Stasha's news

Well this my  brother "kissing" the new floor.! there is tassie runing from Theo's antics.!

Now this is me saying stuff at the Christmas concert.At the side  with the orange hair is Evan. Behind (how you cant really see) is my best freind Amy. then me.

did you now i can memorize three of  three people (evan amy and me). (evan) wow those kidergarden kids sure are cute. do you remember being so young.(amy) ahhh yes twas soo long ago. however i still think im preety cute.(me) um yeah ofcours you are. ohhhh bla bla bla bla bla the rest is boring anyway.

Stasha got tired of typing, so I'll just say that this was for the first performance of the year, at the big Christmas craft fair. It's the traditional welcome with bread and salt. Fortunately, the bread is glued to the tray.

Theo's great feats of wonder!

Now this one is a little embarrassing moments (I cant even remember why i did this.) were i like to keep this private. yet my mom sent this as a blog anyway no matter how much i didn't want this posted. Anyway this is me rehersing my dance after the event with my sister. Please dont laugh. I'm emberressed too much already.

Now this is the same dance exept i'm not in only family public (were i'm in risk of embarressing pic's.) and i'm not in my underware at home. I'm at the Yates for my christmas concert. I look much cooler for 2 resones;1 I'm not in my underware. (Duh!) 2 i look poupular. So thats that and mom please dont send another one of my "embarressing moments" on her blog.

Now this is somthing to be proud of! I'm in a very cool (better then the first two poste's.) position with one person younger then me and the rest older. I'm the handsome rascle left of everybody and I'm doing a cartwheel backwards. This more amazing feat of wonder is Ukrainian dance. Hey! Stop laughing! This is tougher (much tougher) then ballet! You have to do very manly stuff (If your a man.) like reapet cartwheels and lots of other hard stuff. Now the tragic ending of stuff (like Christmas.) has begun. i bid you all a farewell and... well you can open your mouth again the amazing feats of wonder stuff is over. Goodbye... CUT!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

The house is again flooded with miniature chocolate bars and packets of virulently coloured candy (I have a food dye thing - "poison! You're eating poison!)

The kids of course dressed up for their school parade, visit to the old folks home (!?) and trick or treating:

Stasha is wearing the same costume for the third Halloween in a row! When I first made this dress, it was too long - now it's a good six inches too short. All the better to stomp around in, my dear.

Theo's costume is a my old shirt and Tim's old jeans, with liberal applications of fun fur and an old mask we got years ago. I live to recycle.

Today, the kids have a PD day. For some reason it's a custom around here to have a PD day right after Halloween, presumably so the teachers don't have to deal with over-tired, sugar-crashed kids. Tim stayed home with them this morning, and they all looked very smug when I had to troop off for an eight o-clock lecture. I came home at eleven to find them still in their pajamas, all in our bed, and a big bowl of half-eaten candy right next to the bed. Grrrrr.

fall back!

so, what are you going to do with your extra hour?

In the midst of the flurry of school, judo and dance activities, I'm going to have an extra cup of coffee and try to catch up with pictures.

Yesterday was a classic Alberta fall day - brilliant yellow leaves, blue sky, and warm enough to do yardwork and barbeque burgers on the patio:

Another sign of fall - rare (for us) birds visiting to take advantage of windfalls:

And of course, the speedy change of seasons:

We are reasonably well prepared though. Tim harvested the root vegetables on the Thanksgiving day weekend and we are decently supplied with root vegetables. Borscht fixings!

All is well at school and home. I almost forgot: Stasha got a recognition award at school a few weeks ago, for "Leadership and assistance in the Classroom". Not for being bossy or anything like that, no, not at all.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I am thankful for being able to come downstairs to coffee made by the children:

It is great to take a break from an increasingly busy routine. School has been busy for the kids and myself, Tim of course never stops being busy at work; judo, dance, school meetings, and teaching yoga all continue to keep us on our toes. So taking time out to relax, eat turkey, watch movies and hang out with each other is especially delicious this weekend.

Thanksgiving dinner also gave us an opportunity to teach the kids an important lesson in Circle of Trust. You can't tell interesting anecdotes and stories without some reassurance that the kids won't immediately run and tell the subject of that anecdote, innocent as it may be. Thus:

I'm grateful for kids who can grasp the concept of discretion.

Let's see - other things I'm grateful for?

It's been a fairly warm fall and we got away without having a severe frost early in the year, so the apples got really nice and red. Even after giving bushels and bags away to friends and neighbours, and even strangers walking past the tree in the green strip, we have tons for ourselves to use through the fall. If I wasn't so crummy (ha) at making pastry, I'd make more pies.

And of course, I'm grateful for having a sweet daughter. I would have a picture of Theo too, if I could get one without him crossing his eyes or delivering some similarly moronic "I am cool" expression.

I still have to study this weekend. Normally I try to get as much work as I can done at the university while the kids are in school, but there's so much more material for what I'm taking this fall, and besides the texts are the size and weight of coffee table books. We moved the sofa from the family room up to the living room, and now it makes a cozy place to sit and study - almost too cozy! But I like it.

Our Lady of the Keyboard

  Our Lady of the Keyboard 
  Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

Picture for mom. I don't remember exactly where I got her...I think she was given to me by one of the Sister's at Auntie Nena's convent. Anyway, mom, if you find something like this in a material other than plastic (wood? stone? ashes of Mount Pinatubo?) I wouldn't mind something like it for a souvenir.

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

  It be Talk Like a Pirate Day! 
  Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

Did you celebrate?

when I picked up Stasha at school, they were all wearing these getups, and even the principal was swashbuckling. What are our schools coming to?

Later on, I had to teach my the first yoga classes of the session, so I borrowed Stasha's eye patch and wore a red bandana. But I didn't get much farther than "Arr! This be International Talk like a Pirate Day, and this be U of L Beginners Yoga! Arrrr!" before I had a coughing fit. You probably need to drink a lot of grog to keep your throat in piratey condition.