Action Packed Plett Life

Just on a learning curve here, sorry about the big space and then the picture...

Lately it has been super dark in the mornings when I've walked to work, as we have not yet switched back from Daylight Savings Time. This morning it was dark, but also really foggy and wet. It made for some interesting pictures. This particular picture is interesting because I left the flash on and it lit up the fog - defining each water molecule. On my full size photo I can zoom in really close and can actually see the droplets of water flying past the lens. Very cool. However, I have decided that I need a tripod to take pictures in low light settings.

Ryan and I had a fabulous weekend. On Friday night we just hung out at home, and I caught up on some of my cleaning. On Saturday morning, Ryan had a hockey practice with his ten year-olds and I prepared food for supper. Around 5:00 our friends arrived in a van load! Rick & Lori, Jeff & Lorna and Kyla & Shaun came down from the BIG CITY for a fantastic supper, wine and dessert. They also got the grand tour of the house, apparently there was a smell.

On Sunday morning we went to RFC for Brent & Terrilee's baby dedication service for Emery. There was a great potluck lunch that followed, and then Ryan and I went home to nap. In the evening we picked up friend Sherisse & James, and met up with Amber & Erik for a (long overdue) supper together at Moxies. It was really nice to connect with them after a long summer of being apart.

This week will be the usual, however, we will likely attend the funeral of my great-aunt Bertha. I was able to share a special moment with her at one of my bridal showers. She present me with a gift of crystal salt and pepper shakers that she had received as a gift 25 years ago from my great-grandmother Smith. She also gave me one of the teacups and saucers from her China set. I'm glad I had that moment with her before she passed away.

The rest of the week will be busy with hockey practices, and the normal hussle and bussle of last minute trips to the city - and hopefully we will finally paint our back entrance.

As I had suspected, we had a very nice time with Jer, Tannis, Ivy and Ella on Tuesday. I also became very aware of how non-child-friendly our home is! It seems that suddenly everything appears much more vulnerable... including the safety of the kids themselves. However, no one was hurt (well, at least not badly), even though Ella was desperate to climb the many stairs in our house on her own, and the wild "sheet rides" that were going on. I realized as they were climbing into their car for the ride home that I hadn't taken one single picture! There was just too much going on to think about it. The memories will simply be internal.

The weather has now turned for the worse once again. Winnipeg got snow yesterday, but thankfully we escaped that. Today it is cold, windy and raining - just miserable. It will be a good weekend for rented movies and hot chocolate, warm baths with candles, and the company of loved ones to cuddle with.

We had a really great Thanksgiving long weekend. The weather was beautiful, and the skies were clear all weekend. On Friday night we went to the Bomber game, which ended up being another stinker. At least the weather was pleasant, and we could enjoy the outdoors. On Saturday we were very much doing the homeowner thing. Ryan worked on the yard, and I planted tulip bulbs and did some baking. Others found time to relax and take a cat nap. Sunday was spent at my parent's place. We went on a walk by the river in the afternoon, and much enjoyed the fall colours. I haven't done the river path for a long time, and it looked as though some people have gone to a lot of work to make it a really interesting and challenging bike path as well. We also visited the neighbour's horses, and the cat was in on the family action as well. After a delicious turkey dinner, we settled in to play a rousing game of Cranium (kids against parents - kids won), followed by a long game of Risk (Matt emerging as the family pro once again). Can't complain about a weekend like that at all.

Tonight we are looking forward to having Jer & Tannis and family over for supper. Should be a blast.

Last night Ryan and some other guys from Rosenort played hockey at the old Winnipeg Arena. It was, in a sense, a way to say goodbye to a place filled with a lot of memories. The Arena will be in operation until late November. Ryan put on a special jersey for the occasion. Terrilee and Emery watched the game with me. It was Emery's first hockey game! He seemed to enjoy all the sights and sounds.

Terrilee gave me this beautiful Gerber Daisy the other day. Many people have already commented on how huge and gorgeous it is.

My cousin Jer and his girlfriend Tara have been out here from El Paso, Texas (actually she is from New Mexico) for the last week. They stopped in here this morning on their way to the airport to say good bye, and take a few pics. Man, I really know a lot of "Jers"!

In response to my request for suggested photos to post, I was asked to post some pictures of our medicine cabinet. Ryan and I both have our own medicine cabinets, so here they are... it's amazing how tempting it was to "tidy up" the cabinets before snapping the shots, but I didn't, so this is a very accurate depiction of what our day-to-day medicine cabinet life is like.

• Ryan's cabinet
• Heather's cabinet

Thanks for the request Jer! I got a chuckle doing this.

I've been trying (yes, on purpose) to kill the batteries on our digital camera for the last week. I'm thoroughly impressed - I haven't charged them since we bought the camera. I've taken numerous shots, played around with the movie mode, added, deleted and transferred numerous files, and the batteries just keep going. I'd like to charge them soon though, because at this point they could die out during something important. In any case, in attempt to kill them off last night, I filmed the cat for about 5 minutes. It's bad home video at its worst, with a kind of Blair Witch Project effect at the same time. I'm posting it mostly for Emily, who loves our cat, but if you watch it, please just "fast forward" to the last 2 minutes... it is the part of the flick I like to call "Paparazzi Puss". Again, to watch the video, download it onto your system first - otherwise you will just get a portion of it at a time, and it is pretty slow.

On another note, with the Christmas season sneaking up on us already, I'd like to encourage everyone that I know to make a Christmas box for Operation Christmas Child by Samaritan's Purse. I've done one of these boxes for a few years now, and it has become something I truly look forward to. I think the project is amazing, and I'd love to see it keep going. Check out the website for more details. The boxes get collected the week of November 8-13.

Blogger (the kind folks who let me run this site) occasionally post suggestions for people's blog sites. This week they posted the suggestion of having the readers tell us things they'd like to see pictures of on our site. For example, you could ask me to post a picture of... um... my toothbrush, or the inside of Ryan's nose. So, for those of you hardcore Action Packed Plett Life readers, put us to work - email me with suggestions of pictures you'd like to see posted, and I'll do my best to get them up here.