Happy Halloween

After a busy day at school, we had 6 trick or treaters (including Meadow!) at our house tonight. My colleague, M., and I dressed up as ketchup and mustard (you can tell she's the creative one when it comes to costumes!). There were so many good costumes by staff and students - what creativity there is out there. We had an idea to go as chocolate bars next year - now to remember that idea!!

Meadow came as the little bear, courtesy of this sleeper costume that Kelsey gave her. It fit her perfectly and she looked so sweet! I have more pictures on the other card but that's a job for tomorrow.

Too bad it was so cold - minus 9 and a cold wind blowing - but the holiday spirit prevailed anyway. Hope you had fun with the kids in your life and that you captured some memorable images! Enjoy the leftover candy!!!

Winter's Arrived in Alberta

It started snowing on Friday night and it's pretty much turned into this snowy, cold nightmare! I was out last night and took over 2 hours to drive home from 115 km away. But I arrived home safely which is the most important thing. And I bought myself this gorgeous quilted Christmas wall hanging, which I will show you soon.

I knew you would want to see a few more pictures of the very sweet Helayna! These were taken when she was just 1 day old. Kelsey and Darrin went to visit her today and sent us some new pictures and she looks so much older already! How can they change in just 5 days??? Bob was going to have an apple and Jonathan encouraged him to pose with this picture so you would get an idea about the perspective of her size.

Daylight saving time ended - winter's here - Halloween is this week (tomorrow night's job is the costume details) - PD Day - it's going to be a full week.

Drive carefully, wherever you live!! I know I'll have to start out extra early tomorrow morning.

Let me introduce. . .

Helayna Lorraine Moll

born October 25, 2006
8:33 a.m.
at Foothills Medical Centre
Calgary

6 lbs. 6 ozs.
19 inches long

She is just perfect!!
She loves to be stretching, have her hands up beside her face
and gets the hiccups regularly.
She has a strong sucking instinct and
nursing is going well for Mom and baby.
What a marvelous miracle we have in her.
May you always be surrounded by those who love you
and may your presence bring joy to those around you,
Little One!!

Thanks to Heather and Jonathan for sharing these images from the delivery room.
I'll share some more tomorrow - if you don't mind!!

We have a new .....

granddaughter!!!!!!!!!!!! Heather and Jonathan went to the hospital just after six this morning and their sweet new baby arrived at 8:33 a.m.. She weighed 6 lbs. 6 ozs. and has long dark hair. We are going to Calgary right after school so hopefully I will have a picture to post by tomorrow. She's come about 2 weeks early so we are surprised - mostly Heather is as she had big plans to do many things at home before baby came! Everyone is doing well but mom and dad are tired - already!! Oh, my - what a happy day!

Pam & Curtis

Our very best wishes go to Pam and Curtis (Bob's nephew) as they begin married life. This makes grandchild #7 to be married in the Krueger family - 5 more to go!

Here's everyone from Bob's family that attended the wedding on Saturday. We are so lucky that all of us live within 5 hours of each other and we can get together on a regular basis. We shared lots of laughs and stories over supper!

Meadow's Baptism

We celebrated with great joy and much thankfulness as Meadow was acknowledged as a child of God today. Jerry's grampa, who is a minister, is here from Minnesota so he officiated at a family service this afternoon. Meadow wore a christening gown made by a family friend that Jerry had worn was he was baptized.

We pray that God will be with Naomi and Jerry as they walk with Him and show Meadow His love. We have been so blessed in our family and today was another example of God's presence in our lives.



Gramma and Grampa Lange gave her a wagon. They insisted it be a metal one, none of that plastic stuff and the only one they could find was
this lovely one made by John Deere!! Meadow's little cousin was ready to fill it right up with nice black dirt from the backyard!

Playing with Meadow

Here is our precious Meadow at 3 and a half months! She's really starting to respond to talking and seeing people that she recognizes. Naomi says she's a spirited child and I agree. She has a mind of her own and tons of energy. I think she's going to keep all of us on the go!

She's just figured out that looking in the mirror is fun. She'll study herself so intently and then starts jumping or moving - as you can tell by the blurred images!

This little chair is pretty amazing!! She can sit in it even though she's not strong enough to sit by herself. There are some seriously smart people out there, designing kids' stuff. Quite the serious miss, isn't she?



Do you know how hard it is to take a picture and hold a baby at the same time?? I just kept clicking the camera and got a few keepers - thank goodness for digital images!!

Her mom thought she might go to bed between 8 and 9. She had one little half hour nap and then didn't crash until well after 10. At one point I thought I'd have to call Naomi to come home because she wouldn't have anything to do with the bottle of milk but then she suddenly changed her mind and chugged the whole bottle down. Babysitting is a whole new experience again! I really think I need to keep practising so I get it perfect!

Thanks for staying with me as I ramble on!!

This Week at School

4 weeks will get us to report cards - yikes!! Where has the time gone? Needless to say, we are ploughing forward and tackling massive amounts of work. I get a headache when I think of all the marking and writing I have to do to get those report cards ready! I'm going home to lie down!!

Not happening this weekend though! We have a church supper tonight (yummy sauerkraut and ribs plus pies to look forward to!), Bob's nephew's wedding tomorrow, and Meadow's baptism on Sunday. All of them will be wonderful gatherings and good photo ops. But it will be busy, busy, busy!

Hopefully I'll be back tonight to share a few pictures of Meadow - I took them yesterday while I was babysitting. Yeah - babysitting a little miss who willingly took a bottle 6 weeks ago and now is very unsure about that whole way of eating. Let's just say, she had to work up a little appetite! Gramma had a great time playing and cuddling - ah, life is good!

Photography Tuesday

In her online newsletter this week, Ali Edwards (a life artist scrapbooker) asked readers to consider these questions:

1. What is your personal photo-taking process?
- never leave home or go anywhere without the camera
- everything is a photo op waiting to happen
- you can never take too many pictures
- no matter how many pictures you take, you'll always wish you'd taken more when you go to print them
- the true value of a photo is the memories and stories shared everytime you look at it or share it with someone
- someday "they" will be glad you took these pictures

2. What are your strengths in regards to taking photos?
- good eye for seeing extra stuff that will interfere with the photo (eg. empty winebottles on the table, gaps in lineups, people looking less than their best) and eliminating it
- can find natural frames when taking photos
- can take cool closeups of details
- take lots of pictures

3. What do you want to change about your process?
- read lighting situations better and learn to use natural reflectors
- learn to use more of the manual settings on the Canon Digital Rebel
- master Photoshop techniques
-be more willing to ask people to use unusual props or angles
- add to our collection of lenses

4. Which photos are your favorites? Why?
- all of my pictures of Meadow, our granddaughter, because she's changing so much every day and I want her to have tons of photos to look back on someday, unlike our own children :(
- wedding pictures that I've taken of our daughters because they were so beautiful and so in love on their wedding days
- closeups of everyday things because I love seeing the little details
- summer flowers because they are a symbol of nature and beauty

Soooo - what about you? Tell me your thoughts about these questions today!
And to make it more interesting (and to borrow an idea from Heather's blog http://www.heathermoll.blogspot.com/ -thanks, sweetie!), I'll send a little treat to one of the people who post their thoughts in my comments section. Thanks for playing!!

Carrots, Carrots, Carrots

Remember the row of carrots that I went to help my Mom dig on Saturday? Well, it was more like 4 half rows and we had 9 of those big white 5 gallon pails full of the orange things!! Apparently, Mom, my aunt, my niece and my Dad each planted a row and I'm pretty sure they were the largest packages of seed that were available! Mom and my aunt already have all that they want so after my sister and I took ours, there were still 5 pailfuls to give away. That's good because my Mom is so generous and she always finds someone who appreciates sharing her produce.

It reminded me once again of the fact that I did not inherit my Mom's green thumb or love of gardening. I think it skipped a generation and went directly to Naomi!

Since Saturday we've eaten carrot sticks, cream of carrot soup, and pumpkin carrot muffins. In Martha Stewart's magazine I saw a recipe for carrot dip so I think that's going to be my next try. These carrots are way better than any that you buy at Safeway, that's for sure!!

Cocooning

Cold, dreary, rainy, wet flurries this afternoon. Yeah - that's the weather here today! Good thing we dug those carrots yesterday. So - it's a perfect day for cocooning. We were planning a day of quadding with our friends, Audrey and Aime', but we cancelled that idea. I guess it will have to wait until next summer - maybe we should start earlier but our weekends have been pretty full this year. I went to bed at 9:30 last night - unheard of for me - and since 7:30 this morning, I've dealt with laundry, the dishwasher, set a batch of buns, filed some pictures of Taiwan adventures - man, it feels good to tie up loose ends and bits and pieces.


We had a chance to visit with this man yesterday afternoon and reminisce about our time in Belize during the summer of 2004. Chris Aird is the principal of Sacred Heart College in San Ignacio and a man with so much heart, energy and passion for education in that country. After a hectic week of meetings here, it looks like Rotary International and this district in Alberta (57 clubs, I think) are going to make helping the education system in Belize as one of their major projects. This is a huge step in terms of support, dollars, people and impact - very good news all around!


And one more update - remember about 6 weeks ago I posted an entry congratulating my friends on their long teaching careers? And how I couldn't find a photo of the 3 of us? Well, in my file searching this morning, I found this picture of this layout I created for a circle journal on girlfriends!! This picture was taken at Audrey's wedding in 1997 and the journalling is written as 3 friends, 9 kids, 12 teachers conventions, 7 kids in universities, 1 army tour of Afghanistan, 1 wedding, countless cups of tea with amaretto, amazing friends!

Apparently we are off this afternoon to find an elliptical trainer! Bob has been thinking about getting one for awhile so we researched them online this morning and are hoping to buy one later.

Flowers

It's become one of my Thanksgiving traditions to buy an arrangement of flowers for our table. My favorite comes in a cornucopia basket. This one's been on the table for a week and it still looks fresh and festive. Seeing it always brings a smile to my face and a gentle reminder to remember things for which I want to be thankful. Today's list:

1. my parents - still healthy and active - especially mindful of this as a long time family friend of theirs passed away this week and Mom and Dad came home early from their BC holiday to be at his funeral.

2. food, glorious food in all its abundance in our home

3. growing things - going to my Mom's in a few minutes to help her dig the last row of carrots out of her garden

4. access to a first rate health care system - I know there are things that could be better but it's not like in many other countries where there are no facilities, medicines or supplies.

5. Friday evenings at home - we watched the movie "Shall We Dance" - such a romance (sigh)!( I think I need more chick flick movies in our stash.)

6. email, internet and fast electronic ways to stay in touch - thanks for reading, wherever you are and for caring about me!

This Week at School

Seeing's how it's supposed to snow here this weekend, I decided one more fall photo would be good! This is my class this year - can you tell which 2 are the busy ones?!!! They are such good souls - curious, caring, energetic and just a tad chatty! I feel like this week has been a blur - so many things happening, deadlines to meet, teaching to do, individual program plans to finish - there's just two things (not even one) right after the other every day!

We started beginning volleyball skills this week and they are lovin' it. Thank you to my colleague, A., for sharing her awesome unit plan - you are an angel! I actually feel like I'm teaching skills and we're having fun learning - how amazing is that?!!

I'm outta the building in a few minutes so I'll leave you with these quotes from the book,

"7 Keys to Comprehension"

(an awesome read for parents and teachers who want to help kids read it and get it!)

by Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins:

"Reading is the greatest single effort that the human mind undertakes,

and one must do it as a child."

John Steinbeck

"For readers, there must be a million autobiographies,

since we seem to find, in book after book,

the traces of our lives."

Stan Persky

"When the mind is thinking, it is talking to itself."

Plato

"All words are pegs to hang ideas on."

Henry Ward Beecher

"Since I could turn bare lines into living reality, I was all-powerful.

I could read."

Alberto Manguel

"He tells me the song - the sounds the marks make.

I jump up and down singing it.

I shout and laugh like when I was baptized in the creek.

I have jumped into another world

and I am saved."

from "More Than Anything Else"

(the story of Booker T. Washington

fulfilling his greatest desire by learning to read)

by Marie Bradby

Meadow for Melinda

When I talked to Melinda and Tyler on the weekend, they said they were missing seeing pictures of Meadow. So these were taken at Thanksgiving and they are just for you two in Poland! Jonathan took the first one - what a great profile shot - thanks!

Naomi and Kelsey hanging out with Meadow in this one. Kelsey and Darrin bought her the cutest little brown bear costume to use for Halloween. Oh, my, she is simply adorable! Kelsey emailed me a picture, which I'll try to load later this week.

Heather practised holding a baby while Meadow rested her little arm on top of Heather's baby belly. It was so cute!!

And I have to direct you to this site: www.lisabearnson.typepad.com

so you can see an amazing project that Lisa is sponsoring to support the Amish families in their terrible loss last week. If you are a scrapbooker or card maker, I'm challenging you to go over there and check out what you can do to share peace with another community. I'm all over this one and I continue to be amazed at the wonderful ways that the scrapbooking community supports and encourages people all over the world.

It snowed here last night - enough to cover the ground pretty good - but it all melted today. Thank goodness!! I'm totally not ready for winter!

Photography Tuesday

Here's our Thanksgiving table. Delicious stuff!! I challenge you to document your food likes and dislikes, the feasts and every night suppers that your family eats.

A New Helper in my Kitchen!

AFter nearly a year with no working dishwasher, this sleek new baby has come into my kitchen! I've only washed 2 loads with it but I love it already!! It's made by LG (Life's Good Co. from Korea), has a tall tub, great placement of shelves and dividers and 3 different levels of washing, where the pressure of the water is actually adjusted, not just the length of wash. It's going to get a workout today as our family is having Thanksgiving Dinner in just a few hours. The turkey is roasting, pumpkin pies are cooling, cabbage rolls and perogies are in the oven, sweet potatoes waiting to be rewarmed. I better peel some potatoes and turnips and set the table.






Heather and Jonathan and Darrin and Kelsey will soon be here from Calgary. Naomi, Jerry and Meadow will come over and Bob will be back from delivering a load of cattle to the auction in Ponoka. Later after dinner, we'll call Tyler and Melinda in Poland. But most of all we give thanks that we all enjoy good health, have loved ones to share with, and are blessed with an abundance far more than we could ever need. May you truly live Thanksgiving this weekend and every day!


And to make you smile, here are Meadow and her great-grandma, Bob's mom, at the 80th birthday party. I love this moment that Naomi captured!

This Week at School

A few weeks ago, I mentioned setting up the Mission Impossible course. Here are some pictures to show you the kids having fun with it. It's an obstacle course created with all kinds of equipment and they have to follow rules to get through to the end and save the world. Working in partners, one student is the secret agent and one is the spy. The Secret Agent is not allowed to talk while working through the course or he has to go back to the beginning and they trade places. It doesn't seem to matter how many times they do it, they still want to try again!


Lots of the activities require coordination (walking on the balance beam, stepping through the rings) and the whole range of gross motor skills.

The activity came down today and the volleyball nets went up for beach ball volleyball as our next activity.

And we made Thanksgiving turkeys, using a potato as the body - but I forgot to take a single picture!! Sorry!!

Hope you all enjoy the long weekend as much as we will!!!!

Fall Images

Another picture from our weekend! This is Lake Louise and 2 kayakers from Alaska who were just setting out for a paddle. Peaceful images for me to reflect on during a week that has been less than calm. Thank you God for giving me these still small moments with you that help me to know you are in charge and your love surrounds us all.

Weekend Getaway

This is what it looked like on our mountain getaway this weekend!
The Parkway highway was flanked with forests of gold and green.


The mountains are so incredible! Each one is different and they all are breathtaking.


Little bits of color, underfoot and overhead.
It was a perfect trip and I took alot of pictures. More to follow!