True Team Spirit

An obvious observation this week, is the true spirit of Calgary rooting for their home team. It is the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs (hockey for those non-sports fans) and the Calgary Flames are currently playing against the Anaheim Ducks (Flames lost last night so series is 2-2). I am surrounded by die-hard Flames fan in my little area in the coding area - we have photos of Calgary players on the wall (I have "Kipper"- a reminder for me that he is the goalie - had no clue) and we either wear Calgary shirts/jersery or the colour red to show support to the team. The ironic thing is despite being a part of a hockey pool back in TB, I don't watch the sport or follow it. It is all in fun. I have been given a warning that I better improve my Flames knowledge for next year (hinting there is a quiz...haha) Last evening as I was driving back home, you see kids and adults standing in the medians wearing their jerserys, waving their flags and signs saying to honk if you are a Flames fan. Plus you see cars with the Flames flags showing their pride. It is hard not to smile. It seems that Calgary hockey is definitely has no age boundaries - if you don't cheer for the Flames you cheer for the Calgary Hitmen (WHL league). Aside from the Calgary Stampeed in July, this is another great example of the City of Calgary showing their pride for their hometown team.

Ethan's new hairdo

Here is Ethan ready for his birthday cake and ice cream. Grandma Char have been babysitting Ethan and Sierra and given Ethan this new hairdo. He looks so cute with it. Think it is a keeper. A few people at church commented they liked his hairstyle too. 

The Birthday Girls!!!

Yesterday morning they had a birthday brunch for Ocean's birthday and in the evening we celebrate Char's birthday. Peter and Kate (left of Char) gave her some gardening things which she is looking forward to use - darn those Canadian growing season - way too short as we still get frost into late May early June. I had given Char the DVD of Il Divo (I am sure we will be playing that a few times - we both love the music esp O Holy Night!). It was great seeing everyone there too. 

Happy 5th Birthday Ocean!!

Yesterday morning, Ocean celebrated her 5th birthday with her cousins and her friend Samantha. Unfortunately I had to work, but Amanda used my camera to take some photos. This is one of my favourite photos of Ocean - she is having so much fun in the hot tub. Her mom and brothers decorated the main foyer and kitchen with streamers and balloons the night before, so Ocean was able to wake up ready for her brunch. Heard it was yummy too. I am sorry I wasn't able to make it Ocean - hope to next year. 

Easter Sunday

Yesterday, I enjoyed the 7am morning service at the church by the campfire. There were about 15-20 of us enjoying the crisp air for the 30 min service. Afterwards, some of us helped prepare breakfast (fresh fruit salad, pancakes, sausage, ham and scrabbled eggs) - it was very yummy!! It also gave us a chance to catch up with different people within the church. Mary Inch did a beautiful interpretative dance to the song, Man in Sorrow during regular service. She did a beautiful interpretative dance of How Great Thou Art on the Sunday of Andy's birthday. Such a special gift she has. I was in the nursery during the regular morning service and the only child I had was Ethan. So we had some fun playing with all the toys. Ethan has learned to say toys (sounds more like oys), it is neat to see all the different words he is learning now.

I surely have been blessed this past year. Of course, receiving this coding position at the Foothills last year. The amount of workshop opportunities to enhance my coding knowledge since arriving has been awesome. With that and openings for cross-training, I now can code inpatient, same day surgery, emerg and obstetrical/newborn coding. The past few weeks, I had the opportunity to code at one of the rural hospitals - Strathmore, to help with their monthend backlogs. The gals there were great to work with and it such a laid-back feel (similar to my time in Sioux Lookout Hospital). The Records manager surprised me last week on my last day with a beautiful cutting board and tea towels (a thank you and house warming gift). Sweet eh? The gals I work with at the Foothills are great to work with too. Already have two nicknames - Lauremia (Laura and Dementia) and Laurisms - at times they don't quite know what to make of my little quirks, so they pick one of those nicknames (all done in fun). Plenty of laughs within our little pod of 4 coders. Of course, becoming a home owner. Didn't think that I would become one of those. It is an exciting but nervous time as you think of the awesome responsibility I will be venturing into soon. Definitely happy I locked into a house when I did - since I bought in September my house plan has gone from $189,900 to $285,000 (as of this morning)!!! Calgary housing market is just skyrocketing and bringing everything else up with it too. Plus the other side of my move to Calgary - building on friendships already here in Calgary and making new ones. As well, just regaining the self-confidence and independence again - seemed to have skyrocketted like the housing market (haha). It has been a great learning experience personally and work-wise with my move to Calgary. I look forward seeing what the next year holds for me - more adventures I am sure.

Matt & Pam

John and Sara's friends Matt and Pam were able to come to Sara's birthday celebrations. Matt had worked with John before bin building and small world - Pam also works for the Calgary Health Region. It was great having them there too. 

Spraklers are almost done Journey

Here is a cute pic of Journey with her parents as watch the spraklers come to an end. 

Sparkle!! Sparkle!!!

Ethan, Sierra, Journey, Amy and Sara wait as the sparklers finish before cutting of the cake. Journey was doing a bit of cuddling with her mom, don't think sparklers are her favourite things. John continued the theme of Brazil with a flag of Brazil done in icing. It was yummy cake too. 

Happy 30th Birthday Sara!!!

Here is John lighting the cake he baked for Sara's birthday. Their friend Pam is helping John lighting ALL those candles. Happy Big 30 Sara!!! It was great celebrating it with you and your family. 

Brad and his "deer" friend

It was too adorable to pass up. While at Sara and John's to celebrate Sara's birthday, Brad made a new friend - the deer head of John Paterson's. 

Our little princesses

I came home from work the other day and found we had two princesses livng with us. Ocean (who is 5 this week) is wearing her Cinderella outfit and Journey (2) is now wearing the Snow White outfit that Ocean was wearing just last year this time. Boy they are growing up so fast. Journey absolutely loved her princess outfit, even talked about before going to bed that night too. Loved to twirl around in it too. Precious or what? 

The Yellow School Bus

Well this week, I had to begin parking off-site and catching that yellow school bus to take me to the hospital. I haven't had any problems this week. It will be nice for the next couple of days where I will be at Strathmore helping with their backlog of charts. The commuting actually hasn't been that bad from Chestermere to Foothills. Maybe the fact that I leave here at 5:45am so I am beating the morning rush and only catching the beginning of it on the drive home. Parking off -site is $32.00 per month and now on the waiting list for on-site (the waiting list is about 2 years long). Just had our site meeting of all the upcoming changes to the new fiscal year. There are many new codes that we will be learning and new data we will have to capture of data analysis reasons.

Little Ethan

On Sunday morning, I was rover for the sunday school and I took Ethan to the nursery. Unfortuately he was clingy and had a death grip on my sweater. Since I had to be downstairs, I took the chance and took him downstairs with me. He played really well too - one of the teacher gave me some markers and paper and he made his masterpiece. In-between the drawing he wanted to cuddle too. After church, he and Sierra played outside of the church, so here he is looking at Sierra down the path.

backyard of the house

Here is a photo of what the back of the house looks like. The part that is sticking out is the master suite. The sliding doors is the entrance to the kitchen nook. As you can probably tell my lot is long, so it will be interesting to see once the parking pad at the back of the house and my eventual deck, how much greenery in the backyard I will actually have. I have seen some backyards that face that back walk-path, they have actually covered the rest of the "green space" with white rocks or cement with patches of flower gardens. Don't have to worry about that until next year as the ground will have settled a bit by then and I will have a better picture of what I want and will have. It is getting exciting though. Have begun in my head - how I would like to arrange my furniture or what I would like in the future. June will be a busy month for sure.