Echoes of Laughter

“We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate. Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.” ~Dalai Lama

only two weeks until we go home!!!!!!!! Some happenings around the house today: I have declared today a scrapbook day. I am doing nothing today except scrapbook.Tyler is “amie special” today. He is taking his “goalie gear”. but of course.Hunter has a math test today.Ron will return from the grande el presidente tour.

“ Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. ” H. Jackson Brown

Last night Ron took the kids out for a bit of shopping. Nicholas was visiting yesterday with his new goalie gear, and Tyler was positively green with envy. There were a few tears shed, so Daddy decided to take Tyler out shopping for some goalie gear and Hunter was going to receive cash in the same amount for our trip to American Girl. They went to Walmart, Toys R Us and Canadian Tire before finding what they were looking for. So the little goalie is happy now. He came into my room this morning fully suited up(despite vomiting a few Read More »

I was awakened this morning by a smiley boy who happily announced that I could go back to bed for “two hours” because he was making a “surprise” for me and that I could “go to the washroom or either watch TV, but stay in my pyjamas in the bedroom.” I hated to burst his happy bubble by reminding him that it was a school day and we had to get up and get going. So I never did get my surprise, but I think it was breakfast a la Tyler. So cool that at five years old, he knows Read More »

This morning I woke up with a huge pain in the neck. Ouch. Hurts to look up or down and turn sideways. Not sure what I did but I cleaned out a couple of closets this weekend, so I must have lifted something the wrong way, not realizing I was straining something. I hope it will be better tomorrow. The kids had so much fun last week attending the International Childrens Festival here in St. Albert. Childrens entertainers brought in from all over the world to share their talents in theatre, music, acrobatics, rhythm and culture with our children. It Read More »

I have been on a reading frenzy these past few days. I have been hiding under the covers with books. Last week I happened to catch Elie Wiesel on Oprah where he was talking about his visit to Auschwitz with Oprah in January. I felt compelled to pick up his book and read it. “Night” is a good 3-4 hour read, but it is powerful to read his story. Elie was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in Transylvania and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. He would never see his mother or sisters again, Read More »

I have been thinking about this concept lately. What does wealth mean to you? Here in Alberta, wealth means expensive houses, hummers, bmw’s, mercedes benz, big campers and everything else that represents a pay cheque. West Edmonton Mall represents wealth. A place where you can go to spend, spend, spend. But i miss the wealth in Nova Scotia. And I don’t mean material wealth. Nova Scotia is filled with wealth. The wealth of beauty.Oceans and breezes. greenery and blossoms.There are no crystal blue oceans or salty breezes here. The rocky mountains are beautiful, but here in Edmonton, they are not Read More »

Man, tonight I was flipping thru the channels when i happend to catch james blunt on mmm in concernt. it was so fantastic. love his music and his message and his purity. does that make sense? just his sense of self and how he is so not rock star-ish. he is just about his music. weeman is up. he wants a “snuggle”. i never want him to grow up. weeman, grow smaller please.

Yes, as we were finishing supper, Tyler was in the living room singing “YCDA”, his version of YMCA, or my version after a marguerita with dinner, whichever you choose. Kids are downstairs mixing up chocolate chip cookies. What a great activity. It has taken them about 45 minutes to measure everything out. I told them to call me when they were ready to turn on the Kitchen Aid. Turned into a beautiful day overall. I cleaned the TV room in the basement and moved a few things around. Scrapped a little this morning. The Oilers will be playing the Anaheim Read More »

Here are some things that went on around our house today: Hunter went to skating. We learned that the two dances that she has been working on are probably not “passable” as they are. They need a lot more work. So I have hired another coach who specializes in dances to help her with these dances. Let’s pray that we can get them to a passing level in the next two weeks. Ron went this morning to the sports wholesale outfitters. He came home excited about the cool fishing and camping gear he saw. Ron and Tyler went to scout Read More »

It is said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. This means that if you engage in the new habit for 21 days in a row, the new habit should become entrenched. So I am going to test this. I am going to blog for 21 days and see if it becomes as automatic as brushing your teeth. I am also going to try 30 minutes on the treadmill everyday for 21 days. Good luck to me. We were up super early today. 6am to be exaxt. Hunter had a dance performance at U . She wanted Read More »

Today was “Birthday Party Toy Day” in Tyler’s kindergarten class. Every child in the class can bring a toy from home to school today and the birthdays of the month are celebrated. There was only one other child who had a birthday in February besides Tyler-Faith. Tyler chose to take his blue transformer to school today and I brought 24 cupcakes, teddy grahams for James and Jimmy Neutron napkins and plates. Tyler got to wear a birthday crown and he got to go to office for a special birthday treat. The school secretary told him he had to “dance or Read More »

Well, we set off last night at 5pm. We went down the street to the entrance to the park and back. We collected a good quantity of treats and now we are in sugar heaven. We got home at 6:15 and then the kids watched the movie “Winn Dixie” until bedtime. A nice Halloween overall. We gave out treats to about 50 or so kids. We took pictures with both the Digital and my regular camera but the digitals did not have enough light and turned out very poor. Tyler had his turn for “Show and Tell” at school the Read More »

Hunter & I just got home from Winnipeg where Hunter’s skating club competed in “Westerns”. This is the finals for the Western Division teams to compete for a spot at nationals. Our club sent 6 teams ranging from 9 year olds right up to 60 year olds to compete. Here are some fun facts from the weekend! Hunter’s team, Juveniles, finished 6th in a flight of 8 teams. This is great considering that 85% of our skaters are first year synchronized skaters. The Juvenile Team consists of 9-12 year olds. No where to go up from here! The Junior teams Read More »

Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow passed away today. I was doing a little research for the library bulletin board for Black History Month, which is the month of February, and I could not ignore Martin Luther King’s place in black history. I included some of Dr. King’s ” I have a dream” speech as part of my display. I read the speech in it’s entirety, along with his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He states, “peace is more precious than diamonds or gold or silver”. His message is just as powerful today as Read More »

Yesterday, I had the privelege of being the parent helper in my son’s kindergarten class. I say “privelege” because I was able to bear witness to his ” show and tell” which, in his case, is mostly “tell”. And tell he does. For the full minutes fifteen minutes in which he was given the floor, he managed to squeeze as many words as humanly possible out of his mouth. He brought 2 Rescue Heroes, a Knight, and a Bedamon thing to show his classmates. He told everyone that this Rescue Heroes names was Billy Blazes and he was the leader Read More »

I finished “Shake Hands with the Devil” in just a little over a week and I was fascinated. The human story is so compelling-Romeo Dalliare demonstrates such courage and dedication and integrity of heart that is a rare combination. I admire him tremendously and what the UN put him through is just incredible. UN “soldiers” arriving without food or water, no tents and no vehicles. No “blue berets” to identify them as peacekeepers. Arguments over whether the crisis was an “ethnic cleansing” or a “genocide”. If termed a “genocide”, the UN would be required to go in with greater force, Read More »

1. flannel jammies. 2. mom’s brownies. 3. sex and the city. 4. a kiss from someone while i am sleeping. (tyler, hunter, ron) 5. sleeping in. (just til 8 or 9 am) 6. ocean breezes. 7. lobster fresh from the pot. with melted butter. 8. madonna’s new cd. confessions from a dance floor. 9. beautiful pictures from my camera. 10. a new magazine in the mailbox.

Last night I finally did it. I started reading Romeo Dallaire’s book. I have been wanting to read it for a long time, but I just had to work up the courage. I know that it is going to be disturbing, but it’s such a human story told by such a brave man that I must try to do it justice. If I had to pick a Canadian Hero, it would be Romeo Dallaire for having survived Rwanda and telling the story so that maybe we could learn what we should have learned with World War II.

I have not read this book, but it is on my “to read” list. It was an “Oprah’s Book Club” pick last fall, and sometimes, I am a little hesistant to read books that are SOOO in the moment. Not sure why, but it was the same way with the Da Vinci Code. Everyone I have talked to has said that it was an amazing book, amazing story. This week, controversy erupted when a website called “Smoking Gun” accused James Frey, the author, of making up parts of the book and exaggerating other parts. I happened to catch James Frey Read More »

That is my mantra for this year. Simplify. Clean out. Clear out. De-clutter. Whatever you want to call it. My goal is simply this: to pick a small part of the whole house each day and re-organize it. It’s amazing how much space you have once the mess of unused is cleared out. I plan to tackle every closet, every drawer, every box until this whole house is organized. There are many, many objects that should have never made the move from Nova Scotia. But I did not have the time or focus to tackle such a project before we Read More »