Friday, July 25, 2008

inspiration for real

another post for angie. chicago seemed to capture the words perfectly of how we feel towards you. we just threw this together.. in two nights of some late night cramming so we could post this. please forgive the mistakes and any imperfections. all of that prep work was erika learning all new chords and us recording and re-recording. it is past midnight here.. which would be why i'm wearing a basketball jersey and shorts (okay that is misleading.. i am not going to a basketball game.. haha i am wearing it to bed) and i look kinda bored when i am singing.. hahaha) oh well... WE LOVE YOU ANGIE!



Thursday, July 24, 2008

some pics

I had some pictures from last week that i never blogged.


Candi keeps asking me how she can get on my blog. If she dressed more like Jamie she would surely be on it more. One late night, jamie burst into my room dresssed like this crazy pirate cowboy superhero in their pajamas.. she just did it because that is what jamie does.

Driving home from work the other day me and mom saw this car.

This sticker was in the window. Classy.. REAL classy.

And a picture from when we celebrated Erika's birthday at dinner.
I know it was her birthday and all but i was really hoping that she would share some cake with us!


But on a more serious note. LIFE IS GREAT! this summer is flying by! i go back to school in practically a month! OH MAN! where is the time going? I still have SO much i want to do before i get back to school.. see more people, make a quilt, read some more good books, learn to cook more food (i did make some hot and spicy wings tonight though).. etc. I am getting ready to be back in school and out of this work routine though. I am learning so much this summer about everything, me, my life, my family, friends, tuxedo's, radio.. JUST SO MUCH! i am so grateful for the opportunities and miracles i have been witnessing! :)

but ang.. i still miss you! (and your family of course)

Are YOU my family?

Okay Story time. This story is mostly fictional, but the pictures are real.

On Monday night we went to have FHE at Bowness park. When Candi and I got there there was SO much going on. So many families Candi started to get a little confused.

We saw a nice family of five,Candi asked, "Are they my family?"I looked at her and said, 
"Really? No that isn't our family, there are no little boys in our family!"
"Oh Ya!" said Candi

Then we saw a family on bikes.
"Are they my family?" She asked of the next group we saw.
"No, That isn't our family! We didn't bring our bikes, remember?"
"Oh ya!" said candi.

Then we saw this family.

"Are THEY our family Alana?"
"No, not them either. We don't bring bars of soap to the park and wash our faces, and wear scarves over our hair."
"oh ya!" said candi.

Then we saw this family with canoes.

"Are they our family?" she asked of the next group
"No, we didn't have enough room in the van for all those canoes," was my reply
"oh Ya!" said candi

Then we saw these menonites.


"Are they our family?" she asked once more.
"No, we have more than two sisters and we don't wear black things in our hair and we watch TV," I told her
"Oh ya!" she said

Then we saw this family of ducks!

"Are they our family?"
"No, we can't even understand what they say, and we don't like swimming as much as they do."
"oh ya!" said candi.

Then we saw this family of bikers.
Getting a little sad and worried she would never find our family she asked again, "Are they our family?" 
I answered, "no, we have never been arrested and we are scared of the Hell's Angels!" (okay so i know they aren't the hells angels, but it makes for a better story!)

Then we saw the Brady's.
"Are those happy people our family?"
"No, our family isn't the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls, all of them with hair of gold,like their mother, the youngest one in curls. or the story of a man named brady, who was busy with three boys of his own, of four men, living all together, yet still all alone.  And there is no one day when the lady met this fellow, and they new that it was much more than a hunch. That this group would somehow form a family and all become the brady bunch in our family."
"Oh ya!" said candi.



She was almost in tears when we saw this!

"I think i finally found them! Is this our family?" She said excitedly.


"Yes, this IS our family! We are a Pyromanianic, hugging, smiling, weirdly posing family!"

And she was SOO happy!


THE END!


(Inspired by the childrens book "Are you my mother?". Feel free to read it to your children as a bedtime story)

But actually our trip to Bowness was a lot of fun.

This is Mom showing Dad how to build a fire. i am not lying!




We roasted marshmallows (we forgot the graham crackers) and got eaten by mosquitos! what more could you want??






Sunday, July 20, 2008

finer moments of the week

This week has been filled with quotes from my dad that have brought us to tears a couple of times.. because we have been laughing so hard. he thinks its weird that we laugh at him when he's not trying to be funny, and then when he is trying to be funny we don't. He never thinks we are listening, but we always are.. at least enough to catch him if he says something that doesn't make sense or something that we find to be funny.

he told us why he had lots of his scars at dinner one night.. and used the phrase, "and my face was all bleedy and stuff.." he tries to tell us all the time that english is his second language, and we believe him

and jamie and jenelle were in one of there usual arguments this week and when we thought he was about to step in and take his position as father and discipline these words came out of his mouth, "We need another numchuck and then they could just fight eachother!" it didn't make sense to any of us.. apparently he was talking about boxing on the wii..

On thursday night Erika scored us some tickets to the Stamps game, and so Erika, Jamie, Jenelle, Dad, Candi and i all went. There is nothing better than a good ole football game. Our seats were awesome, and the stamps won!


Direct quote from Dad..: tonight erika is my favourite daughter



I guess i'll let erika have ONE day as the favorite daughter.. i mean i get tired of always being the favorite.

After the game i went to the midnight showing of the NEW batman movie! it was SOO good! Heath Ledger played his part of the JOKER so well! He was definitly a creepy villian, and the movie was def worth staying up past 3am for!

This week i also found out something about my house. Something that i wish i had found out about sooner. We have room service. The other night i wanted a cold glass of water really badly.. and no one would run upstairs and get one for me. So i picked up my cell and dialed a number. A nice man answered, i asked if he was room service.. he seemed confused, and then i ordered 3 cold glassses of water with ice.. after we cleared up the confusion, Candi (who didn't think i should ahve called in the first place..) also decided she wanted a glass. And the man on the phone finally understood his job and asked if we wanted crushed or cubed. A few minutes later our water was delivered.. As if he doesn't do enough already.. PAPAHASHI is our own live in room service clerk.

Monday, July 14, 2008

officially an adult



My baby sister  is finally 18! WOOOHOOO!!! 
Her and i have had some good times together.  



It was a busy day today.. i feel bad because i missed out on quality birthday time with her today because i had to work.  but we did have enough time to snap some quick pictures of most of us sisters (we miss you Ang and we did think about how well we could photoshop you into the picture) Check out Angies blog for some good pictures and a wonderful tribute to Erika 

All i saw her get for her birthday so far was some jelly tots. oh yeah we know how to treat you right!
Hope you had a good one and we celebrate better later!


Also.. Happy TWENTY-SIXth Anniversary to Mom and Dad on July 10th.  I sure love you guys!



the greatest outdoor show on earth


There is so much buzz about The Calgary Stampede. What exactly makes it so good?  Well, i am a bit of a nerd and so below i have compiled a short list of reasons to LOVE the greatest outdoor show on earth or at least my reasons for this year:
1.  The Flags
The excitement starts weeks before the stampede when the flags go up ALL over the city.  They always go up when the weather starts to finally be nice.  You can't help but start to count the weeks til the stampede starts.  


2.  The whole city gets involved

Where else can you eat for free all week?  and Wear jeans to work for a week?  The whole city uses the stampede as an excuse to go COUNTRY.  It is so fun, all the buildings downtown and throughout the city have murals painted on them. 

All the billboards even get cowboy-ed out.  I just love it.  There are stampede breakfasts and bbq's all week everywhere (this year there was this flapjackfinder.com to help).  

3. You can wear a cowboy hat

It doesn't matter your race, size, shape, color, age etc. Anyone and EVERYONE enjoys sporting the cowboy hat during stampede week.  And you also see hates of every size, shape and color.  Not even just on the grounds.. its EVERYWHERE in the city. :)

4.  the C-train



5.  The grounds/fireworks every night
They seem to get bigger during stampede and there is so much to do/see/ and eat.  This picture was taken right before the fireworks went off.  The fireworks every night are always pretty sweet. 

6.  Free concerts
The coke stage is always full of good free concerts.  Tonight i got to take a quick break from work and watch some Plain White T's.  This years line-up was pretty good: finger11, puddle of mud ( i got to meet members of both bands), natasha beddingfield, derks bentley, lifehouse etc. always a little something for everyone.. and its free once you get in.    

7. Job Opportunities
The stampede was where i had my first job, like my older sisters.  My first job was where angies was here.. at the Pizza place.. where we made/sold pizza for 14 hrs a day.  We always had a blast and made some good friends and shared Tons of laughs all week.  I still miss working there!

8.  the food
the corndogs, the mini donuts, the candy apples, cotton candy, pizza, pickles on a stick, ice cream, lemonade, funnel cakes etc.
all of it is HORRIBLE for your health.. but just so greasy and delicious for once a year. 
I tried a couple new things this year.. mac and cheese wedges.. which were actually SOO good!

and i tried deep fried oreos.. also good, even if you feel your arteries closing up while you chew. 

9.  All these people love it.. why shouldn't you?
there are always crowds at the stampede.. everyone else is loving it because there is a little something for everyone.  I didn't even brush on the rodeo and the young canadians.  The rodeo and the chuckwagons should be reason #10, i didn't get to go to them this eyar so i didn't have any pictures.  But seriously, it is what the stampede is all about, so it is kinda a huge deal.  

10.  It ends when you are tired and leaves you excited for next year.