A leisurely Sunday!

Here's Alex on the wee slide at Prairie Winds Park

Uncle Dan and Alex playing in the water! Alex wouldn't leave him alone - "Swing Me Uncle Dan, Swing Me More!"

We had a nice relaxing day with Dan, Cindy, Brooklyn and Mackenzie! We went to Prairie Winds Park which has a playground, water park and wading pool.  The kids all had a good time. We were there for about 2 hours and then a huge wind storm came up and the sand from the playground was blowing everywhere -it was pretty close to The Mummy desert storm scene. So, we headed to the Carriere's for a BBQ and to visit. It was a great way to spend our Sunday!

Here's a "bloggable moment" for you Jenn!

Today I went for my facial at Eveline Charles which are known for being just awesome! So, I'm lounging in my soft fluffy robe, have my cleansing and exfoliating followed by some heavy duty scrutinizing under a huge magnifying glass (well that's what I pictured, I had my eyes covered) then on came the steam which I was just loving until wait, oh no, where'd the nice warm steam go? what's happening to me? oh my gawd, THE PAIN, THE PAIN!, my lovely esthetician ripped off a scab from where I had a blemish and started digging in my pores (cleaning them out is what she claims she was doing) I had tears in my eyes and everything and all I could think about is wait until I blog about this! Pathetic I know, but I really like the venting power of the blog!
The rest of the facial was uneventful but I think the whole experience was totally tainted by the pore digging, and my pores weren't even that clogged in my opinion.
So after the facial I headed on over to the neighbourhood spa to get my waxing done and my usual girl was running behind and kind of did a rush job leaving me with a few hairs here and there and some wax/cotton balls stuck to my dry knees and when I came home I found out that my undies had wax on them and had adhered to my skin. Ouch!

I can honestly say that I should not have left the house today, ha ha!

On a happier note, H finally made the announcement that Jeff and she are engaged. Yeah! I can't brag too much about not spilling the beans as I only found out on Friday a few hours before he popped the question. I'm sure we'll celebrate with Shirley Temples or something!

I've also got most of Alex's party stuff planned/bought. Aaron's got some pirate accessories, we looked at renting a costume but with his party being a Sunday and the next day being a holiday and we're flying out, it just wasn't do-able. Aaron was totally disappointed! So, we've got a treasure chest pinata and some pirate-y decorations to put up. I think our head count is 17 adults and 13 kids, should be a bloggin' good time!

Joseph's First Summer Camp!

These are in the wrong order, but here's Joseph on the way back to camp from their excursion to Butterfield Acres.

Joseph's first pony ride

Joseph and his good friend John Deere (haha)

Maxin' and relaxin' in the hammock!

There were a couple good outings at the week long camp, this was definitely one of them.  Next week Joseph is going to Zoo Tots at the Calgary Zoo!  He's been getting a little antsy without being in school or having camp to go to so I think he'll be looking forward to it. 

Herrrrrrrrrres' Bunco!

How to Play Bunco

You just need nine dice and a handful of luck. Grab your friends - this game usually consists of three sets of four players. And is known for bein gthe ultimate ladies night drinking game! Yeehaw Cowgirls!


Steps:

*Divide twelve players into three groups of four people. Two teams sit at each table; teammates sit opposite each other.

*Assign the tables as the head, middle and bottom. At the end of a round, the winning team advances to the next table. Losers at the head table move to the bottom table.

*Supply each table with three dice, a score sheet and a pencil for each player, and a scratch pad for the table's scorekeeper. Place a bell on the head table.

*Begin play with the scorekeeper. The scorekeeper at the head table traditionally rings the bell to begin the round. Roll your three dice.

*Keep score at each table. I point for each "6" rolled, three of a kind is a "roll again", three "6's" is a BUNCO, where you scream Bunco and get the little mascot to hold until the next player gets a "Bunco".

*Continue to roll until your roll earns no points. Play then moves to the left.

*Continue to play at your table until a team at the head table scores 21 points - at which time, the scorekeeper rings the bell again.

*Change partners after every round, with one player moving to the seat to the right before the next team arrives.

*Play six rounds per set and at least two sets per game. The winner is the player with the most wins, though some groups award prizes in categories such as most Buncos and most losses. (We usually play 25 rounds and drink/snack as we go)

At the end of the night, the hostess gathers everyone's score sheets and hands out the prizes for High Score, Low Score, Most Bunco's, Last Bunco and we draw for the hostess prize. There's 12 of us so we all kick in $10 to put towards pri zes so they're actually pretty awesome prizes, $40 for hostess gift and $20 for the other prizes. If you know 11 other ladies who like to have a good time this might be the game for you. We do the last Friday of every month and I think our goal is to keep going after the first year is up and everyone's had a turn hosting.

Call me crazy but I did it!

No, this is not my actual wedding dress, this isn't even a replica of my wedding dress. This is my forty dollar Sears dress which I'll be wearing to my fall Ladies Night Wedding Gala. The whole idea of the party is to have a few drinks, check out each other's wedding albums, swap wedding stories (I'm sure the fiasco of 250 helium balloons that fell the morning of my wedding will come up) and it may very well include a little partylite shopping -just in time for Christmas, ha ha! So, my friend Carrie gave me the great party idea so of course she will be invited with her Partylite gear and as hostess I felt that I should be in costume so voila! (It shows off my tan pretty well, eh?)

And of course Joeye's wee little "I'm gonna rope me a cowboy" cowgirl boots! Sorry they didn't make it for her July celebration but they'll be hand delivered so that makes it extra special, right?

So, tonight Heather and I had a busy night of walking the mall, trying on stuff (I actually tried on 5 gowns), dining on cinnamon buns, there goes the diet again, and I even had a nice little chat with an old school chum Linda (Hi Linda!). Apparently Linda's a blog fan, it makes it worthwhile knowing that people actually read it, even though sometimes it's a little boring like my great savings at Superstore and sometimes it's a little risque-Dorito Chip, need I say more.  In any case it's always nice to hear that people are checking up on us all over the country!

Well we had a great idea...and that's as far as it went!

Aaron had a great suggestion tonight, he thought maybe after my spa appointment on Saturday we'd head out to Drumheller for the night and then spend Sunday at the Royal Tyrell Museum checking out the dinosaur bones or maybe just walking the badlands. Well there's no hotel rooms available so that's as far as the idea went. Apparently spur of the moment and dinosaur park just don't go hand in hand during the peak season.
In reality I think Aaron's just trying to preoccupy himself until holiday time rolls around. After we return from holidays he may make a drastic career move but I'll let him tell you guys all about it.

So Uncle Henry & soon to be Auntie April did I make the cut? Can I read at your wedding? I haven't done it before but I would love to take part in your wedding! I'll try not to do anything cowgirl-ish like say y'all....let me know so I can practise..........poor kids will be subjected to me speaking the word of the Lord.....in my tube top....not pretty!

Well we finally picked a winner -babysitter that is

Aaron got his dream babysitter, 23, blond and yup she's a looker. Good thing she drives so I don't have to worry about him driving her home. Ha ha Aaron!
I'd spoke to Gabrielle (the sitter) on the phone a few times and didn't actually meet her until last night before we left but in the 10 minutes that she was there before we left she won the hearts of our boys with some bubbles to play with outside, we got home just before 10 and the kids were still up playing their hearts out. We're pretty slack when it comes to date night, we've never given the sitters a bedtime for the boys, we figure if they fall asleep great but we don't want it to be forced because we want them to think of sitters as fun people not meanies.The only downside to Gabrielle is that she works at a bar on Friday and Saturday nights so she's unavailable. So, we're still on the hunt for a good weekend babysitter...Andrea and I have joined forces trying to find one and still nothing.
It was date night last night, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean, it was really good but a total cliffhangar which I don't like. I like a movie to have a beginning, middle and end -this one totally has on ending, which is smart for the moviemakers because it almost guarantees that everyone will go see the next one to find out what happened.
It's supposed to be a hot one today which I'm loving except I'm starting to get some weird tan lines...poor kids....out comes the tube top again today!

3 swimming adventures in one day!

That is a new record for the Beck family!
The boys and I started our day with some hard-core cleaning before we headed out to Heather and Jeff's (that way I wouldn't feel guilty about Aaron having to work all weekend in this heatwave so I did my share of house work to make me feel like I earned the rest of the day off), So the boys hit the backyard pool first with Jeff while H and I visited, then we had lunch and headed off to the Turner Valley outdoor pool. I have to say that I was very impressed with it, it was really clean and not even very crowded. Joseph climbed up the diving board twice and climbed down twice, maybe next year. And Alex was just happy to cling on to Unka Jeff.
After the outdoor pool the boys 'hit the wall' and were getting really non-sensical and cranky so we loaded up and headed home where we received invite #3 to head on over to the neighbours pool after dinner to cool off. You didn't have to ask the kids twice! So, after dinner Braden popped over to say they were ready when we were ready, so about 30 seconds later we were bobbing around their pool. Joseph has now mastered the technique of wearing swim goggles and holding his breath under water! It was freaking me out a few times because he would be so still under the water but he was alright. And Alex was happy enough to walk the perimeter of their pool, it was nice that they could both touch the bottom with their heads above water! I can see we'll be putting them both in swimming classes this fall and maybe next year if we have room in our backyard we may have to buy something a little bigger than the 4ft. blowup pool, ha ha!
Today I'm interviewing a new babysitter for the boys, we thought we had a good one but it's not working out as great as we'd hoped. And our neighbourhood is filled with a lot of young families with really young kids. I don't think I've ever seen a teenager walking up our street yet, so the word of mouth with the neighbours hasn't been very resourceful but someone at Joseph's summer camp was looking for extra money in the evenings so I'm hoping this will be a good match. The camp recommended her so I'm feeling optimistic.
Hope you're all having great sunny weather like us! Poor boys have been subjected to my tube top these last few days...aah...the stories they could tell...

This is for you Candice -LOL!

So how far are you willing to go to "fit in" in Japan? I was looking at your Blog pics of Japan and remembered this old email I had.

I remember reading in school about the tight living quarters in Japan, so will you have your own room with a host family with a twin sized bed or will you have to live in one of those little cubbies with a floor mat? I'm really not trying to stress you out Auntie Brenda, just curious.

Aye Aye Cap'n

After much deliberation we've decided on a pirate party for Alex on the 6th of August. Not sure what kind of decorations we'll have but we've got 39 on the guest list so it'll be hotdogs & hamburgers BBQ versus steak & lobster, LOL!
We (Aaron) really wanted to do the poker run but we're leaving on the 7th so I thought we'd keep it a little more low-key...I have visions of the poker run being an all-day/all-nighter affair...besides it's more fun if Mom and Dad are there too!
Can you believe I'm actually thinking about buying a pirate cake? I just don't have the talent when it comes to cake decorating.

This is a short summary of our weekend...

Dad trying out Brian's new scooter (that's Brian and Gary in the background laughing)

Sorry, I realize this is sideways so it loses some effectiveness but here's Dad with his xrays from a little tumble this afternoon.

And here's Mom helping Dad out of the truck to get his Xrays...

Fortunately for Dad the scooter and tumble were totally unrelated...lucky for Brian's scooter too!  We were just about to sit down for lunch today and Dad lost his balance and fell, lucky for Dad Kathryn and Jeff were visiting and Kathryn is a certified EMT and checked him out and then sent him to the hospital for an Xray. (It only cost Dad a wedding cake, LOL!)

We had a very good visit with Mom and Dad, and Brian and Gary when they finally got to Morinville and then Auntie Kathryn and Uncle Jeff came to see us today. 

A pretty average day at the Beck's

Alex was tired out right after dinner and a bath

The boys and I played hard right up until bedtime...actually they didn't even make it to bedtime! Lucky Mommy!

Aaron was late getting home tonight and was lucky enough to come home to a sparkly clean, quiet house -it's even clean sheet night tonight.  I managed to get all of the household stuff done seeing as I could not keep my kids awake past 7 o'clock! The van is packed and ready to head up to Edmonton as soon as the last kidlet has gone home tomorrow.  I think I enjoy my weekends more when we actually leave the city, sure, we have to drive a few hours to visit Mom and Dad but it's totally worth it.  The boys are really excited to swim in Nannie's hot tub, Joseph even dug out his swim goggles. 

Maybe we'll get some more footage of the Beck Boys jamming away on Papa's guitar! Actually two of my cousins from Mom's side will be there as well, it's been forever since we've seen them so I suppose we're long overdue to have a visit with them.

Have a great weekend!

A perfect Blue Collar Comedy moment...

So last night Aaron and I are driving down to the Stampede grounds and I say to Aaron "you know I was thinking about getting a few more highlights put in" and he says "for your hair?"and I said "no for the book I'm reading?!?"...here's your sign Aaron!

Anyways, in the spirit of Stampede I dug out my biggest belt buckle and tied my shirt up in the front...forgot the cowboy hat at home though -where's my sign?- we walked through the showhome and looked at all the big ticket prizes, Aaron's hoping for the house, truck/trailer or truck/seadoo/2 dirt bikes...I think last year we bought tickets on everything and won nothing so we only picked 3 things to try for this year.
I also picked up some mini donuts for myself and Aaron got his usual jumbo bag of cotton candy -there goes his diet, ha ha- other than that we just walked around. It was the same as every year which for us isn't so much of a big deal now but for newcomers it's amazing!
Aaron's hoping next year we'll have some company to go with us...any takers?

Dorito Chip

Hmmmm...so I don't offend anybody let's just say it's a very popular hairstyle.

I'm sure you're all tired of my cards by now...

Here's a zebra postage stamp technique, it's a bit blurry -oops!

This is a pocket card where you write on the little white notecard

This one turned out a bit blurry but it is a folding card when you untie the bow it opens up a flap to write your message on.

After tonight there's only 3 more stamping classes, I'll be missing the August class because we'll be in Halifax but I'm hoping to go to a makeup class to learn the new techniques. Christine showed them to me tonight and they were definitely something I don't want to miss...it's borderline pathetic, I know.

Joseph's camp was slightly better today than yesterday.  He went to Butterfield Acres and Michelle (his aide) bought him a ticket for a pony ride, I think she took pictures as well -can't wait to see those!

Aaron and I are off to the Stampede tomorrow night. The Calgary Stampede is a world wide famous event, it is spectacular, there is always great concerts, great rodeos and great food.  I'm positive that every Calgarian could eat for free for the entire event.  All the major businesses have Stampede Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners, some ask for a food donation but hey, it's a great opportunity to get rid of the lentils and other purchases that seemed like a good idea at the time.

Thank goodness these ARE NOT my boys!

Looks like something they'd do though!

More cards

Here are my make and take's from the hostess appreciation/silent stamp auction on Saturday, I managed to pick up 3 stamp sets for about $40 which is a really good deal.
Today was Joseph's first day at summer camp and according to his aide it really sucked. Apparently it was little more than a 3 hour circle time where they introduced themselves, colored a picture, sang a song and tried to play a game. Boring! At least tomorrow is a trip to Butterfield Acres, if nothing else Joseph will at least get some fresh air.

What a fun night!

Here's us girls headed downtown on the train.

Kathryn and her parents

Kathryn, her parents (Liz and Billy) and Aunt Sheena and Uncle Stewart

The ladies

The bride to be and her girls (me and Nadine)

Me and my best girl!

We've ordered our bridesmaid gowns and boy do we look hot! They're very flattering I must say.  We celebrated our dress buying with dinner and drinks downtown last night which also gave me a chance to meet Nadine.  She's a very nice girl and I can easily see why Kathryn's such good friends with her -she's just so much fun to be around! She's also a licensed esthetician and gave me some good information...I can also add "dorito chip" to my list of catch phrase terms (camel toe...muffin top...)

Thanks for the fun weekend ladies!

I've really got to re-think my holiday days...

Out of my 4 dayhome kids I've only got 1 tomorrow -all of the other parents have the morning off for the Calgary Stampede Parade and have decided to take the afternoon off to have a day with their child except one family who've booked appointments for the day. Fair enough, it's not in my contact to get the parade morning off...yet...but I think I'll be re-vamping it to include that holiday for next year. My boys are old enough to enjoy the parade and I think they'd actually sit still through a good part of it. If every other working Calgarian gets it off why shouldn't I?

Calgary housing has gone insane!

This is a house that's just down the street from us. It's 300 square feet smaller than ours but has a single garage and the balcony of course. It sold in less than 48 hours for $449,000! Isn't that insane?!? We bought our house for just under $200,000 three years ago. So, if we sold now we'd be loaded...homeless...but loaded.
Is the market like this Canada wide or just in Cowtown?

Back to making cards....

Happy Engagement Card -I've been trying to duplicate a card like this for a year now and it never seems to work out as nice as my original...this is a close second though

Birthday card for Auntie Kathryn using my brand new Stipple Rose stamp, yippee!

Baby boy card for wee Makhi, I'm sure Heather is thinking that it's looking like her Christmas card from last year...picture this with light purple instead of green and snowflakes instead of handprints...it's a pretty versatile design

Canada Day weekend was a success!

Here's Auntie Arlene, Uncle Dale, Uncle Mel and Uncle Eric

Grandma, Deb, Auntie Glenda, Aaron, Auntie Brenda, Auntie Arlene and Uncle Dale

Alex, Brooklyn and Joseph

The guys hard at work...haha...

The guys doing guy stuff....

We had a lovely weekend at the cottage! Unfortunately Aaron's cousin Tara and her family couldn't join us, they were in a non-injury collision shortly after leaving their house to head up to the cottage on Friday so they ended up sticking close to home this weekend.  We were joined by Deb's siblings and mom from Spokane,Oyen and Empress to celebrate Grandma's 85th birthday.  We had a lot of time to visit and chat with one another and catch up. Alex and Joseph weren't too bashful around the relatives, although it took Alex awhile to find his voice.  Cindy and her family came up late Saturday night so we had a chance to visit with them as well and then Mom and Dad came for dinner Sunday before we headed home.  It was very relaxing!

Sunday night Mom, Dad and I were working the Cash Casino for Joseph's school. We worked from 10 -2:30 in the countroom, the time went by fairly quickly although we didn't get home and to bed until 3 o'clock so the three of us will be going to bed early tonight!