Bike riding

Our boys love little other than being on their bikes from the time their heads come off the pillow in the morning until we are dragging them in at bedtime.
I love bike riding season aswell, it just feels like I spend a LOT of it fixing bikes. This summer our goal is for Shel and I to join these little expeditions.

A few years ago when the farmer whose fields surround our house took down all the trees, he moved some grain bins onto our property. He asked if he could and told us he was selling them and they would be taken away. He did sell them. They were removed. Left behind however were four large cement pads which initially was a huge frustration to us but has since turned into quite an adventure for the boys.

 

I cannot BELIEVE how tall my oldest boy is getting. He has the most adorable smile.

When a tree falls in the forest. I mean, yard.

It seems like one week we are under a snowfall warning, then the next week we are under flood watch. Most recently we have had wind like you wouldn't believe.
The trees around our house have taken a beating. We have SO much yard work to do it is a bit overwhelming and when the healthy trees come down in the wind it is a big discouragement. THANKFULLY the tree fell at an angle or it would have taken out part of the roof.

Soccer season

Last year was the first year I had kids in soccer. I volunteered to coach the under six team. This year the minor soccer association in our town was in danger of folding and a desperate plea went out to ask for volunteers. I helped with three of the four registrations, volunteered to coach under six again and somehow ended up vice president of the minor soccer association. WOW.

Soccer was scheduled to start on Tuesday night. On Monday the president sent me a text message to say she was not going to be able to attend and was going to drop everything off to me on Tuesday at work.

She came and gave me all of the lists for each of the coaches of the kids on each team. (I think the coaches NEED to have this info before the night they are showing up the first night to coach but maybe that's for me to work on for next near?!)

I went early to the first field where the under four and under six teams start. I put up colours on each goal post and then I hung up lists in the same colours on the fence for people to see. If their kids name was on a yellow sheet they went to the yellow goal etc. It was MUCH better than last year when all 100 plus kids showed up and went from field to field to see if their kid was on that pitch.

Last year I started to practise right away and so parents who saw I was actually playing with kids already all just came and put their kid on my field and I had a WHACK of kids that were not mine for the first few weeks. At least THAT was an improvement over last year.

The president had apparently told people that they could still register on the field the first night and so people were showing up to register and pay and I had NO help at ALL to take money, put kids on to teams equally AND coach at the same time. I started my kids with help of a parent to watch them and tried to finish up registration. I think it is a BIG mistake to take registration on the field especially when we had FOUR registrations before hand and they were advertised in the paper, and on the town notice board AND with sandwich boards on main street (also a change for next year!)

THEN (and this is the real kick in the teeth) A lady showed up to put her kid into the under four team and her name was on the board as a coach. She said " I never volunteered to be a coach!"

I have NO idea why the president just put names down as coaches and never bothered to confirm with people that they were doing it. It is VERY intimidating to parents, especially parents who have no knowledge of soccer to be thrown in like that and I felt HORRIBLE.

 I found an older boy who plays lots to coach the u-4 for Monday and he said he would do it every week and the mom said she would be happy to help him but she had not signed up to be a coach, nor had anyone called her to let her know she was coaching. It was the president who put all the lists together and I just assumed she had contacted everyone?

 I managed to get everything sorted and get some time with my little group of under sixes, then the time ended and the under eights started to arrive and I had 15 minutes to get them sorted AND get to the next field to get the lists to the coaches of the under ten teams and lo and behold a dad walks over to me and says - my wife's name is on that board to be a coach and she is not even here tonight. He had sent her a text message and she said she didn't volunteer OR have anyone call her! We have two under 8 teams and the one guy showed up with his son from college to coach the one team and they agreed to take all the kids and coach them all together which was a HUGE relief but I still had people coming to register. I got through as fast as I could, I didn't write anyone a receipt but told them I would get to them later. I went as fast as I could to the school to the under ten field and got the coaches there the lists and did the late registrations and had a few minutes to breathe. The man who came to coach the one under ten teams was on my list as being the coach of the under 16 team and so I asked him about it and he said...... wait for it.... no-one had asked him to coach the under 16 team and he has a son on the under ten team and so that was where he wanted to be! Shocker of all shockers.

I now had no coach for the under 16 team!

I went over to the fields where the under 14 and under 16 teams were, and took registrations for the under 14 team. There are very few under 16 kids to play - not even enough to field one team - and they said they would just play together and they were all thinking of car pooling and going to Peace River teams anyway, so they were good for the night just to kick some balls around alone.
So we waited and waited and waited for the under 14 coach to show up and I finally called her but only got her message machine. I left a message to let her know we were at the field waiting and a minute later she called me back and said........... No-one had called her to let her know that she was supposed to start coaching Tuesday night! She said she would be there on Thursday. So I stayed and coached the under 14 kids for an hour and a half so that they could play. (she wasn't able to be there on Thursday as it turns out and then the following Tuesday called me to say she was willing to be an assistant coach but not coach the team full time and alone. This has yet to be resolved.)


On Wednesday I spoke to the president VERY briefly and took all the stuff back to her and she asked why I wasn't writing receipts as I was getting money :(

And the water started to flow

It has felt like a LONG winter. We had snow on the ground that has stayed since before the end of October and here we are at the end of April/beginning  of May and this week we had a heavy snow fall warning.

On April 21 when we walked to the corner and looked back at our yard it looked like this.



 

 

Then on Saturday April 27th the wind started to blow and the snow started to melt and all of a sudden the fields were deep with water.

 The wind was blowing so hard the water in the field had whitecaps! WE were out watching the water and realized it was rising FAST. It was coming up over the road in places.

 Here Max is walking along the road that is being covered by water. It was getting deeper and deeper and flowing faster and faster and we decided it was a good time to head home. The wind was BITTERLY cold and the water was ICE cold.

 As we got home we realized the dugout had overflowed, the ditch had overflowed and the water was now flowing over our driveway!!!!

 

We kept a close eye on the water levels and thankfully they didnt get any higher, although we do have what appears to be a lakefront property now!

 

The water rose and rose and then froze overnight and then started to receed. It has left some interesting ice formations in the fields now.

 



I'm watching you

I love to laugh. It doesn't matter who I am laughing with, it is one of my favorite things.
In March I went to visit my mom and she lives in the same town as my sister. When we get together there is ALWAYS laughter.
One morning I went with my sister and her husband to Home Depot. As we were waiting we noticed a man standing at the end of an aisle just staring at us and not moving. He looked like a zombie. For some reason it made us laugh so hard. We decided to try and get a photo of him on our phones. That was even funnier. We were trying to be "sly" but it was not working out, and it didn't even matter! He still stood there and stared at us. A cashier standing immediately across from him was watching him and watching us and was also laughing.
Today I got an email from my sister with the heading "I'm watching you." I opened the email and the only thing in the content of the letter was the photo we took of the zombie guy in the store. I laughed so hard.

Alison Redford - thanks for nothing

Last year when Alison Redford became premier of Alberta she visited  Mount Royal University and promised $650 million in funding for post-secondary education. One year later the reality is COMPLETELY different.

There have been significant cuts made to the budgets in post secondary education. This means that all 26 post secondary institutes have decisions to make. Difficult, life-changing (for some) decisions.

Programs at some institutions have been cut already and there are more cuts to come before the final budgets are complete by the end of June.

Mount Royal was affected to the tune of 14 million dollars. They have announced the termination of disability studies, music performance and theatre arts diploma programs, along with the forensics, journalism, perinatal care and aging studies certificate programs, and an engineering transfer program.

The University of Alberta has been affected to the amount of 65 million dollars over two years.

Lakeland College has cut 60 employees positions.

The mayor of Calgary said this week “I have been on record as saying that the provincial government has made a terrible error in its post-secondary education policy — great cities need great universities and great universities need government support."

I work in a post secondary institute. There have been no announcements made yet on cuts here, but retirement incentives and other incentives have already been offered to those who are willing to leave now. The hammer has yet to fall. We have been assured that there will be no cuts to programs as a result of this budget, which is a great thing but what it means is that the deficit we face will be made up predominantly by cuts to jobs. It is impossible to balance the budget otherwise.

Where the premier and the education minister see dollar amounts I think they miss the bigger picture. The HUMAN picture. The premier has announced that there will be a freeze on tuition for the next year and that the budget will not be met "on the backs of the students". That's a nice idea, however instead of raising the tuition with the cost of living, which is a standard in post secondary institutes, the premier will instead balance the budget on the backs of the post secondary employees who will lose their jobs.

I don't know if I will lose my job. It may be another month before I know. In that one month period I, and my family, and the other hundreds of employees - in my institution and all others in the province AS WELL AS their families will all have to deal with the stress of not knowing. When the announcements are finally made those who are cut from positions have the stress of moving forward.

Insomnia, nausea, eye twitches from not sleeping, irritability, anxiety, heart burn.. heart attack? Will I snap at my son tonight when he breaks something accidentally, but because I am exhausted and stressed out? Will he cry? Will he feel disconnected to me and think I am a mean mom and not someone he wants to trust?

This is just a SMALL idea of the cost to me right now - and to the other employees who are in limbo.

Let's say in a month I lose my job. How will I pay my mortgage? How will I pay ANY of my bills? I live in a VERY small community where the opportunity to find employment at the same rate of pay which I have right now is virtually impossible. So do I move my family? Sell our house? What do I do for medical insurance in the meantime? Where do we go?

The government of Alberta thinks they are saving money, but I say they are wrong. HORRIBLY wrong and disconnected from your constituents. What you are doing has a HUGE cost, the results of which you may not be able to measure right now but which this province will be paying for for a LONG, LONG time. Unfortunately so will we.

The trials of an oldest child

I am the oldest of five children. My spouse is the oldest of four. I could write endlessly on the trials of being the eldest but I will spare you. (Those of you who are eldest in your respective families will all know what I have to say and those of you who aren't, won't understand!)
Today I was reminded what it is like to be the oldest child by something that happened with my own kids.
When I picked up CJ - second born - from school he proceeded to tell me that Max (the eldest) had been bad on the bus. His retelling of the incident was very funny because he told me "in Bud's voice". Bud is the busdriver.
I was highly amused at his retelling of the incident. Then it got me thinking. When I was growing up it used to drive me CRAZY when my younger siblings would tell my parents things I had been involved in prior to my arrival at home. It seemed like no matter what I was involved in - and there wasn't a lot - just enough to make this a salient memory - my parents would know what had happened before I got a chance to tell them.
Right before my eyes my ownchildhood is being re-enacted by my own kids. No matter how glad I am to know what happened and no matter how funny the telling of it was, I feel sorry for Max.
Gosh it is hard to be the oldest child.