A sad day in hockey...

I can't believe the Oilers traded Ryan Smyth. Tomas is shocked. I am speechless. We're in mourning. AND on the day when the Oilers are retiring Mark Messier's #11.

Did I mention that I sat next to Ryan Smyth on the plane? Yes, 3 years ago Tomas, Toria & I flew from Regina to Edmonton. Ryan and his wife, Stacey, and daughter Isabella (age 6 months) were next to us. They laughed at me as I was letting Toria (age 12 months) cover me (and the airplane) with stickers in an effort to keep her happy on the plane. I told them in 6 months that Isabella would be doing the same thing. We laughed and smiled at our kids.

AND NOW HE'S GOING TO NEW YORK!

Toria made lunch today.

Chocolate milk (they don't make chocolate milk organically - no brown cows) for her and a Coke for me (yeah, yeah, I know I just wrote about organics. give my lunchtime coke a break).
3 kinds of cereal, all mixed in a bowl.
Topped with 3 yogurts in her bowl and 3 yogurts in my bowl (hidden behind cereal boxes). Look at that face.

Organic bru-ha-ha

It must be something in the water out here but I'm becoming more and more 'organic'. This may shock many of you who know that I still like Alphagetti. And if we must be honest - is anything natural in Alphagetti or if it is just chemically-engineered 'food'?

Anyway, I decided we were going to stop drinking milk from hormone-injected cows and drink organic milk.

How can it possibly be that milk cows - whose owners don't need to pay for hormone injections - costs TWICE as much as milk from hormonal cows? Is it possible that hormonal cows produce twice as much milk? In which case - they've got to have as much chemical in them as Alphagetti.

As an aside: check out this great recycling/shopping website: http://eco-handbags.ca/

Published author, Award-winning Photographer

I received this email today.

Congratulations your photo of daughter & dad won 3rd place in the Island RV Guide photo contest and you have won a $25 parts Gift Certificate valid at any Arbutus RV & Marine. Also thank you for the great article that you submitted for the RV Guide which I will also be sending you a $50. parts certificate.

I haven't seen the article yet but am supposed to receive a copy when I get my $75 RV parts certificates! I'll try and post a copy when it comes for all of you to read and admire.

Toria's brain on overdrive

I was telling the kids the nursery rhyme: "Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet eating her .... " (well, you know it.)

Anyway, I finish and Toria says "Here's my rhyme:

Once upon a time there was a big flat snowman
Along came a bunny looking for his lunch
And what do you supppoooossseeee ('suppose' drawn out)
the hungry little bunny ate?
The snowman's carrot nose.
Munch. Munch. Crunch!

I was so shocked I asked her to repeat it and she did exactly as she had the first time.

[I asked her Jr. K. teachers if they knew this nursery rhyme and maybe had taught it to her. They said they only had a story that ended with something like Munch Munch Crunch but that was it.]

Oilers artwork.

Check out Tomas' awesome recreation of his 'Oilers look'. At school they were celebrating winter and they had to wear winter gear and then make a picture of what they thought they looked like. Tomas did really good. He thinks he messed up the puck on the jacket front but I think he did great - he even got the letters on the arm.

His favourite socks are also looking a little sad. If the kind person (AW) who game him his original pair happened to find a cheap pair of Oilers socks and wanted to bring them in March that would be appreciated and I can reimburse.

Speaking of hockey - his grandparents may be interested to hear this story:
Tomas was looking at his hockey cards and I asked him to go and was his hands for supper. He said to me "just a minute mom. I'm working on a compilation of cards".



This is from Tomas' "girlfriend". Yep, that's what my 6-year-old son calls this girl! Oh my oh my oh my oh my i am having a very hard time with this. (Of course - he is such a man. He said "but she just drew a flower not a car"). Yep, that's my boy!

I'm BaaaAAAck & Perry Penquin

Nope. No exotic vacation. Just a husband on vacation. He was home and we had to share the computer so my blogging got dropped... I had to use my computer time to keep an eye on frugalshopper.com, oprah.com and of course, I had to get my news fix from msnbc.com (Does anyone actually watch TV news anymore? By the time we get the CBC nightly news it is already 4 hours old and quite frankly, it is yesterdays news).

And does anyone actually read this? I know 5 that do; MH (Can't wait to hear about Mexico!), SR (I check your blog daily), LD/G (did you change your last name?), and KD (thanks for the Christmas card- the kids are sooo cute) - I do not know who else reads it. I think my dad does and my mom may once in a while. Anyone else????

Moving along- in Tomas' class they are studying penguins. And they have Perry the Penguin (stuffed animal). Each child gets to take a turn bringing Perry home for the night. We were lucky enough to get him for a weekend and here is what Perry did:
Watched hockey.

Had a snack. No fish here.

Who doesn't love watching Saturday morning cartoons?

Hockey Night in Canada. Go Oilers Go.

Getting a ride around the driveway in the wagon.

Off to Mattick's Farm for a bike ride.

Perry even helped Tomas with his Penguin homework.

That was a great weekend. Good Night.


By the way. Tomas learned that there are 17 kinds of penguins and they all live in the Southern Hemisphere. He got to thinking and told his teacher she was wrong there are actually 18 types of penguins. She said "Tomas, look at the chart and count the types".

Tomas looked at her and said "What about the Pittsburgh Penguins?"

Activities Galore

Tomas & Toria are currently taking skating lessons on Wednesday nights. Please note Tomas' helmet is his bike helmet. As is almost every other kids' - they allow that. In Edmonton you could not even look at the ice unless you had a proper CSA approved hockey helmet.
Tomas' hockey helmet from last year (despite being adjustable) doesn't fit. It turns out that it was adjusted all the way out when we bought it last year. Thanks Canadian Tire. You adjusted it just like I asked - did you think maybe you should've suggested we buy a bigger size and adjust down????








Tomas started ROCK CLIMBING today. It is a program offered through the school-based occupational and physical therapists and then held at a nearby high school. Tomas will go for six weeks. Look at him go!






And as if Rock Climbing wasn't enough for a Thursday - we dash home - eat whatever microwave dinner can be cooked in less than 3 minutes and head to Beavers. They've started a theme of 'Cars' for the month of February. Now you're speaking Tomas' language.... (Tonight they built box cars and drove around learning hand signals).





And I (AKA City Girl) found humour in this sign posted at the nearby high school.

After school

Here's what we did today after school.

Tomas decided that he'd played outside enough today between 2 outdoor recesses and outdoor gym class. He headed inside for a game of Hotwheels.com. Judging from his smiling face I'd say he's winning.

Toria played in the 'creek' behind the house. She filled up her buckets then carried them over to the flowers to water them. She even said "Hello" to the visiting deers (on the other side of the creek). [fyi. During a rain storm the manhole cover can be completely covered by the creek].

The weekend.

Why does the littlest person need the most room? We had such a fun day yesterday I told the kids we could have a sleepover (no room for me though!)------------------------

Welcome Wagon came to visit me this weekend AND they brought freebies so that was great! There were 2 groceries stores who 'donated' to the Welcome Wagon package. One (Thrifty's) gave a grocery list note pad and a $5 off coupon. The second (Country Grocer) gave a box of digestive cookies. OK. Seriously. Does ANYONE EAT THESE???

Other free stuff included 2 dental floss cards, 2 pens, 1 micro/mini/super tiny bit of blush from Mary Kay, and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (no idea who donated that but I think it is the best freebie)

The Past Week.

Hi, I created a big long post last night and then during Bloggers 'free' upgrade it lost my post and now I forget what wit and wisdom I was sharing yesterday. In the meantime - check out the flowers I got. Todd's work sent them to me because they know I'm bitter that he is away for 10 days. They thanked me for letting them 'borrow' Todd!
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In other news, Tomas went with his Beavers group to the Victoria Salmon Kings hockey game last night. He got home around 10pm and was so excited (the Salmon Kings won 5 - 3 against the Idaho Steelheads) that I could tell he wouldn't sleep and we hung out in the kitchen until 10:30. Tomas said he was so excited that he was going to stay up until midnight. I told him this was OK as long as he laid on his bed with his eyes closed.

He fell asleep around 11.

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While he was out Toria and I had another mom and her daughter over for a Girls Night In. We ordered pizza then the moms painted the girls fingernails and toenails (bright red, of course!). Toria and her friend, Devon, tried to watch the Little Mermaid movie but that only lasted for about 2 minutes before they decided they'd have more fun dressing up... [We are so happy that Toria found another girl to play with - that's been the weak-link to the move. No little girl friends yet. Unfortunately, Devon lives quite far away and we don't get a chance to see them very often but when we do get together - what fun!! (by the way, Toria is 6 months older then Devon- so much for Toria growing)].

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Last week I drove to Swan Lake (5 minute drive) for Tomas' class field trip. Check out this picture. That is Toria - front and center - learning about raccoons. Tomas is the one with the blue/red/gray toque on because we acclimatize quickly and even when it is +4 we're a little chilly.

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Edmonton Friends: Check out Tomas' Oilers Jacket. I bought it at an end-of-season consignment store sale last year and Tomas LOVES that jacket. He wears it nearly every day. He is still a huge Oilers fan. (Although some punk 6-year-old kid told him that the Oilers were losers because they lost to the Canucks on Thursday night but that's a whole other story).

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And because I am a super mom, I went on the Beaver Geocaching hike today UP Mt. Doug with BOTH of my children. Did I mention it was RAINing. Tomas is the one on the far right with the yellow slicker (eating his treasure chest candy) and Toria is in the front on the left-hand side with the pink boot. And I'm the one in the middle trying not to fall into the crevasse (with the red hat).

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