Twilight

Remember the old nursery rhyme about "... How does your garden grow?" Well, look! Our has sprouted a ton of snow! Now, you may balk at the thought, but you need to remember that we have a couple of hundred bulbs in for the spring. It will be great!

This is our lonely BBQ. Obviously we are not using it much right now. We are going to try to light up a barrel smoker for Thanksgiving next week. Stay tuned for details.

Yes, as the title says, this is twilight. Actually, the time is more like 9 pm, but we are on the way to Twilight, the movie. (FYI, sunset here today was 4:30ish, twilight lasted for about 42 minutes) We prepurchased tickets for the early showing of the movie. Early here is defined as 10 p.m. on opening day, but one cannot be too choosy in cases of first run movies. Joseph and Samuel are a bit excited that we are off to the show. Can you tell?

That is Jacob catching the "little boys."

The 4 heroes.

The general thought of almost everyone in the movie was "two enthusiastic thumbs up." Since we have all read the books, we decided the movie follows the story line pretty well. The characters we saw in our minds as we read were all a bit different, but in general, we agreed they did a pretty good job casting the film. There were about 15 other members of the Ward there too. As a matter of fact, other than us 4 guys, and one other young man we know, there were only about 12 other enlightened men in the joint. These guys are either A) making HUGE deposits in the love account, or B) dorks. A) is the right answer.

Joe Bob says, "Check It Out!"

Festival of Trees

Well, the new cross country skis are finally back from having the bindings mounted, and the boots are ready to hit the trail. Joseph is on the biathlon team here in Fort Mac this year. People think it is funny that a kid from California comes to Canada to learn to shoot. I think it is funny that they assume he did not know how to shoot before arriving here. Or perhaps it is just that he needs to learn to shoot while shivering in the snow.

Samuel is a snowboard rider now. He learned last year, and this year he got his own board, boots, bindings, cool coat, and helmet. Now he is trying to get me to buy season passes to the local ski hill for him. I think I might give boarding a try too. After all, his stuff will all fit me too!

Jacob came home from Edmonton last week with gifts for the family. The boys got cool things to play (Wii games). Michelle got Jo Malone cologne, and it is truly a bouquet of flavors. I got a rock. just kidding.

The YW went to the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Center to volunteer to help set-up for the Festival of Trees, which is this weekend. The Festival of Trees is a fundraising event for the Northern Light Regional Health Center. Groups from around town donate tings for the silent auction, for the real auction, or they decorate trees to sell, often with additional goodies too. All the proceeds from last year bought a new MRI machine, and since installation, over 300 people have been examined here, not in Edmonton.

Yes, winter coats are now required for most activities. like walking from the car to the building.

Dana helps move tree stands into place.

Shelby starts to fluff a tree prior to decorating it.

"... OK now, on the count of 3, one... two... Three!"

Jessica after moving a tree stand into place.

Jenny wonders if this would be a good fabric for her prom dress this year.

Jezzy models after singing and dancing again.

Barbi and Bailey congratulate each other for another job well done.

On the way out of town to the north, there are several places where the landscape is very pretty almost all year long. I go by these places, and found this one the other day,after the first snow fall of the year. The trees glistened under the dusting of new fallen snow. We drove out to this spot just for this picture. (You can double click on the photo to see it full size, then click the back button to return to the blog.)

After church we drove to our favorite picture spot in town. This is on the road to one of the golf clubs here in town, overlooking the Athabasca River.

You can just make out the outlines of a few trees behind us. The road was very slick because of the snow on it, and i kept sliding down the hill. Michelle nearly fell getting back into the truck after taking the pics.

So, what do you do with the first snow of the year? You eat it, of course. And the taste is really quite good, if you are young enough.

This is the face of a young man on his way to a "4-date weekend." For those who may be wondering, that is the modern day equivalent of the "8-cow wife." Jacob managed to con 3 young women into going out with him, (one of them twice) and he got conned by one.

This is the start of something good. Wendy and Tracy are starting to aerate fondant for hand dipped chocolates. After the fondant is ready, the flavorings are added, they were hand dipped in Bernard Callebaut chocolate. Look it up on-line.

These are chocolate covered caramels. All home made. Oh yeah!!

Samuel and Jenny tickling the ivories. Samuel really misses having a piano in the house, so we are in the market for another one, but the market is much smaller here. We have looked in Edmonton at several different places, but have yet to find what we are looking for.

Jenny, Dana, Samuel, Joseph, and Isaac. All the youth helped make chocolates, and helped eat a few along the way. They brought some home, and I loved the orange with dark chocolate. The caramels were really good too.

Red River, Red River

It's just another day in paradise, here in Canada. There is frost on the pumpkins, and a chill in the air outside. Inside the weather is fine. Joseph is ready for seminary, and it is important to him to be on time. He is as fine of a son as any man could ask.

And what, you may ask, is the reason for the content? Why, it is Red River cereal, my friends. The Original, High in Fibre, Red River Hot Cereal, 100% Natural, No Additives. You might also be interested in knowing that it contains less than 4mg of sodium, no cholesterol, and 2.8 g of fat. This stuff puts other hot cereals to shame, and it can be dressed up with any number or combinations of additional flavorings, like peanut butter, or brown sugar, or (my favorite) a dash or real maple syrup.

You can pretend you are Goldie Locks, and choose the papa bowl, or the mama bowl. Or, if you desire to escape the rat race for a bit, and want to unwind in the Great Wild North (sorry, no snow yet, just flurries for 3 days so far), we will make you your very own bowl.

Hugs and Kisses,

Alan

Election Day 2008

I elect to make cookies for a mutual activity tonight rather than delegate upwards, to my parents to buy cookies.

I elect to participate in the Combined Activity at mutual tonight by helping find Scripture Mastery Scriptures for Scripture Tic-Tac-Toe.

I elect to learn how to play primary songs for my nieces and nephews to sing.

I elect to help deacons learn the Scripture Mastery Scriptures.

I elect to play with gusto, and not be a bully to others.

I elect to play as a team, not as an individual, and to help others to succeed too.

I elect to be a good leader and role model for the beautiful young women in the Ward.

Now, after the election is over, I elect to follow the example of the Savior, to obey the commandments, to love my neighbor as myself, and not define my neighbor as only people that look like me, or speak my language, or vote like I do. I elect to be a good citizen and lead by example. I elect to choose the right and follow the prophets.

We all voted by mail from Canada.

Gardening in Alberta is just like Gardening in California (but totally different)

Today was the day to finish the installation of the garden boxes for Michelle. We have been tempting fate by waiting so long, and since the snow has been nice enough to hold off for a few weeks, we figured it was now or never. First we needed to dress for success. Please notice how Real Meximos dress to go out into the fall weather. You need to know the temperature outside today was plus 1 C. (34 or 35 F)

Ninja Gardener 1.

Ninja Gardener 2. Remember how, in the book The Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 ran amok in the house and pretty much made a mess of everything? Well, NG1 and NG2 are a close second. They figured out how to slide all over the yard,in the mud, and avoid work until I showed up to reign in the boys, rain on the parade, throw water on the fire, etc. (pick a saying to denote quash all fun and drive the boys until the testosterone laden attitude dripped off every word.)

So, this is the last box. The other five are complete, and the big mound of dirt is pretty much where the last box needs to be. Unfortunately with the recent weather (read cold) the top 12 to 16 inches of the mound are completely frozen. NG1 and NG2 thought the whole thing was frozen solid. I broke through the frozen part, and then the boys shoveled the softer stuff into the boxes to get ready for the bulbs, Tulips and Lillies.

During the excavation, we found a nice little red worm. We rescued him to the local compost bin with table scraps and old plants, and other misc refuse. It will be interesting to see how the compost performs over a real winter.

Here is the annual bulb allotment. We planted about 300 bulbs this fall, and we expect them all to come up in the spring. When we told people about the planting later in the afternoon, they could not believe we would plant so many flowers. We could not bring ourselves to tell them about the bulbs we planted in CA.

Jacob thinks it is fun to hold on to his brothers and pass gas. I know he is my son, but I must admit, I think he could chase away a skunk.

Planting for the spring.

After the work was done, it was time to play a little football. We were playing in the street in front of the house, and almost every car that passed honked or yelled at us. They will get over it. We played old vs young, and youth beat out experience on a fluke. And bad QB skills by the younger old.

"You are not coming into my house with those muddy boots."

Michell made us hot chocolate to warm us up after the gardening and the football game. Take a close look at what Samuel is eating. You can also read into that, dipping, as if the chips were cookies.

Hot Chocolate, and Abuelita Chocolate at that!

It was a good time. And now we are ready for the winter, at least we think we are.

We will see.

Hugs and Kisses,

Alan

Happy Halloween!

For weeks, there has been a rumour that one of the guys that work for Alan at site was going to dress like him for Halloween. Well, he did, and it was quite the hub-bub around the office. We also have two small video clips, and as soon as we learn how to edit them, we will post them too. This was just too funny today.

This is how to buy pumpkins, two at a time. Why do guys always do this? Or is it just this one guy?

Optimus Prime. This is not a store bought costume, Samuel drew this and cut it and painted it all by himself. All the kids that came by the house tonight liked the costume. Sam tried to go out to trick-or-treat for a spell, but the cold temperatures drove him (pun intended) back home early tonight.

Optimus Prime, transformed from the truck mode into the "young man in tights" mode.

Here is Locky, or Leonardo, ready to kick some Shredder-bottom, or maybe just lay claim to a candy bar.

One of the girls from the family next door (left) and her friend.

The neighbor and her son, James.

More treasure seeking trick-or-treaters.

Here are Jenny and Dana, daughters of one of Alan's managers, who came by with their niece and nephew.

Happy Halloween Everyone!