Trip to Alberta

Last week we went to Calgary for Matthias' yearly check-up. All the doctors said he was doing great. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the hospital, especially the elevator! While we were in Alberta, we took a couple extra days to visit the kids' cousins -- Nathan in Okotoks and Silas in Red Deer. Yay! I was excited to meet Silas, the first child of one of my own siblings!

Carrie Ann was amazed (and a little jealous) to find a baby smaller herself. Bethany learned how to hold him comfortably (something she never quite mastered with Carrie Ann), and enjoyed helping to feed and burp him. Thanks to Dan and Caryn, Deborah and Helen for their hospitality!

Lots more pictures are on my family pictures site.

Matthias was very excited about the trip there. Right when we were about to leave, Frank's sister Deborah called to warn us that it was very snowy there. We looked on the internet and saw some yucky pictures of snow blowing over the road, on every possible route. So we prayed together, and Matthias offered a heartfelt prayer that God would keep the snow from us. Well, we made it to Sparwood with no sign of snow, but at the rest stop there we saw a man from Albert chipping ice blocks off his truck--no fun! He said the worst part was the stretch from Pincher Creek to Fort MacLeod -- a section I usually by-pass by taking Hwy 22, but planned to take that day, since Hwy 2 was plowed but 22 was not.

Well, we set off, and I prayerfully decided to take 22 if it didn't look too bad. Surprisingly, the sun was shining after Sparwood, and by the time we reached 22 we still had not hit the storm -- and the sun had melted all the snow off the road. As we drove up Hwy 22, there was a heat mirage which made it look like the road was covered with snow 100m ahead, and as if it was blowing away as we approached. It was a really neat visual image of the power of God melting the snow to clear the path for us! We were very thankful for the great driving conditions, and Matthias especially rejoiced that his prayer was answered!

The rest of the trip was not quite as good as that first stretch, but God kept us from any accident (and even close calls, though we slid around a little). When we got home, we heard that Bethany's friend Millie had been praying for us the whole time. The prayers of children are powerful in God's eyes!

Bathtime Snuggles

Hey, Deb, your post about Aria reminded me of this picture:



Caryn has a priceless bathtime story already too, but I'll let her share it!

Lion Love

A friend of mine sent me this link in an email, and it is worth sharing!

'Several years ago this woman found a sick, malnourished lion cub in the jungle. She took the cub home and fed him and brought him up until he was too big to keep anymore. She then made arrangements with a zoo in Colombia to take the lion. Here's a video of what happened when she went to visit him in the zoo for the first time:'

http://www.telestereo.com/Archivos/video.swf

Isn't that amazing?!

Flowers

I wanted to post this after Rob's beautiful post of cherry blossoms and unknown flowers in Seoul.

In fact, I was grateful that his blog prompted me to take the picture, because Carrie Ann promptly picked the tulips (as soon as I had my back turned). Well, now they are on our kitchen table for a few days.
Actually, they are very interesting. The previous owner had planted yellow tulips, and Frank's mom planted some red ones before we moved in. These ones are the result of that combination -- I think because I didn't pick off the flowers when they were done. I like these ones much better!

Here is another great picture I took yesterday.

Dad asked for a picture of all three kids, so here it is!
Both pictures are also up on my picture gallery, with others, see the link at the right.
We really enjoyed the nice sunny weather this weekend!

Homeschool

I wanted to put this picture up to show you what my mornings are like:

Matthias and Bethany are almost done their schoolwork for the year (only a couple weeks to go!), and Carrie Ann really loves colouring!

By the way, there are lots more pictures on my Photo Gallery, the link is at the right. I put some new ones in Homeschool Projects and Playing Outside.

How many days until...?

This is one of Bethany's favourite questions. This morning, she asked me how many days it had been since my 5th birthday. Usually I put her off with a non-answer -- 8 calendar pages until your birthday, don't ask me days until we are on the right page! Today, I decided to answer her, so she would realize why I don't want to calculate it all the time.
So, after much ado and calculation, I realized that it has been 9777 days since I turned 5. What a nice number! Later I checked my calculations at this site, and found out that I actually got it right. (There have been 7 leap years, plus 2000 which wasn't a leap year, since I was born.)
I also downloaded a "Days until my birthday" gadget for Bethany, so now I don't have to worry about that question any more.
(Just read over this post and realized almost every sentence ended in an exclamation point. Ever have that problem? I changed some.)
While I was doing schoolwork with Bethany and Matthias this morning, Carrie Ann ran into the kitchen shouting " 'Ot! 'Ot! 'Ot!" ("'Ot" means Hot.) What was so hot that it concerned her so much? I followed her, and she pointed at the heat vent in the hallway -- the furnace was on, and it was blowing hot air up in her face! She is still short enough, and her skin sensitive enough, that she didn't dare walk over it to get to the bedroom. Wow, that is one of the first times she has really managed to use English to get my attention and explain a problem to me! Neat!

Canada, Eh?

Matthias has been studying Canada in his map book, and so I put up on the wall the Canada map which came in the back of the book.
Carrie Ann came over to it during a meal (she always finishes first), and tried to pull the "C" off. I said, "Canada, Carrie Ann, Canada." Then Frank started singing this song:
Ca-Na-Da
(You'll need RealPlayer or something, it is a ram file.)
He explained that it was the Centennial Song in 1967 -- before my time.

That brought to mind another song about Canada which my sister Deb told me about years ago. All I could remember was "trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees -- and water!" So I looked it up on YouTube. To my surprise it was by a group called "Arrogant Worms". At first glance I was put off, but then realized, isn't that what we all really are, in the big scheme of things? Anyway, we enjoyed the song.

It didn't take me long to realize that there were several versions available, since the group themselves did only a music version, not a video. The first is still my favourite, from Doki Doki productions, an anime version:


This version is the most "Canadian,"

Though I wasn't impressed that they used the same pictures for both sets of "rocks and trees."

Others were the "Shangra-La" version and the "Stargate" version.

We had a good laugh (and learned some symbols and history of Canada). Thanks, Deb and Arrogant Worms!