The Bike

Big win here. We weren't sure if he would care one way or another, but he's gotten too big to ride the trail-a-bike (the one that hooks on to an adult bike & makes it like a tandem).

So the high school guy who has watched him for us a couple of times will be moving to his dad's in CA after graduation. Turns out he has a couple of bikes that he's not using, so he was fine with giving Connor his old trick bike.

He'd had it painted green - which happens to be Connor's favorite color.

I took it to the sporting goods store & the bike guy happened to be there today & he fixed it up for us. It needed a new tube and some straightening on the wheel frame. He greased up the chain & everything - all for $8.99. Nice, huh? He was impressed with the paint job - he thinks it was done by a car shop or something :) It's a good solid bike.

I'm thinking we'll be out getting Connor to learn to ride this weekend :)

The cake was vanilla, with vanilla frosting. It winds up being a lot sweeter to me than a chocolate cake. Maybe if it would have had a layer of strawberry or something in between? But he wanted it plain like that.

All in all, good birthday for the kiddo :)

Happy 12th Birthday, Connor!

When asked what he'd like for his birthday, the answer was "Presents." *sigh*



So we go for the sure fire things he'll like - mostly food that we don't typically get him.



Lucky Charms is his favorite (he usually eats Chex).



"Green Chips" are his favorite potato chips.



The Mac & Cheese crackers are new & had a good commercial, so he kept wanting to get them. Okay, for his birthday, sure.



The Hershey bars are to make s'mores.



He's been enjoying puzzles lately, so he got one of those.



Trevor got him the movie, Wall-E.



The bicycle comes this afternoon... He doesn't even know about that yet & he's already having a GREAT birthday! There will also be cupcakes at school & we'll bake a cake this afternoon when we're home from school. Dinner is his favorite: Hot dogs (veggie) and baked beans.



Happy Birthday Connor!!

Best of MADE - Biggest Surprises

Hee! Diana made a "Best of" episode!!!

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/455062/dream-date.jhtml#id=1626017

Click the link to see - It's copywrite-protected, so I won't post the actual clip here.

Still - cool beans!

:)

Countdown to London 2012...

Closing Ceremonies are being recorded on my DVR. I spent 6 hours watching the hockey game & then the delayed cross-country competition today already. I haven't joined in on the WoW meetings with Robert & Shoo, so I'll do that tonight :) I need to move my bike back to the computer.

Wow - what a game. So close & so well played. It was pretty much anything a hockey fan could wish for, with non-stop action and no way to know who would come out on top.

Being Canadian, I was rooting for Canada - but when the US were behind, I rooted for them to tie it up. That last goal in the final 20 seconds to tie up the game for OT was just outstanding. The neighbors were probably wondering what was up with all the noise coming from our house :)

Isn't it funny the medal results were exactly the same for the hockey women? Canada Gold, USA Silver, Finland Bronze.

For Canada to start this games with a drought of no host country gold, and then to go on to win the MOST GOLD EVER for a host country is just phenomenal. My mom couldn't believe it. She called me three times on Saturday as Canada kept winning golds - she wouldn't say who won what, but she just had to share it with me. Well, she did let slip on the curling, but she didn't realize I had it on the DVR for Lee. That's okay :) She was flipping through three channels with a live feed to see everything she possibly could.

I managed to get some good biking in - faster than my usual pace, too. I made two scarves & most of a hat, I got papers sorted & filed. I capped a bunch of supplement pills for Connor, and mended clothes. There was also a puzzle in progress on the table in the living room, but you have to actually look at that, so that was more for the rest of the family while I had control of the TV.

The sport I didn't really care for in the past was ice dancing, but the two top teams (Canada & US) made it much nicer than the past dancers. The Russian couple were still from that mode, and I really had a hard time seeing their dance through the icky costumes. I really don't like the outlandish, overly-sequined costumes. Especially on the men!! (I know you have to be true to yourself, Johnny Weir, but dang!).

It was a great games. I'm proud to be a Canadian, and wanting to go and visit Vancouver again really soon :)

And yeah - the US still won the most overall medals - I was happy for Shaun White, Apolo Ono, Chad Hedrick, Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller and all the other medalists. It was just a great games :)

And now the countdown to London starts... Hopefully I'll be on vacation & able to watch it in Canada with my mom. She has better TV coverage :P

Can't really sit still

As everyone knows - I'm watching a lot of Olympics. I am using my DVR to record anything NBC's main channel here shows. There's also some coverage on USA, but I thought that would be a bit too much.

I do tend to fast-forward through heats when there's quarter finals & semi finals on most events. I will watch in regular mode if something unexpected happens (usually a crash) and when the winners cross the finish line. Fast forward is silent, and I like to hear the cheers at the end :) I watch the whole race when it's for the medals.

I zoom through most of the hockey games as well, especially when one team has a huge lead. That Canada game last night though - I only saw the highlights of that one - I would have probably watched the whole thing with the game being so close! Wow!

I have been using my stationary bike, but I don't ride for 6 hours - that's a little more than my posterior can do - even on a gel seat. So I have been doing busy work - 2 scarves knitted so far, mending clothes (buttons sewn, holes in sweaters closed, etc.), laundry and cleaning stuff. If I had silver, I could polish that - hah.

This weekend, we are done with Special Olympics skiing for Connor, so I'm home to finish off the final weekend of the games in real time. I will knit a little more, and I might park the sewing machine in front of the TV. I don't know how well that will work. There are a few more quick mending things I can do on the machine, but I won't attempt anything that requires concentration. I already shoo everyone out of the house when I'm trying to really sew.

I might also bring the laptop into the living room and do some data entry stuff for my TOPS club. I have to present awards next week, and I can prep for that as well.

Next weekend, I have to check if the snow is good in the mountains. We might try another run of cross country skiing with Lee on Sunday...

Please vote for Connor's Summer Camp :)

Pepsi is donating money to different ideas - Connor's Special Olympics Sport camp in the summer is up for a $5,000 chance.

Please click the link & vote - they are ranked #28 and there are two days left to vote!

Thank you!!

http://www.refresheverything.com/YMCAPartnerSportsCamp

Oh - there's a cool slide show if you have time. Connor shows up in group shots & there's one of him getting his ears checked at the beginning :)

Another Kelownan still in the hunt!!

BCLocalNews.com - Omischl to aerials finals

Kelowna in the Olympics!

Kelowna's Kelsey Serwa takes part in Olympic history

I got to watch her through all her runs, up to where she missed a jump in the semi-finals - so close!! It was very exciting to be cheering on someone from my Mom & sister's town!!

Renee & Baby Robert

You can see, Renee is cracking up here - Connor wanted to put his arm around baby Robert & she had to position his head so Connor's arm wouldn't be in his face! Connor thought he was great, though!

Such a loving (but tired) Mommy!

He's such a little guy! Of course, Diana was my lightest baby at 7.6, which is more than Robert weighs right now...

Eat & sleep, eat & sleep, pee all over mom, sleep some more.

Robert was confused by the funny faces Lee made.

See? Tiny!!

Thanks for coming to visit, Renee! I hope you get some sleep!

Skiing movie

Last Ski Session with Special Olympics

It was absolutely beautiful at Diamond Lake yesterday! The weather was great! We brought Diana & Liberty along, since we were going to take our own van.

We hadn't had any new snow, so it was a little icy for skiing, but the snow pack was deep enough that it was okay. It just made it harder for Connor to eat the snow :P

By the way - this is how I like to drive to the snow. No snow on the road!!

That's Mt. Theilsen from the car :)

Lent 2010

We got our ashes on Wednesday. Trevor & I did the full evening mass, while Lee just received ashes at the lunchtime service.

Most Catholics use this time to reflect on their mortality and try to do something to change something about themselves. You may have heard about kids giving up candy or people fasting or not eating meat for the six weeks of Lent. It's meant to have us feel a little bit of suffering to identify with Christ. Giving up something you love makes it that much better when you are once again able to receive it at Easter.

But I prefer going the other direction - do something more spiritual on a daily basis. You can decide to pray more regularly, do a service to others, etc. You can even make a pledge to be a better parent, or whatever.

I'm attempting to pray a rosary every day for Lent. I like praying the rosary - it's a wonderful meditation. It just takes a little time and to remembering to DO it. I struggle with the beginning & ending prayers - the version of the Apostle's Creed I use for the rosary is different from the one we use at church - more "thee" & "thence" Old English. And the other one is "Hail, Holy Queen" that you say at the end. I stumble over that one as well.

Hopefully by the time we reach Easter, I'll have those both solidly memorized!

The pressure is on...

I am now a full day behind on Olympic coverage. I had a meeting last night, and could only catch up from the last two hours of normal, and then two hours of late night coverage from Monday.

So I'm about 6 hours behind now.

Those athletes are going to be racing in x2 mode until the finish in total silence so I can catch up tonight. I hit the normal 'play' button just when they're getting close to the finish line.

Ah yes, the Olympics!!

Canada Gold

Hooray for CANADA!!! FINALLY!!!
In case you were unaware, Canada had not won any gold at an Olympics IN Canada - ever. They hosted the Winter Games in Montreal & Calgary, and now Vancouver. They medaled, just not the gold.

That changed on Sunday when a young freestyle skier (moguls & jumps) managed to hold the edge on his super-fast run to beat out the favorite, an Australian (who was actually born in Vancouver & has dual citizenship!).

I am doing my best to keep up with the DVR, but the West Coast feed winds up getting done around midnight, so I have to miss the last couple of hours & catch them up the following afternoon. So I know who won the men's downhill & the snowboard competitions last night, but I didn't see the pairs skating final.

I am biking to the more exciting events (downhill & snowboarding last night). I just leave the exercise bike in the living room.

Most of the time, I don't watch all that much TV, so I'm also doing other things while I watch - I cleaned the living room window, capped a bunch of supplement pills for Connor, did laundry, and I'm knitting & almost done with the first scarf - and it's only the 4th day of competition! This afternoon I'll get paperwork sorted & boxed away from last year - I still need to add a w-2 to the taxes, then that's done.

I am really enjoying the games though. It's exciting and I just get a thrill out of the whole experience. Lee is off work today & he'll get to watch his favorite sport (which he's still never gotten to play). Curling.

Another skiing run

Connor did even better on Saturday than last time. He had the right sized boots for the skis, and we went 3 miles along Diamond Lake to a Pizza restaurant (the store part was closed for the season), and then the 3 miles back to the lodge. This time there were more hills to go up & down, but he saw other people doing a little jog on the skis, so he was doing that too!

I can keep up with him unless he's doing that jog, but that doesn't last too long, and he still likes to stop & eat snow now & then, and I can easily catch up :)

He really liked getting the pizza in the "Alaska Pizza Restaurant" (Snow-covered mountains make him think of Alaska).

Next weekend we'll see if Diana can come along, & maybe we'll bring Liberty as well. :) It will be the last weekend of cross country practice. The following weekend the other athletes will head over to Bend for a few days for the State competition. I hope they do really well :)

Time for the GAMES!!

Last night, I encouraged my TOPS club members to exercise along with the Olympic games. I said, if it gets exciting, just go ahead & jog along with your favorite athlete! They all laughed.

I was totally serious.

The exercise bike is going into the Living Room after the Opening Ceremonies tonight, and that's what I'll be doing for my evening exercise :)

Don't worry - I'll still get some 'real' exercise with Connor in the mountains on Saturday too :) I love the DVR!!!

:)

Special Olympics Winter Sports :)

Ouch

So, I'm not in horrible shape - however most of my exercise tends to be on a stationary bike. It's an 'easy' workout, especially since I'm not even paying attention to the exercise.

When Connor wanted to use my cross country skis, and I swapped him for his snow boots & the snowshoes, I knew my toes would be squished. Connor's feet are about a 1/2 size smaller than mine. That's okay. I could deal.

I also had to walk and even run a bit to keep up with him (and keep him from skiing into the other athletes - altho he did run into one). I could feel it in my legs a bit while we were out on the snow.

When Connor was getting more tired, and started falling even more, I wound up having him hold the ski poles, and I held the ends and pulled him along. He's still learning to keep his feet straight anyway, and it was good practice. I didn't expect to get sore from that.

On Sunday, I noticed a tightness around my sternum. It almost felt like heartburn. It took me a bit to figure out I had stretched my pectoral muscles further back than normal.

Advil helps.

5 Days to go!

On Friday, I'll be glued to my TV watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.

I'll be wearing my torch-bearer mittens (at least for part of it) and various other Olympic gear I've collected in the last few years since Vancouver found out they were hosting & Connie's store started selling Olympic stuff :)

Yes, I'm a little obsessed. There's something about a good chunk of the world gathering for friendly competition. Some people come just to represent their country with no chance of a medal, others have a heavy weight on their shoulders to perform or risk embarassing themselves & their country.

I love all of it. The stories about the athletes, the views of the host country, the highs & lows of the competition. I will DVR the whole thing, and try to watch as much as I can when time allows. I plan to bring my exercise bike into the living room & bike along with the races, at least an hour a day, maybe more depending on the excitement level. Trevor should be happy because that means my computer will be free for him to use :)

Because of my excitement, one student in my class was not happy with me. She doesn't care about the Olympics and couldn't understand what I was going on about. We had a "meeting" with the staff & students in the room last week so she could let us know what about us was bothering her (therapy classroom, just go with it). Turns out the thing that bugged her most about me was the Olympics. Ha. Her question was, "Why are you so excited about the Olympics?" I said, "When I was growing up, it was a time that my family got together and watched - it was something to cheer about and talk about, and I have a lot of good memories of that. That's why I love the Olympics." She seemed to get that, and moved on to the next person.

On the flip side, the skills trainer asked if we could tell the girl what bugged us about her.

I requested she not scream in the classroom.

So when she screams, can I start talking about the Olympics again? (Evil grin)

Snowshoeing & CrossCountry with Special Olympics

I found out a couple of weeks ago from a friend that Special Olympics does snowshoeing and cross country skiing during the Winter months. We hadn't heard about it yet - which was why we had signed Connor up for Basketball. Basketball is actually pretty darn loud and crowded - not the best combination for Connor.

This friend attends my church & also has a Special Olympian daughter. She let me know they'd be going up this weekend & where to meet. Since I have my own skis & Special Olympics provides the snowshoes, all we needed was to pack a lunch :)

Its about 90 minutes to get to Diamond Lake, where there are plenty of nice trails & a lodge with a restaurant & restroom. The lake is actually frozen over right now & covered with snow. I wasn't expecting that :)

Connor put on his new Kamik snowboots & a couple of folks helped get him into his snowshoes. Within 10 minutes though, he was teary-eyed. He wanted to ski! Most of the Special Olympians are on the snowshoes, mainly because it requires a lot less coordination. Well, Connor's pretty dang coordinated, and lucky for him, our feet are close to the same size. I swapped his boots for my cross country shoes, and got him hooked up on my skis.

Apparently, he's a natural. The folks that put the SO stuff together were very, very impressed by how quickly he picked up the skiing. I was impressed that he kept going, even when his arms hurt from using the poles (at the beginning, when he was using them to push himself). He fell a lot, but got right back up - well, once he'd sampled the snow from where he was laying.

All in all, he skied a good three hours, with a lunch break in between. We missed the deadline to compete this year in Bend, but I'm pretty sure he'll be on board next year!

Happy 50th Birthday Connie!!

My sister, Connie, hits the big 5-0 today.

If I could, I'd show up at the door & surprise her with flowers.

I will take her out when we get up there in the summer for a delayed birthday celebration.

When I spoke with my mom on Saturday, it sounded like Connie was going to do a lot of celebrating this weekend anyway, so that's all good.

Happy Birthday big sis - I'll give you a call later today :) Love you!!

Uncle Sam scaring me

So I downloaded the 'ol Turbo Tax last night. We have very simple taxes at this point, and the regular "deluxe" version covers us well. We had the W-2's & pretty much mostly everything. I put in Lee's info, and then got started on mine.

There's nothing at all in the Federal withholding box. It's completely blank.

I kind of freaked a bit. I don't recall changing my withholding from last year... How did this happen? How much are we going to have to owe now? Eeeeek!!

Well, it's Saturday night, and there's nothing I can do about it at this point in time, so I just go ahead to see what the damage will be, figuring I'll call the payroll folks on Monday anyway.

Turns out there was some legislation passed in the last year to allow people to keep more of their money if they're within a certain income level. Apparently, we are in that level. So nothing was taken out of my check, because I wasn't going to earn enough to have to pay the Feds.

Don't worry, the state still took a hefty chunk, and all the other FICA, Social Security & everything else. It was just the Fed that was affected.

So, we're still getting a refund. We would have owed on the State, but Connor's disability gives us another child credit, so we get a few bucks back from the State too.

*whew*

I'm not completely done - I have a few questions about Diana's scholarships & whether she's filing & claiming that or we are (she's talking to the scholarship folks at school). There are a couple of other little things - but yeah - *whew*

I hate taxes.

For Byron...

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-photos/

This is the regional manager of Connie's store, either getting his torch lit, or lighting another torch.

The above link is to the Vancouver 2010 website slide show. LOTS of pics of torches all across Canada. It's also traveling by train for a lot of the trip through the wider open places. And you see a lot of those mittens!

Connie & the Torch!!

Here's Connie with her regional manager for the Bay, who got to carry the torch on the route in front of their store. He let Connie hold the torch so she could have the photo - and she's gonna send me those gloves! I'm so excited!!!

I have been counting down the Olympics since November in my classroom. We are getting really close now, with only 15 days left to go.

During this stressful time at school, it always cheers me up to know the games are going to be here soon :) I've been wearing the smaller size Olympic gloves Connie sent at Christmas when I'm out at recess. But these will be extra-extra-EXTRA special because they held the torch!! Wow!!

(okay - I'll tone it down now... maybe... hee hee hee!)

Renee has a baby

Little Robert was born today, sometime between 5:00 & 6:00 pm, I think. I haven't actually heard from her, this is via Mary (another of my scouts) on Facebook.

I expect after almost 24 hours of labor, Renee is sleeping right now :)

I'll update when I get more info.

:)

Renee's having a baby --- NOW

At 8:15ish she posted on her facebook the contractions were 5-10 minutes apart and she was heading to the hospital.

Her parents are visiting and she's only 3 days overdue, so hopefully she'll have a totally uneventful birth and little baby Otto (last name) will be healthy & happy.

I'm glad Renee has family to help her, since her husband is still off on a ship somewhere. Hopefully he can come home to meet his son soon too :)

I'm just wondering if I'm going to get a call at 2:00 announcing a birth :)

My prayers are with you, Renee. You will be a fantastic mommy!! (((Hugs)))

Almost a day off

It's a teacher work day at my school site today. Assistants aren't supposed to work when there are no students. Somehow my calendar didn't reflect this, because I'm not a school employee, I'm a different agency.

In any case, I have the day off. I could either just get dinged for it (unpaid leave) but I'd rather do comp time. I already have a meeting this afternoon for work - so I'll have to be there anyway in the afternoon. And I'm also not getting my 1/2 hour lunch breaks anymore. We typically have some sort of crisis happening in the classroom, and I can't leave.

I guess I'll just note all the 1/2 hours I've worked, add in the meeting today, and it should be good.

Hopefully at the meeting, we'll address the fact I'm not getting a break? The teacher isn't either, but she's salary, whereas I'm hourly & have a union contract that states I get 1/2 hour away from the workplace... I'm also supposed to get 2 10-minute breaks -- Hahahahahha! I'm lucky if I can run away to use the restroom. *sigh*

2010 Olympics

The Vancouver Winter Games start on Feb 12, just 21 days from now! I'm excited to see all the sports as well as the region where my Mom & sister live :) There won't be much about Kelowna, but British Columbia in general is just beautiful.

The Olympic Torch will be making its way through Kelowna next Monday & Tuesday. When I spoke with my mom this morning, she let me know that the fire chief (now retired) from the Okanagan Fire (when my parents had to evacuate) will be honored as a torch bearer for the relay through Kelowna. His name is Zimmerman, I think. My mom met his wife yesterday at lunch & got to tell her it was my dad that had made the stained glass cross for the fire station. It was a thank you for saving most of the neighborhood during the big fire - including my folks' house :)

Anyway - I'm really looking forward to the Games. Apolo Ono, Shaun White and a whole new batch of athletes to follow! Yay!

If you're not a huge fan, don't worry - I'll keep you posted on my blog :)

California check in..

Sounds like the weather is being pretty intense down there.

Let me know how you're doing, since I only use internet for news & won't necessarily see anything other than twisters hitting the coast (wth?).

Thanks much!

You know it's a bad day when....

chocolate & alcohol sounds like a good idea for dinner.

I have a nice, long rant in my head, but you won't read it here because it's confidential.

And no, I won't be having chocolate & alcohol for dinner. Are you kidding? I weigh in tomorrow! (and thus you see how my TOPS club saves me!)

Ah Well

I interviewed for a different position in my company yesterday.

Today I was told I was the "2nd choice" from the top. I didn't get it.

It would have been a cool job tho. Mostly secretarial, but also some event organizing about three times a year. There's a grant for teachers to be able to teach better about American History. So this job would have been setting up three conferences a year, in different parts of the state, and doing all the planning and budgeting associated with that.

While I've done elements of that kind of job before, most of it is as a volunteer in TOPS or Girl Scouts. I didn't have a lot of knowledge of the Visions software (even though I'm sure I could have learned it pretty quickly).

Anyway - I was told I'd interviewed very well, and it would have been me had there not been this other person.

In truth, I think it would be harder to replace me in my current job than hire someone for the one I'd applied to do. So, who knows. I did give it a shot, at least :)

Visit with the Tersignis

Once again, Nancy & Kraig opened their ranch to us to visit - not only them, but our friends from California.
We hadn't seen them in, gosh - I don't know how long! Their daughter, Kat, was excited about the horses.

Little Joshua, Karrie's soon-to-be middle child, has no fear. He also recently buzzed his hair with his dad's shears :)

Kat was a little nervous at first, but Nancy soon got her comfortable & I think she really enjoyed the ride :)

Connor & Joshie both got their own turns, and then took a turn together. They got along great :)
I also took a turn on ol' Snowball. But no one snapped a pic of me (I had the camera in my pocket).

It was really nice seeing Steve & Ellen again. Hopefully they can join in when the gang gets together again? :)

Thanks again Kraig & Nancy! We love you!

New Link

I recently joined a women's bible study group that meets once a month. So far we've met twice, and it's going okay... I'm not sure if I fit with the group yet. I'll give it a while tho, don't worry :)

Lee likes to follow a few priests online, and somewhere in there he discovered this guy, who's blog I've linked on the right. He's going through the New Testament in a year - with almost daily posts (not on weekends).

I've obviously heard the New Testament all through my life (every four years through mass on Sunday), but I don't think I've completed the entire thing, one passage right after the other. I will be following along, and perhaps posting a comment now & then.

If you are so inclined, add it to your favorites :)

Oh - he's also posting art from the masters with every post :)

Visit with Froggy

Here's Joe with his wife, Mary & their little girl, Eliana.

Little girls seem to like Connor quite a bit :) Because we were all new to her, it took Eliana a little while to get used to us. She was laughing with Connor first :)

Lee played peek-a-boo with her :)

Mary already asked if Diana would be up for babysitting. She's got lots of experience!

After this we dropped Diana off at school. She's taking tap dancing this term for PE. I always liked tap - better than ballet, anyway!