Back To The Old Drawing Board

I guess I'm in one of the only professions that gets to use that expression in it's literal sense. And make no mistake, I do use it, several times a day. My other favorite thing to say when I walk into the office is "Hey, is there a draft in here?". Classic.

So I'm back in the workforce as of two weeks ago, at Modus Structures. On one hand I'm glad to be using my skills again, but on the other hand, I miss hanging out with the girls. It seems like Ashley's grown so much in the past two weeks. I wasn't planning on going back to Modus, but they've made some good changes there in the months that I've been gone, so I'm giving it another shot. There's still a lot that needs to change in the Engineering and Design department especially, but hopefully I can be somewhat instrumental in that process.

The biggest change is the addition of our shiny new office in Airdrie, as opposed to the barn that we used to work out of in Crossfield. This one has heat, indoor plumbing, and I'm pretty sure it's up to current building codes. It's also right down the street from my Dad's office, so we've been carpooling the days he gets out of bed in time.

Although working at Modus isn't my dream job, they've got potential, and so far they seem to be relatively untouched by the current economic downturn that has affected the job market in our industry. They've also been very flexible with our family during the events of the past year, and I feel I owe them for that. I figure I'll give them until our next child is born to get things to where they should be in our department, and if nothing changes, well then we'll have to re-evaluate.

You have to draw the line somewhere right? I've got hundreds of these.

The Big Snip

Here is a shot of the bird's nest that once made a home on our sweet baby's head. It was a tangled mess that could not be controlled by conventional hair styling techniques, and therefore had to go. Tammy and I both agreed on this point, and had for some time, yet we never found ourselves making time to deal with it for one reason or another. Then one fateful evening, while Tammy was at Young Women's and I was home with the girls, I decided to try my hand at baby barbering and tidy up the mess that lived above Ashley's cute little ears. Let the clips fall where they may. Here is the result:

I've been cutting my own hair for years now, but I hardly ever use scissors, so I got out my trusty clippers and a number 8 attachment and started in. I had set Ashley in her high chair in the bathroom, and I fully expected to have to keep her in a headlock the entire time, but she did great and actually really enjoyed the whole thing. I probably went a little shorter than I originally intended, but that's just how it turned out, and I think it looks and feels a lot better.

In hindsight, I really should have waited for Tammy to come home so she could be a part of it. She was pretty traumatized by the sight of her now unfamiliar looking baby, but she's since come around, and we're all happy with Ashley's clean cut image. I saved all the hair I could so Tammy could go through it and keep the bits that looked the nicest. Here's the final shot of what came off:

It's already starting to grow back again, but hopefully a little more evenly this time. I don't think I would survive if I cut it again.

Ladies Night

While the boys in the family were attending the Priesthood session of General Conference last month, the girls went down to the church bookstore for a ladies night that the bookstore puts on during every General Priesthood session. Someone was there taking free portrait pictures, so Tammy and Gramma Bourne both took their turns posing with the goonies.

They managed to capture some pretty cute smiles from Ashley, but Emma suddenly felt very ill when they got there, so she wasn't really in the mood. The girls didn't stay there long because Emma was feeling so poorly, so instead they came home and watched a movie. Not much of a story I guess, I just wanted to post the pictures.

Is This What You See?

I've been fiddling around with the HTML in my template in an attempt to try and customize the look of our blog. I don't really know anything about HTML, but I'm just kinda hacking my way through it. I'm just curious as to how our page looks on other computers. We have a wide screen monitor and I've set the resolution to 1680 x 1050, which makes our home page look like the image above. I'm sure not everyone has the same monitor settings as we do, so let me know if it appears differently on your computer (by "differently" I mean does the image get completely covered up by the text boxes, etc.). While you're at it, let me know if there's a way to arrange it so it appears the same way on all monitors, or maybe just the 4 monitors of those who read this blog. Thanks.

The Family That Melts Together

The snowfall before the one we got last night left enough of the white stuff in the back yard for Emma to construct an entire family of snowfolk. From left to right we have Dad, Mom, Ben (the dog), Emma, Ashley, Grampa, and Gramma. For the few days they lasted, it was fun to see the happy line-up staring up at us from the backyard as we went about our business. It did become a little disconcerting when one day they appeared to be about two feet closer to the house than they were the day before, but luckily they melted away before they could advance much further. The snowman representing Emma caused us the most concern when no matter how far its melting body leaned to the side, it just wouldn't die.

As soon as Emma notices snow on the ground in the morning, it automatically means it's time to get outside and make something with it. She'd go out there in her pajamas if we didn't make her get dressed and have some breakfast first. I'm sure we'll be out there today making a whole new batch of snowgoons. They'll be built down by the fence of course, in case they survive a little longer than the last bunch.

Postponed Again

We were supposed to leave for Edmonton today for Ashley's surgery, but the operation has been rescheduled again due to her having another cold. It seems she always has a cold lately. I don't know if it's because she's teething or if it's due to the high amount of people and traffic that we have in the home, but it's been really hard to keep her healthy lately. It's causing a lot of sleep loss for Tammy and I as well, so it's becoming doubly frustrating. We have no word on when the surgery will be as of yet, but we're hopeful that it will be soon. We're going to schedule another appointment with the cardiologist either way. I'm out of parental leave as of last week, but I wasn't planning on going back to work until after we got back from Edmonton. I'll probably be starting up again next week back at Modus. We're pretty down about the whole thing, but we're trying to keep the hope that maybe this is all part of a plan to give her heart time to heal on it's own, making the most invasive and worrisome part of the surgery unnecessary.

We appreciate all the prayers folks have said on her behalf, and if you find the time, please take a moment to have another special prayer just for her. Thanks.

Halloween 2008

This Halloween was probably the most highly anticipated event in Emma's life so far. She's spread the hype about it since September, and was not disappointed in how it turned out. The decorations went up very early in the month and they served as constant reminders to Emma that the night of the great candy grab was soon to come. Ashley on the other hand, just wanted to eat mushed bananas and be with her Mom. I'm sure she'll learn.

The first festering festivity of the season was a Halloween party at Jocelyn's house. Jocelyn is cousin Madison's cousin, and her Dad and I served in the same mission together. They made masks, played spooky games, and ate orange foods. Emma owned the beanbag toss from what I hear. The next ghastly get-together was the tri-ward Trunk or Treat at the Stake Center. I was out home teaching that night, and Tammy and the girls showed up a little bit late (What? No....), so there's actually not much to report on that event. At least Emma had fun dressing up and got some candy out of it.

That brings us to Halloween itself. The big story on that night for the parents will probably be the weather. It was unreal how warm it was. I'd probably go as far as to say it was the warmest Halloween I've ever experienced. We went with the Williamsons around the loop that Gramma and Grampa Bourne's house is on, and it turned out to be just enough houses to tire out the kids. They all had fun and they all got enough candy to last us until New Years. I say us because Emma really just likes the suckers. Luckily we have 6 adults living in the house right now to help polish it all off.

Alison and her kids came up for the weekend that night as well, and after all the wee ones had gone to bed, we finished off the evening by watching the Sixth Sense. It's about the scariest movie you can watch around my sister's without ending up with one of them sleeping in my parents room with the light on all night.

Well I think that about covers the whole darn thing except for this Far Side comic. Happy Halloween!

The First Snowman Of The Season

We got a little snow in the middle of the month, and you can't let that stuff go to waste, so Tammy and Emma got out there early and fashioned themselves a little snowman. He's long gone now, but he was a happy little guy while he lasted. Not only did Emma help in his construction, but she also took this picture. What talent!

Our Park At The Nexus Of The Universe

A couple of Thursdays ago, after a trip to the drop-in gym at Cardel Place, Tammy took the goblins to "Our Park" by our old house. It's one of Emma's favorite places to go, so we try and stop by there every time we're in the neighbourhood. Tammy took a few cute pictures that deserve display, so here they be:

This baby loves the swings!

Emma's not quite ready to give underducks yet, but she can still get Ashley going pretty good with regular pushes. Probably a little too good for Ashley's comfort here.

It's fun to play with rocks, even if your baby sister tries to eat them.

"Hey Mom! Mom! Mom look! Look Mom! Mom! Mommy! Look Mom! Look at me Mom! Look at me! Loooooook! Are you looking? Mom watch this! Watch me Mom! Mom watch! Waaaaatch! Mommy! Mooooom!"

Back to the first picture. After I saw it, I remembered a similar picture we have of Emma at that same park. Turns out they're about the exact same age in each picture, and they're both wearing the same pants and shoes. I'm pretty sure it has some kind of adorable cosmic significance.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I just wanted to make a quick note about this years Thanksgiving weekend. The dudes and I spent Saturday drywalling the basement (a work that is still in progress), Sunday we ate turkey with the Olsen side of the family over at the Mason's, and Monday the dudes and I drywalled again, and then ate turkey with the Bourne side of the family. My Dad celebrated his 57th B-Day that weekend (the same day Ashley turned 8 months old), Ben celebrated his 9th B-Day, and Jodie announced she is expecting Her and Aaron's third baby sometime next summer.

Another Zoo Trip

We made another trip back to the Zoo at the beginning of the month in an effort to try and spot something a little more interesting than the "Who's The Boss" van. It turned out to be a great day for Zooing. The weather was beautiful, there was hardly another soul in the place, and most of the animals were up and posing. We got a few good pictures, so I thought I'd post them up here.

This tiger kept eyeing Emma, so she kept her distance everytime he would approach the glass. This was the closest shot we could get of the two of them together. A tiger's bright orange and white coat doesn't camoflage them all that well in the jungles of India and Southeast Asia, but they're almost invisible in a bowl of Frosted Flakes.

This hippo picture was probably the best shot of the day. I had to climb up onto the enclosure a bit to get it, but luckily there was a "No Climbing" sign I could hold on to in order to steady myself.

The giraffes are always great because they're hard to miss. Even little babies like Ashley will notice them over other animals you may spend 10 miutes pointing through the glass at. I noticed this time that whenever any of the animals see someone in a Zoo uniform walking by, they become a lot more animated as they probably suppose it's feeding time. I'm going to try and get my hands on a zookeepers outfit for our next trip, and see if the animals respond. It's also just a good idea to have a zookeepers outfit on hand.

Buh-Bye Zoo!

Corn Maze

Both Heather and Erica have made posts about this trip already on their blogs, and as I didn't go, I'll leave the details to them, and I'll just post up some pictures. Tammy took both the girls while I helped drywall my parents basement. I heard it was cold, but that they had a great time.

This is the maze part of the Calgary Corn Maze. I guess the corn is usually a lot higher, but a wind storm cut it all down the week before. If the movie "Signs" taught us anything, it's that you shouldn't go poking around in corn anyways, so it's probably just as well.

It was too cold and windy for the goblin, so she stayed bundled up in her stroller most of the time. Emma is usually unaffected by the cold, so she kept a good pace, leaving her Mom and sister behind. Good thing for that short corn so Mom could keep an eye on her.

They have a little petting zoo there too, and Emma enjoyed that. All the animals seemed to be at the right scale for her, so she was able to mingle without fear.

I don't do well with chickens, but Emma got along fine and gave them a good chase. I sometimes wonder at what age children make the connection between the animals at a petting zoo, and what's on their plate at supper time.

I have no information on this contraption, but it looks like fun.

I'm glad Malauney organized this outing because I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. I think they're planning on doing it again next year, but maybe a bit earlier in the season so that it's not so chilly.

Wal-Mart Photos

Tammy took the kids into the Wal-Mart Photo Studio a few weeks ago, and these are the results. Not bad for a $5 deal, but with kids that cute, how can you go wrong?

85 Days

Bishop Takahashi recently challenged the members of the 3rd Ward to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days - the same amount of time it took to translate it. It works out to be an average of about 6 or 7 pages a day if you're consistent. We weren't as consistent as we would have liked, so near the end we were sometimes reading over 30 pages a day. We did finish it in time though, even though it meant reading half of the book in the last week or so of the challenge.

We've seen a lot of blessings come into our life over the course of those 85 days, not to mention an increase in spirituality and a greater understanding of the book itself. Our goal now is to finish it again before the year is up, so we may have a busy New Years Eve if it turns out that we haven't learned our lesson from last time. It's really just a matter of deciding to do it I think, and it's just as easy as deciding not to do it. I'd like to get back in the habit of reading it for a half an hour a day. At that rate, we can finish it in under 2 months, and possibly get through the book 6 or 7 times a year.

A Temple For Calgary

One of the highlights of the recent General Conference for folks around here, was the announcement of a Temple to be built in our home town of Calgary. You can watch the video here. In this additional article on lds.org, it states that details on the exact location and design of the Temple are not yet available, but since then they've released this article which confirms that it will be built in the NW, adjacent to the Royal Oak Chapel. I stole the aerial map from yet another article on the LDS Church Temples website, which makes mention of how both the Stoney Trail ring road and the Tuscany/Royal Oak LRT station are scheduled to be operational by the time the Temple is completed in 3 years, providing greater access to it from all over the city. You can see more pictures of the building site here. I think I'm done for links now by the way.

As far as design goes, it probably won't be like any other temple in Alberta. They've traded the look of the "mini-temples" like the one in Edmonton, for a new style like the one shown above (possibly the Twin Falls, Idaho Temple?). The footprint is about the same (about 10 700 square feet) but they're two storey buildings now, so they're closer to 19,000 square feet. This is also the style of the one currently being built in Vancouver as well.

I don't know if we'll even be living in Calgary by the time it's completed, but it's only going to be about a 5-10 minute drive from my parents house, so I'm sure we'll still enjoy the benefits of it being so close to their home. We're all very excited about it either way. I've been tossing around the idea of trying to get a job with whichever architectural firm is handling the project, because I think it would be great to be involved somehow, but I haven't heard anything about who that will be. If anyone hears, let me know.

Enjoy The Fall

Here's some colourful photos of a trip Emma and I made down to Bowness park some weeks ago. It's a really beautiful place in the fall, and quiet too. We made a few trips down there when the weather was still on the warmer side, but we only remembered the camera once. Our original plan was to rent a canoe or a paddle boat, but the rental place was closed every time we went, so we'll have to do it next year for sure.

We brought some bread crumbs to feed the ducks and geese, which was a lot of fun, and it was only when our supply had run out that we noticed the huge sign that read "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE". Oops. Well at least we weren't trying to catch them like this other lady was. We fed them again another time with Lucy and Max, and no one got arrested, so maybe it's not such a big deal.

It's funny to watch as both the kids and the birds start to get braver and braver, and they start to get closer and closer to each other. There comes a point when you have to break it up though, before your daughter is crying face down in the dirt with a goose on her back biting at her hair. We unfortunately didn't recognize that point until it was too late. You'd be surprised what a goose can do when it gets all fired up. You'd also be surprised how far you can throw one that's attacking your daughter when you grab it by the neck and spin it over your head a couple of times. I'm kidding of course, no one got attacked and no goose was thrown, but I'm sure there is potential for such a thing to happen, and that's probably the reason for the sign. If it did happen though, I'm pretty sure Emma could send a goose to the hurt locker if she had to. I've taught her that much at least.

We always make time to play at one or more of the playgrounds when we're there, and then we head down to the rivers edge to skip rocks and sink enemy tree branches that are floating by. It's great fun and it makes me wish we could build a house down there and enjoy it every day, and by "build a house" I mean "live in a van".

Emma loves playing in the leaves and collecting the especially nice looking ones to give to those she loves. We've built up quite the collection that is currently on display on the floor of our car in front of her seat. The wind's taken most of the ones around here away, but for a while there, she was in leaf heaven.

She and I stopped to play at a park on our way to pick up Auntie Sam from work one time, and we found a huge pile of leaves that someone had swept together. It was a gold mine! After I checked it for hobos, I spent the better part of an hour tossing her into it and watching her run from a quarter mile away to jump onto it. When she got tired of running and jumping, she sat in the leaves and had me grab as big an armful as I could of them, and throw it in the air high above her so they would all fall down around her. I love to see her smile and hear her laugh, but I knew I would be an old man before she got tired of that game, so after a couple dozen tosses, we decided to get home before supper was colder than we were.

Autumn is just about done I'd wager, but Emma is just as excited for winter to come as she was for fall, so that we can get out in the yard and make some more snow sculptures. I'm excited for that too, but I don't feel like I've even had closure on summer yet.

Deals on Wheels

This is a bit of old news, but we found another Hilux on the internets a few months ago, and it had a lot more going for it in the features department than ours did, so we bought it with the intention of selling our original one. Our original one had better wheels on it than the new one did, so I swapped them over and then put the original one up for sale on said internets. We had a lot of interested people coming around, but only to kick tires as it turned out, so after a couple months of that, it became expedient that we come up with a new plan.

The new plan was this: Trade it in at a dealership for something that would be easier to sell. Brilliant right? I did some investigating and we soon found ourselves at Kramer Mazda looking at some slightly used Mazda 3 Sports. The folks at Kramer were overstocked on used vehicles at the time, and had many of them on clearance, so we were hoping to take full advantage of that.

It's important not to go into a car dealership without a plan of attack. They have many cunning devices for getting money out of your pocket and into their hands. They'll always tell you they have someone else coming to look at the very vehicle you are looking at later that day, and they'll always have to clear everything with some unseen manager in the back. This manager is always painted as a most cruel taskmaster who is not above torturing his employees if they approach him with an offer that is substandard. I find the best way to combat these devices is to spend a whole afternoon with one salesman. The more of his time you eat up, the more valuable you become. Other customers have come and gone while he's been with you, and he doesn't want to have spent all that time on you and not get a sale out of it. If you spend half a day with a guy and then act like you're losing interest at the end, you'll be surprised what kind of deals come your way.

Our basic strategy this time around was to get a vehicle that's about 2 years old and then sell it when it gets to be about 4 years old. By the time it's 2 years old, the initial depreciation is gone, and if we can keep it in good condition, and keep the kms low, it shouldn't depreciate that much over the 2 or so years that we own it. I'm sure it will, but not as much as those first two years if we bought brand new. We also wanted to get one that has low kms on it to begin with, and that came fully loaded with features, so that it will be easier to sell when the time comes.

We thought we had found the one we were going to get, a Mazda 3 Sport GT, but then we found another Mazda 3 Sport GT that had the luxury package and about 20 000 less kms on it, for only $1600 more, so we went with that one. The combination of the dealership being over stocked, and us spending the better part of the day with the salesman (which included about an hour of strait haggling), led to a pretty good deal in the end. Of course he had to clear it with his manager first, and he came back wiping away his tears and limping, but it was miraculously approved, thanks to his heroic efforts.

The new Mazda is by far the nicest car we've owned, and we're all pretty happy with it. It may be harder to part with in a year and half as we've planned, but we'll see I guess. We really like our newer Hilux too, but we may try and sell that and become a one car family again sometime soon. We're not desperate to do it though, and It's nice to have something that can cart a bunch of stuff around, so we'd only sell it if the right offer came in. See, we're no longer over stocked on Hilux's, and my manager, although she's pretty, will indeed torture me if I sell it for too little.

City Wide Food Drive

Here's the link to the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank website which features an article on the world record breaking food drive effort put on by the church last week. Emma and Ashley helped Tammy and I deliver the flyers for our route earlier in the week, and then Trevor and Becca helped me pick up the foods on Saturday. The weather was beautiful for it on both days and we had a lot of fun doing it. I'm glad we could be a part of helping out the hungry and that it was such a big success.

Welcome Back

Our ward (3rd ward) has changed venues from the Bow Valley Chapel to the West Stake Center as of last week. The change came because there were only two wards meeting at the WSC, where there were 3 wards and the Bow River Branch meeting at the BVC. It's a bit of a throw back for me because we've taken over the old 17th ward Bishop's office, and I spent a lot of time in there on Sundays as a youth in Priest's Quorum. It seems a lot smaller than I remember, and I can't believe we used to fit some 20 Priests in there every Sunday, but I guess we were all a lot skinnier back then.

The first Tuesday after we were officially moved in, we attended the Tri-Ward Corn Bust at the WSC put on by the Rockyview ward. The corn was freshly picked that morning and was sweet and delicious. The event was so well attended that it had organizers a little worried about how crazy the Country Fair Spectacular was going to be that coming Friday when the rest of the Stake would be there too.

I didn't see first hand how crazy the Fair was, but I heard reports that it was a big success. I was sick with the flu that day (still am), but Tammy took the kids and they had a great time. It was pretty rainy out that night, so I think some of the outdoor activities might have been cancelled, but most of them just got moved inside with the rest of the food, folks, and fun. I wish I could have gone, even just for the food, but also because I remember those things being a lot of fun when I was a kid, and I would have liked to see Emma trying her hand at all the games. I would have also remembered to bring the camera - zing! I was feeling poorly all weekend, so I also missed all of Stake Conference too. I heard it was a good one though.

With a Corn Bust, a Country Fair, and a Conference all within the first week of us being back at the WSC, we feel adequately acclimatized to our new surroundings. I think the only thing left to do is make a trip up to Excelsior to eat chips and listen to EFY music.

Tiny Dancer

I guess I've gone from '80's sitcom themes to Elton John songs for post titles. There's just no good lines about dancing in the "Webster" theme song. Emma started her Ballet and Tap Dancing class this past Tuesday along with her cousins Kaylie and Madison. It runs until June at which time the class will put on a recital for parents and families. I didn't think it would be her type of thing initially, as she's a little on the tom-boyish side, but she's been super excited about the whole concept ever since we mentioned it to her, so what do I know? She's been doing goofy dances around the house ever since we watched "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" a couple of weeks ago, so it will be good for her to put some technique behind her energy. I think she could really use the structure of a scheduled class right now too, and she loves spending any time she can with her cousins, so if you couple that with how pretty she looks in her ballet outfit, it's the perfect storm of toddler fandangos.