Great Big Conroy

I was invited by a good-old high-school chum of mine, to go and watch the Flames/Kings game down at the Saddledome last night. I always enjoy going to the games, but last night was one of the better ones I've been to. The big story of the night was the Flames acquisition of their old Captain, Craig Conroy, who had been playing for the Kings since he left the Flames a couple years ago, right up until the day before last night's game. The first period was pretty uneventful, but the crowd came alive when Conroy himself scored the first goal of the game, early in the second period. The Flames had the lead the rest of the game thanks to some amazing goal tending by Kipper during a 5 on 3, and a few more goals from the Flames, including another one from Conroy, ending the game with a score of 4-1. I'm sure the Kings are chalking this one up to a "staffing error" and someone in HR will hear about it when they get home. It all made for a great time, with the added bonus of catching-up with my old buddy Ryan. I haven't seen him in years, but there's been no deterioration in the joke flow. Thanks again for the big invite Ryan, you've made it into the will.

Police Squad

We had a few good activities with the Youth this past month, including a career night, a gymnasium size board game put on by the Young Women, and some Navy Seal training. Last week we were invited by the Panorama ward Young Men to go down to the Police station and take a tour of the facilities. The first leg of the tour was the K9 unit. The officer showed us all the gear associated with training the animals, and then we got to meet his four-legged thug-tenderizer, and watch a simulated take-down. There are currently 17 active police dogs in Calgary, including the Labs that work at the airport. I'm told they all love kids....for desert!

The next part of the tour was spent with the traffic cops, and all their high-tech gadgetry. This portion was obviously the most boring for the kids, but seemed to stir-up the most questions from the adults in the crowd. The officer had to explain that there was no secret maneuver or specific shape of car that could help you avoid the RADAR guns, or the LASER detectors. We got a tour of the Checkstop bus and a few kids got the Breathalyzer, and we were off to meet the tactical unit.

This portion was the biggest hit with the boys, as every video game these days that doesn't feature a portly Italian plumber, seems to revolve around these types of guys. First they showed us a dated video on the roles, training, equipment, and specialties of the tactical unit, and then we were introduced to several instruments of pain and sorrow that they employ on a routine basis. They showed us their sniper rifles, shotguns, bean-bag ammunition, grenades of various make, body armour, pepper sprays, and the ever popular TASER. Most Police officers I know or have met are pretty serious about their job, but none more serious than the tactical guys, except maybe Robocop, he was all business.

I'm hoping to be able to plan more activities where we get out of the church building, but planning has taken a serious hit the past while due to the absence of leaders. One of my councilors has been out of the country for most of the month, another one's wife just had a baby, and my secretary moved to another ward. I'm running out of fresh ideas and would appreciate any input from any readers.

Links

It's too bad that blogger isn't set up as a pyramid scheme, we could be living the posh life of Amway executives, I'm talking the brass ring. Since we've moved over to this new site, we've assisted in the birth of four new blogs that can all be found in our links section. A couple of them, namely "The Depo" and "Wonderful World", are members only sites, but I invite you to check out "David and Cheryl" which belongs to the Walkers, and "The Wonderful World of Will" which belongs to my sister Heather and the family Williamson. Their business is now your business. You know, the real money-maker in this marketing ploy would be D from "Our Sesame Seed", as he's the one who introduced me to the scheme. Maybe someday we'll be worthy to make it into his links section.

Nursery

Emma got to go to nursery for the first time back on the 7th of January. I brought her in after Sacrament meeting and I stayed for a bit, but I don't think she even noticed me there. I was expecting her to show at least some form of separation anxiety, but she made her way through the toys to the basketball net, and never looked back. I checked in every once in a while during the other meetings and the nursery leader reassured me that Emma was definitely "holding her own" in there and that she could tell that Emma liked things to be "fair". I think that was a very diplomatic way of saying that Emma was trying to take over the place on her first day. When Tammy picked her up after classes let out, Emma was more than enthusiastic about showing Mom all the cool toys they had in there, as well as her picture that she coloured. I'm glad she seems to have taken to it so well, and I hope she continues to enjoy her time there.

Hiding and Seeking

Emma has taken to playing a lot of "hide and go seek" with her Mom and Dad lately. She loves to be the seeker, although sometimes she gets a little nervous looking in closets or dark rooms, but that just shows good instincts. She hasn't yet discovered the advantages that silence gives you when your hiding from someone though. She consistently answers rhetorical questions like "Where could Emma be?" or "I wonder where Emma is?" with responses like "Bed" or "Curtains". If She's hiding in the closet and you try and humour her by pretending to look elsewhere while asking questions like "Is she under the bed?", she'll give you a little hint - "No". Here is a picture of one of her better hiding spots.

Laser Quest

Last weekend, Mike and I were invited to play Laser Quest with Kelly, Dan, and Kimberly. We went out to Earl's for supper first and then headed over to Laser Quest, but unfortunately we were too late to start our scheduled game. We ended up having a bit of time to kill before the next game started, so we played a few arcade games. I wanted to try "Dance Dance Revolution" because it looks like so much fun - when other people are playing it. I once vowed I would never play that game, because I wouldn't want anyone watching me, but there wasn't really anyone else hanging around, so I thought I would give it a try. I did alright, but I felt so awkward since I started at the "beginners" level and it was pretty slow. I definitely have a hard time trying to follow a lead when I'm dancing (Mike agrees) so I know I'll never be able to master that game at any level higher than "beginner". Oh well.

So, anyways, we ended up playing a half-hour game of Laser Quest, and it was so much fun! Mike and I hadn't played it in years, but we didn't do too badly - well, Mike didn't do too badly. He came in 11th out of 25 and I came in 24th. Dan came in 2nd, and he ended up being 3rd place overall for the day! Mike and I met up about half way through the game and decided to join forces, but I think I ended up getting him shot at more times than if I hadn't been there at all. Either way, it was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again soon.

"More Bassaball!"

The Friday before Christmas, (December 22) I had the wonderful opportunity of playing in an alumni basketball game at my old high school in Carstairs. They have an alumni game every year (alumni vs. the current senior high basketball team), but I haven't played for quite a few years, as I assumed that they only wanted younger, fresher players who have been out of school less than 5 years or so. My younger sister Kelly let me know the good news - anyone who wants to play can play! I was so excited to hear that, because my youngest sister, Kimberly is still in high school, so we would be playing against her. All of my other sisters played basketball in high school, but only Kristie, Kelly and I ended up playing, as Amanda couldn't make it out that day and Jodie wasn't feeling well. Boy, was that ever a fun game! One of my best friends from high school, Corrie, also played on the team, along with a few younger girls. I am definitely out of shape, but I played a lot harder than I thought I would be able to. I wasn't nearly as sore the next few days as I should have been - judging on how much my body hurt right after the game. Mike and Emma were there watching of course, and they had a great time, too. Especially Emma - she LOVES "bassaball". My Mom and Dad were there too, along with Jodie's husband Aaron and their two kids, and all of Kristie's kids. Kelly's boyfriend Dan Glenn came too, so we had a decent cheering section. I'm pretty sure the alumni won the first game, but then we split the teams into Olsens and Leavitts, and the Leavitts ended up kicking our butts in the second game.

Mike, Emma and I also had the opportunity to watch a boys high school basketball game this past Friday night with Heather, Tyler and Lucy. Tyler's cousin's team was up from Raymond to play in a tournament at St. Francis High School. It was an intense game. The score was pretty close the whole time and Raymond ended up beating Strathcona by 2 points, after being behind nearly the whole second half. I think Emma had the most fun out of all of us though. She was watching the game almost the whole time, and when they stopped for time-outs, she would yell, "More bassaball, more bassaball!" and wave her little hand in the air. Mike and I got a pretty good laugh. After the game we went down onto the court so Emma could run around with a basketball, and naturally she wanted to stay there all night. Maybe someday I'll be playing her in the Carstairs alumni basketball game.

007

New Years Eve we headed on back to my parents place for the family countdown to 2007. After dinner, my brother an I started a game of Axis and Allies that took us well into the night to finish. I must say, I've never seen a guy so impressed with how well he lost before. The rest of the family played Cranium and other lesser games, and to their credit, seemed to have a lot more fun then we did. It's a long game, especially with two players who don't fully recall the rules. We all took a break to countdown the New year, raise our glasses, and kiss our spouses. Tammy looks forward to that as it's one of her guaranteed smooches of the year.

We stayed the night there and the next day headed to the local hockey rink for a bit of shinny. I'm not much of a skater, so I didn't last long. My brother was decked out in his goalie equipment, so everyone who showed up that day used him for target practice. When a second goalie showed up, sticks were divided up and a game was started. There must have been 30 to 40 people on the ice, ranging from 5 to 65 years old, but it still managed to be a pretty fun game to watch. It lasted about an hour or so, and then we spent a little more time at my parents house before heading home to get ready to face the week of work ahead. No one loves the feeling of a holiday ending, but I'm glad I had one, and I'm glad I got to spend it with my family, winning games.

Christmas 2006

Christmas has come and gone, but not without some much needed vacationing. This year we spent Christmas with the Bourne side of the family over at my parents house. Christmas Eve fell on the Sunday, so we attended our Ward sacrament meeting and then headed over to my parents for Christmas dinner. It's still my favorite meal of the year. After dinner and clean-up we played some games and then headed down to Heritage Park to watch the Nativity Pageant. There was a line like I've never seen there before, but it moved quickly enough. It was a good thing there was a line though, Tammy and I had to head back to the car for a bit to perform an emergency diaper change on Emma. We sat close to the front for the performance and Emma kept yelling "Ride!" every time a donkey or a sheep walked by. After the show, I took her up on the hill to check out the sheep and she really liked their wool, but not their faces. They don't come across as cute as they do in the story books I guess. We spent the rest of the night putting excited kids to bed, wrapping presents, and playing some more games.

Christmas morning came all too early as my brother forgot to turn his alarm clock off before lending us his room for the night. When everyone else was finally up and at 'em, we began the slow burn of opening 4 families worth of presents. After about 2 1/2 hours of gift exchange, we ate a mighty breakfast and spent the remains of the day playing with our newly acquired games and toys. Tammy and I had decided that our new computer and monitor would serve as our Christmas present this year, along with a couple small items, so most of the loot in our little family went to Emma. We almost got talked into staying another night but we decided we should head home so we could get some things done before returning on Boxing day.

Tammy got up early on Boxing day and headed out to the shops with her sister Jodie to do some bargain battling with some of Calgary's worst. She claimed it wasn't that bad, but the scars tell a different story. I went out with my brother after Tammy got home and picked up a new monitor at Futureshop. It was a pretty sweet deal and I've been pretty pleased with the product so far. After all that was taken care of, we spent the rest of the day at my parents again, just hanging out and playing games.

I had to go to work the next day and was supposed to be there the rest of the week, but after spending almost all of Wednesday at my desk with nothing to do, I decided to take the rest of the week off. All of our sub-trades had taken the whole week off, along with most of the office staff, so there was really no point in hanging around, that's what vacation pay is for right? I'm glad I did because it seemed like it had been a long while since I had taken that much time off from anything.

Tammy's parents came by during the week with some gifts for each of us and we had some for them, so we had our gift exchange and then visited for a while. With the combination of parents, grandparents, cousins, and Santa, it's surprising how much one child can get in a week. On Saturday we went to Jodie and Aaron's place for the Olsen Christmas dinner and some rough-housing. I think in the next couple years we're going to have to move that party to the community center if we want to comfortably fit everyone in. Next year we spend Christmas with the Olsen side, and we will hopefully be in Carstairs by then, so it might end up happening at our house. If it does, I think we'll skip the 8 hour meal preparation followed by the 3 hour clean-up and just order in some festive specials from Swiss Chalet.

Cy's Baptism

Our Nephew Cy Ganchar was baptized this past 23rd of December. He is the first grandchild on either side to do so, and we're all very proud of him. Tammy and I were asked to give the opening and closing prayers and my brother Trevor and my Brother-in-law Tyler gave talks. He was baptized by his Father and confirmed a member by his Grandpa Bourne. The ordinances were performed down at the new chapel in Turner Valley and I believe that Cy was the first child of record baptism to take place in that building. We wish him the very best as he begins his spiritual journey and we thank him for his example to the rest of the grandchildren in our family.

Christmas Parties 2006

We held the traditional Bourne Family Christmas party on the 16th at the East Stake center. The event was again hosted by Graham and Leah. All the Calgary chapters of the Bournes and Jones were there as well as some Quists and a couple Spackman's. The Ganchar's couldn't make it due to illnesses, which was a bit of a bummer as they're the only ones with kids old enough (or young enough) to participate in a lot of the planned activities. Another damper on the day was the curtain in the gym being locked, so we could not enjoy the whole nasium for the games of skill. Nevertheless we had our food, folks and fun. As usual, we played the pie plate game for our gift exchange and, of course, had the festive pinata for the kids. After everyone Josh and younger had their chance gently poking and prodding the pinata with the stick, it was my cousin Kimmy, who is 10 and the only child in attendance younger than 16 but older than 2, who finally felled the beast. She nearly killed off half of her ancestors in the process, and she would have done it blindfolded. There was a plan to have one of those inflatable castles that you can bounce around in, but due to the lack of kids, it was cancelled. We ended off the night playing dodge ball and shooting some hoops "Bourne style", which means most shots ended up in the punch bowl. Fun times were had and it was great to see everyone together again.

The Ward Christmas party was held on the 8th up at the Chapel in Panorama. The food was worth the wait, Santa came and Emma got some goodies off him, and a program followed dinner. I believe the theme of the program was Christmas around the world and thus the Young men and their leaders were called upon to sing "Six White Boomers". It's a long song that should be sung with energy, and no one sings long songs with more energy than boys age 12-18, so naturally they were the perfect choice. It's good for them though. On a side note, our Stake was also responsible for the Nativity Pageant down at Heritage Park this year, so a lot of our Ward members were involved on some level in that production, including some of our youth. I always wanted to be in that when I was a kid, but we were a bit busy this year, so maybe another time. This was probably the last Christmas party we'll have in this Ward, as we'll hopefully be in Carstairs by next Christmas. It was fun and we really enjoy the people of Coventry.

As far as the Work Christmas party goes, we had the afternoon of Friday the 22nd off so we could head to the Crossfield Community Center for some beef on a bun and a raffle of prizes donated by all our suppliers and sub-trades. I ended up walking away with a $50 gift certificate to The Keg, which I'm excited about as I've never been there before. I don't know how I'm going to eat $50 worth of steak though. I got a bit of a chuckle out of our gift bags that were handed out as we left. I'm not big on company gift bags as they usually contain some fancy bottle of alcohol, or some specialty coffee, or a bunch of weird cheese. I was pleasantly surprised though, as our bags contained a 2L bottle of CO-OP brand ginger ale, CO-OP brand coffee, CO-OP brand chips, a small jar of Cheese Whiz, and various other items from the local grocery store. It was a nice gesture but I think they should have just spent the money on one nice thing, like plumbing facilities in the office.

Photo Shoot

Tammy and her older sisters believed it would be a great idea to get a portrait taken of all the Grandchildren on the Olsen side for Christmas this year. There's seven of them all together and five of those are under three years old, so you can imagine how well it went. The poor girl who worked there, I think she quit after we left. Anyways, this is the best we got which is surprisingly not that bad. I think of the old days when you had to sit still for a long time while someone took your picture and I wonder how parents did it then. The fact that no one is ever smiling in those pictures might offer some explanation though.

December Mutual Activities

Last month we decided to have combined activities every Thursday for the Young Men and the Young Women, each with a Christmas theme in mind. The first week we played Christmas Carol Pictionary up at the church. The name of the game is to try and draw the title of a selected Christmas Carol and have your team guess it before your opponents do the same. You don't get the full points however, until your team sings the Carol. It was fun and competitive, but I don't think we discovered any future Norman Rockwell's, or Pavarate's for that matter.

Week two we went out to see the Airdrie Festival of Lights. Tammy and Emma came on that one, as did most of the leaders kids. I don't think the youth were as impressed with the Christmas light displays as the youngens were, but there was skating, hot chocolate, singing, and camel rides for all to enjoy. I don't think anyone went on the camel ride though, it was $10 for a once around in a tiny fenced-in area, and I didn't trust the look of him anyways.

Week three we had all the youth bring plates of cookies to the church and we split up into groups and delivered them, with a song, to some of the less active members in our ward. Most weren't home but the ones we caught seemed to appreciate the gesture.

The last week of the month we had our activity on the Friday night down at my second counselor's workplace. There's a huge room upstairs with a large presentation screen that we hooked up an Xbox to, so the kids could play some bishopric approved video games. We ordered a bunch of pizza, had chips and pop, and the Young Women's President brought a birthday cake for everyone who had a birthday for that month, which were quite a few. My first counselor and I spent the whole night playing a rematch game of Risk with a couple of the youth, but as most Risk games go, we didn't have time to really finish it. Needless to say, I would have won. I guess that activity wasn't really a Christmas party so much as it was an end of the year, blow the rest of the budget party.

The Young Men always have great numbers for attendance in our ward, and one of our deacons accepted the challenge to bring out our one less active boy, who's been coming ever since. The young women struggle a lot more, but I think these joint activities have really helped a lot of them gel a bit better with the whole group. The end of the year party saw almost every young woman out, which never happens, so some good did come of it all. I continue to enjoy my calling, as busy as it gets sometimes, and it's been a real pleasure getting to know all the young people in our ward.

Going Public

I've decided that the whole idea of allowing limited access to this site is a bit of a hassle, so I've gone and made the site available to anyone in cyberspace. Most readers from the old site don't even know this site exists yet, but a few bulk e-mails should help clear that up.

The Best of Comments

One of our readers brought up a good point about us losing all the comments that had been left on the old site when we switched to this new one, so I'm going to post up my favorites.

Derek - 10 March 2006 4:35PM

I love your site, it's a real winner! I can only aspire to the standard that you've set!

Derek - 28 May 2006 12:20PM

Once again your site has broken the mold! Top Drawer! Brilliant!

Derek - 19 June 2006 11:23PM

Your site is the reason the Internet was created! All hail the King of Blogs!

Fantastic. We hope that this new site continues to be as popular as the old one, and that the comments continue to flow, so feel free to leave a note whenever you visit.