Another busy day.

Oh boy these holidays are filled with activity. I return to work tomorrow. I know it will be busy, but I can at least keep some sense of order on my desk.

David was up very early this am to get the last of the dragonflies off the grill. 2000 km means a lot of dragonflies.

Then the gang settled in for the Riders game. Wasn't that an exciting game? The game aint over til it's over - especially with the Riders. How many times can you mess up a sure thing.

Then it was Too Tall Trifle cake to celebrate Mark's birthday. The whole gang sang happy birthday. (imagine three more shy people behind the camera).

The June Bug arrived!

For those of you not remotely familiar with scrapbooking, this is not a beetle of great dread who will eat your trees. No, I am referring to the new Basic Grey line of paper that many have been waiting for with great anticipation.

The Basic Grey June Bug arrived today along with a few other goodies.... too bad I have to work tomorrow.

New stuff is always so inspiring!

First let me say though that I think the recession in the US is far greater than I realized because I think BG fired their usual designers and hired someone on the cheap.

I am disappointed with this line. They have had so many incredible, timeless lines in the past but this one ....well I'll just say it doesn't tickle my fancy.

However! I am always up for a challenge and hey I can use red plaid (vintage plaid) along with cabana on a layout with the right pic. And this picture of Mark with the big old red wooden carriage wheel worked.

...and get this, I used eyelets! Remember them? They were so perfect with this. Took me a while to find my eyelet setter, but there they are and you know what? Placing eyelets on the dotted card stock was just too easy to line up perfectly!

Journalling reads....

You sure do take a good picture Mark!

One cool dude!

Handsome, nice guy, talented, kind, a good cook, gentle and a strong brave fire-fighter as well. How come some girl hasn't swooped you up?

I know, I know – you are waiting for the perfect wife... and that is a very good thing. I know she is out there and she will love the Lord like you do. Every day Dad and I pray for you and for your future wife, whomever she might be.

My plan is to attempt some of the more floral June Bug papers as soon as I can. More challenge!!! But I love a challenge.

Have you caught the June Bug yet?

I want to know what you think.

FireFit 2009 P.A.

My little guy always loved to play with water and get dirty.

Mark, age 4.

See this cute little guy?

I am one Mom that never expected to see a son of mine compete in this Firefit competition and I have to tell you, as I watched him preparing for this, my heart was beating awfully fast. I tried to talk him out of it. Silly to even try of course but the mother in me was terribly worried about my little boy subjecting himself to such a grueling challenge. Always a mother. And was that a cough I was hearing?

But here he is 20 years later being the man the Lord meant him to be and I am so proud of him.

Mark getting ready for the team relay event.

Part of the relay - no masks for the relay. Still grueling!

Mark's turn is up for the solo competition - the whole course, by yourself, racing the clock and one other guy beside you. The sun is out and it is getting warm out here. He is off up the stairs to the top of a five story building.

8.2 sec - half way there.

Mark is climbing six flights of stairs in full gear with an oxygen tank on his back and breathing through a mask which reduces O2 by 15 %. On his back is 42 pounds of fire hose. No runners - big heavy firefighter boots and fire fighter gloves which makes the task even harder. I am one nervous spectator.

Mark is pulling 45 pounds of hose up the side of this five story building. Then he races down to the bottom and on to the next task...

Using a 9 pound mallet to move a 165 pound beam

The clock is at just over a minute....

Off to the other end of the course through the obstacles to grab the fully charged fire hose. I think the guys just want to lie down and give up at this point... but there is more to do. Still under two minutes.

Dragging a fully charged hose 75 feet and then hitting a target with the water.

This is the last and final leg of the competition - dragging 175 pounds of dead weight 100 ft across the finish line.

I feel his pain. Mark is so, so close to meeting his goal - just to finish the course - so many cannot get through it at all.

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small,large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and goodsense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." Winston Churchill ~a quote Mark has on his facebook page.

Mark at the finish line being tended to by the crew.

The recovery and first aid tent.

Some of these guys looked pretty bad. I had to go there and make sure he was okay... and take a few pictures too.

This is the crew getting those O2 masks off ASAP

and when it was all over and he had recovered I got this shot...

Here he is with his buddies 21 years later. Still playing with water. They grow up way too fast.

The Thompson Manitoba Fire Fighters FIREFIT team! Mark is on the far right. Mark did exceptionally well and I am one proud Mama. Okay I have to admit there were a few moments when I was so worried I felt physically sick... but now I just feel pride.

If you get a chance to see the Scott Firefit champions in real life - go for it - very impressive.

These are the guys who stay in shape so they can risk their lives to save ours.

Scott Firefit Championships

What a busy week!

Forty hrs at work, two bedrooms painted, new blinds installed, the entire upstairs carpet cleaned, and the garden weeded and lawn cut . I put in some long days (my sweetheart was a huge help)and slept very well last night but hey it all sure looks great. Sammy (and David)installed new light fixtures in all the bedrooms last weekend, including our new mini chandelier - which I will share pictures of soon. oh it is soooo romantic!

The fun continues and this morning David and I are almost out the door soon (7am) to grab a tims and head off to Prince Albert to watch Mark compete in the Scott Firefit championship.

A competition of firefighting skills for the super fit!

I will take lots of pictures!

....because there will be a whole bunch of very fit firefighters doing their stuff.

... and my new Olympus E30 is really up to the fast action challenge.

Good Dog

I scanned this 4X6 and made it a 5X7. It was such a cute picture of Mark and Sam in 2002. I also needed to deal with some red eye. Love my scanner but my dream scanner would be a 12X12 scanner to speed up the process of scanning and uploading my pages to the blog. Although I am pretty fast with the photo merge in Photoshop! I am also dreaming about a new HP Photosmart printer that will print up to 12X18. Think of the scrapbooking possibilities and the cool journalling...but the ink costs! Whoa!

Anyways.... this paper from Reminisce is called Good Dog. The paper was a perfect match for this photo. We have some pretty fun cat and dog paper in right now. Ralna really brings in some terrific patterned paper to the store and sooo much of it ...I love it all. I also used Creative Cafe paper behind the photo, some Creative Cafe rub-ons and buttons, Basic Gray chip board letters and my white gel pen.

It's Official - Firefighter

Well actually it was official last June 20th, 2008. Mark graduated from Brandon Firefighting College. He looks so handsome. Proud mama here. He did very well in his Marks - all 80's and 90's and it is a grueling course. He made some really good friends too.

Mark will be home tomorrow if he can get everything packed into his little car by then. Then leaving us again in two weeks to take his first job as a firefighter and paramedic in Thompson Manitoba. It is the only place in Western Canada hiring right now. I so hoped there would be positions in Saskatoon but not yet.

If you have any connection in Thompson, please do let us know. Mark needs to find a place to live and get settled in so he can report for his first day of work on October 20th! Kind of exciting.

Sigh - two launched and into their careers. So our next big job here is to find a place and get him moved - furniture, dishes - he will be scrambling to get it all done. I know the Lord will supply all our needs in this.

Well "Seasoned" Chef

Ralna did it again. Sometimes I just get bogged down with a page because it lacks a theme or idea or message. I just can't find the right words for the title. I guess that is why I was a Science major and not an English major. Here I had a picture of Mark in November 2001 out on the back deck in the SNOW in his SHORTS and his winter BOOTS - cooking our burgers on the BBQ.

Mark loves to BBQ no matter what the season....but I was stuck on a title. Winter BBQ er, Hot burgers in the cold, yes, well these were not going to work. I pop the pictures out at work and ask Ralna....two seconds - that is all she had to think and came up with "Well Seasoned BBQ/chef" and pulled out the paper with all the seasoning stuff on it. A great play on the word "season"
How does she do it?

Paper Loft, Flair Designs and Basic Grey along with some of that super cool mesh, thickers, MM sticker letters, Creative Cafe rub-on letters (oh I need MORE of these), scenic route star - for my star bbq'er, heidi swapp clock cause he times the meat perfectly and my signo uniball white gel pen that I would never be without. I added some journalling on the right side after I scanned it - reads.

Mark, I love how you love to BBQ. No matter what the "season" you are willing to get out there and cook.

All Grown up!

I looked at this picture of Mark and saw him all grown up (he is 18 in this photo) but I could still see in his eyes the little boy I loved so much. How did he grow up so fast? Made me sad, and yet I was so pleased with what a fine young man he has grown up to be. Truly he has never given us any grief. A good student and hard worker, always willing to help around the house. A guy who loves to hang out with family eating pizza and watching TV on a Friday night. I feel blessed. So I took a look at some of those old photos of Mark, cropped and converted to b&w and put them on the page. Just to remind me that he once was a little boy of mine. And what a cutie pie he was! (and still is! )

Card stock, BG 'boxer' and sticker letters, heidi swapp chipboard letters and my white gel pen.

H20 FUN

No great feats of art, but it was important to get their first experience water skiing down on paper and into the album. First Mark and then Allison. Actually I think this was Mark's second go at water skiing. He looks way too confident for this to be his first attempt.

Baptism

A two page layout of Allison and Mark's Baptism in Aug of 2001. White card stock does not scan well and does not photograph well. It is always trying to pick up a colour. So this layout looks far more vibrant in real life.

Once the 15 pictures were chosen and cropped this layout was a breeze - just white card stock and patterned paper - MME and then those favourite rub-ons of mine from the Creative Cafe - Creative Imaginations. Added some chipboard letters and I was done.

Brothers

A 15 min Sunday afternoon page. Used the Basic Grey archaic line and the Brothers rub-on is courtesy of Laura - she gave it to me - said she didn't have any use for it. hehe - I guess not. :) unless Seth's Mom decides he needs a brother. :) ...or you can always wait until you have two grandson's Laura...but by then there will be something far more exciting in scrapbooking to use.

The metallic letters are for my boys names - I suppose if Mark and Paul were to switch places it would be MPH. hahaha

Father son bonding.

About six weeks ago David and I stopped in at Pier 1 Imports to get some decorating ideas. We spotted a very cool picnic table. It was wooden, just like the 20 yr old wooden table in our back yard. Perhaps a new bright coat of paint could make ours look like this one. Well when Mark arrived home after his graduation, he and David set to work on this table. However it had a few rotted boards after sitting in the rain and snow for so many years, so off to home depot they went for wood. ....and a few other "necessities"!

and they set to work... (that is Harold throwing the discus there AKA a new blade for the saw. )

Long story short....there is nothing left of the old table and benches. It all sits in a heap at the side of the house waiting for a trip to the dump. And guess who gets to use his new jig saw!

At this point Mark had to head back to Shilo. But all the pieces for the benches were cut and ready to assemble and the table was ready for sanding and painting. David spent all of Tuesday putting the benches together. Then when I arrived home from work Saturday evening he had a big grin on his face! "Come and see dear"

Wood ~ $300.00

Bolts and hardware ~ $40.00

Paint ~ $ 30.00

sandpaper ~ $3.00

New jigsaw ~ "not that much really dear"

Other hardware ~ $35.00

Father - son bonding - PRICELESS

Feeling of accomplishment - PRICELESS

He also cleaned out the rain gutters and made supper! Love this guy!!

FIRE!

Some of Mark's Pictures from fire fighting school...