CIrque de Soleil

Ed and I scored, somehow Ed got on the list to get tickets to come to Calgary to Cirque de Soleil Kooza.  Now, we know we weren’t at the top of the invite list as the RSVP date on the email was before the email was sent.  But really we didn’t care we were just happy to be there.  Look at the tents!

So we arrived to find out that we were considered VIP’s and got free parking, then we got to go to a special tent that was the Tapis Rouge area.  Then things got really good, free drinks and food, and it was high end we got the royal treatment.  Who knew!  I felt like a real grown up there, but a little like I was playing grown up.

This is in the Tapis Rouge Lounge.

We got our pictures taken with the mannequin as part of the experience.  Don’t we look official with the our passes around our necks?!?

   Then we got to our seats, that were only four rows from the front.  Excellent seats!

We were close enough that Ed got called up on stage, I know, amazing right!  He was wearing a jacket and tie and they did a whole slight of hand show with him where they took everything out of his pockets without him knowing and then he even took off his tie with out Ed knowing.  It was a bit surreal for me sitting in the audience while my husband was up there on stage.  I couldn’t stop smiling afterwards, my husband was up on stage, so cool.  What a great night, I had the best time with my best friend!  He was up on stage you know.

Car accident

So as if our weekend wasn’t exciting enough, Ed was in a car accident on Friday.  Not his fault, this time, last time he rear ended a big truck and the trailer hitch punched a hole right in to the front bumper.  No injuries as he was not traveling very fast just thought that the light changed and he rolled forward and bumped the guy in front.  To add insult to injury he also got a ticket for not leaving enough room between him and the other guy.  Hard lesson.

Friday though, there was nothing that he could do.  A guy not paying attention rear ended him in traffic, hard.  He drove the car home but not sure he should have.  We will take it in tomorrow to get it looked at and to get a rental vehicle.  He has been sore ever since and I am really hoping that he has done no permanent damage.  Poor guy still had to help with the windows etc.  He hasn’t been sleeping very well so I hope that this gets better soon!

Home Renovations III

After the front windows they started on the old patio door.  We spent a lot of time trying to decide what to do at the back.  This patio door opens from our kitchen eating area in to the back yard.  It was so old that the latch did not work anymore and we had to use a stick to “lock it”.  Not particularly safe, we did not always remember to lock the back door and too many times we came home to it with out the stick.

We talked about garden doors but I felt that we would be losing a lot of light and there would be a big decrease in the amount we could see out to the back yard.  Also the opening would only give us 2 1/2 foot doors which are a bit small especially when you are taking garbage and recycling out.  And then we talked about putting new patio doors in but that didn’t seem to make sense either as they are not particularly energy efficient.  So what we decided to do was a door and a window.  The window will open and the door has a good lock on it than makes it very energy efficient.  I love it!

Here is the job in progress.

 

Can you see the old doors leaning against the garage in the back yard.

Building the door and window frames.

In goes the door.

Then the window.

And here it is all finished.  Beautiful!

Home Renovations II

So this weekend Ed’s mom and dad were here to help (read do) some window and door replacements.  We have an old house and the front bow windows really needed to be replaced and we were not sure what we were going to find when we opened up the walls.  We had the siding replaced a couple of years ago and they warned us that they could see some rot, but we did not know how much.  We were all worried about how extensive it would be and how much rebuilding of walls there would be.  This is what we found:

I know it looks bad but it is better than it could have been.  So a few new 2”by4”’s and some plywood and we were off to the races.  That was such a relief for all of us.

Here is the inside with the casings off the window getting ready.

 

Window number two.

Window number four .

WIndows all in and now on to the siding.

I now have windows on either end that open.  I very excited about having more airflow!

And they are finished!

Isn’t it beautiful!?!?  I absolutely love they way that they turned out!

Home Renovations Part I

We have been busy making improvements to our home.  Our house was built in 1977 so it has some room for some updating!  Lots was done when we moved in 4 years ago but there is still a long list of things that we would like to do.

Some of it is just paint like the kids rooms.  My mom made the kids both quilts and Isla’s especially screamed at the walls. Here is the before:

Isla

Adam

 

During

Drum roll please……………………………………………

 

 

We also painted the doors, closet doors and trim boards white.  They were a dark wood, and that has to be one of the best changes in the rooms, it really makes it look less like a 1970’s house.  The downside is that it takes days to paint them as they have to dry 12 hours in between coats and you can only do one side at a time.  Lots of painting to do in the rest of the house!

So I had bought a some special things for the kids rooms to personalize them a bit more.  I got Adam some Star Wars the Clone Wars stickers.

 

And poor Isla, I got here these mirrored hearts that apparently to heavy for the amount of sticky ratio.  We put them on and they started falling off, she couldn’t even sleep in her room that night because every time they fell off they would wake her up!  We have to try and get some sticky tack and see if that will help.

Gotta keep it real.  This was Adam’s room when I went upstairs just now to take a picture.

Hockey!

 

Hockey has begun for another year.  Ed has decided to coach again and he is really looking forward to it.  They had their first practice on Saturday morning and it went really well.  He has a few kids that are not strong skaters and some that can not stop but that is where the reward comes in, by the end of the season they will have improved immensely!

Adam is glad to have his dad as the coach and he even listens to his dad which is good.  Probably better on the ice than off!

The picture is from last year when he got to skate with the Rebels!  So awesome!

Dancing Star

Isla has started her new dance year, with tap and highland.  Wednesday is our dance night with tap class at 4:15 and then Highland at 5:00. 

 

She didn’t bother to get dressed again in between classes and just wore her boots.  Good look isn’t it!

She is doing really well in tap.  Here is a quick video from last week.  So super cute!

   Here she is at HIghland tonight.

I was too far away for a good picture with my phone but you get the idea of how cute she is.

She even got to dance in front of the sword today!  So cool.

Adam is deep in to evaluations for hockey.  Ed is doing the evaluations so he will be spending a lot of time at the rink over the next few days.  I hope it all works out!  He is not even sure if he will get a team to coach as there are more coaches than teams.  I really hope that we get as good a team this year as we had last year!