When I love winter....

This time of year, I enjoy winter!  Usually the days are not freezing cold and the snow looks nice and white and fluffy....but in a couple of months, I won't like winter any longer.  I am a heat-freak and love warm weather so when it has been too cold for too long I am over it!  I love winter pursuits like cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, etc. and really enjoy when the day is perfect for being outdoors in the fresh air.

One of those days was Boxing Day.  The temp was right around zero and Heath and I took the girlies to the nature park to enjoy a 3km walk in the snow.  It was lightly snowing and the air was so wonderful and fresh.

Christmas love

I have been lost without my camera these last few months.  Beginning in the summer, it started over-exposing shots using the flash and in bright light.  As most of you know, I am a huge photo fan and always have my camera at the ready for a good photo opp so being without it has been almost painful to me. 

Since I am saving for a 'good' DSLR camera, I can't afford to buy another point-and-shoot so I got fed up last week and had a good sit down with my faulty camera's manual to figure out if there was a way to manually adjust the exposure to get rid of the glare.  I finally figured out some options so my camera could at least take some shots...with a bit of tweaking.  I obviously prefer photos to words so I wasn't blogging much either.  Hopefully now that I am back to having some pics, I can keep friends and family more up to date.

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year.  Dave requested some chinese food that he could eat since he hadn't had any in a year and a half so Heath and I did some research and put together some recipes that were as close to 'legal' as we could get for Dave's diet.  Brian & Michelle joined us with little Nolan after supper. 


Dave warming his hands by the 'Fireplace Channel' broadcast : - )



The family all ready to tuck into some yummy food



Chinese food - rice (not eaten by Dave), Sesame Chicken, stir-fried vegs and Thai Spring Rolls with peanut sauce



Nolan intently watching Dad play the guitar.  He was totally engrossed!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends to share it with!

That holiday feeling...

I really can't say I have that 'holiday feeling' this year!  Even though I have decorated the house, attended the Nutcracker Ballet and hosted the Christmas Cookie Exchange, I still do not feel like Christmas is just around the corner?  I can't really explain it but hopefully that feeling will come on fast when the weekend hits.

Heath and I did a stocking stuffer outing yesterday to pick up everyone's stocking haul.  There won't be too many gifts under the tree because my family is just so durn practical that most of us are giving money for things others have already bought for themselves.....crazy, huh??  Well, there's not much mystery involved but we don't get things that we don't use : - )

I teach right up until Thursday and then I have over two weeks off.  I am looking forward to the break without any major demands or schedules to follow. 

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PS - I did some reading through my camera manual and tweaked some settings.  It seems to be taking better pictures for the time being so I just might be able to document some holiday events.  Based on what I've read, it sounds like I might have damaged my sensor by taking a picture of the sun????

What's up???

Well, I have learned that I am not the most committed blogger out there!  Thankfully, I don't have to do it for a living but I am sure it would be helpful to be a bit more scheduled in my blog posts : - )  We have been on the move a lot this fall.  There have been three funerals, two weddings, one family reunion and many outings with friends and family to enjoy. 

Cousin Andrew and Emma-Joy came to visit last weekend and we had such a stellar time.  Since they're expecting, I had to pull out the 'guilt trip' and tell them that if they don't come now, chances are we won't see them after the baby is born because we will be down the priority list behind the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. that want to see that sweet babe!!

We had supper at Heath's on Friday night, brunch at our house on Saturday morning.  Then we headed to Frenchy's in Shediac so Andrew could get a Frenchy's fix.  We had Trent, Rebecca and the kids for supper on Saturday night and then went to their house on Sunday for dinner as well so Andrew and Trent could get some 'face time'.  We also hosted a sing on Saturday night and had a houseful of pickers and singers.  Music is a Swan tradition, to be sure, and I love that family heritage.

It is killing me that my camera is just not up to par and terrible at taking pics indoors so I don't take any.  That isn't normal at all and I am researching some cameras with an eye to replacing my point-and-shoot ASAP and worrying about a possible DSLR later on.  I show up to things and people expect me to have my camera and to be documenting things....and I must disappoint : - (

The holiday season is coming on quickly and we have already got a girl's night out set to attend the Nutcracker Ballet in early December (DV).  We have to fit the Cookie Exchange in their and the Hall Christmas Program.  If I can get on the ball, I should be doing some stuff in advance.  Ha...good intentions and all that!  We will see how things go.

Office makeover

Awhile back I mentioned that we were working on an overhaul for our home office.  I really didn't want to call it a 'redecorating' project because that implies that it was decorated to start with....and it wasn't!!  When we moved into this house 11 years ago, we dumped the office furniture, papers, books, etc. and figured we would deal with it later.  Later became much, much later : - )

I had bought a custom-made (used) computer workstation/desk several years ago with the intention of finishing the unfinished room in our basement and making an office down there.  It was a HUGE desk and really would only fit in a large room.  Since the basement hasn't even been touched, I was thinking about selling it to get it out of our garage but one night I had an epiphany and thought that I could get Dad to help me cut it down to size to fit in the office.  With that idea, we moved full steam ahead with altering the desk and painting it black since the light grey melamine was a bit dated, to say the least.  Once the desk was painted, we thought that we might as well paint the walls and we considered finally buying hardwood to replace the old, ripping linoleum.  The budget just wouldn't stand for new flooring, but a can of paint was within reach.

Finally, we have a lovely area to work in at home.  Since I spend a lot of time on the computer, it is a real treat to be in a room that is nicely organized and cozy.  Everything is not yet complete, but the most of the work is done.  We want to get hardwood down at some point and the old thrift store chair will likely get a new teal slipcover but those things will get done at some point.

Here are some before and after pics of our project:

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanksgiving weekend Part II

Our Thanksgiving weekend was full to overflowing with family, friends and activities.  On Sunday, we headed to the cottage for the Patterson Thanksgiving dinner.  I always take the time to snap a bunch of pics for the annual grandparent's calendar.  The day was incredibly warm and after dinner we ended up on the beach...in shorts and a tank top, mind you!  The teens went in the water for their traditional semi-polar bear swim except it was much warmer than normal and they actually stayed in the water for a bit...brrrrr!  Not warm enough for me : - )

We were missing our lovely Karissa this year.  She is spending Thanksgiving (and her birthday...and Christmas...and Easter) in Ecuador.  There were little reminders of her everywhere.  Elaine took lots of pictures and the teens were working on a video for her birthday.  I love all of the love that my nieces and nephews have for each other.  It warms my heart!!

Here are a few photos from the day:

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and gave thanks for their many blessings...I know I did!!

Thanksgiving weekend Part I

Wow!  We have been experiencing some much warmer than normal temperatures for the past few days.  On Saturday, we went to the apple orchard and it hit 25C...kerazy!!

The apple orchard was a zoo.  There were a couple of hundred people in line when we got there but we all decided that it was a gorgeous day, we had nowhere else to be and we had good company to pass the time with so we got in line.  It took us almost an hour to make it through the line to the front where we got on a trailer pulled by a tractor and made our way to the orchard.  Did I mention it was a gorgeous day??

We had a wonderful afternoon with great friends and then hit Heather's for a fall supper of chili, corn bread and a selection of apple desserts.  What could be more enjoyable than a fall (that felt like summer) afternoon of friendship, fresh air and fun???

Swanepalooza 2011

We had a fantastic family reunion on the weekend.  We did something different and Dave and I hosted the reunion at the cottage this year....although Heather still did all of the planning work!! 

We had some family join us on Friday night and Ramona stayed with us until Sunday night.  Family arrived in stages over the course of the day on Saturday and the cottage location worked out fantastic!  Everyone was very mellow and relaxed.  It was chilly but sunny so we spent a lot of time outside playing volleyball and some hit the beach for a walk and some beach glass hunting.  I really loved looking around and seeing all of the little social 'pockets' inside and outside.  There was lots of one on one visiting and small groups.  It felt much more intimate than trying to work a big room.

Here is the link to my Facebook album of the day's events: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150825572440425.740807.679165424&l=87b5a4dcb9&type=1

Back to business...

It has been a very busy summer (as evidenced by my lack of posting)!  We have been to two weddings in the past month and, thankfully, done some fun stuff too!  Those who know me well know that I am not a real fan of weddings, but they were both lovely.

Michelle has not been out for a day on her own since Nolan was born on Christmas Day so the girls (Heath, Michelle and myself) took an afternoon and hit Treego for some physical exercise.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time.  We were all somewhat sore for the following couple of days : - )

After Treego, we headed over to the Desrosiers for some pool time.  We were really warm and sticky from swinging through the trees so it sure was a welcome treat to take a nice dip in the pool.

We just finished Daily Vacation Bible School the last week in August and it always is a stressful and non-stop week.  Thankfully, even though our cottage was rented for the weekend, we were able to get away for our annual DVBS Recovery party to Dave's uncle's cottage on PEI.  Brian, Michelle, Nolan, Heather, Dave and I are the regular crew...well, Nolan is this year's addition!

Victoria-by-the-Sea is so quaint!  The girls headed over for a wee stroll around town while the guys slept the afternoon away at the cottage.  Hopefully, things will slow down a bit now that September is here.  I start teaching Mad Science again at the beginning of October..oh, and the Swan reunion is this weekend.  Hmm, the Youth Conference is next weekend.  Well, I guess things won't be slowing down for awhile still.

Big adventures!

Very early on Wednesday morning, Dave and I dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to the airport to see Karissa off on her big adventure.  She is going to Ecuador, as an exchange student, with the goal to learn Spanish.  She will be there for about 10 months so we are all going to really miss her sweet self.

One thing that really warmed my heart was to see everyone that showed up to see her off.  When we arrived at the airport, Richard's entire family (kids included) were there and about 10 minutes later, Kent and Liz showed up with their family.

It was a great big party at 5AM but things got a little moister when it came time for Karissa to head through security.  I tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' but started to tear up when she headed toward me to give me a hug.  I thought back to when she was just born and I held her in my arms and to see her heading across the continent all by herself was bittersweet.  Time does fly by so quickly and it is important to try and get every moment you can with the people you love.  This is one of many steps toward adulthood and creating her own life to live.

So, until then, we will love and support her in whatever she chooses to do.  We are praying that she will be safe and have a wonderful (almost) year in a completely different culture.  What an adventure!!

Family ties

Usually a few days each summer, there is some type of family gathering at the cottage.  It isn't often that all of the nieces and nephews are there but we are happy when most are.  I always take the opportunity to take a bunch of photos for Bea & Doug's annual Christmas calendar.  Most of my subjects are cooperative with only one who hates to have his picture taken and may reluctantly be in the picture but usually refuses to smile or look friendly.  I work with what I have : - ) 

We have a draw for some 'prizes' that people donate.  Bea usually brings some family treasures to pass on to others.  The plate was made by Bea over 30 years ago and includes the names of each of her children.  Sadie went home with this little gem.



The kids actually came and got me to take a photo of the group.  They knew I wanted a group shot and everyone was there, except for Selina who had an unfortunate incident with her foot and a rusty nail...ouch!

Also also love to take photos around the beach area.  Here are a couple of my favorites from the past couple of weeks:



Beach days

The weather this summer has been...oh, how can I put it???  Unpredictable!!  It has rained quite a lot and when the days are sunny, sometimes it is still quite cold.  Having said that, as soon as a nice sunny and warm day comes along, we make the best of the opportunity and head to the beach.  I love that our cottage can be reached in about an hour and that we also live only 20 minutes from some of the nicest beaches in the Atlantic provinces. 

Cottage beach....all to myself!!

 

Enjoying some tunes


Dave and I were at the cottage last weekend for a long weekend but the weather was quite awful.  We had friends down on Saturday for the day and we did manage a nice walk on the beach after supper but it was pretty chilly.  The nicest part of the weekend was Sunday morning and we spent that in meeting and then at dinner with Dave's parents.  Just as we were ready to be able to enjoy the sun....it clouded over : - (

A cold outing but we had some fun anyway

 This week, we have had two stellar beach days so Heath and I headed to L'Aboiteau in Shediac with friends.


Nolan's first beach day...what is this stuff??



Not sure if he grooved out on the chilly water

.   



Here's hoping that next week will bring some gorgeous beach days as Heather is on vacation and we could beach it every day...if we wanted to!

Memories....

Mom and Dad had a big yard sale last weekend.  Mom asked me to go through all of the stuff to see if there was anything that I wanted to keep.  She had kept so many toys from when we were younger but neither Heath or I are big on keeping stuff.  We are both serious purgers : - )

I did take some pics of some of the items so I could keep the memories that way.  I couldn't believe how good of a condition some of them were in.



Pink ceramic ballet slippers that hung on the wall of my teenaged bedroom

 

A doll from my childhood (in mint condition)



I think this was a gift from someone when I was born???


 

Three men in a tub...missing the candlestick maker?? : - )

Warm memories of a wonderful childhood!!  Photos don't take up much space and can be hauled out at any time with very little effort....