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.

Saturday Night's Alright For Canning

Tammy and I spent the late hours of Saturday night helping my parents can 65 jars worth of peaches. My family likes peaches. Once canned, they're really only good for about a year, so we're going to have to eat about 5 jars a month to get through our stock, but no one foresees that being an issue. My parents have canned peaches for years, but it was our first time, so we got educated.

Here's an easy to follow, 10 step process for those interested:

1. First you got to get some peaches and some jars in your house. My parents bought 6 boxes of peaches, and that did about 65 jars, so a box will do almost 11 jars.

2. Sterilize your jars in the dishwasher and wash your hands.

3. Pour about 1/2 a cup of hot water in the bottom of each jar, along with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 tsp of Fruit Fresh. Oh yeah, you got to get some Fruit Fresh in your house too. It keeps the peaches from turning brown.

4. Boil your peaches for 2 minutes and then put them strait into a sink full of cold water. Once in the cold water, the peels will just slide off and they're ready to be sliced up. Remember to remove the pits and any other elements of the peach that might look a little suspect.

5. Once the peaches were sliced up, we put them into a bowl of water and Fruit Fresh until the next person could get them into the jars, but you could probably put them strait into the jars if you wanted to.

6. Fill the jars pretty full and then top them up with more hot water until the peaches are completely submerged and the water level is about an inch from the mouth of the jar.

7. The lids come in two pieces: the metal ring, and the disk with the rubber edge. The disks should sit in some warm to hot water for a while. That softens the rubber ring which is going to act as a seal when you finally put the lids on.

8. Put the lids on.

9. Submerge the jars in a canning pot filled with boiling water for about 20 minutes to finish the sealing process. If you hear popping noises from the lids, that's a good sign. The lids should be flat when you remove them from the canning pot, and once they've cooled, you can press on the center of the lid to test the seal. If there is no give in the lid, it's sealed. If it pops up and down, you blew it. That never happens though.

10. Finally, you'll want to store them in a cool dry place an eat 5 jars a month for a year.

It's quite the production actually, but it's fun to do and they taste a lot better then the ones you buy at the store that are floating in syrup. We haven't sampled this batch yet because we're still working on last year's harvest, and also because my Mom doesn't like anyone to eat them for a month so she can enjoy looking at 65 jars of peaches on the shelf in the basement. I guess we'll be eating 6 jars a month for a year.

The Family Circus

Heather and Tyler highly recommended going down to the Currie Barracks to check out Cirque Du Soleil after they took in a show last week, but after checking into how much the tickets cost, and then checking my empty wallet, we decided we probably shouldn't go. Fortunately, Heather forwarded us an email the next day that was advertising tickets that were 50% off for the Friday afternoon show, so we changed our minds and went. We brought Emma with us, and Gramma and Grampa Bourne brought Cy and Jilly, and Heather was nice enough to watch Ashley for the few hours we were gone.

We thought we had left with plenty of time to spare, but we got caught in a horrible traffic jam just outside the barracks, and it took us over a half an hour to get from the exit off of Crowchild Trail to the parking lot. We missed the first little bit of the show, but Gramma, Cy, and Jilly were already there and they told us we didn't really miss anything spectacular.

The rest of the show was indeed spectacular, and we're really glad we went. We had an excellent view from our seats, but looking around, I don't think there was really a bad seat in the house. It's hard to say what the best part was, because each act was just as good as any other. I think Emma's favorite was the little person they had suspended from a bunch of huge balloons that went bouncing through the crowd like a beach ball at a football game. She also liked the trampoline act and was clapping with both her hands and her feet when they were performing.

Some of the other acts included jugglers, some guys who rolled around in giant hula hoops, guys doing flips on a teeter-totter, a guy doing tricks on a ladder, contortionists, dancers, a couple swinging around from some straps, a unicycle riding high wire hula hooper, and a bunch of tumblers doing tricks on the parallel bars. There was probably more, but you have to see it to appreciate it anyways. I think all of the Bourne side of the family ended up going at one point or another, and the Masons went to the same show we did, but we didn't run into them at all. They probably just blended in with the rest of the carnies.

I'd love to go again the next time they're in town, even if we don't get the half price tickets, and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of francophonic acrobatics.

Show Me That Smile Again

It's almost impossible to get a picture of Emma where she's just standing there smiling these days. You're more likely to get a shot of her running away from the camera, or a shot of some blonde, blurry form racing towards the camera, than anything. When she does stand still for a picture, it's usually because she wants to display some goofy face she's been working on. Once in a while we'll end up with some pretty hilarious pictures, but most times, we're just wearing out the delete button on our camera.

The latest occasion was when we went down to Bowness Park to get together with a large group of West Stake youth alumni of mid 1990's vintage. I took Emma down by the river to get a nice scenic picture of her throwing rocks into the water or something, and after about 30 shots, this is the only one I could keep. As you can see, it was getting dark by the time we were able to get this one.

I neglected to get a group shot of everyone who came down to the park, but here's one of Emma and Ashley having a swing. It was Ashley's first time in a swing, and she sure liked it. Emma had just recovered from an accident on the teeter-totter when this was taken, so she wasn't that into it.

Emma may grow out of this goofy picture stage, and she may not, it's no big deal. I don't think I did until the day Tammy and I got married, and that's only because we invited too many ladies we know who are not above beating someone to death for ruining a picture.