Today we take possession of

our new house!!!

Two is Better than One

I've been re-reading The Secret Life of Bees. I love this book and am so glad I ran out of books to read and choose to re-read this one. I find this book full of great little lines that make me stop and think. Here is a passage I recently read and have been pondering.

"Did this mean if I told May about T. Ray's mounds of grits, his dozens of small cruelties, about my killing my mother - that hearing it, she would feel everything I did? I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it?"

I feel I have always been fortunate to be blessed with people in my life who share my joys and sadness. Sharing does, for me, make the sorrows a little easier to bear and the joys that much better.

All About Me

So I saw this super cute idea on my friends Kristi's blog - even though I wasn't tagged I still thought it was way fun and wanted to do it too. The idea is to type in your answer into Google image and pick the best pictures that pops up. So this is me. ENJOY!

My First Name








My Last Name










Place I was Born










My favorite animal - this one I struggled with as I don't really like animals. Nolan informed me that I should do more research then I'd like animals way more. Who couldn't love a face like this.











Past Love - This one's for Spencer. Ha Ha!













My Favorite Object - or in this case object(s).













Favorite Food - I'm sure this came as no surprised as I am quite open about my love of brownies - notice the icing. So good.










Favorite Color










Bad Habit - watching, not actually putting of the skills into play and cooking gourmet meals for my family.











First Job - I'll let you use your imagination on this one, but I will say it was horrible.










Future Job













Place I want to Visit










My Age. or so I tell Nolan and his friends and anyone who asks.










Your Turn!

Wednesday August 13, 2008, Patrice (my youngest sister) went to the temple. It was a special occasion marked with tender moments and I was so glad I could be there to share this moment in Patrice's life.

Happy Day!

I bought myself one of these today. It's a labeler. Mock if you must, but I have wanted one forever and I now feel like my life is complete. I am able to organize as I never have before.

I'd be happy to come over and label for you.

Trip to Calgary Part 2: The Military Museum

After dropping Sheena and Michel off at their hotel, we spent the night at Rachel's. After we put the kids to bed we had sister time and ate lemon pie right out of the tin while watching a show about crazy parents who want their kids to be stars.

Nolan and Jarom have been enchanted by the Calgary Military Museum ever since we first drove by the tanks on a previous trip to Calgary. They begged and begged to go there, so after Rachel left for work the boys and I went to check it out.

There were lots of amazing exhibits to see and it was all very interesting. I would like to go back again as it was hard to fully take it all in. I also thought it put war into a whole new perspective for Nolan, who is used to seeing war in terms of television and video games.

This mural was amazing. It was all individual pictures making up a bigger picture. The mural was also on computer screens and when you touched one of the pictures a background on the person would pop up along with an explanation on their contribution to freedom.

As we were walking into the museum, I was busy tucking away my wallet and camera, not really paying attention to what Jarom was doing. He was so excited he went running right through a freshly poured side walk.

This isn't the real photograph, I felt to stupid to go back and take a picture just so I could blog it.

Ok, I have so much to blog, our Strate family reunion, Whitefish, The Northcotts, Our visit with Sheena, Patrice going to the temple, plus an update on our housing/move situation and then some as we are movers and shakers and the fun never ends. In all reality I realize you may not be as interested in our life as I am; but as previously mention this is for the most part my journal and I want to remember all these moments.

Where to begin... I guess I'll start with the latest event - Meeting Sheena and Michel in Calgary then work my way back.


Sheena and Michel flew all the way from their bit of paradise in France to come and see us again; well I think they may have actually come to see Sheena's family but we were included in the trip and felt lucky to see them. Our family has loved Sheena ever since we first introduced ourselves outside the RS room of the Dalhousie Chapel 8 yrs ago. Sheena is part of our family and when Michel snatched Sheena we claim him as well, plus he has earned himself the title of The Candy Man as he presents Nolan and Jarom with candy every visit.

Yesterday after an overly confusing ordeal of finding the bus station in Calagary we met up and then went to explore the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. I thought it would be a nice place for us to visit without having to contain the kids to much, this having the situation nice and relaxed. When we first arrived at the bird sanctuary we were a little disappointed as I was expecting something like Fort Whyte in Winnipeg and it was a hot dry field - even the lake had dried up, not to mention the only bird we spotted was a Magpie. Then as we were pulling away we noticed we had gone to the wrong place, once we arrived at the right place the Sanctuary turned out to be very beautiful. It was a hot hot hot day 37 degrees which is why everyone has pink cheeks.



We then visited the Calgary Tower. I thought this would be very cool as Flat Nolan made a trip there earlier this year and it would be very cool for the real Nolan to visit. Ok, the Calgary Tower is a scary place. I would not walk over the glass floor. Michel shared in my feelings, we remained at a comfortable distance while the other three dare devils took their life in their hands and ventured over the glass.
Jarom had absolutely no fear and would lay on the glass - CRAZY. But it was cool to see the city from so far up!

Reunited

There were so many hard things about leaving Winnipeg, but for my kids leaving the Northcotts was amongst the hardest. It was a happy reunion when they were all together again. Nolan and Greg have hardly been seen as they spend all there time exploring and climbing trees. We finally tracked them down yesterday and suggested going to a movie to which they replied, "why would we go to a movie on such a beautiful day as today".

We're off to go raspberry picking -YUM!

Bone Crusher

We are back. Well actually we were back on Saturday, but the internet has been down since then and this is the first I've been able to share our adventures in Whitefish. I only have a few minutes as I have to go grocery shopping as the Northcotts are due to arrive sometime today and I think it would be good to have food to feed them.

However, I wanted to share this photo. I have wanted to go rafting FOREVER. Every summer as we drove down to Whitefish I'd see the rafters going down the river and my face maybe even my whole body would turn green with envy. This year we finally went and it was so much fun. I was so excited I couldn't stop talking, which caused our guide to take an instant disliking to me and I paid for my chattiness by being pushed into pretty much the coldest water I have ever been in. I had so much fun and can't wait to do it again - minus the kids so we can really have a wild time!

This is my whole family, the only people missing are my parents as they stayed back to watch little Luke.

I'll post more photos and stories at a later date.