March Already!

I took Cali to her friend Meghan's birthday party today. It was at a local gymnastics club. Cali had a great time running around on the foam and jumping on the trampolines. Some time has past since her Jolly Jumper days but she got back into the swing quickly.



I can't believe that it is March already, so that means spring should be just around the corner, right? Not here, today we got a huge dump of snow. I think that this has been my snowiest winter in Alberta. I don't believe a week has passed without a snowfall. This is all fine as it covers the dead brown Alberta landscape, however I am not to used to driving in the snow. I got stuck on my street about a month ago as they don't plow in southern Alberta, instead they wait for a Chinook to blow in and melt it all. In the meantime the roads get quite nasty. I will give them credit for plowing the main streets and highways but other than you are out of luck.

Ed competed in a badminton tournament this weekend. His team made it to semi-finals. I think that's pretty good considering his age... just kidding!



We are working away at the basement. Hoping to get it finished before Ed's brother Darryl comes to visit for Easter. Right now we are living completely on the upstairs level. It's a mess we have furniture and boxes shoved in every corner of the house. There is no room to "pay" as Cali says. I can't wait to get it completed then I can set up her kitchen and slide. It's going to awesome. I will have to post pictures of the progress when I get a chance.

My First Contribution to the Yu Household Blog

So this is my first contribution to the blog. Life has been very fast since we got married. Cali is well on her way to being two and I wonder where I was during all of this. Not that I've been absent, but little children grow up so fast; I can understand why some people say they miss it. Cali has been our entertainment over the last few years. She makes us laugh and makes us cry and sometimes both simultaneously. It certainly doesn't tickle when she opens our eyes while we are sleeping. :)

Cali does provide good entertainment from showing us new words to singing and taking care of her dolls so very well. She is very innovative, using baby facecloths as bedtime blankets for the two twin dolls in her care. She is quite the caretaker as well, willing to take the kleenex to unexplored regions up the dolls' nasal cavities. So needless to say, we haven't gone out for much entertainment; Cali provides quite a lot.

I'm continuing to teach all different subjects. I'm working on writing assessments that will be good indicators of progress so that will take a bit of time. It is sometimes depressing that the 4 or 5 hours I spend writing a good test, is written in 60 minutes and sometimes with little effort by the students. It makes me very relunctant to allow them to retest.

The basement has probably been a topic of discussion but we will leave that for another day...likewise for the basement...

Potty Training in Progress

So today I decided to get serious about the potty training. I went out and bought reward stickers and a reward album. Cali is all about the stickers. I am pleased to report that we now have six stickers of progress in our book and one accident. I think that's pretty good; I will continue to report our progress. I found a great link to a few potty training songs if anyone is interested:

http://ca.pampers.com/en_CA/learning/pdf/LyricSheet_PPTDayCr_v1.pdf

They are pretty cute! Anything to motivate our little ones, right?

I am terrible at making banana bread, absolutely horrible! So today I decided to try a new recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com. It turned out lovely! Nice and moist with a soft top as oppose to my usual crunchy brunt one. I did burn the bottom though... but that's because I got distracted while it was in the oven. What a surprise getting distracted with a toddler in the house :) Anyway here is the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Sour-Cream-Bread/Detail.aspx

I will be sure to add more recipes that I like. I think that we could all use a few more good ones! Thanks for the feedback Chantelle!

Here are some new pictures from this year. Just click on that cute little picture below to get the slide show going.

Feb 09

Stupid Facebook

Okay, I have been spending too much time on facebook. So I decided to turn my attention to my blog. My poor blog!

Not too much has changed around here besides Cali. She is getting so big, I suppose she is no longer a baby. She often tells me her name is Cali and demands to do things on her own by clearing stating "self, self". She can pull on her own pants but often misses the back part, so she walks around with her diaper hanging out. Potty training is... going... today we had a great morning, no diaper but then this afternoon we had an accident. Oh well there's always tomorrow.

Work is great for both Ed and I. I myself an experiencing information overload. I have taken 4 courses in the past two months and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Although I must say that my assessments and knowledge base are much improved.

Ed and I are both looking forward to our holiday in the summer. We plan to take a trip home to Nova Scotia. We are going to meet Uncle Steve there, I haven't seen him since he moved to Scotland in 2006. So this will be Cali's first encounter with her Uncle. I am excited to smell the ocean breeze... I had a dream about it last night. Only 5 more months!

This is a new video of Cali wearing my glasses that she broke... they are hers now. Here she is seen talking about the importance of using coupons before they expire. Something I have a hard time with.

Frigen Rain!

So I can't do much of anything outside due to the exuberant amount of rain we have been receiving. The inside of the house looks great... I baked bread today... but the outside looks terrible! Stupid rain... all I want to do is plant a garden!!!! Anyway I just wanted to vent. Here is a great link for all you cheap Canadians:

www.save.ca

what's up

Things have been a little crazy the past week. I started back to work last Monday. I am having a hard time juggling family life, work life and church life. Any advice? It's seems life is always some sort of balancing act. Anyway when I get a chance I will update again in more detail!

This is a Great Video!