my birthday!

Well, turning 27 felt a little weird. It seems so much closer to 30 and that is just too weird to even think about! On my birthday we got invited to some friend's campsite at Grand Beach for the day. So we went with our friends Nathan & Malann, and their baby Sofia. I was really excited about this, since I've wanted to go to Grand Beach since I first came to Manitoba, but never had the chance. Finally, after spending four years out here, I get to go.

We arrived just in time to eat lunch, in the blistering heat. Then we headed down to the beach. While I was in the change room getting suited up, a thunder storm let loose. We had a full out hail and lightening, huge drops of rain, storm. It lasted about half an hour and then everything cleared up. So, needless to say, my swimsuit got wet, but not from the lake water! I had a great day despite the crazy weather, especially since I happen to love storms. Sorry, I guess we didn't take pictures of all this.

After we got home and cleaned up, we went to Nathan & Malann's for some appetizers, and I do have pictures of that:

lifegroup BBQ

I'm feeling pretty wordless these days. We did so much stuff this summer, that catching up on blog posts feels like an insurmountable task. So, as a result, you are getting pictures stories of some of these events. We had a BBQ with our life group, it was an absolutely beautiful evening, mosquito free with a slight breeze, and two birthday's to celebrate. Awesome!

Cate is 1 Year Old!

The week of Cate's first birthday Michael and I went over to have supper at John & Angela's place. We had a great time.

I managed to get Cate's birthday present finished (this is quite an accomplishment for a knitter). So, after her bath she modeled it for me:

Pretty cute, eh? It's super easy to make, and I used dishcloth cotton so it was inexpensive to make and can handle a lot of washing. This is a good thing since it's being worn by a one year old and will last two seasons if we're lucky!

clean sheets are VERY important to me

I hope the title didn't gross you out too much! In our house there is a constant debate about using a flat sheet (I've resorted to buttoning it onto our duvet since I can't convince Michael it's a good thing). While I'm not a big fan, I'm an advocate, now that I'm the one responsible for washing sheets & bedding. In the summertime, since we just have a thin blanket without a duvet cover, I give up on using a flat sheet altogether. I also have a husband who, when he does sports, does it with great intensity. Resulting in various scrapes on his legs. This summer he's been playing flag football. He slid on the grass, scraping both shins/knees. I told him he had to either wear pajama pants or use a flat sheet (since I did not want his oozing wounds touching my clean sheets & blankets). He refused to do either and devised an alternate plan. I thought it was so hilarious what the guy will do to avoid the flat sheet (or the pj pants for that matter), that I took pictures. Here they are! Want to know what that is? It's a dishcloth, taped to my husband's leg with medical tape.

Just imagine, he'd rather rip tape of the back of his hairy legs, than use a flat sheet!

Apparently, some where around 3am, he was so uncomfortable, he got up and took it all off and opted for the pj pants!

Frisbee Golf

For our friend Corey's 30th birthday the guys took him out to try frisbee golf. Michael thinks he wants to take me sometime, but I'm not so sure. I don't have the greatest aim, and even the guys had to chase after frisbees in the creek!

The birthday boy in action. And here's some more shots from the day, including the BBQ we had after.

Janet comes to visit!

Well, for the first time ever, since living in Manitoba, I had a non-family visitor! This was quite exciting. I finally got to do something I've wanted to do for quite a while. Just walk around downtown & in Osborne Village. I've yet to convince Michael to do this with me, besides I think it's more interesting during the day when the shops are open. So, Janet and I spent the whole day walking. Here's a few pictures of hanging out with Janet!

Motor Cross at Shadow Valley Raceway

Michael's friend Duane has family connections to the people who own this track. Michael has often gone to help out, this year we went together. It was a lot of fun, we got in for free and had to do some work, but also got to watch all the racing.

Well, here's a shot of the girls hanging out up on the scissor lift to get a good view of the races. Me, Arlene, Wendy and Londa. This was during one of our breaks from running the concession stand.

Watering the track, to keep it from getting really dusty when the riders are on it.

For part of the day, Michael manned the gate, and he had to blow all the dirt off the cement pad before every race started. I think he really enjoyed this part, since it makes pretty awesome noise and send a lot of dirt flying.

A cool shot of tires and color.

At the end of the weekend, Michael and I got to ride the track, to see what it was like. Pretty cool, but there was some DEEP ruts (read: I got stuck once)!

And this is a cool shot of me, with my wheels off the ground! (I just wish my jacket wasn't all poofed up with air, oh well.)

cookie disaster...

Most of you know by now that I have a love for baking. I wanted to have a bake afternoon, so that I could finally get more than one kind of cookie into the freezer at a time. Since Jenn has been enjoying a far smaller load in her course work this month, we baked together. (which is great because I love the company!)

This is Jenn spooning peanut butter cookies. Yum!

Unfortunately, due to space constrictions (see first picture), I didn't follow my usual, get everything out and put it away once I've used it method. See the cookies in the picture above? Those are Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Don't they look a little strange? Yes, they do. Why? Because I forgot the oatmeal! Normally I consider my convection oven a beautiful thing, since baking three pans of cookies at the same time makes it possible to whip out three dozen cookies in an hour including clean up. Today, I am wishing that I hadn't put all three pans in at once, since that meanst I ruined the entire batch.

Sigh.

I suppose that everyone has kitchen mishaps at one time or another. Although if you're me, they happen all too often (but not usually the kind that ruin the food). My favorite kitchen mishap is what I have affectionately termed "watering the counter." See, we have one of those separate taps for filtered water at the side of the sink. Sometimes our kitchen sink is so full of dishes that I swing it to the side to fill my pot, or kettle or the pitcher of water we keep in the fridge. This tap pour extremely slowly. I often will go do other things in between (bathroom break, fold a few pieces of laundry, or chop veggies). If I'm still in the kitchen working on something else, I usually catch it pretty quickly (this means I probably only used 2 tea towels to wipe it up). One time I went to sit down at the computer. Then I noticed what sounded like running water, which I thought was strange because I was home alone. So, I went to the kitchen to find out what was going on. There was water covering the entire counter, running onto the floor, which was also completely covered, almost to the point of making it under the fridge. This time I had to use every bath/beach towel we own to clean up. Most of you are thinking, she must've learned her lesson after this one. Nope. I still "water the counter" at least once a month. Dan asked me the other day if I was making progress, if the counter was growing at all.

my gorgeous red socks!

need I say more? aren't they awesome!?

Aunt Mari, do you recognize this yarn? I bought it when I stayed with you guys for Christmas way back when, I can't believe how long it took me to finally make something with this yarn, but I'm glad I waited and did something pretty and lacey, rather than plain old stockinette stitch (which is all I knew how to do back then).

our new bikes!

Dad gave us money to buy bikes as a grad gift for me (originally he offered to buy us a computer). So, here we are proud owners of shiny new bikes! Thanks Dad!

We took them for a ride over to Henry and Shirley's for tea the same day we bought them. Our butts are going to have to get used to this, but we are very excited to have an activity we can do together that will also be good for our health. One of our favorite things to do in Winnipeg is admire all the interesting houses, now we can explore neighborhoods in our area from a different perspective!