Still here

Yesterday we headed to Milk River and Ryan helped Monti put up insulation while I petted their cat. After Becky got off work, the men went back to Magrath and Becky and I went out to dinner. I stayed overnight at Becky's house where we had a good time playing Dance Dance Revolution and talking. BTW I really suck at DDR. Today we drove into Lethbridge and met Monti and Ryan then went to lunch at Earl's. Why can't Utah have an Earl's? I guess it makes it special when I only get to eat there once a year (or twice). The kids have been liking the summer camp my mom enrolled them in and Grace said she's been making new friends. Hanna was a little upset yesterday because the kids always call her during Red Rover because she is too small to get through. I might have to show up and clothes line a few kids. Thursday we are going to Waterton and I'm going to try to get the kids to climb Bear's Hump with me. My Grandma Wilde would be proud.

Bear's Hump mountain

The view from Bear's Hump

"Run? Who is chasing me with a knife?"

*The new title is what Andrea said when I asked her if I should run the 5K.
After much deliberating and mostly deciding that I wasn't going to do it, I got up this morning and ran the Magrath 5K, by myself. I asked mom and the girls to come with me so I didn't feel like a complete loser. I felt okay about the run in general. I didn't walk and that was my main goal. Since in true town fashion (to be fair, they don't charge anything for the run) they didn't time us, so I don't know exactly what my time was. Mom and I think it was around 34 minutes which I'm happy with. About a mile into it I wanted to walk through the fish pond and go home but I didn't. The last mile I wanted to fall down and throw up but I didn't do that either. I don't know why running isn't easy for me but I do feel good about completing another 5K.

Nervously waiting to start. BTW this is a great picture to show how disproportionate my thighs are. I have huge thighs don't I? You'd think I could run super fast with those monsters.

The last few feet where I was just telling my feet to keep moving.

The end. I'm going to puke!

I thought I'd post this picture because we've been doing a lot of this. I gave the kids their Wii when we got here and Grandpa provided the Guitar Hero.

Dogs!

Today mom wanted us out of the house so she could get ready for her high school reunion that she was hosting. Becky and I took the girls into town to get a manicure, then after some shopping (we stopped at the candy store again) we got Subway and drove down to the river bottom to have a picnic. After we ate and the girls played on the playground for a bit, we decided to walk to the river. Up ahead of us there was a young hipster dufus with his mean looking Rottweiler. Becky and I were both wary but Becky thought it looked like he was leashed to the park bench. As we walk toward him hesitantly, the dog runs toward us barking. My immediate thought was, "He's going to eat us!" Becky yelled, "What the *&@#!" The guy was pretty quick to respond and started apologizing. "I'm so sorry. I thought he was chained up. He's never done that before. He's never bit anyone." The adrenaline was pumping and I said, "Everyone who has a dog says that!" Maybe when you see three little girls walking up you should make sure that your bred for fighting dog is actually secure.

Eat or be eat

When we come to Canada my first thought is always about the weight I'm going to gain while here. There are a few foods that I really look forward to eating all year long. One is my mom's cream peas, carrots and potatoes which we already had and which was delicious. The two others are Old Dutch dill pickle chips and coke slurpees with soft ice cream in them. Then yesterday my brother took us to a new candy shop in Lethbridge that had old school candy and imported chocolate. There is nothing better than a Galaxy chocolate bar from Britain. I'm trying to stay in control but it's hard when mom makes Toblerone fondue. I could have lifted the fondue pot up and drank that Toblerone deliciousness.

Vacation

The weather here has been cool and rainy which is cramping my plan to have the kids outside 24/7. They did go swimming with Grandma yesterday in the perpetually cold Magrath Pool and actually stayed in the water for a long time. Becky bought pink hair dye for the girls so I put a couple of streaks in their hair last night. I had put together a little Class of 92 dinner at Earl's but people have been bailing and my family wants to do something that night, so I'm feeling discouraged about the whole thing. I'm thinking about canceling it. I'm still planning on running the Magrath 5K Saturday morning and had a decent run yesterday morning. I saw a bunny on my run which is always a bonus. Speaking of bunnies, we saw the saddest thing last night. We were sititing on the porch when we see the local stray cat walking up the yard toward us. I noticed she had something big in her mouth. Becky said, "It better not be that little bush bunny we were playing with the other day." Sure enough, it was the cute little baby bush bunny in the cats mouth. Becky was super upset, as was I, so we made Monti go over and get rid of the cat. KICK! The cat ran under the porch and it was bugging me that she was under us munching on that bunny, so Monti went inside and got the soft air gun and started shooting toward the cat. I didn't want him to hit the cat because I still have a soft spot for cats, even if they are bunny murderers. Becky said she would have no problem getting a real gun and finally taking care of the cat that she's had a thing against since it bit Beth. It was pretty comical watching Monti shoot at this cat and the cat running around the yard. Good times at the Toly home.

Montana

I'm doing some mobile blogging in Montana on Ryan's laptop. The concert last night was great. Our only disappointment was that Elvis only played for an hour. He really shouldn't have been an opening act but I think most people there were to see Sting. Not The Police but Sting. Most were middle aged and drunk. If you want to see some bad dancing, stand behind a middle aged drunk woman. I told Ryan she was "making love to the music."

Now we are on the road to Alberta. We're meeting my brother's family in Great Falls, Montana which is just an hour or so away. Nothing very remarkable has happened so far on the trip. Ryan and I have been fighting about the speed we drive. I can't go under the speed limit when I'm on a long trip like this. Even if logically I know it doesn't get you there much faster, it kills me to go any slower than 75. Ryan is trying to get good gas mileage so he wants to drive 65. I think I would have to take multiple Xanax if he were to do that so he has agreed to go 70. I balance it out by going almost 80 when I drive. See, this is how a great marriage works. It's all about compromising.

I'm a teacher!

I finished my last day of teaching kindergarten summer school today. I'm glad it's over but I'm also glad I had the experience. I don't really know what to write about it. I'll have to think about it a bit. One mother came to ask me today if she should keep her daughter in kindergarten or move her into grade one. I consulted with her teacher and we both recommended that she repeat. I felt good about what we suggested and I think we reassured her mom. The girl is really young so I think she just needs a year to mature. I did grow attached to my kids and I saw progress in the four weeks so I'm feeling good about that.

The blogging might be sporadic for the next few weeks because we are heading to Canada to visit the family on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to some time away from life here. We have two weeks to do whatever we want. We have a Wilde family reunion, dinner out with high school friends and a trip to Waterton planned but that's it. Tomorrow night Ryan and I have tickets to see The Police and Elvis Costello. Ryan's been wanting to see Elvis for a long time so I'm hoping it's great. I apologize for the boring blog post but the majority of my life is pretty boring.

Grace finally lost her other top tooth yesterday but the other one still isn't growing in. It's been months! Has this happened to anyone's kids?

Disturbing

I forgot to tell about something disturbing I saw at the Scottish Festival. No it wasn't a Scots twig and berries. We were watching the pipe band competition when a young boy and girl walked by us holding hands. These kids couldn't have been older than Hanna, my guess was 9 or 10, and they were holding hands with fingers intertwined. At first I thought maybe it was a brother and sister just being cute but I could tell when I looked harder that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Ryan and I saw it at the same time and just stared at each other in disbelief. Ryan's exact word's were, "There would be a serious beat-down." I can't imagine any parent being okay with nine year olds dating but we were in Payson.

Another disturbing thing (nice segue) are my arms. I'm verging on obsession when it comes to hating my arms. I know for a fact that my arms are big because I fit into an xsmall quite nicely at most stores I frequent (except for that horrible Hollister which I shouldn't even go in because I'm too old) but my arms are more like a medium. Mostly this is a problem with blouses and not t-shirts because of the stretch factor. I've resorted to repositioning the buttons on a few of my blouse sleeves. I noticed in the winter, when I was having a bout of depression that caused me to eat everything and be a complete lump, my arms outgrew a few of my favourite shirts. Luckily, because I'm no longer a food devouring lump, they seemed to have returned to a size that allows them to be put into sleeves. I'm still not satisfied and long for the days of my youth when I had abnormally skinny arms. I wouldn't mind that abnormally skinny body either.

Me at girl's camp in 1990. Look at those skinny arms!

Try not to focus too much on my keen early 90's fashion sense but instead look at the skinny arms.

I found this picture when looking for pictures of skinny arms. I played guard on our Jr. Varsity team. I have a feeling this was taken after practice. The hair! The acne! The lack of breasts! Egads!

"There's nary an animal alive that can outrun a greased Scotsman"

We headed to Payson today for the 25th Annual Scottish Festival. My high school band teacher, Jerry Chatwin, was the Honorary Captain General (or whatever they call it) because he founded the festival when he was teaching band in Payson. I was hoping I'd see him and I was fortunate to find him right away. How can you miss a man with feather in his cap? I love Jerry and I sometimes think of him as my "school dad". He always pushed me when I didn't want to be pushed and I think I'm a better person because of him. I see him most summers when I'm home but I hadn't seen him in his full Scottish garb since I was in band. We had a great time and I highly recommend the festival, especially if you like pipe bands and haggis.

I had to ask and Jerry said he wasn't wearing anything under his kilt. Hanna was very grossed out and asked me, "What if he climbed up a tree and a girl was walking by?" "I guess she'd get an education."

The caber toss. This is seriously impressive.

"Get your haggis, right here! Chopped heart and lungs boiled in a wee sheep's stomach! Tastes as good as it sounds. Good for what ails ya!" We all tried the haggis but it didn't cure Ryan's cough.

The Payson High School Pipe Band. I thought they did a great job. One of the reasons I'm sad about leaving is that it's one of the few high schools that has a pipe band.

Cleaning

Someone is coming to look at our house today and I have mixed emotions about it. I don't like the cleaning involved but it is nice to have a super clean house. I like the idea that someone will buy our house so Ryan doesn't have to commute two hours each day. Mostly I get sad when I think about leaving my friends. This is the story of my life though, move somewhere, find good friends and then either I move or they move. We were talking about starting a book club and it hit me that I'm most likely not going to be here when we do. I guess the positive thing is that I'm not moving out of state, which means I will be able to keep up friendships but I'm realistic in knowing it won't be the same. I'm going back to the state of denial I've been living in and not worry about this until our house sells.

My jobby job is more than halfway over and I couldn't be more happy. I'm done on the 18th and then Ryan and I have tickets to see The Police/Elvis Costello on the 19th. The next day we'll leave for Canada. It's makes it easier when you have something to look forward to. My nose picker has resorted to being "sneaky" when he picks his nose. He now turns his back to me thinking that I can't see. I've got news for you kid, I can still see you picking and eating your nose candy. I think I'm seeing improvement in my students which makes me feel good but I have a fear that they might lose it all again in the month before school starts. Hanna and Grace come now and then to "help" me. The first time they came and I started singing and dancing at circle time, they just stared at me in disbelief and then started to laugh. My brother and I were talking about having similar reactions when we would go with our mom to school. I guess I'm not doing enough of singing and dancing at home. I was made fun of in Chicago by certain "friends" so I'm now too self-conscious to dance. Apparently I never learned how to "shake my booty" properly. Give me a break though, I'm a white mormon girl from southern Alberta!

I'm going to leave you with a video of the Magrath School park which I played on many a times and now my kids play on. I almost threw up once on the tire swing after I ate an Eat-More. I can't eat Eat-Mores anymore. The church I went to growing up also makes a cameo. I found this on YouTube so enjoy.

Cool fact: My brother and his friend built this skate park. Go Monti!

Stadium of Fire

Karen's husband Jon works at BYU and was able to get us tickets to The Stadium of Fire this year. Normally it's not that hard to get tickets but this year Miley Cyrus was headlining. I think the tickets were sold out within ten minutes. Our family had never been before so it was very exciting for us. We started the day with the parade and it didn't end until midnight. We went to the Freedom Festival after the parade and Grace jumped on a trampoline with bungee cords attached to her. We also did face painting and rock climbing. It was 100 degrees outside but luckily it was overcast most of the day. Still I was dripping with sweat most of the time but the kids were troopers.

The Stadium of Fire was fabulous. I had a great time during Miley because Grace was so into it. The fireworks at the end were the most amazing I'd ever witnessed.

Hanna, Taylor and Grace waiting for the Stadium of Fire to begin.

The entire stadium was full by the time it started.

A huge American flag was dragged across us. Grace is holding it up.


Grace is getting her dance on to Miley. She was a dancing fool which was fun.

Hanna's at that age where she's all about being cool. I don't think she thought liking Hannah Montana was cool but I could tell she was excited.

Even Karen and I got the jazz hands out. Isn't that how the cool kids do it?

Here is a video of the Miley action.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

“I don't have to be careful, I've got a gun”

My dad was kind enough to send us a package this week from Cabela's. We got an air gun and Ryan got a fur hat that he said would be great for when he was snow blowing. Ryan set up a little shooting range for us in the basement and the girls have been very into it. I used to shoot a lot when I was a kid but for some reason, as I got older I didn't like doing it anymore. Maybe it was the memory of all those helpless gophers I killed or witnessed the killing of. Shooting into the old pad of our IKEA Poang chair didn't seem to be as traumatic for Hanna and Grace.

This should be an NRA poster.

The youngins need to have gun learnin'.

Hot mama packing heat with her shirt on inside out.

Does this gun make my arms look fat?

Dreaming of snow he can blow.

Canada, eh?

The Canada Day party was a success thanks to everyone who came. I think a good time was had by all and hopefully everyone left with a greater appreciation for the greatest country on earth.

Tisa made another great Canada flag cake.

Grace was cleaning off the chairs. What a good little helper!

Amanda's daughter Lydia had a pimped out doll stroller.

The wind gods smiled on us and by the time the party started, the wind was gone.

I made up a Canadian trivia game and one of the prizes was a pack of bubble gum cigarettes. I wondered what people thought when they drove by?
"Hanna you're doing it all wrong!"

Teenagers having a good healthy smoke after dinner.

Party goers.

Amanda, Lydia and Karen.

We had so many fireworks. It was crazy! Amanda brought a really cool one that shot out parachutes. We told the kids to go play in the street with the sparklers. Fine parenting.

Happy Canada Day!

It's party time at the Van Fleet house! Bring your Kraft Dinner, Old Dutch chips and poutine because we're going to party Canadian style. Amanda just called me and told me she went crazy with the fireworks so hopefully we don't burn anything down tonight. It's windy as always here so I'm hoping it dies down before dark.

My dad sent me all these Canadian flags.
(click to enlarge)