Things you find in your house when you go looking.....

Yup - we've got boys!

Summer Babies

There is something about the beginning of summer that seems so fresh and new. Those first really warm days that we've been longing for seem so sweet. The grass is green and the flowers beautiful.... frankly, we're just ecstatic that the snow is finally gone and we get to savor Canada's far too short yet glorious summer season! I can't help but pull my camera out and snap photos like crazy! On our recent trip to the mountain parks, Marc and I were witness to another sure sign of early summer - wildlife babies! Here are some of the pictures we took of some of the "babies" we saw that weekend, as well as some other wildlife shots.

Here is a baby Rocky Mountain Sheep - adorable!

A shot from a little farther away, but here is a mother mountain goat and her baby!

This one is quite blurry because the bears were quite a distance away, but here is a Grizzly and two cubs!

Here is one of many bears seen in the ditches along the highway, chowing down on all the fresh greens!

Wild Wild West

Okay.... so we're really not all redneck cowboys in these parts, but there is certainly no shortage of wildlife - especially in the mountain parks. Marc and I visited both Banff and Jasper last weekend and took literally hundreds of pictures. Here are some of the highlights!

If these pictures have left you wanting to see more, then head over to our photo website to check out some more pictures.

Love,

Cathy

Summer's on it's way!

Marc and I had an impromptu trip to both Banff and Jasper National Parks this weekend. It started out as a day trip, but turned into a weekend away when we found ourselves in the town of Jasper. We got many beautiful pictures, but you'll have to wait until my next post for those! Let me leave you with another picture that is a sure sign that summer is around the corner.... An end-of-the-year school band concert! Here is Adam playing away on his trombone!

Also....here's a sample of our beautiful weekend

The simple things in life

Come with me on a little walk....

You're invited to join me on a picture tour of Cranston. Come and enjoy pictures of the place I call home springing to life all around me!


Strapped the camera around my neck and I was ready to head out.... didn't get too far before I started taking pictures. I came across this tree showing off it's beautiful blossoms and I just had to capture it's beauty!



Then, I almost walked right into this next tree and got so wrapped up in it's beauty and taking a picture that I didn't notice a fellow walker staring me down.... As soon as I had snapped this shot, she demanded to know why I was photographing her house! Admittedly, her house is in the background of this picture but, as you can tell, I clearly wasn't trying to see into her bedroom with my zoom lens or anything!!!


Well, once I recovered from being accused of espionage, I continued on my merry way, snapping pictures as I went along. Here are a few samples of the pictures of the day - and more reasons as to why I love living in Cranston!

Well..... hope you enjoyed our little photo walk. I definitely hope that it made you want to hop on a plane and come visit (hint hint...) because Cranston is so much more fun in person!

Oh....and in case you didn't already know this, Calgary has the strangest weather in the world. I went for this walk on June 3..... in my sandals and capri pants.

This morning, June 6, our yard looked like this -

Oh well! At least we don't need to water the lawn this weekend!!!


Hope you're all having a great day!


Cathy

Grocery Store Glimpses

The boys arrived back at our house tonight and we were clearly in need of stocking up on groceries because, well, the boys were back! :-) Now that Jeremy is working as a price checker at the grocery store, he always wants to come when one of us is getting groceries because he is very proud of knowing where everything is as well as allowing us to use his employee discount card. I must add, it comes in quite handy that he knows where everything is, and you won't hear me complaining about the discount card either!

When he came with me tonight, I got a really interesting glimpse into the real life of Jeremy Robichaud. I say that because when children are younger, you know their world. In a lot of ways, parents are the world of pre-school children - for the good or for the bad. As children start school, parents are very involved in the day to day activities of school and are talking to the teachers and supervising homework. Children continue to grow and mature though and as they do, you begin to be a bit separate from their lives - at least their school life.

Sure - you still know them (even though they don't think you do!), but when you ask how their day at school was, you get "okay". When asked what they did at school that day, the reponse is usually "nothing". In essence we only know what they want us to know which, of course, leads us to stew and worry - wanting to make sure that things are really okay in their lives outside the house.

Well, I got a glimpse of that part of Jeremy's life tonight, and it was so great to see! We arrived at the grocery store - the same one that we have gone to for years - but yet somehow it feels like Jeremy's turf now. Before we even got our cart from the cart corral in the parking lot, people were already saying hi to Jeremy. Over and over again different staff were saying hi to Jeremy - calling him by his nick names.... I have to say that it was heartwarming to see how this has become his community.... he was obviously proud to be there and be noticed - it was awesome!

Although parenting (and particularly step-parenting) teenagers can be incredibly challenging and emotionally draining, there are some pretty fabulous moments!

Cathy

Home Sweet Home

Here are just a few reasons why we love to call Cranston home....

Cathy

Spring has finally sprung!

Well, I actually haven't taken any "springy" pictures lately, but seeing everything jump to life around me has put me in the mood to share some lovely nature pictures we've taken since moving to Alberta.

Confessions of a Germaphobe

As a health care professional working in home care, I have the pleasure of getting to know and help patients in their homes. Generally speaking, I really enjoy my job and most of the homes I visit contain pleasant, friendly people who make concerted attempts to keep their houses clean and tidy. Granted, the people I visit are sick (and often frail and elderly), so they aren't always completely successful at the endeavor to have a clean home, but their efforts are certainly noticeable (and appreciated, if I do say so myself....).

However, I must admit that there are homes that make me cringe at the thought of entering.... homes that make you realize that shows like How Clean is your House don't exaggerate the state of some people's homes one little bit.

After 10 years of having to enter and assess patients in these ever so lovely dwellings, I've developed a little problem. I'm a germaphobe. Seriously. I never used to think about what might be living on my counter tops or under my toilet seat, but now I find myself deeply concerned. I never used to give a second thought to a door handle at the store, or the handle of the shopping cart, but now I know that some people who look very clean are, in fact, living in disgustingly dirty homes.

Not that I'm the poster child for a clean home. My home is often untidy (I do have two teenage boys living here you know), but I honestly do strive to keep it clean - free of dirt and grime. So, because of my germaphobic tendencies, acquired over years of working in, at times, unbelievable filth and indescribable odour I have a strong desire to disinfect. Everything. So, in my quest to kill all microscopic flora in my home, I've purchased some pretty strong cleaners in my day. I've also often found that I would get an incredible headache after cleaning, presumably due to the strong smell of most of these cleaners.

So lately I've been finding myself trying to come up with better, effective, less toxic ways to clean. Sure, I want to kill the bacteria and viruses lurking around my home, but I don't want to also be killing myself :o) I just wasn't sure where to start. Then, I read this post by McMama and I thought to myself - that sounds interesting.... and easy. So, I started doing some Internet research, and then I bought a book to help myself out and now I'm cleaning without all of those chemicals! I can clean an entire bathroom without getting a wicked headache! In fact, I bought some lemon essential oil to add a hint of lemony freshness to my "All Purpose Cleaner" which I use when wiping down my kitchen counter and stove after dinner. If I need to disinfect the kitchen, or when I'm cleaning the washrooms, I use my "Tea Tree Oil" cleaner. My 50/50 water/vinegar solution, when combined with my microfiber cloth, is fabulous for getting the fingerprints off my black appliances and cleaning my mirrors and windows to a gleaming, streak-free shine! Baking Soda - who knew the cleaning possibilities that existed with this miraculous white powder? My sinks have never been so clean, and my laundry so fresh smelling!

Can you tell I'm excited about my new discoveries? I'd love you tell you that I've changed because of my eco-friendly ways, but I'm not an eco-friendly guru. While I do believe that being responsible with the environment and the resources we glean from our world is important, I'm far from being an environmental junky. For me, the true benefit of the change in cleaning products is more about health. I figure it just can't be good for us to be exposed to all these chemicals all the time. Don't misunderstand though, I still believe that antibacterial and antiviral chemicals have their place in this world, but do they need to be in my home? No. Not that I'm ready to throw the antibacterial hand gel away though..... I do go to disgusting places sometimes, remember?

So for now, I will continue on this path of simplifying my cleaning. Oh, and did I mention that it's way cheaper to use these products for cleaning? An added bonus, if I do say so myself! On that note, I'll leave you to discover your own natural cleaning potential, and maybe I'll go scrub my sink down with baking soda! :o)

Cathy

What a sunny, call-free evening!

Well, I'm extremely happy to report that it's a beautiful, sunny night here in Calgary! Actually, it's quite cold, but the sun is shining and I'm not on call, so that makes the night beautiful. After what has felt like a ridiculously long and busy stretch on call, I get a break from after-hours call until some time next week, so I'm planning on getting lots of walking and other random exercising in. I might even go hill walking again Amy :o) For those who don't know, Cranston (the name of the community we live in here in Calgary) is located on a ridge, up above the Bow River and Fish Creek Park. It's actually quite high above Fish Creek Park and the river, and there is a path that takes you down to the river level and into the park. It truly is fabulous exercise to walk up and down that hill, and last summer our neighbor Amy convinced me that I should give up some extra sleep in the morning and go "hill walking" with her. Not a lot can get me out of bed at 5:30am, but knowing that my neighbor was also dragging her tired behind out of bed was enough to get me up and dressed and ready to take on the hill. I miss those walks this year with Amy and her family in Houston, but I've still managed to tackle the hill a few times since I started on my quest to get more exercise :) The only thing missing is Amy and her convincing me that just one more time up the hill is no big deal really..... :) Hope you're still enjoying your spin classes Amy, and here's to lots more sunny nights and enjoyable exercise!

Cathy

Note To God

If you didn't watch Oprah today..... Go to ITunes and search for "Note to God" by the artist Charice. This is a teenager from the Phillipines who was on Oprah sometime last year, and since then she has had many exciting opportunities. One thing she has done is sign a contract with Warner Brothers and she has a new single out - available on ITunes. I had goosebumps during the entire song and plan to download this single..... WOW!! That's all I can say!

Mother's Day On the Prairie

Mother's Day - a great day to take it easier than normal and enjoy your family! Both boys had to work today, so between shuttling them back and forth, Marc and I went on a great drive. We usually head west when we go for our drives because of the mountains and all of the wildlife we usually see. Today though, we decided to head east and I'm really glad we did. True, driving east from Calgary means many, many large, mostly flat wheat fields, but the sky is sooo amazing...

We also decided to follow a sign that directed us to an island. We thought it a bit of a strange sign because we were, after all, in the middle of many large wheat fields. We took the sign at face value, and we're glad we did. It turns out that the prairie opened up into a river valley and we found some things we didn't know even lived in Alberta......

PELICANS!

And LOTS of them!

We also saw some beautiful ducks!

We stopped for a little break for Buster, and saw some more interesting things

Then, in honor of the opening weekend of the new Star Trek movie, we took a little side trip to Vulcan

And then we ended the day with a fabulous dinner cooked by my awesome husband and our first fire of the year!

Hope all of you mothers had a fabulous day being spoiled by and enjoying your families!

Cathy