looking for a creative, challenging project so today I am the fire marshall and I think that maybe we should get a red fire marshall shirt to go with the hat". A few other people were commenting on my new role and we tried to take a picture but the camera batteries were charging. They asked what exactly I planned to do in my new role as fire warden, so I went back to my office to think about that for a bit and to check my facebook (the addiction remember-90% of our staff is also on facebook).

FACEBOOK UPDATE: Sasha is obviously the fire warden today... which is why she is wearing the fire warden hat (told you I needed a project!). 1:49pm

I did a bit more mundane just get it done work in my office, Trish came and told me that I could do some shredding if I was bored and I told her that was just crap work and I would only do it if I could make it a controlled fire.

Someone said something about the fire extinguishers and it not being a controlled fire and I decided that as fire warden I should see where our fire extinguishers were and see when they expired. I was at the very first one and Paul "the manager" came out and told me that regardless of whether I was wearing the fire warden hat or not I was not allowed to play with the fire extinguishers...

FACEBOOK UPDATE: Sasha is not allowed to play with the fire extingisher in the office... regardless of whether she is wearing the fire warden hat or not :( 4:24pm

I was going to go and do some work for an hour and kill the rest of the day before cadets but I went to check if I had mail (I never do and it is SO SAD!) and I ran into Nav in the hallway... the moving dolly was right there so I told Nav to jump on and I would see if I could "dolly" him down the hall. I totally could have but he didn't trust me and he kept correcting his weight and pushing backwards which made it impossible... we had bad timing because it was on the hour 5:00 when all the counselling appointments start/end and clients started coming out of the office so we scooted back into the file room with the dolly but not before the program director spotted us.

She came and asked me if I was bored so I told her yes and that I needed a creative, challenging project to keep me busy since it was summer... she gave me a pretty cool little project to work on so I should be busy with that for the next week or two! :)

FACEBOOK UPDATE: Sasha is happy because after the "fire extinguisher" fiasco she got a creative challenging project! 11:02pm

The Backcountry Adventure

2007-05-21T16:24:00.000-06:00

Well the weekend began at the basecamp which was located at Little Elbow Campground. We got all packed up and prepared for the hike up to Mount Romulus Campground about 15km up the trail.

We sent the kids up before us in groups of three or four and headed up behind them. I was definitely the slowest so this was my view for most of the trail :)

We made really good time and reached the campground just after noon. We lazed around for a few minutes but then got busy setting up the tents... then all three of us adults CRASHED for a few hours while the kids all made lunch... we finally got up just before five and made our lunch.

The rest of Saturday was pretty relaxing. The kids pretty much hung out and played cards, when it began to get dark this deer came right up beside our warrant officer's campsite and posed for a few pictures until. Flight Officer Davies decided he was going to try to sneak up to it and "ride the deer"... the deer ran off pretty quickly :)

On Saturday morning we planned to hike up the trail to the tombstone campsite but this proved to be impossible since the pass was snowed in. The snow was about knee deep and would require snow shoes and a bunch of other equiptment we just didn't have. We decided to stick it out at the Mount Romulus Campsite and began a few activities to keep the kids busy.

Flight Officer Davies ran an activity with the kids. They were all different parts of a plane and ran thru a fun little scenario.

A couple were gunners, a few were engines, and of course we had a pilot and navigator aboard our plane.

It was hilarious to watch the kids acting out the parts and playing out the simulation.

Unfortunatly for this poor little engine... he was hit during the flight and the pilot was forced to pull the fire extinguisher :)

After the fun the kids were sent out on a navigation assignment. We sent the kids ahead and about twenty minutes later us adults started to hike down the route to see how everything was going. I decided I didn't really want to hike back up the hill so after 2-3km I yelled to the boys that I was heading back to camp and headed back up the trail.

When I got back to the campsite I decided to attempt making a fire. I almost chopped off my foot once but was able to chop a bit of kindling and was pretty happy when I was successful at getting a good roaring fire started!

After I was done that I went for a bit of a walk and took some scenery pictures around the campsite.

The kids were also sent out on "reconnaissance" missions to scout out the area and see if there was an alternate route to take back on Monday. They were sent out in small groups once again adn were told to take notes while they walked the route.

We then had them come back and create a model of the area they scouted out using rocks, branches, and pretty much anything else they wanted for landmarks.

They were all very creative and were able to give the Major all the information he needed to make a plan for Sunday. There was one area of the alternate route that was flooded out but the kids figured that we would be able to make a stone bridge if all 15 of us worked at it in about 15 minutes so the plan was to do just that and to take the river route back to basecamp in the morning.

Plans kind of changed when we woke up to THIS!

It had snowed all night and we had quite a bit on the ground... worst still there was still a ton of snow falling. We needed to pack up and get out of there as fast as we could since the snow was already piled up to at least our ankles and the longer we waited to get on the trail the heavier and thicker the snow would be.

The scenery on the way back looked more like THIS :(

There was more downhill than uphill on the way back but the snow made it a pretty rough trail. I could feel my pack get heavier and heavier as we went along since heavy wet snow piled up on the pack and on me. When we stopped to re-gather and break I would shake my pack off and could feel the weight lift off the pack.

As you can see we all looked a little bit tired for the hike home.

We kept up a 4-5km pace back to basecamp and got back at about 11:30am. It was great to be done the hike and to be back at basecamp.

The next hour and a half was probably my toughest part of the trip because I had stupidly worn almost all of my clothes back. My outer rain/wind jacket and my fleece hoodie were soaked from the snow, and my undershirt and t-shirt were soaked from sweating during the hike. With the snow still falling, and the wind blowing it was COLD!

The Major made us all change out of our wet clothes into whatever dry stuff we had but I did not have much dry clothes left at all. The last hour and a bit were spent in a very thin t-shirt and a long sleeve shirt - I don't think I have ever been so cold in my entire life. Everyone was very very happy when the bus showed up to get us a little bit earlier than expected!

It was really nice to get home ")

Help :(

2007-05-17T23:21:00.000-06:00

So I have "agreed" to go on the senior cadet backcountry hiking/camping trip. I can't really say that I am being forced to because I could just say no and refuse but if I chose to do that then there will be no female adult going and that will mean that none of our senior female cadets could go and that's just not fair to the kids - so I am going.

We are going to Don Getty Provincial Park in Kananaskis and we will be hiking the Elbow Loop Trail over three days. The trail is 42km and has an elevation of 2100feet . From what I read on the internet most of the incline is over a 7.2km stretch which from the sounds of it is going to be the most brutal... if I drop dead on the trip I am suspecting that it will be right there... on the other hand the other officer's at cadets are trying to convince me that it is not a steep hill, just a little incline - but I don't really know whether I should believe them or not :(

I packed my bag tonight and with all the crap I have to lug along there is not very much room AT ALL for anything else so I just shoved in the bare minimums and took out the extra shirts and pants and shit I was planning to take. Everyone else is just taking one extra shirt and pants so that one set can dry out if need be so I did the same but also included a long sleeve shirt and a fleece hoodie. I don't have rain gear but I have three garbage bags so hopefully that will do. After I got the bag packed I went and weighed myself with the pack and the pack weights in at exactly 38lbs.

I know this will probably be the most challenging thing I have EVER agreed to do - and my most uncomfortable kind of challenge because it is going to be physical... and while I shouldn't... I usually avoid physical challenges at all costs. I am kind of scared shitless but I imagine it will feel great once it is over and other than feeling like I am dying I know that it will be a really great time with the kids and if nothing else I will have the memories... just please fucking pray for me and wish me luck!

Mom's Day

2007-05-13T22:42:00.000-06:00

When you have a mother
who cares so much for you
that anything you want
comes before her desires
When you have a mother
who is so understanding that
no matter what is bothering you
she can make you smile
When you have a mother
who is so strong that
no matter what obstacles she faces
she is always confident in front of you
When you have a mother
who actively pursues her goals in life
but includes you in all her goals
you are very lucky indeed
Having a mother like this
makes it easy to grow up
into a loving, strong adult
Thank you for
being this kind
of wonderful mother

-Poem by Susan Polis Schutz

This poem pretty much sums up my mom for you. I hope she has a great day today and everyday because if anyone in the world deserves it... it's her!

I was able to go over and spend some time with her tonight while we watched the Survivor Finale, and my little brother Kent prepared dinner for mother's day so it was all really nice :)

The Worst Wakeup EVER

2007-05-11T09:48:00.000-06:00

So on Friday morning I woke up to my very worst nightmare! It was about 7:30 in the morning when I woke up to this strange buzzing noise - a loud buzzing noise. I looked up and there was this Bee-Bird smashing into the window above my head and buzzing away crazily. My heart almost stopped! I grabbed the covers and got completed under the blankets not knowing what to do next.

Sounds kind of silly but believe me I do have my reasons for being so petrified! I am pretty allergic to bees. The first time I found this out was when I was about fifteen my first year as a staff cadet in Penhold. It was at one of the graduation inspections for the kids. I remember I got stung but it was a parade so I couldn't really move or anything. All of a sudden my heart was racing quite a bit and I passed out... next thing I know I woke up at the medical building and they gave me an epipen and told me that I was allergic to bee stings.

I was lucky for a few years because I am pretty smart around bees. Instead of freaking out and swatting at them I just sneak away quietly and slowly... because I KNOW that it is only when the bee gets freaked out that it attacks you! The next time I remember being stung was when my godson Avery was almost one (he is 13 now), we had been at sikome lake all day and I was getting Ave out of his baby seat when all of a sudden I was stung by not one but TWO bees. I had a panic attack and off to the hospital I went again.

So here I am in my worst nightmare stuck under the covers. The only thing I could think of to do as call for the cats hoping that they would attack the strangely large loud creature above my head and give me a chance to escape.

Only little Benji came but the plan worked and I snuck out of the bed and out of the room while Ben attacked and distracted the bee!

I got upstairs and my hands were all shaky and my knees were jelly... I so didn't want to but knew that I had to go back down and kill the damb bee... because I really cannot live with a bee in my bedroom!

I went down and peaked around the bedroom door. Benji was still swatting away at the window so I crept into the room. I looked down and there was the bee-bird thing crawling across the floor... in crawled up to a pillow that was on the floor and then up ONTO the pillow... I'm not kidding this was an very large bee. It then did the strangest thing that I have ever seen... it started to like open and close it's back... then rolled onto it's back. I started to really panic because I started to wonder if it was giving birth or something! Then I started to wonder if maybe it was dying because it looked kind of like a fly does when you spray it with bug spray... I spotted a plastic bag in the corner of the room so I crawled over to it and then back over to the bee. I quickly put a section of the bag over the bee and the fucking thing came to life!

Now I was really scared because it was freaking out and buzzing flat under a plastic bag squished on top of it with a pillow under it... and it was pissed! I tried to suffocate the damb thing but with the pillow under it, it just was not going to happen... I started to really panic because the bee was kind of making progress breaking thru the bag (my hands were on both sides of the bag pressing down keeping it pinned to the pillow at this point) and I knew that if it broke thru I was in trouble!

I got my knee up to where my left hand was pinning down the bag and got my knee on the bag so I could reach for a hard cover book. I took the spine of the book and tried to crush the bee under the bag... but it WOULD NOT WORK because the damb bee was on a PILLOW!!!

By a miracle in his struggle and just before he broke the bag the bee finally wiggled himself in between two folds in the bag so there was plastic bag under him and above him... I got the bag rolled up with the bee stuck inside and raced upstairs to the backdoor... I got the backdoor open and flung the bag outside slamming the door behind me. It was like 8:45 at this point!

I went back downstairs to get dressed and thought I heard a buzz by the window... I snuck over and slowly peeked in between two blinds... sure enought there was another bee in the window sill... I guess that Benji really was swatting one when I came in but not the one that was on the floor! I almost cried but it looked like it was moving slow so I took that same book, placed in sideways in the sill... and dropped in quickly crashing the final bee without much of a fight!

I told my story to a few of the mentors on the youth advisory committee this weekend and one said that maybe there is a nest somewhere in the house... now I am not sure if I can even return and sleep in that room! I tell you one thing though- if they move in... I'm moving out!

Me From A - Z

2007-04-25T15:24:00.000-06:00

My friend Katie had this on her facebook and I liked it... so I copied it :)

A is for age: 33
B is for beer of choice: LOL right now it's Coop Beer cause it's cheap (buck a beer)
C is for career right now: Public Education - Addictions Educator
D is for your dog's name: He's passed but my dog was Spunky
E is for essential item you use everyday: Computer
F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Big Brother - UK is the best
G is for favorite board game: I can't think of a single one
H is for home town: Calgary, I've been here since I was six
I is for instruments you play: Drums (set and snare), Trumpet (I own one but I suck BAD)
J is for favorite juice: Orange
K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: Ren's somedays
L is for last place you ate: At home
M is for marriage: I haven't found anyone who will marry me yet :(
N is for your full name: Sasha Koomen
O is for overnight hospital stays: None
P is for people you were with today: Suzanne, Irwin, Blair, Nav, Robyn, Serena, Danielle, Maxx & Jaike
Q is for quote: "You don't stop playing when you get old, you get old when you stop playing"
R is for biggest regret: I have a few - none that I would write here
S is for status: Hyper - always either hyper or exhausted
T is for time you woke up today: around 10:00am
U is for underwear you have on now: Clean, I think grey?
V is for vegetable you love: Corn, and I had celery today and liked that one too.
W is for worst habit: Smoking... lol and smoking
X is for x-rays you've had: I broke my leg when I was 12 jumping out of a tree
Y is for yummy food you ate today: Orange, celery, and a chunk of cucumber.
Z is for the zodiac sign: Pisces

In Sasha Land...

2007-04-19T23:59:00.000-06:00

Yes I know that I have not had an update from Sasha Land in quite a while ... so here it is!

This is a new picture of my niece Tevin. She is getting so big and doing so many new things everyday. My sister is expecting again in July so it will be pretty exciting to have a new addition to the family :)

March was pretty busy! I was up in Edmonton twice in March. The first time I went up I wasn't exactly in Edmonton but in a place just north of Edmonton called Lilly Lake... it was an interesting place. I went up for the Provincial Prevention Conference which was a really good event but on my way home I got pulled over because the friendly officer wanted to let me know that my car hadn't been registered since October 2006! Quite an expensive little surprise for me to say the least but at least they let me go without towing the car and I am happy to announce that I am driving legally once again!

My second trip was to Fort Edmonton for a Youth Advisory Council meeting. We met up to do some planning and it was a really neat event since both past and present members of the council were invited down to do some strategic planning. It was a nice chance to see a few people I have not seen for quite a while and to catch up.

April 1st came way to fast and it was time to celebrate my mom's birthday. Then last week on April 17th it was my dad's turn to have his birthday (we are going to have his dinner this Sunday).

I am heading off to Panorama this weekend with the staff at cadets for a "staff development training" weekend which should be a little bit of work and a whole lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVERY!!!

2007-03-13T23:55:00.000-06:00

Today is my godson Avery's 13th birthday. I still cannot believe that he is not here for me to hug, kiss, and give my best wishes to.

Due to "circumstances" I was not able to call him today to wish him a happy birthday because I don't even have a phone number for him.

If by any chance he does see my birthday message I want to wish him a great birthday. Being his godmother and having him in my life has definitely been one of life's greatest blessings. He is a great person and I know that he is growing up to be a great man. Like I said last year MY LIFE AND THIS WORLD IS BETTER BECAUSE HE IS A PART OF IT!!!

Don't let the craziness of this world get you down kiddo. I love you more than words could ever say and I am so SO proud to call you my godson everyday. I am sorry I have not made it down lately and I WILL do everything I can to come and visit you soon.

I love you so so much...

What's Up

2007-03-08T17:22:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and encouragement. I haven't been able to stop cold turkey but I think I am well on my way to being smoke free. I went and saw my doctor on Tuesday cause I really did not enjoy not smoking on Monday! My doctor gave me a prescription for pretty much zyban and I have already noticed a change in my cravings and mood so let's hope for the best.

Other than that the week has been pretty busy. I have almost fourty drug and gambling presentations booked for March and just lost three of my ten volunteers who help me out with them so we will be hopping for sure :)

Until next time ... :)

Happy Birthday To Me

2007-03-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday To Sasha...
Happy Birthday To Me

Well I have made it to 33. My parents had a birthday dinner for me so I was treated to my favorite Chinese food tonight... ginger beef, cantonese noodles, pot stickers, and egg rolls all to way around. I also got a brand new brown hoodie so all in all it was a nice day.

I'm going to try to quit smoking as a gift to myself... the gift of being able to breath better all year long :)

Wish me luck!!!

Welcome Benjamin James Kimbell

2007-03-04T12:45:00.001-07:00

I would like to introduce the newest member to join the family! My cousin Melissa and her husband James had a beautiful baby boy BENJAMIN JAMES KIMBELL!

Benjamin was born February 21st 2007 at 11:30pm. Mom and baby Ben spent a few days in the hospital but they are both home now doing much better. Congratulations Melissa, James, and big sis Sophie!

No Saskatoon For Me

2007-02-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

I was on holidays with plans to go to Saskatoon to go and visit my godboys mid February but it never happened. There was a few reasons for this but I am still a little bit disappointed because it has been way WAY too long since I have seen those boys.

The weather has turned really nasty so by the sounds of it most of Western Canada is snowed in. I went over to my parents the other day and when I came back outside I could not get my car out of the gutter - and the gutter really wasnt that high so I had no idea why it was happening. My dad and brother pushed me out and I headed to Co-op to get some gas before heading home when I noticed that one of my back tires was totally flat! I put some air in the tire and went home for the night. The next morning the tire was fine but I decided that if I was getting stranded driving up the street it probably wouldn't be a smart idea to take my piece of crap car on the highway so my little vacation plans were wrecked!

I forgot about my tire until I went to go to work on Monday morning when of course I went out to leave for work and it was flatter than flat once again! I need my car for work so after my dad came and rescued me by filling up the tire I called around and after driving all over the city (who knew that there was a tire strike and that it just ended) I have two new back tires and I am good to go.... now I just need to get some more vacation days!

SAVE THE FISH

2007-02-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is our fish... I don't even know if he has a name or not but until I find out otherwise his name is Navi (cause he doesn't eat very well)

We bought Navi as our phone room pet to keep us all company at work... we were all getting a little bit worried about him since he wouldn't eat or swim very much any more so my friend Bonny called to pet store and we found out WE'VE BEEN KILLING NAVI!!!

You see I guess Navi has no eyelids and needs at least 8 hours of darkness at night so he can sleep... who knew!

This is really tragic for a fish who lives in the middle of a 24 hour crisis line phoneroom... cause we never EVER turn out the lights.

Something needed to done right away! So a box has been temporarily found and made into an emergency darkness shelter for Navi. We have launched a SAVE THE FISH campaign and depending on how successful it is we may be able to save Navi yet!

Please wish us luck and keep Navi in your prayers!

Tevin's First Birthday

2007-02-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has already been a year but it has and Tevin celebrated her first birthday this weekend!

As a crowd control measure Tavis and Genitta decided to have two birthdays - one for friends on Saturday and one for family on Sunday.

The only problem with that was there were a bunch of us that wanted to see the other kids as well so we ended up going to both parties :)

There were a bunch of kids who showed up for the big party aging from new babies to about nine years old so it was quite a crowd!

This is my little niece (my cousin's daughter but she still gets to be my niece!) Sophie, she is getting so big so fast and is expecting a baby brother or sister any day now.

Tevin was very happy that is was time to open presents again... she is getting really good at that these days!

Braeden came out to celebrate the day... he was one of the older kids in the group but still seemed to have a good time.

Everything Dora was a really big hit. Tevin REALLY loves Dora right now!

Little Jonah could not get enough of this little toy that shoots out plastic balls. I think I only saw him away from the toy for about five minutes the whole day... and that was to go check out the remote control car!

Presents...

presents...

and more presents!

It was a really nice birthday party for Tevin and she really enjoyed playing with all the other kids.

My friend Candy was the other "childless" friend who came to the party. It was good to see Candy again as well :)

On Sunday we did it all again with family this time!

Kent bought Tevin her first guitar so she should be rocking the town before long!

It's a good thing that she liked it because Kent sure was having fun with it and would have been more than happy to take it back home :)

It was another fun filled day full of presents and celebration!

Here is the first birthday cake!

Tevin received an adorable hoody from Grampa Bruce and Grandma Patty... the had on it was just too cute!

and I think one of her most treasured gifts was this beautiful locket from Great Grandma Lil.

I also think she was overjoyed to have all her family visiting all at once.

She put on a great show for all of us!

The fun was neverending...

There were tons of presents to open and great new toys to be discovered.

Tevin also got her very first cell phone. It was a huge hit and she would not give it up for the rest of the day... typical female!

Grandma Patty was lucky enough to be able to take a call on the new phone!

I think we all enjoyed watching Tevin open all of her wonderful presents :)

It was quite an exhausting weekend for all!

Friday in Cochrane

2007-02-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

This week was exam week for most Calgary Board of Education high schools so it meant a really slow week at work for me. I took some time and cleaned my office... then I took a picture because my office very rarely looks this tidy!

I ended up taking Wednesday and Thursday off since I had caught up on pretty much all of my work and on Friday I headed out to Cochrane with the rest of the volunteer team for a Volunteer Sector training event!

The classes were... alright... but the highlight of the day was the final group activity where we were tasked to build a bridge to drive a remote control car over. Nav was chosen as the driver for our team and was diligently practising for the big event.

Bonny, Michelle and myself were all put on a special projects team where we created a banner for the opening ceremony for our "Bridge to Success". I was given the special task of leading the group in Oh' Canada at the beginning of the ceremony!

The bridge was finally constucted and we were all ready for the fun to begin. It was a lot of pressure for Nav and I think he had a bit of performance anxiety!

It may have been nerves or it may be that he had to much coffee to drink earlier but the poor car did not make it to the end of the bridge... in fact it took a nose dive off the bridge and landed at my feet :(

A tragic end to our day but a really fun day none the less!

Pics of Tevin

2007-01-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is an update for all of you out there who do not read the Freeman's blog (cause I stole all of these new pictures right off their blog!

Tevin has been very busy quickly learning how to climb and walk before the new baby show's up in June!

She has also picked up a new habit from her mother and just cannot wait to see the latest celebrity gossip. I think her favorites right now are Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, and Kingston McGregor Rossdale but it's hard to tell.

And this is Tevin just chilling in bed. I like this one so I've made it my new screensaver at work. She points right to the windows media player icon!

Mad World

2007-01-25T01:37:00.000-07:00

Yep... it's a mad world alright...

Happy Birthday Genitta

2007-01-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

A big shout out goes out to my big sister Genitta who turned 34 today!

I had a bunch of pictures to share but I have been trying to upload them for over three hours and blogger is just not playing along... BLOGGER SUCKS! So you will all just have to do with these two that I WAS able to upload...

My mom and dad made a wonderful dinner for the occasion on Sunday so we had a goo old family dinner and were all able to take leftovers home :)

Tevin had a great time watching us eat while she chowed down on a delicious cookie...

And I thougt these two were just too cute so I decided to share this picture too!

Happy Birthday Genitta... I hope you had a wonderful day and I wish you a fabulous year!!!

Midnight Visitors

2007-01-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

I have been fighting off the flu bug for the past few days and ended up falling asleep on the couch last night. I woke up at about 3oclock in the morning and spotted a large creature walking past the window. It shocked me a bit since I had no idea what just went by so I got up to take a look and found two deers just hanging out on the front lawn! It was pretty dark out but I was able to snap a picture (after finding batteries for the damb camera). The pair hung out for about five minutes and then headed off down the street. Crazy what you find on the streets of Calgary in the wee hours of the night.

Merry Christmas 2006

2006-12-26T17:13:00.001-07:00

Well this year Christmas morning started out at Genitta's house. It is Tevin's first Christmas and she did a really good job of ripping all of her presents open.

I'm not sure if she liked the wrapping paper, ribbons and bows better or the toys inside but it was nice to she her enjoying everything so much.

The whole fam-damily came over to watch Tevin enjoying her presents and to celebrate the holidays. Tevin had a great time hanging out with Grandma...

Hanging on the couch with Opa...

and spending time with Gram and Grampa!

So many new toys and gifts to check out. This is the pooh bear that I got her as part of a winnie the pooh set. She really liked Tigger and Pooh... but she wasn't so fond of Piglette or Eyore!

Uncle Kent found a very cool little juke box that Tevin thought was very very cool!

A definite hit in the bunch was her brand new set of blocks that feel great stuck into her mouth :)

There was not too much assembly required this year but these guys took care of the toys that did need to be assembled... or dissembled depending on how you look at it!

Genitta was glowing and looked like she had a great time opening her gifts...

Kent was hapy with the stash of gifts he picked up...

And mom had WAY too much fun opening all of Tevin's girts with her!

Genitta and Tavis were busy most of the morning preparing drinks and a gourmet brunch for the family (Tavis looks a bit stunned here).

Presents continued AFTER we ate...

and here we are all happy and stuffed...

The last few gifts were unwrapped and celebrated...

and when it was all said and done Kent fell asleep with Genitta's new snowman stocking!

Dinner was at mom's house and was quite quiet this year with only mom, dad, Kent and myself in attendance. This is my baby Spook... he is like sixteen years old and is shrinking every time I visit him!

and for a final holiday giggle. I noticed something was a little bit odd with the Christmas sign my mom put up in the kitchen... then I just had to take a picture cause this is just SO GENIA!!!

Merry X-Mas Everyone!!!!!

Susan's Update

2006-12-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

I received a special email this morning from Susan asking oh so nicely for an update on the blog... so here is a very long overdue one for you :)

At the beginning of December work organized a "wellness event" and we all headed down to Heritage Park for the Twelve Days of Christmas. We met up at the hotel for brunch where we had sausages, pancakes, and waffles galore and then since we were all WAY to full we wandered around the park looking at the sites.

Carolyn really wanted to take a sleigh ride with the horses but the line up was way too long and there were way too many kids so we made do with walking over to the barn area and petting the horses that were down there. I swear they give those horses steroids cause they were alot bigger than most horses I have seen but Carolyn says that I am wrong and they are just that big from pulling the sleighs all the time...

I really liked the train set up they had in one of the buildings. You can't really see it here but the have it set up so a few trains are going around at the same time and they are actually all going around and around a little miniture heritage park!

Last Friday we had our Christmas parties at work. At lunch we had a staff party and then in the evening we did it all over again with the volunteers. It was a Christmas party but for some reason we had a "Hawaii" theme going this year with pinapples everywhere.

We all got lei's to wear during lunch so even if you didnt wear your hawaiian gear we all looked the part. It must have looked odd to the outside world however since everytime we went outside we got comments from people about being "lei'd".

This is Nav and me partying away. We did start out with more accessories but since we were partying all day and night we both lost out lei's eventually.

Bonny and Serena showed up at some time with their reindeer ears and finally brought some Christmas to the party. It was a good time and a reminder that Christmas really is right around the corner... still havent gone shopping so I guess I need to get out there and get prepared!

A Family Day

2006-11-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

I took the day off today to keep an eye on Benji but he is healing really nicely so I decided that it was also a good opportunity to get over and see my little niece!

Both Charlie and Wes were pretty happy to see me. Wes came right over for a cuddle and Charlie decided that he really really loved my new boots (I think he smelt Jaike and Benji on them and decided to rub all over them to let me cat's know how much he missed them too).

Tevin is busier then ever! She is crawling all over and had a great time trying to climb into her play box...

She really is a little angel!

This is right after lunch... she was full of smiles so I think she really enjoyed the green concoction and her cherries and yogurt.

Just before nap time Grandpa Bruce came by for a visit as well so we had a wonderful visit with him. I headed into work for about an hour to check email and voice messages and then I went and visited my mom and brother... it was a family filled day all around :)

My Baby Is Home

2006-11-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

My little Benji had to go in for surgury today but he's out, he's home, and he's doing pretty good. It was pretty scary because he has a heart murmur and we were all a little worried that the anesthetic would be a little too hard on his heart so they put him under with gas instead. He had some blood tests and a urinalysis and the results haven't come back from the lab but my fingers are crossed that it will be good news from that as well. Right now I have him settled down and he is sleeping off the trauma. It sure is good to have him home!

Happy Birthday Pam!!!

2006-11-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

In celebration of my coworker Pam's birthday a whole bunch of us headed off th Aussie Rules for the night!

Pretty much everyone who was invited out showed up so it was a good turnout and a good party!

Lori almost took out Kim while posing for a picture... but no love was lost and Kim posed with Lori for this here picture.

The show is very interactive and pretty soon everyone was up dancing on the chairs!

From the looks of it everyone had a really really good time :)

I invited Kelly out for the night as well. He arrived a little bit late so him and Crystal were sat up at the bar... but they could still see the show just fine.

Genieve and Carla showed up before long and kept the party in the corner booth going.

And here is everyone up dancing and clapping on the chairs again!

My friend Gill was there as well. It was really nice to see both Gillian and Adrienne since they have both been gone for a few months now.

It was a really fun night and really nice to get out with everyone again. It has been awhile since we have all done that... and we should really plan another night out soon!

Sad Pumpkins

2006-10-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Sad pumpkins for Halloween this year...

I ALWAYS spend halloween with my godboys. For the past eleven years I spent this night dressing up... following little boys around gathering candies... and then partying with my cousin snapping pictures for the rest of the night.

FUCK... I miss them today and it's making me quite cranky! Maybe if I swing by and see my little niece it will brighten up this day a bit!

This is the "troll mask". I'm not sure when it showed up on the scene but it has been bouncing around for years. I think Ronaye has it right now but it wouldn't surprize me if it jumped out of my closet one day. Seeing the mask makes me laugh cause I remember Jordan's first halloween (or maybe second) where the mask came out and that kid HATED the troll mask! Jordie would run at you screaming and rip the mask right off of your head... too, too funny!

And here are my boys at halloween last year! I guess this year Jordan is going as a skelleton and my little pre-teen Avery is going as a bum. Avery is going out with his friends and Jordan's dad is in town and is going to go out with him to collect his loot... I really wish I could teleport in for the night... but I can't!

Ren promised me pictures so as soon as she gets her blog updated or sends me some pics I will share!

Happy Halloween... have fun and stay safe :)

G. Komen ??

2006-10-25T16:39:00.000-06:00

My siblings are popping up all over the net!!!

First I find the Kent/SouthPark video and now here is the G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation!

Who would have thought that there could be another G. Komen (very sad that she has breast cancer).

South Park For Kent

2006-10-24T17:22:00.000-06:00

This is a little South Park video I came across about World of Warcraft.... and it is just so so Kent (my little brother).

Enjoy Kent!

South Park WoW
Uploaded by SolTek

Too Cool

2006-10-15T13:54:00.000-06:00

So I had the best visitors in the world this weekend :)

One of my best friends from college, Geoff came up from Texas this weekend with his beautiful new wife Monique. He went up to Red Deer to visit with his parents first and my other best friend from college Wayne met up with him in Red Deer and joined up for the trip!

Geoff is actually Kelly's cousin (I actually met Kelly thru Geoff... he's his OLD cousin... lol) so the crew arrived on Saturday at about 2pm, we headed out for a beer and then over to Kelly's to visit with him and the kids.

Kids looked great and were full of energy, we ordered pizza... and Kelly was a really great host :)

It's was a really fun time with everyone all in the same place hanging out for the night.

It's too bad there are not more of those in life... but manybe if Geoff get's his butt back to Canada there will be!

Everyone stayed over... I gave Geoff and Monique my bed, Wayne was SOOOO lucky cause I gave him the couch and I pulled out the sleeping bag and camped out on the floor of my spare bedroom :)

But it was 100% totally worth it to have everyone over and to hang out with everyone so anytime any of you need a place to crash just let me know :)

Still Here

2006-10-04T23:22:00.000-06:00

Okay I know that it has been a ridiculously long time since I've updated...

I didn't mean to leave it so long but my computer was broke... then I fixed it and finally got my pictures from Europe downloaded... then the computer broke again! I could have probably updated from work but I didn't cause I guess I just didn't have much to say...

I've got myself set up now with a new computer and promise to try to update more often :)

My new computer is pretty cool. I got myself an HP Pavilion m7580n. The coolest thing about it is that it has a tv tuner with video in and out so it's going to make a lot of my video editing projects much easier and I can now record all of my tv programs thru the computer. This is especially nice since my vcr has been broken for about five months and I've been missing MANY programs. It works like tevo so I can pause or rewind live shows while I am watching them and it has a built in TV guide as well. The shittiest is that it records the shows in microsoft file type that makes each show like 5gigs so it eats up memory pretty quick until you watch and delete them. I have 300gigs on the computer and bought an extra 300gig external drive to backup my broken computer so with 600gigs of memory I should be okay for awhile ")

I have also been trying to go thru all my stuff and do a good clean out of all the old stuff I really don't need anymore. I am going to rent out my house for a year so I can save up a good chunk of money to get myself a new car and maybe some new furniture. My Uncle was at my parents for the last few years in the second bedroom in their basement and he just moved back to Holland. It's a really nice opportunity to get ahead and it'll be really nice to come home and have someone there... cause it can be lonely living all alone sometimes. I am more concerned about who I rent my place to than I am about when I actually make the move so that will probably happen in the next few months but who knows when. The biggest problem with the plan is that I have ALOT of stuff that there really isn't a lot of room at my mom's for so I really have to clean out my storage room and downsize. I have my old '93 Buick Century for sale as well for $900 cause it has basically been parked for the last year and I probably won't been using it again... I can't even count the times I have done this and had two cars at the same time! One person really only needs one car! At first I thought I would keep it so that if my Sentra broke down I could have a back up car... but really if my Sentra doesn't die soon by the time it does the Buick will be rusted and not running anymore as well. I WILL however been very unimpressed if the Sentra dies right after I finally sell the Buick!

Congratulations on the new kitty Jenna! I heard that you had finally gotten yourself a little kitten and I would love to come by and meet the new little guy sometime soon!

Other than that I have been working tons getting my volunteers out into the schools since the students are all back in class and I'm back at cadets again on Tuesday nights so things are busy as usual. I promise to have new pictures and a new update soon! :)

Home Sweet Home

2006-09-12T04:06:00.000-06:00

Well I made it home at last... it was a long flight back but as I said I survived. I got out of the airport at about midnight and was back to work bright and early Thursday morning.

I was able to get a bunch of stuff done on Thursday and Friday so I am not as far behind as I thought I would be which is a really good thing! I am however working every Saturday for the rest of the month so it's going to get pretty busy around here.

My poor ole computer blew up the day before I left for Holland so I am pretty bummed out about that. Blog postings may slow down a bit until I get that fixed or get myself another one which hopefully will no be tooooo long but I guess we will see. Regardless I will try to post as often as I can and keep you all updates :)

Last Day In Holland

2006-09-06T23:11:00.000-06:00

I went into Schagen on my last day in Holland. Once a year they set up the main street downtown and run horse races and I was able to see all of the excitement.

There were tons of people up and down the streets watching and betting on the races. My aunt Alli was really lucky and walked away from the races with a pocketfull of money!

In the morning we had a visit from my cousin Arco's wife Monique and his little daughter Michelle.

Then we had another cute little visitor, the daughter of my dad's cousin Jan... her name is Laura and I had a wonderful time playing with her for awhile.

In the evening most of the family came by to say farewell.

It was a nice chance to see everyone and get in one last goodbye.

It was a great trip and I will definitely have to go back soon... but good to be getting home as well!

Happy Twenty Fifth!!!

2006-09-04T07:20:00.000-06:00

When we arrived home from Texel on Sunday we were surprized to walk into a surprize party for my mom and dad's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary!

The place was packed! Everyone had arrived to congratulate them and to party!

We even got to meet my uncle Hank's new girlfriend from Germany who is in town for a few days!

We posed for a group picture of my parents and "the cousins"

I was able to meet my cousin Teun (son of Hank) for the first time :)

There was a picture with my parents and all of my dad's siblings :)

And finally a picture of the family!!! (wish G, Tav and Tevin were there for this one!)

My dad's best friend from elementary school James Skippio was even there. It was a total surprize and a really great party! I think my parents were very surprized and very very happy!

The Wedding

2006-09-01T23:56:00.000-06:00

My beautiful cousin Iris married her fiance Eric on September 1st!

They arrived to the church by "bike carriage"and the ceremony was beautiful!

They had a wonderful wedding reception as well. It was great to meet all of their friends and family!!!

Paris

2006-08-29T09:14:00.000-06:00

Our trip to Paris was quite an adventure!

We arrived on Monday and headed to the Eiffel Tower

I went up to the top with my mom and Kent and the view was AMAZING!

It was pretty busy on the tower so it took us about two hours to make it up and back down.

By the time we made it back down it was dark and we got to see the tower all lite up as well.

On tuesday we had a walking tour of Paris.

We went up the bell towers at Notre Dame and the view was wonderful again.

I love this picture of the statue overlooking Paris.

This is me and my mom taking a break after walking up and back down about 300 stairs!

The Notre Dame...

My Dad stopped to light a candle by the cathedral of Maria. I took a few pictures before he lite the candles and this is right after. In this picture you can see a few orbs appeared right near the statue after he lite the candle.

This is a statue of Saint Michael that we came across on our journey.

And me looking wind blown!

Mom and Dad got to be lovers in Paris :)

Our last stop was the Louves which was absolutely amazing as well.

The beautiful pyramid at the Louves.

The Arc d'Triumph

and dad feeding the birds (doesn't my mom look happy!)

Volendam

2006-08-28T18:34:00.000-06:00

Sunday we headed off to Volendam with Jan, Siem and Rita. Our first stop was to the farm to pick up a few souveniers and to see somewooden clog be made!

Then we headed into Volendam for some coffee, apple pie, and more shopping!

Alkmaar

2006-08-26T07:07:00.000-06:00

Long update for you all today! I haven't been close to a computer for a few days but I've backdated a few posts so you can see what we've been upto! Enjoy!!!

I headed out with my mom and dad for a day in Alkmaar on Saturday. It was their big market day so we got to see the cheese runners and the cheese market.

There was also a guy in the market making traditional wooden clogs.

This is just a cool lion statue that I spotted.

I still can't get over the thousands of bikes that you see everywhere!

The best part of the day was the crazy boat tour that me and mom took thru Alkmaar!

There were quite a few very low canals that we had to duck under on the boat... very crazy!

There were also some really nice sites to see...

Mom looked like she was enjoying herself in between ducking episodes :)

We even passed by my Dad's windmill that we had toured earlier in the day.

Here is a little video of our advernture...

The carnival also started on Saturday and there were rides and snack stands set up all over town. It was just like the stampede but spreaded out wherever we went. It was awesome!!!

This is a beautiful angel statue I spotted on the tour...

It was a really nice city and a great day :)

Happy B-Day Kent

2006-08-24T22:34:00.000-06:00

Kent celebrated his 23rd birthday today!

Laura decorated the house and invited family over to celebrate :)

In the afternoon we headed out to go gocarting (mom's pictures didnt turn out!!!) and then for a bowling match!

Great fun for all!!!

Amsterdam

2006-08-22T18:31:00.000-06:00

Tuesday Team Koomen headed out for a day in Amsterdam!

We had a nice little tour of the red light district...

Plus a stroll thru the "smelly" section of Amsterdam to check out the multitude of coffee shops :)

We had a nice walk thru Amsterdam and ended up at the wax museum!

Kent got to hang out with Bob Marley!

Mom found her boyfriend George Michael...

and I hung out for a little while with Mr. George Clooney :)

We found a few hands that were quite interesting as well!

We found a really nice Irish pub that had a bunch of english food which made mom very happy.

Then we hopped on a boat tour of the canals in Amsterdam.

This is an old pirate ship that is in the Amsterdam canals...

Window shopped...

This a beautiful canal that we travelled down.

and then we got a little side tracked and went for a death march across Amsterdam... poor mom's legs and feet were a little bit tired afterwards.

We did see an amazing street entertainer during dinner that was probably the highlight of the trip.

It was a pretty long day but I am really glad that we got to see Amsterdam.

Muiderslot and Volendam

2006-08-21T23:11:00.000-06:00

We went today to see Muiderslot which is an old castle in Holland.

We got a chance to dress up in the medieval costumes :)

I got to sit for a bit of a rest after climbing 88 steps to the top of the tower!

and Kent and Dad enjoyed a afternoon digital jaust!

Kent found some really nice armour that he was able to try on!

and we were able to stop for a relaxing coffee in the yard!

We also took a really quick tour of the castle gardens.

After Muiderslot we headed to a little tourist town called Volendam.

We went around window shopping.

Dad enjoyed seeing all of the fishing boats come in.

We saw tons of delfts blue.

and then finally headed home for the day :)

In Haarlem With Iris

2006-08-20T05:33:00.000-06:00

Iris came to Poolland to pick me and Kent up for a weekend in Haarlem!

She has a beautiful house with huge windows and really nice tall tall ceilings (Genitta you would LOVE this place!!!)

Kent really got attached to this guy...

Iris has two stories to her house but I only took pictures of the bottom floor. As I said it was very bright and clean looking with the decorating.

It started to rain so me and Kent really enjoyed our "European" umbrella's

There were beautiful churches to see in Haarlem...

Good beer (grumpy little waiter) and easy going shops :)

We enjoyed the afternoon lounging around and watching them set up for the jazz festival.

We went back to Iris' for dinner...

I love all the buildings in Haarlem!

Then headed back downtown for the FESTIVAL...

It was a blast...

This is our SLUG beer (look closely)...

Iris and Kent danced and sang all nice... I really enjoyed the festival but did not dance or sing as much.

Haarlem is a great place to visit... we're coming back for dinner next Friday :)

Busy Days

2006-08-18T12:35:00.000-06:00

It has been a busy few days. After visiting with Siem and Rita on Wednesday we headed back to Poolland for a family bar-b-que.

All of my dad's brothers came over and Kent had to fight with my Uncle Henk over control of the beer :)

Dad was at home on the bar-b-que but he did think that the bar-b-que was a little different than his one at home.

Henk took control of the second bar-b-que and the cook off between the brother's Koomen was on!

The meal was absolutely FANTASTIC... Henk made his famous Greek salad, we had chicken sate, burgers, sausages, and salads galore!

After dinner Dad and his brother's sat down to watch a bit of football.

And then we all gathered together for the mandatory family photo (mom took the picture).

We were all up early on Thursday morning to see the parade at the Market in Schagen...

After our adventures at the market we headed to the indoor football stadium for the memorial game for my Uncle Hannes who passed away ten years ago. All of the Koomen boys made up one team and they played against Hannes' team.

My Cousins Nick and Bart and my Aunt Trudi came into Schagen from Texel to help out the team.

The game ended in a 4-4 tie. It was a really nice game and we got the two teams to pose for a picture afterwards :)

And once the game was over we all went and celebrated Hannes style!

Which brings us to today...

Today we headed to Den Helder to the Fort Kijkdein which is a fort built by Napolean.

There was a museum which covered the late 1800's when the fort was built all the way to Germany's occupation during WWII.

In the basement there was also an aquarium with some really nasty looking fish in it!

It was a pretty good day and as I said a busy few days... we have decided that we are going to drive down to Paris with the whole family so there should be some good updates to come!

Fun In The Sun

2006-08-16T10:03:00.000-06:00

The weather got quite nice by Sunday so we decided to spend a lazy day at the beach with my mom, Kent, cousins Laura and Rudy and my aunt Anneke.

My mom was really happy walking along the seaside smelling the salty water and picking up pretty sea shells.

It was beautiful weather, I did not go swimming but next time I will go for a swim for sure!

Laura set up a little wind tent so we were all set for the day :)

We have run into my Uncle Henk all over town and Sunday was no exception... as we were leaving the beach sure enough he showed up behind us.

After our day at the beach mom treat us all out for a really nice dinner at the Greek restaurant in Schagen. It was great food but I sure had a hard time finding something I liked on the menu since it was all in Dutch!

On Monday and for most of Tuesday me and Kent hung out in downtown Schagen. Kent marked up the town with his Chikko stickers and even found a "dutch chiko".

On Tuesday Dad showed up and took us for a walk around a section of Schagen we had not seen. All of the canals all over town are really beautiful.

We have also had lots of time to visit with family and friends. This is Kent with my cousins Laura and Eef.

Today we are in the "countryside" visiting my dad''s cousin Siem and his wife Rita.

It is a really nice day outside but by the look of it the rain may be coming soon...

The beer is very cheap here. A flat (24) is only 7 Euro so me and Kent have been quite spoiled with beer from morning to night.

Dad is finally here (he arrived yesterday at noon) so he is well rested up and ready to take us touring... I cannot wait!

In The Netherlands

2006-08-12T08:44:00.000-06:00

Well we made it to the Netherlands!!! It was a really long flight with 11 hours between smokes but well worth the trip.

It was midnight at home but 7am in Holland when we arrived so we tried to stay up as long as possible, we headed downtown to the market to wake us up. My uncle Hank took up to his favorite pub "Club Toon"" for a few could Heineiken's... it was great!

The market was on since it was Thursday so we toured around and bought a few items from the vendors.

Kent and I are staying with my cousins Laura and Rudy just outside of Schagen in the countryside. They call it Poolland.

It is really nice because it is only about ten minutes outside of town but it has a real country feel and you get to cross a little bridge to get to the road.

We are really comfy there since my cousins both gave me and Kent their rooms!

We went back downtown for a little more shopping on Friday with my Uncle Jan.

For some reason Kent has turned really religious and has this fasination with taking pictures of the churches at every angle possible.

Jan was a great tour guide and pointed out the first house that my Dad lived in.

It was in the apartments above the stores behind the black car. I guess there were 32 kids and 6 adults living in the upstairs there.

He also took us through the alley to show us the little back yard and where the single outhouse used to be.

This is just next door where the priest of the Catholic church lives. I was scared that the priest would run outside and push Kent off his fence.

The brickwork in Schagen is absolutely amazing... everywhere you go the everything you see is brick.

It's been a really great trip so far. We're all looking forward to Dad getting here on Tuesday!

Right now I am at my Uncle Lou and Aunt Anneke's..for dinner. Next time I am over or if I come across an internet cafe I will be sure to update :)

Sleep Is Good...

2006-07-27T11:57:00.000-06:00

I moved my cats over to my moms house at the end of last weekend to get them used to the new house and my mom's two cats before we head out to Europe.

Ben hid as soon as we got there... he somehow figured out how to get under the recliner and stayed there until after dark. As soon as everyone went to bed he sniffed around the basement pretty good and got quite relaxed and has been great ever since.

Jaike was very pissed off when we arrived but toured around the whole house right away meowing his head off. I thought that he would adjust the best since he lived here for a few months a few years ago but once everyone went to bed his "meowing" turned into a loud "mooing" and he woke me up every ten to twenty minutes the first night.

My very first cat who has always lived at my mom's "Spook" has been the best. He does not hiss at my cats and couldn't really care less that they are there... he did come downstairs the first day and quite blatently pissed all over the basement mat however!

Lynx is my mom's baby and he is really not impressed that my cats are here at all but he has also been really good about the whole situation. He hisses and growls if my cat comes near... and yesterday he came downstairs and decided to piss on my bed like a dog! My matress was standing up against the wall but he stood beside it... raised his leg and pissed on it... like a dog... I couldn't believe it!

This is my bed... it's not so bad but it's in the middle of the basement and Jaike continued to keep me awake "mooing" every ten to twenty minutes the second night as well... it was very very frustrating... I had thoughts of locking him in the laundry room, or taping his loud mouth shut!

The highlight of day two was a visit from my beautiful niece Tevin! We planned out how we are going to change my mom's front window into a fort in a few years when she is old enough and had a great afternoon playing :)

Last night my mom saved me and found me ear plugs that worked wonderfully... I finally got to sleep and it was a good thing because I was really starting to lose my sanity!

This morning I got up and all 4 cats were sitting in the living room with no hissing or growling... they all just layed there and stared at each other.

These two actually are getting pretty close to each other... they may end up friends after all... and as of tonight all have been seen using the litter box so hopefully we will have no more obnoxious accidents.

It's been kind of fun hanging out with the family... last night my Uncle Jan treat us all to dinner at boston pizza and today my mom made my favorite dinner ever! (Ginger Beef and Cantonese Noodles!!!)

My dad was downstairs tonight, picked up a white lighter and said "whose lighter is this?". Both Kent and I said "it's mine" at the same time so he claimed us both liers and took the lighter with him. A few minutes later Kent noticed the lighter was back on the table on my dad's smokes with a big "T" written on it. We laughed and Kent decided he was going to add to it so I told him to change the "T" to "Twit"... not sure if dad found it funny but it was freaking hillarious!

I will try to keep updated but I'm going onto night shift at work next week and I'm battling with this guy to get onto the computer to update. Jenna I signed up for as many shifts as I could with you before you leave so get ready for the all nighters! I'm looking forward to it! (and I better not lose my most dedicated reader!!!)

More on the saga soon...

And Then There Was Sun

2006-07-21T19:25:00.000-06:00

It's been a crazy stressful week at work but luckily we had a wellness event planned for this afternoon and we all headed out rafting down the Bow River

One raft headed out before us and "the wellness committee" all claimed their own raft and suspiciously paddled furiously to catch up with us!

Genieve got rid of the skirt and we were off to go rafting in the sunshine (we warmed her that now pictures of her in her underwear would be appearing on the net and in agency slideshow presentations!)

The wellness committee did catch up and G.I. Joan was ready for the kill! We had a good laugh at how commando the whole group looked :) They got too close and we started soaking them with our paddles so they zoomed away down the river after the other raft...

and we sailed peacefully down the river...

all wishing that we had a beer for the travels...

At times we were going so slow that we wondered if we would hit downtown before nightfall... it was kind of a relief when I spotted tall building behind Susan's head.

We passed the other rafts earlier when they had all pulled over for an icecream so we pulled off of the river first and vegged for a bit waiting for the others to show up.

about 15 minutes later they sailed on by...

Carmen had lost her show and it was floating down the river ahead of the raft so Genieve swam out and saved it!

and right behind them came the commando committee...

We docked the rafts...

Unloaded and headed for home :)

I woke up this morning and thought about backing out and not going but I'm really glad I did. It's something I havent done before and it was a major stress relief from the week to just get out there... paddle... giggle... and float... I totally recommend it!

R.I.P.

2006-07-19T12:39:00.000-06:00

I have a funeral to attend this afternoon. This world has lost an amazing woman and it just won't be the same without her. Rest In Peace Carla...

CARLA AMANDA LARSON
1976 - 2006

Carla Amanda Larson came into this world on a sunny Sunday morning on February 29, 1976. She left this world on a sunny Sunday afternoon on July 16, 2006.

Carla was a unique woman whose passion, beauty, humour and free spirit were expressed in her art and music.

She is survived by her mother Mary McCorquodale; her father Darryl Larson; stepmother Deb Zutter; her six siblings, Christy, Scott, Dylan, Desiree, Casey, Graham; her close friend Stephen; her paternal grandparents, Gordon and Gladys Larson and her maternal grandmother Joyce McCorquodale; her aunts, uncles and many cousins, all of whom loved her dearly.
Carla was predeceased by her stepfather, Joel Shortt and her maternal grandfather, Bruce McCorquodale.

Goodbye "Little Skeezix." A Celebration of Carla's Life will be held at McINNIS & HOLLOWAY'S Eastside Memorial Chapel, July 19, 2006 at 2:00 p.m.

Forward condolences through http://www.mcinnisandholloway.com/ .

In lieu of flowers, memorial tributes may be made directly to the Canadian Mental Health Association, for their efforts in furthering research and treatment for Bipolar Affective Disorders, Suite No. 400, 1202 Centre Street S.E., Calgary, AB T2G 5A5 ( 403-297-1700).

In living memory of Carla Larson, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Eastside Memorial Chapel, 5388 MEMORIAL DRIVE N.E., CALGARY. Telephone: 403-248-8585.

Grandma Lil

2006-07-16T19:17:00.000-06:00

I went to Vernon this weekend with my brother Kent and my father Bruce to go and visit my Grandma Lil. She had her hair done right before this picture was taken and looked absolutley wonderful!

Grandma Lil took us for a tour of her new home which is the Vernon Rest Holm. She really is comfortable there with her new best friend "the other Lilly". This is the view right out her bedroom window. It really is beautiful there.

She took us for a little walk and we saw all of the grounds which is a bautiful little park with many little benches along the way to stop and rest :)

My sister Genitta couldn't make it for the trip but she was definitly with us in our minds and in many of our stories. In fact our motel room was right across the street from the Tac Mobility in Vernon. Genitta used to work for Tac Mobility and knew the owners quite well. We had one very memborable trip to Kelowna up the street for a Tac Mobility event a few years back so I thought it was kind of neat that Tac was right across the street.

We were just up the street from Grandma and had a few really nice nights telling stories and watching movies on the tube . Unfortunetly Grandma had a hear attack early Saturday morning and went into the ICU unit of the Vernon hospital. That didn't stop our visit however! We were able to get in to visit her for about an hour after lunch on Saturday and then headed to the beach for about an hour.

This is a me and Bruce taking a self portrait on the beach.

and this is Kent and Bruce getting out of the water. I didn't put on my swimsuit so I didn't go for a swim but Kent and Bruce said is was warm and gorgeous. Kent wants to get a few friends together and go back camping very soon. After the beach we took two angels Linda and Fergi out for dinner. Linda and Fergi take care of Grandma's everyday needs and appointments. They are the reason that I can sit back in Calgary and know that Grandma is well taken care of. They are truly two angels on earth!

We went back this morning and got to spend a little over an hour with Grandma before we headed back out on the road. She was looking a lot better when we left than she did when we arrived so I think she is going to be alright. It was a really nice trip and I feel really fortunate that I was able to get out there for a visit!

A B-Day & An Anniversary

2006-07-09T18:19:00.000-06:00

Today my little godson Jordan turned 8.

We had a party planned for him at South Glenmore Park but sure enough it started to pour and hail about 5 minutes before the party was about to start.

So we moved the party up the hill to my place. It was a little bit cramped but luckily I had cleaned up a little bit during the day so it was do-able!

Anthony ran out to get pizza and my aunt Chantelle brought cake and gifts.

Jordan had a blast opening his gifts and blowing out all 8 candles!

Jordie really wanted to so he got to cut the cake himself this year.

He did a really good job and we all enjoyed the pizza and cake.

It was great to see Chantelle, Rob, Becky, and little Payten again, it's been a few months since we've gotten together and wow is Payten ever growing big and becoming a little person!

It is also my sister Genitta and brother in law Tavis' one year anniversary today. I can't believe it has already been a year since the big day! Happy Anniversary guys!!!!

The Boys are Back In Town

2006-07-07T20:05:00.000-06:00

I got a call from my little angel Avery on Wednesday evening. Their dad drove down to Saskatoon last weekend and they are in Calgary for a visit!

I was so excited so I talked to Genitta and set up dinner at her house for Thursday evening.

The boys got to visit with Tevin and see how big she has gotten over the last couple of months. Kent also came by for a visit so it was a good old family get together with lots of fun, chatting, and games to be played!

It's really good to have the boys home if only for a visit :)

'bout me

2006-07-05T11:56:00.000-06:00

Jenna sent me a little quiz by email last night so I thought I would share my answers with all of you... it's just a little bit more about me :)

First Name? Sasha

Were you named after anyone? Pierre Trudeau’s son Sasha who was born a few months before me. My mom liked the name but for a girl not a boy. If I was a boy I would have been TJ

When did you last cry? June 26th I think

Do you like your handwriting? Sure… it’s alright. Except I always print… very rarely write.

What is your favorite lunch meat? Ham

Do you have kids? No but I have two godsons, and a brand new niece so I do have kids around me.

Do you have a journal? No but I have a blog you know www.mydial.blogspot.com

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yes… I have sarcastic humour

Do you still have your tonsils? Yes… I like them so I think I’ll keep them.

Would you bungee jump? Depends… in theory definitely yes but if the opportunity was right in my face… who knows

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Never

Do you think you are strong? Physically yes… mentally I’m not always so sure

What is your favorite ice cream flavour? Licorice… or Tiger which is orange and licorice

Shoe size? 9 ½ - 10

Red or pink? BLUE… (I hate pink and am really not a big fan of bloody red either)

What is the least favorite thing about yourself? There is just so much

Who do you miss the most? My Avery and Jordan (godboys) who have been gone for over half a year now… oops better change my cry answer I’m tearing up as I type this!

Do you want everyone to send this back to you? PLEASE I would love it!

What color pants and shoes you are wearing? Beige Corduroys , sandals

Last thing you ate? Well I had an Ensure this morning if that counts other than that chicken pot pie at work yesterday

What are you listening to right now? “Where’d you go” on the radio

Favorite smell? Cinnamon

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Kelly

The first thing you notice about people you are attracted to? Hmmm… I had to think about that one. I am really not one notice a lot of physical things (for those of you who have had a haircut or color and I never said anything- I really wasn’t being rude – I TRULY didn’t notice) so I would have to say it’s an overall thing. If they are naked or half naked I would have to say shoulders/back though.

Favorite drink? Strawberry Margerita

Favorite sport? None… I’m thinking really hard to try to think of one…. But nope it’s none

Hair color? Brown

Eye color? Brown/Hazel

Do you wear contacts? No I would hate to have to poke myself in the eye everyday

Favorite foods? Ginger Beef w/ Cantonese noodles.

Scary movies or happy ending? Happy ending

Last movie you watched? CARS with Kelly and the kids on the weekend AT HOME lol

City or country? Country

Summer or winter? Summer

Hugs or kisses? Hugs

Favorite dessert? Cheesecake

What books are you reading? I read a lot of blogs mostly. I did read DaVinci Code this year and Im trying to read a course in miracles.

What's on your mouse pad? I don’t have a mouse pad… hey where the hell is my mousepad!

What did you watch last night on TV? General Hospital (taped)

Favorite sounds? Rain, water

Rolling stones or Beatles? Beatles

The furthest you've been from home? Europe (all over it)

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I have tons of talents… depends on what you call special.

WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? March 04 1974 at 4:08pm in Saskatoon Saskatchewan in the University Hospital – what a grand time it was.

What A Night!

2006-07-04T12:14:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had one of those nights where absolutely nothing will go right in your dream and you wake up exhausted??? I had a dream just like that last night and was it ever busy!

I don't remember it all but I remember that I was freaking out and fighting with absolutely everyone at work! It makes no sense but the reason I was so irrate was because someone, I think it was my coworker Jessica, let my cat Ben outside after I told her that he could not go out! This was taking place half in the hallway at work and half in my backyard... very strange and was I ever UPSET about it! I don't remember how that whole situation worked itself out but I remember screaming at everyone at the top of my lungs and absolutely losing my brain over the whole ordeal!

It continued all night long where I would wake up from my dream and I was in a new situation either arguing with someone, or so frustrated that I was going to lose my mind over something or the other, everything was very tramatic and hard all night long!

So as I said I woke up and I am absolutely exhausted and feeling a little bit moody and whiny... I know they were all just dreams but I really feel like I've been put through the ringer! Do you every have nights like that?

Kelly's Gone

2006-06-27T22:40:00.000-06:00

Yep... I blinked and he was gone as quick as he arrived. I knew he was probably not going to be around for a long time and I can't blame him because he got an unheard of opportunity. The basement suite where he was living before became available for $450 a month which is unheard of for a 2 bedroom in Calgary right now where rents are skyrocketing!

It still sucks... it was just so nice to feel like I had something to come home to and someone to come home to talk to again. I miss Ronaye and the boys more than I think anyone could imagine sometimes and I really miss having G and Tavis next door as well... it just so fucking lonely here in Oakridge sometimes...

To The Cabin

2006-06-25T19:15:00.000-06:00

My mom and dad are out at the cabin this week so Genitta, Tavis, Tevin and I decided to head down for the weekend.

It was beautiful out last night and all day today so we had a great time sitting out on the deck chatting.

Tevin had a great old time being outside and posing for all the pictures :)

We also got to take Tevin out to the pool for her first swim! She looked absolutely adorable in her little bikini.

She even scored this inflatable turtle boat for about half a minute but the little girl who it belonged to claimed it back pretty fast.

It was an exhausting evening but really fun for all.

Today was spent pretty much relaxing around and cheering for the Netherlands in the World Cup.

The Netherlands lost which really sucked but it was an interesting game to watch... kind of reminded me of hockey actually.

And then we headed back home... work again tomorrow and I haven't gotten rid of this stupid cold!!!

What a Day

2006-06-23T17:35:00.000-06:00

What a morning I had!

I really wanted to get Jaike and Ben to the vet before I go on holidays just to make sure that they are all up to date and that everythings good with them etc. so I made an appointment for this morning.

I think Jaike knew since last night what was up since the cat carriers popped up out of no where . Ben hasn't been in the carrier since he was a baby so it was no problem getting him in one but Jaike was a totally different story.

Jaike is healthy as a horse as usual but he was due for all his shots so he got the full meal deal with rabies and everything. Ben got really sick as a kitten when he got vaccinated so we decided to just give him a small dose of the necessities since I am planning on keeping his indoors anyways.

Then came the REAL kicker! Maxx had a heart murmer which is ultimately what did him in so young. My vet Dr. Pytka figures he probably got a blood clot which caused him to go into cardiac arrest. Before Maxx I had a kitten named Chadd that also had a heart murmur and had a heart attack and died on the front lawn before he was a year old... well I guess my baby Benji had a damb heart murmur as well! What the hell is with me and this weak hearted cat karma! I asked what I could possibly do to be preventative and I am going to give him 20mg (a quarter of a tablet) of baby asprin once a week. I've also decided that the lucky little guy gets to keep his balls since going under anesthetic can be hard on the heart and he is an indoor cat except if he's on his leash, and he aint getting any if he's on his leash.

I got home and let the cats out of their carriers, turned around and noticed PUDDLES of cat piss all over the kitchen floor. I grabbed a towel, wet another towel and rubbed down Ben, then realized that the piss had been draining out of Jaike's carrier not Ben's and went to track him down. Well he was drenched and smelt BAD! I toweled him down and then went to deal the the stupid floor. The last thing I need is for the smell to set into the floor and have the cats pissing on it for the next ten years! I grabbed some lysol kitchen cleaner and sprayed it down, then mopped. I guess the kitchen cleaner is not for floors cause now the floor is pretty sticky but hopefully not smelly!

Like I said what a day!

BiG BrOtHeR aLL StArS

2006-06-22T10:45:00.000-06:00

It's Big Brother time again and this one is going to be GREAT!!!!
(I wait for Big Brother ALL Year while I STILL mourn the loss of U8TV!)
These are my top twelve picks for who should return to the house!

...

2006-06-21T22:28:00.000-06:00

Where'd you go?
I miss you so...
feels like it's been forever,
since you've been gone...

Where'd you go?
I miss you so...
feels like it's been forever,
since you've been gone...

Please come back home...

(at least for a visit... it's SUMMER!)

In The Life...

2006-06-20T10:24:00.000-06:00

I'm home today sick with a cold and a bit of the flu. I think the worst of it is over but I'm still pretty stuffed up with my head feeling like a log. I figured that if nothing else I should at least get the blog updated for you all :)

Kelly got his new vehicle at the beginning of the week. It is a 1990 Toyota Forerunner. I think he is enjoying his new found freedom but unfortunetly is had a problem starting this morning so cross your fingers that it was only being cranky with the rainy weather lately and that it is not anything major. The poor guy has really not had much luck lately!

I got a new shirt last week from my mom and I really love the color of both the blue and the green trim... it is very summery!

We also had a very creative vandal last week at work. I guess someone tried to break into the front windows but the broken glass ended up looking just like an angel... I really like it cause it makes it look like the building is blessed. Irwin came out for a smoke and decided that it didn't look like an angel at all... he says that it's a lady with a bonet on and a mouse sitting on the top of her head... but he's wrong... it's an angel.

On Wednesday Kim, Karyanne, and myself hosted a bar-b-que for the KARE program which includes the addictions educator volunteers from the Distress Centre, and the suicide and mental health educators from the Canadian Mental Health Associtation.

It was a really rainy few days and it cleared up for a bit while we had the bar-b-que but the attendance was not as high as I had hoped for.

It was a really nice bar-b-que and a nice opportunity to do some networking with the staff and volunteers working with the program.

Kelly had Zak and Ceilee this weekend and he was also sick with this cold and flu. His mom was in town so Saturday he took the kids for a visit and a swim at the hotel. We got a new LCD projector at work on Friday so I brought it home to check it out and to figure out how all the features and gadgets work. I set it up and we had a pizza & popcorn party night on Saturday.

Work has slowed down since the last day of classes for the Calgary Board of Ed was last week. I have a few presentations at the college next week and am going to do a bit of work with the John Howard Society in July but until September that is it... summertime here we come!

Dad

2006-06-18T22:02:00.000-06:00

I met my dad when I was five years old. He worked for my grandad and he had broken his leg playing soccer. Grandad had gone to pick him up from the hospital and he brought him home for dinner before he drove him home. Grandad let me come along for the ride after dinner to drive Ton home... we went upstairs to his apartment to make sure he made it in and got settled in alright and in one of the bedrooms I spotted the biggest blue teddy bear I had ever seen in my life... the bear was seriously almost twice the size of me. I think I almost peed my pants when he saw me in awe over it and told me that I could take it home!

Big Blue came home to live with me that day... Ton started dating my mom... we moved back to Saskatoon, blinked, and moved back to Calgary... there was a wedding... and we all became Koomen's.

Thank you for Big Blue & Thank you for being my Dad.

Happy Father's Day Dad!!!!!!!

Busy Weekend

2006-06-05T23:32:00.000-06:00

I had a pretty busy weekend with cadets. Friday night was our annual awards banquet which is a very nice formal dinner with cadets, parents and special guests.

The staf had a table right at the fun so we had front row seats for all the fun!

Half of the awards are handed out at the banquet and a few are handed out at the annual parade. These are my level two cadets who won the two years of perfect attendance award.

The cadets get a small plaque to take home and their name is engraved on the larger trophy for eternity.

There is also a tradition at the squadron where after three years of service you receive an order of the moose coin. At annual you must remember to bring your coin as at any time you can be challenged to produce your coin... if you do not have it then the round of "pop" is on you (we are working with youth after all). If everyone has their coin than the round must be bought by he who began the challenge. It is guaranteed that you will be challenged to produce your coin during the annual awards banquet.

The usual pranks were also played throughout the night... John had this balloon-a-gram delivered to him in the middle of the dinner.

Saturday was busy as well. Kelly had his son and daughter this weekend so we took them down to Glenmore reservoir for a few hours to play at the park and throw rocks into the water. There is a water park down there and it should be open by June 1st but they had not turned it on yet which was kind of a bummer.

Sunday bright and early it was time for the annual parade. I had to be there at 7am which really sucked! When I got there I heard that there were half naked soldiers running around the parade square but unfortunetly they wouldn't let any of the females in to see. I guess a bus came in on Friday night and they gave everyone cots and housed them at the armories so that put a bit of a delay on the beginning of the day but we caught up and were ready to go by the time the parade started at 10am.

The kids looked absolutely awesome! Every single cadet was in uniform and their drill and deportment was really really good. HUGE difference from the beginning of the year.

There was a drill team demonstration, a pipe band demonstration and a demonstration by our squadron military band. The mil band again was just super impressive. I heard tons of very positive compliments about the performance.

The parade went well. We got a new squadron picture taken on the steps of Mewata, had a quick bar-b-que, and then headed home.

Busy Busy Weekend!

My Beautiful Niece

2006-06-04T23:44:00.000-06:00

I made a small video for my cousin Melissa a few weeks back and told my sister that I would make one for her as soon as she got her blog up and updated with enough pics to put it together.

I went and downloaded a bunch of pictures off her blog tonight and put together this video for Tevin... take a look at my beautiful niece!

Casino Night

2006-06-02T15:17:00.000-06:00

Wow do I have a busy little weekend ahead of me! It kind of nice to have plans for once but do they all have to happen on the same weekend?

Tonight was the Distress Centre's night to host the casino. In Alberta non-profit agencies take turn getting volunteers to work different positions in the casino for two nights every year. In turn we get like 70-80K so it is definitely worth it for the money it generates for the Distress Centre.

It is not a bad deal to work either. While we are there we can have all the food we would like which includes pop, chips, pies, or full blown meals. I had a vietnamese sub when I arrived and we cleaned them out of lemon merange pie (I think Irwin here went a little bit overboard!).

I got home at about 3:30 in the morning but I really wasn't tired after all the excitement so I decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. It's something that I don't do very often at all and it's always really beautiful to watch the world light up. This is the beginning of the sunrise from by deck.

Jaike and Racelin

2006-05-30T15:06:00.000-06:00

Daryl moved into our townhouse complex about two years ago with his two cats Racelin and Calista and since day one none of my cats have gotten along with Daryl's cats. On many occasions I have heard a major scuffle and screams that resemble a small child being murdered coming from the backyard and have run out there to find Jaike or Maxx and Racelin in a huge scrap with ripped out fur flying all over the neighborhood. I do not let my new little kitten go outside at all and one of the reasons is that I think Racelin might just tear him to shreds!

Luckily both me and Daryl are pretty good about just seperating the cats, dragging them inside, and getting on with our day with no hard feelings about his cat beating up my cat or vice-versa (unlike my other neighbor who scowled at me for a week when my cat "attacked" his dog).

Well imagine my surprize this morning when I went outside to get Jaike in and found him hanging out on the hill with his #1 sworn enemy! I couldn't believe my eyes... I went back inside to get the camera because believe me people this is like a once in a lifetime event... are they really becoming friends after all this time and all that lost fur???

Maybe... but I won't hold my breath cause they hissed away at each other when I did go down to grab Jaike to bring him inside... I guess we will see...

Kelly's Back

2006-05-29T10:51:00.000-06:00

It was a pretty busy weekend. Busier than most at least!

Kelly was my roommate for a few years a couple of years back, he was looking for a place to call home for a little while so he gave me a call to see if he could come live at my place. I said of course and than realized I had some work to do if there was going to be any room in my little house for him to move some stuff in!

I decided to move into the second bedroom so the first task was to move all my furniture, clothes, and everything else out of one room and into the other. I still had not taken any of the boxes and crap back upstairs from when I renovated a few months ago so that was task number two. Then there was the fridge... Kelly bought a pile of groceries to replenish the fridge which meant that I had to deal with my pathetic fridge which had a bunch of molded food in it and also had syrup running down the walls and all over the bottom from when that bottle spilled a few months ago. It felt like I was doing little tasks all weekend but it also really felt good after I was all done because it was all stuff that I have been meaning to get to but just was not motivated at all to actually do.

The battery also finally died on me on Sunday. It has been having problems for over a month and I had a feeling that it was on it's last legs so it wasn't a huge surprise but still sucked and was another task to add to the list. Kelly was super helpful with that as well, he bought a new battery and pretty much figured out how to get the old corroded battery (the screws were old, rusted, and would not budge an inch) out and got the new battery installed and in place. It was a good weekend and really nice to have Kelly around again... he really can be a handy guy :)

I Miss My Maxx

2006-05-24T00:36:00.000-06:00

I was searching thru some old disks looking for an old video I edited a few years ago for Kelly... I can't find the damb video but I came across a few pictures of Jaike and Maxx and wow does that ever pull at the heart strings! It's seven months since Maxx has passed and I sure miss my ole buddy more than ever. I miss laughing at his little feckled nose... I still think about him every night when I go to bed and he's just not there... I really hope and pray that there is a rainbow bridge and that he is happy, safe, and will be waiting for me one day... I want my cat back...

Hanging With The Janzen's

2006-05-21T22:45:00.000-06:00

I used to live in a house with a pool... and the tradition was on May long weekend to fill up the pool and have the first pool party of the year. I was just thinking of the old pool house and of my old roomate Kelly when low and behold I get a message this morning from Kelly claiming he's hanging out by the pool.

I was intrigued so I got up and called him back... sure enough he did get himself a little pool for the backyard and invited me to come visit him and the kids and see the pool :)

I really was expected a dinky little backyard pool but he went all out in Kelly style and got a pretty big one with a pump, net and everything! The Kids even have a boat!

We played a ton of games in the pool, Zak was a great fisherman/water demon and Ceilee really enjoys floating around in the boat.

It was a really nice afternoon. It's been way too long since I've seen the kids and they have grown like weeds. They are both so gorgeous and really great kids to hang with.

I grabbed a slurpee on the way over and ran into the looney store to grab a few toys for the kids. I found some water bombs that were the hit of the day, some magnifying glasses that Kelly used to catch the grass on fire, and some cheap little airplanes that Zak got his hands on right away and assembled pretty much by himself!

The kids really had a great time, and we all ended up pretty red, here is Zak and Ceilee rowing their boat!

Tevin's Baby Shower

2006-05-13T18:12:00.000-06:00

Today we had the baby shower for Genitta and Tevin.

It was hosted by my sister's good friend Kris who did an absolutely wonderful job putting together the decorations, foods, and everything else for the day.

It was great to see everyone and to catch up on what everyone is up to!

Tevin received tons of really gifts, they were all so beautiful and nice!

She even tested a few out :)

It was a really nice shower and a great afternoon.

Canada

2006-05-08T00:51:00.000-06:00

Another little video I put together of Canada... A must watch for all Canadians!

The Dutch Canadian Choir

2006-05-07T18:49:00.000-06:00

The Volunteer Banquet

2006-05-05T23:58:00.000-06:00

Ben's Story

2006-05-03T13:57:00.000-06:00

It's been really nice outside the last few days so I have been letting Jaike go out and it is driving lil Benji nuts.

He is sitting around being depressed and wondering why Jaike gets to go out into the big world and he doesn't.

He's taken to loving and chewing on my dress shoes in protest!!!

Then licking them ferociously (and sticking his tongue out at me)...

Occasionally he runs to the backdoor and coos and meows in hopes that I will

Carry him outside to see if we can see Jaike and to see if Jaike wants to come in yet...

And if the answer is no than it's back to loving the shoe...

Poor Ben.

Lil Ms. Tevin

2006-05-02T17:27:00.000-06:00

This just makes me laugh too hard!

Please Send Your Good Thoughts

2006-04-28T18:54:00.000-06:00

I need all of your prayers and good thoughts right now...

I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog before but my closest and favorite aunt has just found out that she is battling breast cancer. Only a few weeks ago they found a lump and were able to remove that but it looks like the battle wasn't won and they are going to have to go in and fight a little harder. She is too strong and spiritual a women to let the fight beat her. My Aunt Chantelle was the person in my life who got me to begin thinking of my spiritual self, about reincarnation, numerology, and spiritualism in general. I have never told her but back in high school when I was in "Career and Life Management" my teacher Mrs. Baxter gave us an assignment to write about someone in our life who had been an inspiration... I wrote about my Aunt Chantelle and how she got me into new age spirituality. It's funny how life works cause only a few years later my aunt moved into the apartment right below Mrs. Baxter and they actually became friends. I'm going to dig into my archive boxes in the storage room and see if I can find that old essay in my high school stuff. I'd love to read it and I'd love to give it to my aunt. I believe that all your thoughts and prayers would create powerful energy and would help make her stronger so please send them our way if you have a moment.

My grandmother is also having some pretty big problems with her heart (which I am not supposed to know about) and she is going in for surgery on Tuesday so she could use a few prayers sent her way as well.

There is a lot going on and a lot of changes happening all around me right now. Change stresses the hell out of me and makes me tired and frustrated. Sorry to all the poor people that got snapped at the last few days :(

At least there are some good things going on as well like the preparations for my trip to Holland this summer... and my house renovations pretty much being done.

I know Ronaye is sick of hearing me say it but I really do miss her and the boys SO MUCH and I just wish I could run up the street and hang out and vent all night with her right now. Them being so far away creates such a huge hole in my life...

Well until the next update :)

The Shadbolts

2006-04-19T00:21:00.000-06:00

My Uncle scanned in a whole bunch of old pictures of the Shadbolt side of the family growing up in England. I was playing around with my photoshow program and made the following video... enjoy :)

And here is an updated picture of my little niece TEVIN...

Bowling

2006-04-14T23:43:00.000-06:00

We had a wellness event at work on Thursday... So we all went bowling!

It was great to get out of the office for a few hours...

And as you can see from these pics we were really good!

Here I am... I accidently signed up onto two teams and did really good on one (149) and really crappy on the other (80) !

But I had great teammates on both teams!!!

I had a really sore but by the end of the day but it was definitely worth it :)

2006-04-11T12:31:00.000-06:00

This is what the Alvena dance hall that my cousin Ronaye just bought looked like at the beginning of April...

And this is what it looks like now!

I guess there was an electrical fire that started in the roof and burnt the whole thing down to the ground. Kind of a bummer but maybe a blessing in disguise! The purchase had not gone thru so they are not out any money... I guess they will just have to put their dancing plans on hold...

Just an Update

2006-04-04T23:36:00.000-06:00

Look at my little niece! I had to start with a couple of pictures of Tevin!

I went for a quick little visit today during my lunch break and she is sure getting big... totally holding her own head up and full of smiles :)

Ben and Jaike are totally buddies now... they were all loving and cleaning each other the other night so I had to snap a picture of it.

We finished all the renovations at work last week so I am in my own office again and getting used to all the space! I moved my desk into the other corner for a change (where my officemate Jessica's desk used to be) and got a little desk in the corner for my work experience student to work off of.

I do miss Jess thou... she was good company... I do hope that she is happy up the hall...

And I hope that Jenna is enjoying the new phone system and has enjoyed this update :)