I often think of this old blog and wonder if anyone misses my occasional updates.  So tonight I will be true to my 4 followers who will probably unsubscribe when they see this post... thinking "Am I still following this guy?"

To be honest, there hasn't been much to write about. I am still waiting to get a new business venture off the ground that was supposed to start 6 months ago....but the wait is almost over and we are looking at a late November opening.

Jaiden turned 11 on the 5th of October and is getting huge -in one spurt he grew over an inch in 2 weeks- must be my good cooking.
Jordan turns 9 in a couple of weeks and is slowly becoming my younger young man - not a baby anymore.

Picture Day

They both started their first year of ice hockey this year and have a lot of work to do to catch up to the other kids - but they love it. Jaiden got his first point on Saturday and his friend got ejected from the game for fighting. Gotta love it.

Getting cold at nights...won't be long until we are skating outside every night...



Jordan in action

Me...well I am pooped. The laundry, dishes, homework, refereeing their fights, chauffering etc. seem endless but still, I love it. Plus payday comes tomorrow - when I claim what's mine and raid their trick or treat bags when they are sleeping.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!!!!

On The Surface

OK...most of my friends in Korea or who know someone in Korea have seen this...SO for those of you who haven't I highly recommend that you watch this (the grammar in the translated English is a bit off BUT its a must see) here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBOtbhORBaY

I have seen kids like this guy....selling things on the street or subway. Can't imagine the life he lived up until now...and when I saw him on the stage I assumed he would do some K Pop or rap number  - what a pleasant surprise and boy what a voice.

This young man could have chosen to accept what life had dealt him but he felt he was worth more and so he bettered himself, all by himself.

The boys and I watched this a few times and it was especially touching to turn and have my teary eyes met by my 8 year old, also in tears. We talked about how you can't always judge a book by its cover and how every soul is valuable to our Heavenly Father....

And then I had an idea for our FHE....Johnny Lingo. The boys enjoyed the story and couldn't believe how much Mahana changed once she was treated well and realized how much she was worth.

Don't mean for this to be a FHE blog...  and I meant to write this two weeks ago....BUT I am so busy and so tired at the end of my days.

Nothing else new here.....I'll try and spice things up a bit next time!!!

And here is the link for Johnny Lingo: http://radio.lds.org/video/johnnylingo?lang=eng

Awesome!!!!!

Yes...I am awesome....and extremely humble, BUT that's another story.

Last night had to be the best FHE (Family Home Evening) that we've had in a long time. The success of the lesson caused me to reflect on one of my favorite conference talks by Elder Bednar:
 http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/watching-with-all-perseverance?lang=eng

Sunday afternoon as I left a home teaching visit, a family member of the home I was visiting passed me while I was on my way out...it was her father. He, being blind, was led by his teenage son. The next day, while outside, some dust got in my eye and as I struggled with trying to remove the dust I thought of that father and how lucky I am that I have my sight. As my eyes cleared, I looked up to see a beautiful blue sky with clouds scattered about and began to think about all of the beautiful things that my eyes were meant to see. That is when I got the idea for my awesome lesson.

There have been many a lesson that have failed (in my opinion) because they were too regimented or planned out but this time I thought I would try something different. First, we talked about the fact that the Lord created our bodies and their various parts for reasons. (Obviously because I have two young and silly boys....certain body parts were left out of the discussion.) We then talked about things that our specific body parts were not created for and ended with what useful things the Lord wants us to do with our body parts. Well I noticed a pattern in their answers with the DO NOT list which mostly involved kicking and punching etc...but I was so happy with the DO list especially when it came down to the final appendage which I saved to the end....our hands. Priesthood ordination, blessings, praying the "hands" list was by far the longest....finally we talked about the Savior and the things he did with his hands - the boys were so into the lesson it was AWESOME!  It helped them and myself to realize that even though there is so much out there for us to access or participate in....we were made for good.

So that's about it for tonight....the dirty dishes are calling. I'll end with a question/quote from Jaiden earlier this week:

"Dad....so when we get married in the temple...do we just go in and choose a girl?"

If only it was that simple.

Free????.......Blah!

This is for those of you who like to get free stuff.       

Denny's ( yep I said Denny's) offers a free meal on your birthday....and I like free stuff....and I live near 5 Denny's.....do you see where this is going? So yesterday was my birthday and the boys and I did the circuit and brought home a bunch of Denny's. One location made us dine in....and the manager was a total Richard...but the other locations' managers were all very pleasant. There is one drawback in that the free meal is a Grandslam breakfast = lots of grease. The dine in tasted pretty good and the boys enjoyed it because the last time they were there was when they were 5 and 7...they really enjoyed the 4 different refillable juice cocktails. Unfortunately the experience was all downhill after that. We got home, reheated our grub but didn't finish most of it. So my B-Day dinner = blah! But it was free blah so all is good.

I did get 51 packages delivered to our place earlier yesterday. Our shipment finally made it from Korea....no more camping out on the floor YAY! To be honest I will miss our nightly campouts but it's nice to have our beds here...and our summer clothes...and our hockey gear ETC!

So my long week-end will be full of unpacking but I'm sure we'll fit in some swimming, sports and other fun stuff! Hope everyone else has a safe and happy long week-end!

ENJOY!!!!

Same Old

Well I thought that I would have a lot of fun, interesting and cute stories to write about here in our new home....but honestly.....it's pretty much hum drum same old stuff day in and day out.

The boys are busy with afterschool programs and soccer 5 days a  week (Jaiden scored 4 goals his first game and Jordan scored his first tonight). They also have scouts and then the week end starts. Last week-end was jam packed...went by the church to help clean, then to a TV audition, then came home for a Saturday house cleaning, then off to public swimming, next was shooting some hoops at the nearby highschool followed by a movie (Hop) then home for dinner. Yep that was a busy day for sure
Sunday was fun. After church and lunch we took our neighbour Brian with us for our regular nature hike at Nose Hill Park. It's a huge park (one of the largest municiple parks in N. America) and has a ton of wild life.

On our previous visit we failed to get close to any deer but we were determined to find some this time around. Unlike most of the parks visitors, who stay on the pathways, we ventured into the woods and it wasn't long until we picked up on their trail. After about 10 minutes we spotted them and had fun trying to surround them. At one point we were about 20 feet away. So that was fun but it wasn't the highlight. On our way out of the park we noticed a dog up ahead had discovered something just off the path....it looked like a porcupine but we weren't sure. After making sure it was dead we turned it over and then examined it before pulling out a few of its quills as souvenirs. So it was a pretty interesting hike.

Jordan with deer-way in the background.

With the porcupine.

Cheeese!!!

Awwwww...so cute!

Peek-a boo!

Our explorers!

We concluded our week-end by volunteering at an English class that the Chinese speaking Elders run on Sunday nights.

So, that is about it...I'm too exhausted to be funny or cute (well actually I don't really have to try on that one:)
I did want to say how lucky I am to have such good boys. I volunteered in Canada's national election this past week and the boys came with me to our candidate's headquarters to await the results. They were so well behaved. My Jordan is such a people person...I seriously don't know where he gets it. Whether it's on a hike or in a room full of rowdy campaign supporters....he always makes it a point to say hello to everyone. Jaiden is doing a pretty good job of helping out around the house, lucky guy gets to go on a teepee campout at the foot of the Rockies next week for 4 days.

Sorry that this post is a bit lame....I'll try and stir up some excitement for the next one.

Winding down at 1:49 a.m.

Wow! What a day! Pretty much non stop action ranging from running around from bank to bank and store to store trying to get settled in our new surroundings. The highlight had to be getting the boys registered for school. They were worried about being the new kids and not having any friends...and I was worried about them not fitting in right away. We were told to come back after lunch by which time they would have the boys' classes all figured out....and as we left I had a good feeling that things would work out and that I had made the right decision.

As I mentioned before in my other blog - I had very little time between returning from up north until I was to leave for Korea to get the boys. So most of my house shopping was done the week prior to coming down here....and I looked at a lot of properties. One of the first was clean, affordable and in a nice area....I felt good about it just by looking at it....and couldn't wait to see it for myself. Once I got to see it I knew this was the place for us....and so far it's been great.-

After lunch we went back to the office and Jaiden's classmates were all outside of the door waiting for him...that made me feel so good....and it made Jaiden feel so special. Jordan went to his class and it was so cute seeing a new friend show him around (OK so I'm a big mother hen....so sue me)....they loved their first day.....Yippee!

Unfortunately due to my week(+2) in Korea I missed Conference this year and have been trying to listen/read parts of it now and then. Tonight, before writing this I went through and picked a talk to read that I thought sounded the most important for me and mine. It's by Elder Richard J. Maynes and it's called: Establishing a Christ-Centered Home. I chose it because I was feeling a bit discouraged about how I felt our Family Home Evening went tonight....it wasn't terrible...but boys will be boys.

One part of the talk was a poem that really emphasizes how important our roles are as parents:

 

’Twas a sheep not a lamb

That strayed away in the parable Jesus told,

A grown-up sheep that strayed away

From the ninety and nine in the fold.

And why for the sheep should we seek

And earnestly hope and pray?

Because there is danger when sheep go wrong:

They lead the lambs astray.

Lambs will follow the sheep, you know,

Wherever the sheep may stray.

When sheep go wrong,

It won’t take long till the lambs are as wrong as they.

And so with the sheep we earnestly plead

For the sake of the lambs today,

For when the sheep are lost

What a terrible cost

The lambs will have to pay.

 

The first time I read that I thought....OK so I'm a sheep and I need to stay on the path so I won't lead my lambs astray. Then I thought about all of the sheep we are responsible for as Home/Visiting teachers...and their lambs- .....and now it's 2:23 and although I could go on I have to go finish doing the laundry and hope that my body adjusts to the time change really soon.

 

And here is a link for that talk.

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/establishing-a-christ-centered-home?lang=eng

Phew!

OK welcome to the new blog. This one will undoubtedly feature many more characters (although they probably won't be as colorful as my Northern friends).

As most of you know I just spent a very stressful week (plus 2 days **thanks Korean Immigration) in beautiful South Korea. I have spent a good portion of my adult life there and although I will always consider Korea my second home.....there's no place like home (North America).

So after the passport drama, which I'll talk about later, we flew the 12 hours to Vancouver and then 2 back here to Calgary. Jordan had a huge lunch before we flew, which he was kind enough to leave in 4 airsick bags on the first flight. He then slept all day including when we weren't flying. SO...they are both wide awake at the current time of 11:55 and building their new Lego sets.

I was able to have a short nap and then we had to get our house in order via Wal Mart....and are now awaiting Mr. Pizza deliveryman.....

So now that the new chapter has begun...I look back and say phew, but then I come to the realization of how the Lord has been blessing me along the this path that I have chosen....and I am looking forward to what's in store.

Gotta go...but wanted to leave you with some wise words I heard this week. While we are on our way and life throws us a flat tire...we have two choices. We can get out and kick the tire and complain....or we can just fix the tire and keep going. Gotta be honest and tell you that the immigration ordeal was a huge FLAT TIRE and unfortunately.....I kicked it A LOT! But shortly after.....I was able to just fix it and move on. Hope I can do better on the next one.

Stay Tuned!