FIBRE 1

Had a bowl of Fibre 1 cereal for breakfast this morning....needed a plunger to flush the toilet 2 hours later! Yipeeee! That stuff works!

CABLE GUY

Okay ladies, how many of you out there know how to hook up your own TV, cable and stereo?? I am not talking about your 80's ghetto blaster that you just plug into the wall, I am talking stereo and TV system. Entertainment center, is what we'll call it. How many of you girls can hook all that up so that the sound pumps perfectly through your whole house, through all the power speakers, sub woofers, suround sound and ceiling speakers?? If you can, I am impressed! I tip my hat to you and I secretly wish I were you.....

Marty and I have recently moved to our new home and I am itching to get really settled in. Thing is, I can't do much more "settling" without Marty's help. I can't hang the pictures without him (he is the perfectionist, aka, measuring tape obsessed one in the relationship,) I can't move the furniture around by myself, He is also the muscles in the relationship, and I certainly can't hook up all the entertainment stuff, he is the techno geek of the two of us. Yeesh, as I write this, it leaves me wondering what exactly I bring to the table. Hmmm......

Anyway, lastnight, thanks to a fantastic opportunity provided by KIJIJI, we bought some furniture, including a TV stand for our new living room. I couldn't wait to get it all set up and organized, but ofcorse I had to wait for Marty to be ready. He BBQ'd himself a juicy pork chop, roasted some corn and sat down to enjoy his dinner. Me? I was chomping at the bit, way too excited to take time to enjoy my perfectly cooked pork. I sooo would have set it all up by myself if I could have, but I am more of the cheering squad, moral support and general labourer and golpher when it comes to those kinds of projects.

When he was ready, we moved the TV stand into place then I sat, patiently on the couch while he re hooked up all the cables and speakers before we could move the rest of the furniture. It amazed me how he just knows how to do these things....why don't I? He also spent the weekend building shelves in the garage and hanging hooks to hang our bikes and snowboards from. Again, he just knows how to do all that! I am amazed and happy to have someone so handy living under the same roof as me! Now all I gotta do is figure outwhat I can do to earn my keep around here......

Our new rustic, country bar

Our new TV stand

THISTLES!

I have spent more time in gardens in the last three days than I have in a long long time! When we were kids we'd spend hours in mom's garden, sometimes weeding, but most of the time, helping ourselves to the yummy peas and berries growing there! We'd put on our long sleeve "mosquito shirts" as protection from the bugs. Gardens seem to be notorious for growing produce and mosquitos!! Over top of the long sleeves we'd spray a layer of Deet on our entire bodies and head into the garden. We'd stand at the pea fence and pick peas, shelling them and eating them as fast as we could! The raspberries was more of a suicide mission as they were not only full of nasty prickles and mosquitos, but also bees, lots and lots of bees!!!

Having a garden in our backyard was awesome! We'd have fresh carrots, potatoes, beans and peas for dinner and berries for dessert. Sometimes, because we loved them "raw" so much, mom would put out a giant bowl of raw peas and we'd just scoop them onto our plates, yummmmmy!!!

In my adult life, I have not been lucky enough to have a garden at all. I've had some flower beds and grown quite a few weeds, but no produce. Both of my sisters have awesome gardens! Aimee's garden in Colorado is even home to peppers! How cool is that? She grows her own peppers? We can't do that here in Alberta, or at least I can't! Nic's garden has the most healthy raspberry patch ever and she is very generous with sharing them! Just the other day, I was visiting her and as we each pulled on our mosquito shirts, I was flooded with happy gardening memories! I even remember when Mom made us each our own garden, shaped as the first letter of our names! I have no idea what we grew in those gardens, but I remember the dirt was definately shaped like a J and I had to keep weeding it if I wanted to be able to see the J shape.

Marty and I do not have a vegetable garden at our new house....yet. We do however have a healthy patch of thistles! They are tall and tough and grow up against our fence. This weekend, I made it my mission to tackle those prickly beasts!

My gloves were not thick enough, so in order to remove each weed, by hand, by the root, I had to pick off all the bottom leaves. The bottom leaves have a zillion little prickles, but once those leaves are gone, I could get a good grip on the stem of the thistle. Sometimes it took me standing up and using both hands, and all of my weight to pull the weed and it's root out of the dry, crusty soil. But I ask you, is there anything more satisfying than pulling a thistle out of the ground, root and all??? I actually let out a few victory cries after every time I was able to pull a thistle and it's entire, long, white root straight out of the ground! I will admit that more than one of them busted off at the stem, leaving me digging furiously all around the bottom part of the stem desperately seeking to uncover enough of the lower stem to give myself a better grip. More than once, I had to abandon mission, leaving the stubby stem sticking out of the ground, a deafening reminder of failure! The thistles may have won the battle this weekend, but I vow to you here and now, that I will win the war! I will!!

THE BEGINNING

I found out late, July that I was expecting! I was home alone and had just gotten a hair cut. Marty was out doing errands and just "because" I decided to take a pregnancy test. It is no secret that we had been trying for a LONG time to get pregnant, so I had a huge stash of pregnancy tests. I took them all the time, always hoping, and always being dissapointed. This day, I peed on the stick, like I had done a million times, and set the stick by the sink on it's wrapper so as not to get any pee dribbles on the counter. I glanced at it from my porcelain seat to see the familiar single line show up. I got up, pulled up my pants, washed my hands, and reached for the pee stick to toss it in the garbage, but WAIT!!!! I couldnt' believe it! 2 lines! 2 lines!!!! I had never seen the two lines before and I put my face right down close to inspect and make sure it was really, really true! The smile that spread across my face, was ginormous!!!!

I did have a moment of disbelief, a moment of panic though, thinking this was too good to be true. I called my sister, Aimee. She had a baby in March and had let me in on her secret early in her expecting time too. I squealed, "Aim, I have an emergency situation! I think I'm pregnant!!" She screamed with delight and assured me that you can have false negatives, but not false positives. Just to be sure, take another test though." I did, it confirmed, that yes, I was preggo!!!

I had been waiting my whole life for this moment, the moment when I learned I would be expecting. I had played it over and over in my head, what I would do, how I would feel and how I would tell Marty. I had come up with some clever, fun ways to surprise him and let him know that he had "done it." I had bought a little kid's hockey dad book and thought I would give it to him with a card, or buy a little tiny jersey and get "Wright" printed on the back, but when Marty got home, he took one look at me and the smile I couldn't keep hidden and he instantly knew!! He screamed, "your pregnant," while he scooped me off the stairs and twirled me around. Then he said, "I need a drink!"

MORE OF OUR "BACKYARD"

When we moved to Calgary, we were suddenly so close to the mountains, that Marty and I vowed we would not take them for granted. We make an effort to get out and enjoy our "backyard" as often as we can, whether we're snowboarding, hiking, camping or just driving through, I can't help but feel sooo lucky!!!

Even the stumps are cool!

So serene and beautiful!

Peace!

Even the dogs love and appreciate the beauty and the freedom!

Duke

Scout

When we moved to Calgary, we were suddenly so close to the mountains, that Marty and I vowed we would not take them for granted. We make an effort to get out and enjoy our "backyard" as often as we can, whether we're snowboarding, hiking, camping or just driving through, I can't help but feel sooo lucky!!!

HIKING IN KANANASKIS

This is our

"backyard" and I feel blessed!!!! I try to recognize everyday, how lucky we are to live so close to these majestic mountains and this incredible adventure!!

Scout loves the great outdoors!
Scout loves the outdoors, but does not always love coming back to her family once she had been let offleash!!!

Duke, Nic and Troy's dog

Scout

Nic and I at the Saturday lunch spot

Troy and Duke, enjoying the lunch spot!

Duke

Sunday's 15km, rainy hike around the lake! A little bit of rain doesn't stop us!

Lunch at the falls

CAMPING IN KANANASKIS

For the long weekend, we planned to go camping with Nic and Troy Farn in Kananaskis Country...our back yard! Marty and I only live a couple of hours from this amazing mountain paradise so I, having the most free time of all of us, was nominated to drive out Thursday morning to stake out a camp site. We all agreed we'd have to pay for Thursday night, though none of us could actually stay in Kananaskis until Friday. Paying for that extra night, simply guarenteed us a spot in the best campground, "Interlakes Campground."

I left my house early in the morning and arrived at 10:30 to be met with "Campground Full" signs everywhere, including at Interlakes!! I took a chance and drove my truck through the one way loop, 3 times, carefully noting who looked like they might be leaving. I saw a few people packing up and planned to register for their site, leave my lawnchair set up near the fire pit, leave and come back with Marty, Nic and Troy, Friday night! Ha!! The campground manager, would NOT allow it! Well, he wouldnt' allow a lawn chair to "save a spot." He insisted that I needed to put up a tent, or leave some kind of sleeping unit on the site in order to properly save a spot! Damn!!! He informed me that I could drive back 3km to the nearest "trading post" and buy a small tent that I could set up....desperate, that is what I did!! The tent was tiny and I was able to set it up quickly all by myself, using a large rock as a hammer to pound in the tent pegs. I left the campground, having spent 60 bucks on gas, 54 dollars on a tent I was never gonna sleep in and 23 dollars for a campsite I wasn't staying at!!! It was worth it though, when we all rolled in Friday afternoon, no stress, knowing we had a campsite waiting for us!! :)

Marty and I

So excited to camp with the Farns!

Nic and Farn

Marty and Farn

Creating Tarp City, a must for Canadian camping...guarenteed, it will rain, be prepared!!