Christmas with the family.

Christmas turned out wonderfully at Mom and Dad's household. On Christmas Eve we did the music for the candelight service at the church and spent the rest of the night gorging on mass amounts of treats and snacks while watching the ever classic Christmas Story (I don't think it will ever get old!). In the morning Brent and I went over to mom and dads for the opening of gifts and breakfast. The kids were definitely eager to get at them. Lehman had his eye set especially on one beautifully wrapped gift from Lauryn, however i don't think it was the wrapping as much as he had shaken it earlier and determined that it was a playmobile set. We definitely ended up with a small pool of blue playmobile boxes which definitely distracted the kids from most other gifts. Breakfast was to follow with a delectable menu of waffles and ice cream (with real maple syrup), eggs and fruit salad. We spent the remainder of the afternoon watching Road to Avonlea episodes, editing photo's and preparing the Turkey dinner. As always Mom put on a wonderful spread of fine food that rendered us all useless masses on the couch. We ended our evening with the good ole' Christmas Carol and finished off the night with a portion of Mom's much coveted Skor bar dessert. I would say it was a very successful Holiday.

Christmas in the 80's

Mom had been lamenting how some of her ornaments were too old and she needed some upgrades. Maryn, after looking at the tree for awhile says to Mom "Yup, these ornaments have seen better days. They're like from the 80's when you were born!"

Another Blog to Follow

I know, I know, you're loving all this interesting bloggy news, but it's so hard to follow in all these different places! Brent and Chantelle have their own blog, knappedy.blogspot.com so you can follow that for updates on them and the new baby.

Baby on the Way!

Brent and Chantelle are announcing that they are having a baby on or around May 23rd!! We are so excited for them! Kenna and Brooks will love having a cousin, and I'm sure Mom will love having a grandbaby near enough to snuggle:-) Congrats, we can't until May to meet the little guy/girl (named Truck or Pinder, if Brent had his way. Eeew!)

When you THINK you thought it

As I'm sure most of you know by now, Brian has taken a full time job with a commercial contracting company called The Woodard Group. Work has been very slow because of such an unstable economy, so when this opportunity arose, it was perfect timing. He is currently learning the ropes of a commercial superintendent, and will get on to estimating and job managing in the future. This is very valuable mangerial experience, as well as experience with commercial building, which he has almost no experience with in the past. We have still kept our company "open" and will take on side/sub work. Brian worked so hard for his Class A, it would be silly to let it go. He thinks he'd like to stick with The Woodard Group for awhile, but if the economy really picks up, we always have the option to go back to True Tangent (the name of our company). It's a real shift for him, instead of actually doing the work, he watches other people do work, he said it's actually pretty exhausting! :-)

All that background to say...the other day he was in their carpenters shop and met the cabinet maker. He talked with him for awhile, and helped him with a few things. He said it was very funny...you know when you think you are just thinking something, but instead you say it outloud?...well this guy accidentally said "Nice guy, strange hair" to Brian. Haha!! Brian said it was like, oops! I told him that would be the perfect name for his blog, if he had one. Nice Guy, Strange Hair. Hilarious.

Darn It!

Kenna has recently been getting in a lot of trouble for being saucy, talking back and/or arguing with an instruction (she has way better ideas:-)...
Today in the store I gave her a piece of gum with the wrapper still on it and she was struggling to get it free. "Darn it!" she says, "Kenna, we do not say darn it, those are angry words" I told her. A moment later she says, "but Mom, I am". "You are what?" "Angry!" she said her most emphatic voice. Yikes. I guess I am getting my payback now from my childhood days:-)

Alberta Friends & Family

Some pics stolen from Kari. Kari is almost family, as she is Chantelle's cousin...here are some great shots she posted of the boys etc. If not for Kari I don't think they'd have nearly as many nice pics from AB. She is going to photography school and has an amazing camera.

Davis, Kaden & Logan, up on the train tracks

Brent and his bewildered face!

Davis and Kari

Kaden and Kari, niiiice...

Kari and Logan

Kari and Chantelle

Logan & Kari, again.

Brent & Chantelle Kennedy!

July 5th, 2008 Brent and Chantelle said "I do"! The wedding was at 3pm, and the day started out lovely. It wasn't too hot or too cold, really. We had a few moments of drama during the ceremony, as Chantelle whispers 'vows' to Mom and mom realized they were in the van. Somehow this fell on me to run to the van and retrieve them. I made it back, vows in hand, literally without a second to spare and completely winded. Naturally right after the vows I had to sing! It was a very nice ceremony and the church was decorated nicely. Kenna and Brooks remained seated and happy during their travels up the aisle (in a John Deere wagon), so that made Mommy happy. Kenna even managed to toss a handful or two of petals out onto the floor.

After the ceremony we headed to the park for a "picnic" as Kenna called it. Unfortunately it started to rain, mostly softly (with sun shining) which was great for pics, but bad for my hair. Towards the end it was coming down hard so we wrapped it up quickly and went on to the reception hall.

The reception was very nice, we had a turkey dinner, with an open juice and pop/soda (for Brian's sake) bar. Dessert was wedding cake made by Chantelle's aunt. There were 4 layers, and each one was a different kind of cake. Speeches were nice, powerpoint glitched but worked, emcee's were very funny. All in all it was a wonderful day and it was as perfect as you could have a wedding be. Congrats to the newlyweds!

We have some (about 500!) candid shots of the wedding, park, and reception, however with dialup it isn't very feasible to post many of them right now. I will be home on the 22nd and will post tons of pics as quickly as possible. Promise!

Note: I (Darla am posting this with my mom, showing her how, we set her up to contribute to the blog, so hopefully she can every now and again...it's a little dicey with dialup)

Veterinary Expedition

A picture tells a thousand words apparently. So in order to make up for the many months that I have not posted anything on this blog I'll post a few relevant pictures and I'll be all caught up.

Yesterday the task of taking the little brute depicted in the photos to the vet fell to me. My image of a vets office was shaped from writing of James Herriot and my real life experiences with the Town and Country office in Stouffville. Both portrayed a similar image of how a veterinary practice was to be run. The Town and Country was a good sized house with a cobbled walk obscured by overgrown bushes. The rooms sometimes felt a bit tight but there was real homey feeling about the place. It was punctuated by the cat who lived in the waiting room and sought favour from the human visitors while taunting oft nervous patients. The most comfortable homes often have an air of humorous animosity.

I loved the wall chart of all the different dog breeds. All of us kids had memorized the CKC register of breeds and each time we'd eagerly point out the breeds that were left out. We'd wonder smugly how anyone could have omitted the Grosser Munsterlander or the Basset Fauve de Bretagne. Surely no poster of dog breeds was complete without them. Still, what it lacked in content it made up for with the artwork. There was something classically enchanting about it that I think typified the whole place. It was not necessarily the most modern but it aptly covered all the basics.

As I discovered recently I prefer classical to modern. The Lakewood Animal Hospital is just a 17 minute walk from our house. Because my wife had taken the car with her to work I happen to know this for a fact. They chose the name well because the place did indeed appear to be a hospital. It was sterile and industrial and all the employees wore scrubs even the receptionist. I suppose you never know when she might be called upon to perform an emergency tracheotomy with one of the complimentary pens.

The waiting room was an odd combination between a hospital and a park. The floor, wall and ceilings were reminiscent of the average emergency room but the decor was unique. They had three outdoor park benches in a row and no other seating. I wondered if they had not been purloined from the bus stop out front. I surreptitiously inspected them during my wait and was a bit shocked to find that they were custom made to inflict discomfort on humans and animals alike. The other unique decorative implement was a "new age" like fountain. The sound of constant rushing water tempted even the strongest bladders with immediate evacuative action. I took Katana off my lap since we still had a 17 minute walk home.

I think they borrowed their in house procedure from the hospital as well because although I was the only person in the waiting room (and the only other person with a pet I saw for the duration of my visit) it still took quite a bit before one of the medically clad seating attendants informed me that I could weigh in my pet and proceed to the secondary waiting room. The inner sanctum where only those frustrated by a sore back and tightly squeezed legs could enter. From here we could see our final destination. The sign on the door read "Veterinary Homeopath". I secretly hoped there was a third waiting room.

The vet was actually quite nice but she suggested we let Katana run around her office for a bit to let her become comfortable. The dog was perfectly adjusted the moment we walked in but I discovered there were ulterior motives. Although all we needed was a simple vaccination I got a complete rundown on the benefits of organic foods for dogs and the ravages of name brand processed dogs foods. She had written up some natural health plans that she was eager to peddle. My response was fairly clear, although I want the best for the little beast I myself eat processed food and I don't want the dog to outlive me. I think my witty retort was all that saved us from sitting in a circle burning incense.

The vaccinations were administered without further incident and I was free begin the journey home and reflect upon how very different veterinary practice has become.

Garage Sale Funny

Last weekend there was a town-wide garage sale in Sexsmith, where everyone sells their things on the same day. Great idea! Anyway, the kids decided to sell some baked goods and pop for some extra money (and they did really well!). Mom gave Lehman a hand towel and instructed him to wipe down the cans of pop before handing them to customers, because they would be very wet after sitting in water and ice all day. She overhears him asking his customers, towel in hand..."Would you like your pop wet or dry?"

New Puppy

Here are some of the promised pictures of our new puppy. She's a 7 week old Shih-Tzu cross. We've named her Katana, or Katy for short. Turns out she's actually tough to get a good picture of.

Shake it

Yesterday Kenna was singing and dancing around the kitchen. At one point she stops and keeps saying "I can't do it, Mom, I can't do it" over and over. I finally ask what she can't do. "I can't shake my body" she replies as she tries to shake her butt. I cracked up laughing, it was just so random and funny!

Random News

Still working on a few short stories/memories. Nothing that is ready enough to be posted but I just remembered that I haven't actually posted anything else for quite some time. There is more to our lives than than the colourful painting of the past. Here are a few of the current happenings.

I beat Brian in Fantasy Hockey last week - Mr. Hockey blog himself. I thought this deserved top billing as a news item. I was a little unsure about the merits of a head to head scoring system but seeing myself credited with a 7-3 win, during a week when the only team worse than mine was Brian's, is a pretty good feeling. If misery loves company how much more does ineptitude?

The fellowship of the 8th has increased its number once again. At this rate of growth only a few more years until we receive official government recognition. Start buying stock in chicken wing restaurants.

We're planning a weekend getaway in February - Our good friends the Martens have invited us to join them at the family cottage during the February long weekend (Family Day/Presidents Day). Should be fun.

We will officially be members of Hillsdale Baptist in a few weeks - Pending approval from the board and members of course. Although we didn't come to Regina with the intention of being involved there at all we have been feeling led more and more to submit to them formally.

For the board game enthusiasts we got the chance to play a new Days of Wonder game called Shadows over Camelot. Excellent for groups larger than 4. Also Saboteur is a very fun and quick card game that we've stumbled upon.

A heartbreaker

I just have to post this story, because it totally makes me laugh every time I think about it!
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A funny story for you...Lehman & Jillaine were at Rick & Paula's yesterday doing something…a secret from me! (*it was a picture frame Christmas present) When they came home, they said they had so much fun and were quite excited. Jillaine said that they had tomato soup for lunch but that it got burnt. Lehman pipes up, “Yeah, and I ate just enough to be polite.” I laughed because he hates tomato soup at the best of times. Last night at Bible study I thanked them for having the kids over and relayed that they had a good time. Paula says, “ So you still love me for feeding your kids burnt soup.” I laughed and said it happens to everyone. She said she had asked Jillaine has your mother ever fed you burnt food. Jillaine says "Yep we burnt mushroom soup once and since it was 3 cans she made us eat it." So Paula said "well this is 3 cans so I guess we’ll eat it!" Lehman pipes up, “Oh it’s fine, burnt soup is one of my favourites!” Anyhow they ate and at the end of the meal Lehman says, “Could I have a drink please?” She said would you like water or ice tea? He says I ‘ll have water please. She said would you like ice tea? , remembering the pop incident with Rick at Tim Horton’s in her head a few weeks ago, and he says “Oh, yes please!” Rick & Paula thought it was hilarious.

Dad talked to Lehman this morning before going to work about him having good manners and he said, “Well what else could I say without breaking her heart?”