What a week!

Tuesday April 24 - Lyden's 20th birthday and I was off to Toronto on a 7am flight. Grabbed a cab from the airport to the Toronto office at 1pm where I had arranged a few meetings. I managed to meet up with Kareen whom I met in Atlanta at the CREW Convention last October for a late afternoon pick me up (a smoothie). Afterwards, I checked into the Hilton Hotel and went down to the lobby to meet up with my dinner date, Martha-Jane. Martha-Jane and I had worked together to finalize a long outstanding lease in Edmonton. After exchanging numerous emails and many telephone discussions over a number of months, it was great to finally meet her face to face. I was in bed for 10:30 (8:30 Calgary time) and had no trouble falling asleep. On Wednesday, I attended the REAL Jobs: Careers in Commercial Real Estate put on by CREW Toronto which was very well done and then headed to the airport to catch a 6:30 flight home. I spent Thursday with Andy who was home after wrapping up on the CBC's Nutcracker Story on April 20. It was good to reconnect. We went to the accountant to file our personal income tax statements, paid our taxes at the bank (ouch), enjoyed a delicious homemade pasta dinner (made by my resident gourmet cook husband) & afterwards, we took a walk down by the river - it was a beautiful day - dare I say it? I think spring has finally arrived in Calgary! Saturday we spent at home, got the urge to do a bit of "spring cleaning" and re-arranged our family room furniture. Sunday it was off to church in the morning and when Rachel and Tyler came over, a couple games of Wizard before dinner. Even though Erin baked Lyden individual chocolate "lava" cakes for his birthday on Tuesday, it only seemed appropriate with all the family in attendance for Sunday dinner to pick up a DQ cake (a family tradition).

Almost there....

Yesterday afternoon I got together with Allison and Christine (from GBC Scrappers) to prep "Me Right Now" mini-albums... we painted the chipboard and cut out the front & back covers for the albums (as per photo), cut the patterned paper and ribbon. So far 15 people have registered for the class on May 5th.

Before leaving Allison's house I copied the Easter choir photos (see updated the Easter Sunday post)

Me Right Now Mini Album ... prep, prep & more prep!

I am discovering there is a lot more to teaching a mini-album class than I realized! GBC Scrappers are getting together on Sat. May 5 (National Scrapbooking Day) and I volunteered to teach a class. Last week I met with Allison to walk her through the mini-album assembly and select coordinating papers for the kits. Allison picked up some ribbon, chip board and additional papers and I think we're prepared to make up 24 kits. Sat. Apr 21st I'll be meeting up with Allison to prep the kits (cutting out the paper, transparencies, chip board, punching holes, cutting ribbon, etc.) Registrations have started coming in and I've sent out the "homework" assignments to those who have registered so they come to class with their photos in hand and journalling completed. I am looking forward to teaching my first class and seeing the ladies leave with a sense of accomplishment, completed mini-albums in hand!

Orchid bloom

I couldn't resist snapping this photo at the book store in Kensington.

Shopping at the book store, Urban Barn and assorted little boutiques in Kensington.

Girls Day Out

Mom, Rachel and I got together today to window shop around Kensington.
But before we could hit the streets we stopped at Heartland to "fuel up".

Of course Rachel's favorite shops to peruse were the book stores - used or new!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday dinner was yummy ... turkey with all the trimmings! After dinner Cam amused us all by polishing off the left over whip cream from dessert in one fell swoop - egged on( no pun intended) by Andy, as usual! I won't embarass the kid by posting those photos but will be sure to share them with my brother Todd for his amusement!

Scott brought his dog, Keisha along for dinner and I know of at least one dog lover who'd be interested in seeing her ... so this one's for you Allison!

The Easter choir presentation Sunday morning went off very well - I asked a friend to take photos of the choir (Andy claimed he couldn't leave his ushering duties). Seeing as 4 out of our family of 5 participated in the choir, I really felt we should have a photo in our scrapbook album! Rachel assures me that Christine and I did well on our soprano duet - we had to hold microphones which doesn't sound like a big deal, but we also had to hold our binders at the same time and keep our eye on Rachel as she directed. I will admit, I had some butterflies - but they oddly appeared about 4 bars into the song! That's one more tick in the box of my "never done this before" list!!

Easter Cupcakes

Prepared these cupcakes today for Easter Sunday dinner tomorrow. In addition to our immediate family, I am expecting my mom, brother Scott, nephews Jordan and Cam & Krissy (Jordan's girlfriend) and Krissy's friend, Jennie to join us. The cupcakes are lemon, with a yummy lemon butter icing, topped with colorful spinkles, coconut and little chocolate eggs.

Choir rehearsal this morning went well - Rachel and Tyler totally spoiled the choir. Tyler was up at 7am to bake muffins for everyone. They also brought bottled water for everyone (important in a 2 hour practice!). After rehearsal Rachel announced that we were to proceed to the coffee bar to celebrate recent choir members' birthdays.

At the start of the year, Rachel asked all the choir members to fill out a "choir appreciation form". There were a lot of questions to answer, and two of them included the date of our birthday and our favorite cake. She then celebrated birthdays monthly, bringing in the preferred type of cake for those celebrating a birthday that month. Today's birthday cakes included black forest, cheesecake, angel food, berries & whip cream, and brownies!

The funny thing is Rachel was never much interested in baking or cooking when she lived at home but now that she's married, she is turning into quite the cook and baker! She called me yesterday to ask what was meant by "2 sticks" of butter .... she was obviously following an American recipe!

I can't help but swell with pride watching how capably she directs the choir whilst demonstrating genuine love, encouragement and concern for each member. Tomorrow will be doubly special for me - in addition to sharing my choir experience with Rachel, Tyler and Lyden, Rachel assigned a soprano duet part to me for one of our songs (note I did not volunteer), so I'll be stepping outside my comfort zone yet again!

April's here and so is the snow!

Brrr... the first week of April and we've had snow flurries every day. Yesterday was Good Friday. We went to the Jubilee Auditorium to take part in the city wide Baptist Church Good Friday service. Rachel joined the worship band, playing her soprano sax. Several years ago she played her sax (alternating between the soprano and alto) with the worship band at our church but the past few years she's been accompanying on the piano. A couple of weeks ago Rachel played her sax with the worship band (we now have an alternate pianist) and it was wonderful to hear her play the sax again!

Yesterday was bitterly cold ... definitely too cold for Easter! I remember past years the truly spring like weather - leisurely walking up to the Jubilee under sunny blue skies without the need of a coat ... quite the contrast to yesterday! we almost sprinted up the hill, head down, trying to avoid the flurries against the frigid north wind. Suffice it to say, I've had it with this winter weather!! But the good news is that the weather is to break ... should be a balmy +18 Easter Sunday! Maybe, just maybe, spring will finally arrive in Calgary.

Today: 2 hour choir rehearsal at the church - pick up some last minute fixings for turkey dinner tomorrow and wash the car (can't stand having a dirty car!) and maybe I'll get in a few hours of scrapbooking!

Me Right Now ...

I will be teaching this project at our next GBC Scrappers Event, on May 5, 2007, National Scrapbooking Day! This mini-album (only partially shown here) is a snapshot of life right now. Further details to follow ...

GBC Scrappers - March 31

Silvana and Chantelle joined me for scrapbooking at our church (second time in a row!).