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August - December 2011

07 August - 24 December

Well, Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year everybody.

It's been a while. We hope you have all been well.

On our side, life has been good. It is Christmas, which means Marjel has decorated the house, baked some bread and lighted cinamon-sense candles. It smells great inside.

Me, I am mostly slouched on the sofa, feet up, read a book and make myself useful putting the garbage out in the garage, and not even that in a timely fashion. The children are out of school (it is a Saturday after all) and are following Santa on the Santa tracker. All excited about the presents tomorrow.

Santa has had to process one new list roughly every day. Every time a commercial advertised a new toy, a small person came out of the TV room, grasped a piece of paper, and added yet a new feature to the list. Life is great when you are small.

 Outside it is unseasonably warm. Been like that for a while now. Some warm weather zone from California moved north. We still have snow lying around the house, but everyone down at lower elevations in Calgary is staring at brown lawns, sludgy roads with little lumps of white here and there.

Saw three moose today. Apparently two of them had a fight, right in our back yard. I missed it, but it woke up my mum. I guess that's a little different from her normal routine :-) . The alma mater is here for the Christmas days and to back up for the nanny who is having a few weeks off.

So, no serious winter so far. Environment Canada had promised a colder than normal season. Not that I want it to be -30 or so, but a little colder would be nice. This weather turns the ski slopes into ice rinks. We've been a few times already (Shanna and I that is). Had a lot of fun, but Shanna did not enjoy the icy steep bits, and to be honest, neither did I. Hitting a stretch of ice at high speed is not my idea of a relaxing day out on the slopes...

Shanna's getting pretty good at it though. Not that she has brilliant skills, but she likes to get out and she is in control.

Floortje has not been yet, and does not have a lot of appetite. She's declared she wants to be a speed skater. I might have told you this already. I think it is part of the competition between the sibblings. Floortje has noted that Shanna does not like skating that much and that Shanna gets a lot of attention when out skiing. She was quick to put one and one together, so now she gets to go out with dad twice a week to do the skating programme at the Olympic Oval. Dad in the mean time is skating, and skiing, and still plays soccer. I think I mentioned the piano lessons some other time, so basically, dad needs oxygen by the end of the week. And so does mum

Marjel does most of the real work, at work, and at home. I suspect that deep in side, Marjel finds these moments of chores in the house therapeutic, and that her yelling at me for being a lazy bum is really another way of thanking me for giving her space.

So, let's look back on the last few months. There is a bit of catching up to do.

Way back in August, when the trees still had their leaves, the sun still came out at 5 in the morning and Canada was still in the Kyoto agreement, we had just returned from our one week vacation. That was the only and last bit of real vacation I had this year. Partially my own fault, and partially because there was just a tonne of things to do. Still , got to watch work life balance a bit. Don't want to end up as "that guy over there, he is your father".

By the end of August, Marjel's sister and family visited from Belgium. That was good. Got to do a few of the local tourist attractions, like the rodeo in Pincher Creek . I just looked that up on wikipedia. Highlight of Pincher Creek: a professional hockey player was born there. I bet you will find that for any town in Alberta. It's a nice place though. I like it. Liked the rodeo too. Unlike with Calgary's Stampede, where you have to pay $ 40 or more to get a seat about 500 yards away from the action, in Pincher Creek you pay $15 or so and get to sit right at the front of the ground. Sometimes I had to wipe the mud of my face. OK, maybe that's not true, but it was certainly close, and you can buy cheap hotdogs!!

Also got to see a Canadian Football game. This is where a bunch of steroided guys in padded suits throw a ball (with there hands - there is no foot doing anything in this game), run 10 yards, stop, have a 60 second break and repeat. Lot's of people like it here. It moves, so I'll watch it, but to call it an exciting sport, no, not really. SHanna and FLorianna ended up with vuvuzela's as trophies. Yahoo......

After the game we got to go on a bus trip. For some reason Calgary Transit had scheduled major maintenance on the tracks commencing right at the end of the football game. I won't go there..

Marjo and Ewout left by the end of August. August was a good month. Plenty of nice weather, barbecues and beautiful sunsets. There were some bike trips with Shanna in there as well. Took her "mountain biking" near Nakiska on her new bike. Think she liked that.

Following Marjo and Ewout's stay, it was time for the last stretch of visitations. Opa Hans and oma Fredie. We took them out for a long weekend in Waterton National Park. Did the typical itinerary : Red Rock Canyon, walk around town, canoo on Cameron Lake, and watch the Elk rut. It was a bit early in the season, but we got lucky the first night already. 20 - 30 Elk, rutting happily along the look out point. Of course, the next day there were none, and of course, that was the day we took the kids.

Back home, time to recover. Four family visits in four months. It was great that we got to see everyone again, but never again. Why? Simple stuff. At the table we only spoke Dutch. Shanna and Floortje do not speak Dutch. Dinner is one of the moments we got to get together as a family (the rest of the day typically being absorbed by work) so really, there was not a lot of "being a family" going on. The little tribe did not start using drugs, I am sure they are traumatised though...

Speaking of trauma. Right about the time my dad was here one of our computers broke down. This would be the one that was built with old Soviet technology, in 2001. Yes, the one we bought in Houston. The one that got refurbished in Manila and then underwent one overhaul in Calgary before it finaly ceased and decisted. One day it just stopped working and went into an infinite loop of restarts. Turned it on, and three days later it was still restarting. Time to admit defeat. Time to figure out how to transfer the web pages from the broken one to the replacement. That, my friends, is royal pain in the neck. It is not because I am cheap that we delay purchasing new hardware, though it is to some extent, no, it is because it takes forever to figure out which files should be transferred, which ones not, and so on, and so on. I am still using a back up of the old computer to dig up a file every now and again. For taxes for example. "No mister tax collector, my computer went down and I have no copy of that ever so important piece of information." Can you see that happening?, Well, I can.

THe other major piece of annoyance is that with a new computer come new tricks, gadgets and software updates. Bloody hell. I am an old dog, and old dogs don't learn no new tricks. OK , maybe a few, but not without a whole lot of cursing, swearing and other unholy wording.

Right, we're digressing.

Let's turn back to the joys of our wonderful life in the foothills. You may have noticed we're not letting on where exactly we live. We've been paranoid since we started this web page, way back in Houston,  that criminals could be watching our site and extract all sorts of useful information. Like, when we are on a holiday, or what our kids like, so that they can abduct them from school. The world is a horrible place. Also, we've stopped trash talking our employers, as that can get you fired, or, when looking for other jobs, can reflect poorly on one's personality. Takes a lot of juice out of the page too though. I mean, who is not interested in what saucy things are up, down town Calgary. Well, I still choose cash flow over entertainment. Sorry.

What we can share though is that Marjel is still doing well - see - good news only. She's saved her company a tonne of money and made a few bucks for them too. It looks like she'll get a reasonable year end review, which is good for the alter-ego. They checked Marjel's pulse to see if she was interested in a manager's job. She declined for now. Likes to stick with technical work for a while.

Me, on the other hand, well... It has been a wild few months. We've been building a team and finalised the preparation of a series of pretty substantial activities (how's that for vague).  That's all cool. Then I got invited to another one of these leadership programmes. Again, all good. Got to sit with an organisational psychologist and chat about my psychotic deficiencies. All fun aside, these things are pretty insightful. At the same time, they are utterly depressing at least for me. The lady psychologist develops a list of great things and then there is the list of "things to work on". And it is long. It always is long, and whatever I do, at the end of the exercise there is a new list with things to work on. On days that the skies are grey, the sun is nowhere to be seen and all is going to hell, that perpetual lists makes me feel like the little guy climbing this mountain, and every time he thinks he get's to the top, there is another hill lying in wait.

Enough of that.

Whilst the parents were making money, the kids were going to school. Shanna is in grade 4 now, and Florianna in grade 2. Both got their report cards not so long ago. Not much to complain about, other than that it would be nice if they finished their tasks every now and then, instead of getting distracted by friends and other social nonsense. Well, at least Florianna is not walking hand in hand with the boys any more.

A couple of "fun-facts"  for those of you who want more than the " all is well ". Florianna reads books at grade level 4, does math the same and all in all is a cool kid. She can be really focussed on getting better at things, like her skating. She is secretly trying to perfect her cross-overs (pootje over) and she is improving every time we go. The build up to the programme was classic Florianna though. " I want to go skating" "OK let's go skating" " I don't want to go skating" "Well, daddy just paid a ship load of money, so we are going skating" " I don't want to go skating" "You will get hot chocolat with whipped cream after" "OK let's go skating, skating is fun". Some how I can't help but think this was all part of some master plan already, but heck, what do I care. I get to do a dad thing with Florianna and that works for me.

Shanna is not much different. She's "still" reading at grade 4, cause those books are about fairy's, and that's all she wants to read . We talked about pushing her, but see no reason to do that now. She has all the time in the world and what's inside her head is inside her head. If it is smart, it is smart, and if it is not so smart, well, then it is not so smart. It comes up at parent teacher conferences every now and then. Apparently there are quite a few parents who want there kids led to the brink of academic geniality. Apparently that is not us. It's funny how that works out when the school is trying to organise something special, like that opera thing they did earlier in the year. Still have to think about the complaints the school received from those parents who 'd rather their 7 year olds learn the table of 10 in their lunch break, than let them participate in a play put together and coached by the Calgary Opera. Never mind.

Shanna got diagnosed with some level of intelligence. Not sure anymore whether she was gifted or brilliant, but either way, she scored in the top 10% of Canada in some test. The school does these tests, not to help the parents find out how smart their children are, but to request funding for extra teachers they can add to their staff. These teachers are hired to do special programmes, for either not so gifted, or very gifted kiddos. Essentially a way to score subsidies to help out with severly understaffed schools.

Both FLorianna and Shanna are back in piano lessons. Both go primarily for the candy and cakes they get from their teacher. 

Further points of relevance.

Floortje opted out of dancing this year. Marjel think's it's because she did not want to be in the same class as Shanna and there were no kids she could immediately think of that were in dancing classes she might like. Shanna did go into dance classes,. At the Christmas performance, she danced a ballet duo with another girl and it was nice, beautiful, lovely. Dad - me - had forgotten to bring the camera, which really bugs me, but trust me, proud parents aside, it was good. Floris has since decided she might go dance classes again.

Floris has moved in with her parents. Some where down the road this year Floortje decided she was scared in the dark, had night mares every evening, and was going to wake daddy up at least once per night, but typically twice or thrice. Initially, we brought her back every time it happened (this would be the royal we. the other part of the we usually did not even wake up when things went down). This did not work for Floortje, so she threw in the secret weapon. Vomit. She would hype herself up so much that every thing she had eaten and drunk before ended up in or on the side of her bed. The most sustainable solution ? put a mattress in our room and let her sleep there. THe master plan? She would start off by sleeping in her own room. If she woke up and if it was really needed, she could jump into her "emergency bed" in our room. Well, that worked for all but one day. Then, day by day more stuff starting appearing in the emergency bed. Stuffies, books, toys and alarm clock. And so, we now have a rentor. One day we'll kick her out. Have to figure out how we will do that. Maybe the hot chocolat bribe can work its miracles one more time.

Shanna has a new best friend forever. A new kid came to her class, had no one to play with and Shanna became her friend. Problem is, the friend will likely move by the end of the school year. I am holding my breath. We'll see what happens, but I am worried

Anything else? Probably yes, but I am toast. It's 27 December now, and we're supposed to get some friends for dinner. Should be fun. I'll throw in the piece about me getting MRIs on ankle and knee. Got a letter which was all gobbledeegook to me. Doctor will explain things in the new year. In the mean time I keep playing soccer, and keep training for the skating marathon. It hurts, but I'll get enough time to hang out in a wheel chair, later.

Marjel still does her scrap booking. Quilting seems to have gone quiet, but maybe that is because I don't interact enough with her. Christmas season means Marjel is up early in the morning decorating a tree or a fire place or something. Then there is the cooking, the baking and I don't know. It's too much for me to keep track off.

And then there is that moment of reflection, just before the end of the New Year. We had it great, we really did. Sadly, others were not that lucky. Friends and family lost friends and loved ones, or got bad news otherwise. Countries we lived in saw massive disasters (the Philippines had huge flash floods) and many lives were lost. These things are tough, and we think about them often . Not sure that helps, maybe it does.

Alright, crazy kids roaming the house. Gotto hide.

Wishing you the best for 2012 & see you (though not all at the same time :-)

Horse riding camp at Horses are Cool, just west of Cochrane (August)	Florianna went to the same camp.	Camping at Kananaskis Lake, with Hong and Dan and little people. We brought a cake to celebrate Florianna's 7th birthday !! Dan forgot his mattress. Did not get a lot of sleep. That was one reason to leave a day early. The other reason was a bunch of teenagers who had not made it beyond the cave men stage. One had a guitar, the others thought they could sing and then they had some beer. They stopped their party at roughly 230 in the morning, at which time I was close to joining the ranks of the pro-gun lobby. Annoying louts got evicted the next day. Ach well.. Still had a great time :-)
With every camping trip there are of course marsh mellows	Otherwise Floortje would not join...	This is the morning after the night before. See, we are all smiling
Made a lovely canoe trip	.... only in Canada .... Nothing beats this	Has any one noticed the only time I can get Floortje to sit still is when she is eating....
Keeping coffee warm for the pancake breakfast at the Pincher Creek Rodeo	Howdey pardner. Mr Ewout with the best breakfast ever	Rodeo princess signing photograph of herself for Shanna
Pancake baking Alberta style		With some music. Fortunately it was not very loud.
	The real deal. The kids got a little bored, after 2 hours of horses jumping up and down, but I have to say, I still got a kick out of it.
	Stampede urban style. I'ld rather watch horses... Calgary beat Montreal in this game, only to be humiliated by Vancouver in the play-offs. Vancouver went on to win the Grey Cup (just in case you are interested)
Bear viewing trip in Lake Louise. Zero bears and tired kiddoos. Excellent. Note how Shanna is slowly moving in front of the binoculars...	Pay back time....	No bears
Cameron Lake - early September. This remains one of my favorite places		Peaceful (even with my dad in one boat)
	Elk rut in Waterton. One day there were tonnes. The next day there were none. THe old folk thought it was great, and it was.
Bear's Hump - Waterton - September 2012. Tested the quadruple by-pass. Still working.		View from the Bear Hump on Waterton Village. The mountains in the back are in the US
	Glenn Bow Ranch Provincial Park. This one is 15 minutes from our home. Beautiful place with lots of nice hiking and biking trails. Took Shanna and Floortje here. They were mainly interested in throwing rocks in the water.
	Family visit
Colored flames. Once again we celebrated Floortjes birthday around Haloween. This time we had a pool party.		For Haloween we visited with friends who live in Mount Royal. This would be one of the more well-to-do areas. Lots of folk really made an effort to decorate their house in the scariest fashion possible. One family went all the way, and hired an acting crew who performed all sorts of well, scary acts. lights projected scenes on the house, and down at the basement people handed out hot chocolate. Someone told me this bash cost somewhere between 50 and 100 thousand dollar...
	Floortje gets a few friendly words from Sinterklaas
and so does Shanna		and then it was Christmas. This year we have two trees. One upstairs and one downstairs
	and we sing Christmas songs
	and we ski as per the holiday tradition MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

April - August 2011

11 April - 07 August

Wow, it's August already. Life sure goes fast. Lots to talk about, not a lot of time. So, please bear with me as I rush you through the days of our lives.

To start with the most recent escapade, we just came back from a camping trip. Visited with Auntie Ien and Uncle Chris. Put the tent in their yard (10 acres of wildernessed land in Nakusp) and set the kids free. They both had a great time, collecting eggs from the chicken pen, raspberries from the raspberry pen and cutting slugs in two with a pair of scissors.

Florianna spent most of her time stalking cousin Keefan. I think he was OK with it.

In between farming and computer gaming (Keefan's favorite past time) we toured the country side and swam in hot springs and freezing lakes. Floortje fought with Shanna about which DVD to play when driving, and then barfed in the car. The first barf bag had a hole at the bottom, thus we ended up with a smelly automobile and puke all over the place. The second barf back was not required, courtesy to powerful anti motion sickness pills.

On the way back from BC, we stayed at our traditional Chancelor peak camp site (@ Yoho National Park). No showers, no hot water. No convenient anything. Still worth the while because it is just pretty.

Back here we found the garden in good shape. This thanks to a deluge the day before, which was apparently accompanied by hail the size of golf balls and flash floods down town. Lovely Calgary weather.

The summer has been one great feast any way. Winter lasted well into April (we still had 50 cms of snow at Easter time) and was followed by a series of rain storms of biblical proportions. By the end of May we had water in the back yard, water in the front yard, water everywhere. A lake extended from Shanna's and Florianna's play house southwest to some 100- 200 m northeast, into the neighbors's land.

Ducks were happily quacking and raising their off-spring in this new found place, while we had started building a small arc, just in case.

After the rains came the sun. The lake got smaller day by day but this did not deter the mosquitos from reproducing by the hundreds of thousands. For a while it felt like the swamps of Louisiana. By July dark clouds of blood suckers were hovering outside, swarming anything that smelt human, and me in particular. The solution - just stay inside. 

Marjel however, did find an new plan to attack this problem. Bats. Also bloodsuckers, but apparently they prefer mosquitos. So, Marjel and her dad scored a "build-your-own-bat-cave" from some web site, and constructed two bat-mansions that are now hanging from the side of our garage. Let us pray this works.

Moving on to the next subject. Children.

The children are doing really well. Shanna is as easy as ever. Her sis presents a bit more of a challenge. She can be really fun, but has those moments where you wish it was still legal to put children away in the coal shed.

Let's cover the mandatory news.

Both got their report cards and both did well. Ironically, Shanna got significantly better marks than Floris. Ironic because for some reason we had been thinking that Floortje is smarter than her sis. Dunno why.

Somewhat entertaining tidbit: Shanna had to do some Performance Test, which is a national test that kids do in grades 3 and 6. She was really nervous and told us that she had not finished the test. Typical us, we thought our kid was headed for the remedial teaching programme. Especially when Marjel was requested to attend a feedback session. Turns out that this was a feedback session for yet another test . Without us knowing (let's rephrase that : paying attention) Shanna had also done some other test, which measured her against her peers. Apparently Shanna came out in the top 5% of Canada. The school proposed she participate in a dedicated programme when she is in grade 4. She'll have to do some extra work, but they think she can do it..... Funny how that goes.

We do think there is another reason for the school pushing this (and the tests) which is that they get extra money (for staff) if they have extra programmes. They only get the money if they can demonstrate with tests that they have a minimum numbers of kids to justify the this...

Florianna is way more street smart though, whatever the tests say.

Other bits and bobs

We went to see U2 in Edmonton. Took our babies this time. Great concert - again. Floortje and Shanna are wild U2 fans now. They are also wild about Edmonton Mall. That place has a huge (and I do mean HUGE) swimming / wave pool inside (and a rollercoaster park, and an ice rink).

Took our mum and the kids to Tyrell Museum. I think this is about the tenth time we went there. Shanna and Florianna still can't get enough. I think I know all the exhibited species by name (English and Latin) now.

Ah, dinosaurs, that remind me of Writing on Stone Provincial Park.

This is where we went when Marjel's parents were visiting. Beautiful place. It's in one of those river valleys in the South of the Province. Imagine pretty yellow cliffs (of the small size), lovely sunsets of over waving green seas of grass, and a river. Smoked salmon grilled on a barbecue fire, nice potato salads,  marsh mellows and of course, tonnes of mosquitos. Inbetween food, bug bites and sleep we made an educational walk guided by a First Nations lady who showed us around petroglyphs made by natives up until some 100 years ago. That made us think about the difference in life-styles between different regions, then and now (philosophical moment..... end of philosophical moment).

Then we made a hoodoo walk and a trip to Devil's Coulee. This is a sort of ditch where paleontologists found dinosaur eggs. We were six of the 1500 folks that visit that place on an annual basis. I've already forgotten the name of the nearest town, but it was small. It's only other claim to fame an international hockey school for girls, right there in the middle of nowhere

I should mention the soccer programme I guess. Spent half the summer coaching an U-12 team, with one of my neighbors. That was a lot of fun. In the beginning I was tearing my hair out, but at the end it was getting really good. Still not sure if I am most suited for training little people who are just a little to smart for their age, especially since whipping is not allowed, but they seemed to have enjoyed it, or so we were told.

And finally, the children again. They have started watching YTV (Young People Television - I do not know what happened to the "P"). It has quite a few commercials, and the impact is instant. We now have to buy Crest toothpaste and Dove soap. It's funny, but don't ever tell me kids don't get influenced by what they see on tv.

Fetch (May, K-country)	Happy family picnic	Mud, mud - glorious mud
	May Waterfest in the front yard. There is a story that comes with this picture. Our own version of Watergate. It includes an angry neighbor (somebody who we thought once of as a friend), sharing all sorts of foul language. May tell more some other time .
Flash light bouncing of bold head. Wonder what the pictures by the guy behind me look like ... :-)		Edmonton ice rink (June)
	Old people hiking at top of Jumping Pound Ridge. The story behind this that it took me 2 1/2 hrs to cycle up this hill, and then I run into this geriatric health club...
You gotta love the hat (Writing on Stone - end June)	Morning crafts (Writing on paper in Writing on Stone)	She can smile - yes she can
Mud, mud, yes, glorious mud	Happy	Neat 'keeping-kids-happy-things' in Devil's Coulee Museum, Warren, Alberta. Folks had poured some gypsum + sand on a mix of dinosaur and cow & horsie bones. Then provided a chissel and some brushes and there you have your own excavation
Outside busy Warren. The van belongs to the man. It can turn curves at 80 km/hr (we actually saw him do that....)		Charlie, the dinosaur baby, reconstructed from real bones
Writing on Stone. I have a better picture somewhere...		More grass
Shanna drove all the way up Ribbon Creek. Floortje trailerbiked		Show with stuffies tied to yarn. Check out the rainbow
Vacation (Nakusp - August)		Freezing in the lake (the run-off was late, the lake very very cold)
	Scavenger hunt on the SS Moyee boat (Kaslo BC - August)
Pretty Kaslo		Two none too enthusiastic hikers at the top of Box Mountain. Floortje thought it was too hot, too long, too many mosquitos, too steep. Too much of everything. Shanna liked the flowers, but that was it. Next time bring a video game...
Actually, she smiles a lot :-) Beaver Creek picnic ground August - Glacier National Park		Going nowhere without my orange friend....
	Chancelor Peak camp site Yoho National Park. One of our favorites

March & April 2011

26 March - 10 April

Ok, that never got done (my writings of 26 March). Too much fun (?) stuff to do.

So, where are we at?

Right now, I am just filling time before I go to the totally over the top shopping mall at Cross Iron Mills. I think the place has become a sort of a Mecca for folks that have nothing better to do than go shopping. The pilgrims gather in troves every week, they shuffle - slowly - through the miles of mall and buy stuff like if they don't they won't make it to heaven, and they won't have a comfortable life. Not if they don't bring their own stuff anyway.

My mission, I need to see if I can by some new pants. I am starting to grow out of my pants of 20 years ago, and, to be honest, one can start to see my underwear through the more worn out parts. All in all not a very appetising business.

I should also buy a new computer. Mine - the one we still have from the Philippines - and remember, that was only an upgrade of the one we bought in Houston in 2001 - well, that one - is making the sound of a Fokker Friendship Airplane. One with those floppy propellors. The birds outside are taking a hike whenever I tunr this machine on. Figuratively speaking, as most of the birds are still in sunny America. Here in Canada it is STILL winter. We have at least 50 cm of snow remaining in our yard, with a few spots where we can actually see the grass. Did I say grass? Hah...

Spring has arrived though, as day time temperatures have not dipped below zero for quite a while now. We also have not had snow for a week, so we're heading in the right direction. Should mentioned that exactly 7 days ago we had a humongous snow dump. After I was done shuffling I had amassed a wall of snow of some 2 meter (yes, meter) high. Took me about 2 hrs, with the tractor.

Good for skiing though.

Shanna was very happy, as I took her out to Lake Louise. It was spectacular. Blue skies, just above zero, not too busy. Brilliant.

Shanna had a great time. I lived through one of my bad-dream scenarios. I had always been worried that one day the kids would become more enthusiastic than I would be about certain expeditions. So, Shanna had decided she wanted to try some moguls. NOt that she had ever been on any. And I, well, I am not much of a mogul fan, because (1) I am not such a good skier, and (2) I have a knee that has had better days, and moguls are not necessarily a place I venture voluntarily. Anyway, as we are struggling our way down, Shanna starts to get the hang of it, while I just wonder why the hell I ever agreed to this. And thus it was that I was slowly sliding from far left to far right while well below me I heard the excited sounds from my eldest, going WHOOHOO, THIS IS AWESOME. Brilliant - just bloody brilliant.

Fortunately she got tired of it, after 2 1/2 runs and we could have some chocolat and go home.

Florianna is a little less into skiing, but she has decided she wants to go skating. She is actually quite good at it, which makes me hopeful for the future. I took her and Shanna to the Olympic oval a couple of weeks back. Shanna has no strength in her ankles and I don't expect she will be the next Goudvinkje (Yvonne van Gennip). Florianna was quite agile though, and much much faster than Shanna, which led to the usual set of tears (they don't like to lose to eachother). Anyway, FLoris had a big smile on her face and wanted to go every week or so. Too bad that the Oval is closed for repairs (leaking roof...)

Florissie also likes the cross country skiing. They're both ok at that. The trips are a little tiring though because they get bored easily. Hence the expeditions are interrupted by stops to poke in snow and hits sticks at trees. At the halfway point they can climb up a hill and roll snow balls down and play other stuff. This makes them very happy, and forget about all the things they were whining about on the way in. It is quite amazing how all the depair and "me don't want to go anymore" disappears if only they can play for 5 minutes in the snow. Really, we sit at home at the table, after our trip, and ask them if they had a good day and it was all awesome. No word about all the stuff they hated. I guess if they are happy, I am happy.

----

So, back from my expedition to the wonderful world of shopping. Halfway through was of the mind to go home with two books (I went to purchase pants....), but persisted and came out winning.

Meanwhile Marjel and children went to another scrap bookers day. Sounds like they had a lot of fun. Clever marketing on behalf of the scrap bookers paradise. They had one promotion once "Hey - bring a kid - day ". THen they struck, when the kiddies were finishing their stuff. Lookie here, here is some of the things we're planning for the rest of the year. So, now they go out every month or so. Make scrap booking easter bunnies, spring flowers (the spring piece was somewhat ambitious given the brutal snow storm that occurred that day).

Let us reflect on what is behind us.

You must be tired of all the stories of wintersports. I can imagine. I had not thought though, that we could still be so keen to go skiing in April. It is addictive. Well, for some of us. Have to add, the winter this year was very very long. Funnily enough it was predicted last year already, by environment Canada. El Nino was pretty strong last year, and apparently that leads to lots of snow (and we had tonnes) and cold days (and we had loads). For the rest of the year I do not know how it will be, but I have heard a wet spring might be in the books. That should be fun - not - what with all the flooding risk we have here. Yes, we are on the top of a hill, but the soil is all glacial clay (leem), ie , the water goes nowhere.

OK, let's talk a little about report cards, birthday parties, piano lessons, music software, soccer pitches etc

Report cards and pan cakes.

Our dear babies are apparently very sharp. No so much at school - well - actually - also at school - but more at home. The girls came home with their report cards and the first thing they said was not - "look mammy/daddy - look at my spectacular grades" - but - "look mammy / daddy - we have our report cards - we are eating at the pan cake restaurant tonight". Not even a question, but a clear directive, based on the fact that we had taken them there for fun after their last two report cards.

The reports were good. Marjel and I are not too fussed about if they score top grades or not, probably because they are doing quite well anyway. It is interesting how all this goes. On the one hand there is the external pressure to push kids hard, as their grades will count when they go out and apply to secondary school and who knows University, but come on, they are just kids. They should have fun and learn how to make friends, understand right from wrong, bad from evil and behave like pleasant people if at all possible. Yet, there is that nagging feeling and I must admit I am not always that sure about what we are doing. We have friends who have kids in a (very expensive and pretentious) private school. Their kids are progressing fast and learn Spanish and God knows what. Good, bad? Their kids are not evil so they seems to be fine. They have an incredibly hectic life though. Too hectic for what I can reasonably achieve. I guess we'll stick with our mantra that if they have a good set of brains and become a bit street wise those brains will still work when they are 20 and whatever comes their way comes their way - and they will know how to ski :-) We can only do our best - right??

It is beautiful outside. I should go outside. Maybe later.

Shanna's birthday party was not so long ago. She wanted to go to SAIT, which is a polytechnik school with a bowling alley and grand sports facilities including a pool. Shanna wanted to go there. A friend of hers had held her birthday there before.

She had some 7 friends show up. Not bad. We still keep stats, concerned that we are about her social circle - and her getting hurt because people might think she is odd. It is so strange though, life in 2011. None of these kids really play together much, other than when they meet at dance class, or sports or what have you. So different from what we are used to.

Anyway, Shanna is not a goof, outcast or anything like that. Apparently. Her friends were there. Even two boys. ANd the magician , although he was late. Having said that, he was good. Same guy as we had for Floortjes birthday. The kids enjoyed it. Me too. Marjel as well. I as still warming up from my time n the pool, mind you. Kids were not allowed int he pool without an adult. Marjel was doing her "arranging things" thing. Hence, dad could jump in the pool. I asked why the lovely student guards were not going into the water. Too cold they said, and they smiled and walked off. Where has all the respect gone?

As I am jotting all of this down I am actually listening to music which sits on our computer. We have finally entered the 21st century. Mind you , still don't have an ipod. Downloaded i-tunes on the computer and then spent days on end to copy our CD-s on the machine. Works pretty well. We then bought a little white box called SONOS and now we can actually play our music on the speakers from the stereo. From computer to stereo. Brilliant. Kids love it too, which is a bit of a downside, as they know exactly how to operate the thing, and hence we have a little too much Annie Lennox and Celine f-in Dion every now and then.

Currently though, we are enjoying Edith Piaff. Hmmm. Je ne regrette rien

Where was I? Oh yah

Piano and soccer pitches. Nothing to do with each other, other than that I had to sacrifice bringing kids to piano lessons in order to mobilise the neighborhood in their uprising to stop the development of soccer pitches on the piece of land in front of our house. It's an interesting process as there are folks that are extremely emotional when it gets to a discussion of the proposal. Others are a little more laid back. All are united in their opposition against the soccer pitch. Not everyone is equally united when it comes to what should be done with the land. It is like herding cats. Democracy on a mini-scale. I've thoroughly given up on the whole value proposal of democracy by the way. It only works if the participants want to collaborate, but I think the North American variant of it is that people just say what they want and if you don't agree well, tough. See the same in the Netherlands nowadays. We have a democracy, but only for those who agree with us.

I am on a roll here. How did we get here. Och ya - soccer pitches. Well, we'll see how that works out.

Should not forget to mention my own heroics - well - sort of.

Received an e-mail from a friend of mine : "let's go skating in Sylvan Lake - nice - it's a tour and it is fun". Well, that turned out to be the understatement of the year. After some e-mails between a few other, untrained, 40+ year old have-beens it was decided. We shall go.

The alarm went at 6 or so in the morning. I had perfectly packed my lunch kit etc the night before, so all I had to do is eat my breakfast, get in the car and drive to Sylvan. Getting closer and closer to the epi-center of the event, the weather stated to turn from somewhat innocent with a bit of a breeze to outright attrocious. There happened to be a gale force wind, with blowing snow. Some parts of the road were almost unpassable.

Heroic that I was, I persisted. The other word would be stupid. Arrived at the parking (on the ice) at about 815. Still had plenty of time to register ($15), buy a hat (nice souvenir), catch up with the one friend that did ultimately show up, and get geared up for the tour.

My aim was to do a 50 km tour (10 rounds). I thought that would not be too bad for someone who had not been on skates for 2 years (ahem) and had not done anything serious about the sport in about 11 years.

The Lake was pretty, though I did not see too much of it, as it was invisable. It 's called white out conditions. 60+km /hrs and snow all over the place. A couple of tractors were trying to keep a clean track on the ice. Wasn't too bad, but outside the one track the ice was covered with a veneer of snow. Underneath the veneer there were crack the size of - well - very big cracks. I know this because I skated into about 5 of them. First hurt my hip, then my knee and then mastered the falling such that I did not hurt myself anymore, just bent my skates. Then I developed blisters. It all because a little bit too heroic at some stage. That's when my knee gave up. From one moment to the other it became painful of the sort that means "go home - you have no business here" . I felt bad, but also satisfied. I had made 6 laps and completed 30 kms. Not the 50 I had in mind, but, I was there, and I felt good - well - expect for the knee that was.

I picked up my medal - the biggest medal I have ever won, and promised to be back next year. My knee is better now and I am already preparing myself for the next tour (mentally mostly)

Enough said. One more weekend of skiing, and then it is time to get the mountain bike out of the shed. Hip Hip..

 12 February - 26 March

Snow and -5 outside. Spring is here, sort of... Last year round this time we were cycling. This year we are shuffling, snow, tonnes of the stuff.

Today has note been a great day. I am trying to sort out our taxes. As usual, it is an enormous pain in the neck. Bank account here, T4 slip there. Of course, there are some entities that want you to download an electronic income statement, and of course, this computer is not slick enough, or the website was built by incompetent programmers, take your pick, but either way, it took for ever to get it all together. Then needed to check if somehow I was not paid some money in the US (that happened to me a few years ago), visit websites to check out annual bank statement, and of course, found out that for half of them I did no longer know the password. Then had to set up 6 , yes , six security questions on some American web site. That site allowed me to choose from approx ten questions, including, the street name of where your first best friend lived. First best friend. How the heck do I remember who my first best friends was, end then, where did he live. NO IDEA. I could have picked the surname of my most favorite teacher, but I had no favorite teacher, and so on, and so on.

Anyway, after 8 hours of fighting computers and searching for that one statement that had to disappear, I think I am finally there.

Now I can mentally prepare myself for keeping the kids entertained for the rest of the day. Feel sorry for them. Marjel is away for the day and I was stuck upstairs. We'll make some pizza together. Should be fun. Tomorrow the kids want to go skiing. They have been enjoying that quite a bit. Much to my surprise actually. Shanna is now going down blue slopes (next level is black). Floortje went down a blue run just last week. She is horribly afraid of heights, and so dislikes the ski- lift (just like me) but from there on she seems quite content.

	Shanna 8 years old
	Birthday party with the velvety dove and his magician
Skiing on Shanna's birthday. At the top of Lake Louise ski resort. This is where Marjel and Florianna got back on the gondola to go back to base....		Shanna with Lake Lousie in the back ground
Shanna just before her birthday dinner		Florianna, with a lot more to say than earlier in the day
Memories of 1963		and more snow
	Riders in the snow - Ribbon Creek
	Lunch

February 2011

24 January 2011 - 11 February

Well, I guess we are not going skiing then. Yesterday I had them all excited, but today they wanted to make valentines cards. Don't mind because a day doing nothing is actually a day quite welcome. It has been rather hectic lately.

Work is picking up as I am setting up a new team in a new business unit. Fun stuff, though it is just a little challenging with work that needs to get done now and still five vacancies to fill with people to do that work. We'll get there, though the job market is heating up so much that it is getting hard to get good people.

Feedback on our company performance - call it our report card - came through in the last weeks and it looks like we both pleased our bosses. It is always nice to get a pat on the back - every one needs that every once in a while. Don't they.

By the way, apparently our little Christmas letter confused some of you. Folks assumed that yours truly had left his new company and that misery was over the family. So, to clarify, no, I did not leave. Yes, there was a reorg, 4 months after my joining, and yes, my job got split up in three pieces, but no, I did not walk away. We had a few good chats, we developed a nice new job and life goes on.

In the mean time, the kids are having a good time, or so it seems. Marjel is having a good time, or so I am told, and I am having the best time ever, with the snow, the sun and the beautiful outdoors.

The kids are pestering us about the pet they want. It is clearly not a question of if, but more of when. Can't say I am looking forward to hairs all over the place, and scratched furniture, but if it makes the kids happy, then what can you do. There will be a whole other debate about what kind of pet. Dog or cat, Husky dog or Chiwawa (and yes, I know I spelled that wrong, but I don't like those animals, so sue me).

On top of that, Shanna will be 8 soon, and has prepared this list of things she wants. They include IPad, Iphone, IPod, pet, bicycle and then some. It drives me nuts. Friends/class mates have all this stuff. We think it is just silly to have 8 year olds running around with IPhones. There should be a law against parents who just give their kids whatever they want. Anyway, haven't done a great job explaining to Shanna why she won't have all her wishes come true (and in fact only one, if she is lucky). So far I've stuck to the "it ain't gonna happen". Not very touchy-feely parenting, but sorry, it is just not going to happen.

Speaking of touchy feely parenting, I read somewhere that the Calgary kiddie soccer league is considering doing a way with scores in the under 12 games. Apparently they do the same in the hockey and the claim is that the quality of the play has improved. I don't know. I guess I am too old and too competitive to follow all this. Scoreless games. And honestly, I can't help but think it is partially because kiddies feelings might be hurt if they lose. I can't help but think back to my younger years. Our village was too small to field a decent team and we got our butts kicked every time we went out. Then I am thinking, yes I am a bit odd. I just never thought it was because our team sucked at football. There you go

Ah, football, that sparks a whole other debate. Most of you know we have a pretty nice view out at the front. Nothing but meadow and trees. Well, that may change. The community association is looking for a place to put soccer pitches and a car park and they felt it was a grand idea to propose that to happen on the lands opposite our home.

So, we connected with some neighbors and had meetings at our place. Very interesting dynamics. It turns out that if you invite people under the banner of democratic process, they all voice their opinion and at the end of the meeting no-one has really changed their mind and nobody is really aligned on next steps. Maybe that only works in Egypt, though the jury is still out as to how that will work out... Anyway, we'll see how it goes. The association wants their soccer pitches, the neighborhood is of the "over my dead body " opinion. Given the emotions that I 've seen, I think it will get very ugly before it gets better.

Well, that should get you up to speed for now. It looks like another snow storm is rolling over the prairies to the west. It is pretty dark and the weather station is advertising a snow fall warning for the Ghost Lake area. All fun and games in the wild wild west.

January 2011

26 December 2010 - 23 January 2011

Hello again

Rummaging and cooking going on downstairs. It's almost dinner time, and I should be helping. Kid's favorite today. Beef with Korean barbecue sauce, rice and salad. Should be quick and easy, and yum.

Life is good.

The weather has been pretty wild since Christmas. It started off with a couple of pretty fresh winter storms, rolling in from the North. Temperatures dropped from unseasonably warm (lets say 0) to pretty cold (-25 in the day). We had that until early last week, when the winds changed from North to West. That led to some bizarre experience on the Sunday. It was blistery cold, just east of the mountains ( -20) while just 10 km west of that, in Nakiska (in the mountains) it was +4. We happened to go skiing that day. When driving from the western side of Barrier Lake we had a little condense on the windows, and when we got to the eastern side of the Lake, say 5 km further east, the condense had frozen solid.

Now, wasn't that interesting!

Just came from downstairs by the way. Felt a bit guilty so helped out with the food, the table and the dishes.

What can we tell you, without boring you to bits. Thought about this quite a while. It kinda looks like the level of entertaining information from our website is in spiral downwards. There is not much I can do about that. Can't say too much about work cause before you know it you're out because of some innocent joke about so and so. Can't say much about our children, because perverts are on the loose and might be gathering information about them. Can't say much about our plans, because criminals might be checking out our house for a raid (though trust me, there is not much to be stolen). Can't say too much about our lives because we have identity thieves and imposterors with all sorts of horrible plans. Wow, that is soooo depressing.

So, I can tell you about the dishes I did, as that is unclassified info. We can talk about the weather, as that is the same for everyone in this prairie town. I could mention the moose, but I haven't seen them for a while. The only thing we noticed this AM is that they have been around based on another destroyed bird feeder.

I wonder what is up with the coyotes. Apparently the place is sprawling with these animals (they are considered a pest here), but I have not seen one for ages. Deer, plenty of those. Nearly had one in front of the car this week, as I was making my way to the office. Wouldn't have been good because I would have pulled the steering wheel, end up in the ditch (ie 50 cm snow) and probably needing to call in a tow truck. It did not happen though.

We did play a bit of footie lately. It is less and less enjoyable every week. We're playing in this Over-35 league . I do this for fun and had always thought the others did too. Not so. It seems I am getting kicked to bits every game now. The team is fun so I'll finish the season, and I am probably stupid enough to be talked into another season. In the end, it keeps you fit - or does it....

Broke my cross country skis. Well no, the skis broke themselves. The nice people of the MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop) gave a me a pair of new ones. Now there is customer service for you. The newskis are fantastic. Somehow I go a lot faster. Still get way too tired too soon for a young guy. Sometimes I wonder if I have some illness, but then I realise I am just not fit anymore.

Let's talk about Marjel for just a sec, as I am sure you are dying to hear how she is doing. Marjel has just switched jobs. She is quite excited about it. New work, new people. All very nice. She also had another fantastic performance ranking which is good. Helps paying off the mortgage a little faster, plus she can buy some new shoes or something.

Marjel has also joined some of our ski-trips and is actually starting to like it. Not that she wants to go every time we go, but it makes for fun family outings.

She's also still doing the scrap book classes, creating ever increasingly complex photo collages. It's funny cause it is all this nitty-gritty fine hand work that I am absolutely useless at.

Kids are in our shower now. It's a new thing. Well, not entirely, but recently they have resorted to full-out invasion of our territory. Ach, they are having fun.

That's another thing, the older the children get, the more lenient I seem to become when it gets to some of their exploits, while Marjel seems to be a bit more, let's say, grounded.

The Kids, yes. They are really good. Honestly. There are some days when I would not say that if you asked me on the spot, but generally they are the best. It seems that they are really starting to enjoy the skiing trips, and they are making quite a bit of progress. It's fun to watch. We'll see how it goes.

School is OK too. They are reading like mad and Shanna still likes science to bits. Florianna is reading some 2 books per day. We're not forcing them or anything, which makes it all the more pleasant. Hopefully they'll keep it up.

Piano lessons wise it is also good. I remember how I was not the easiest student - and essentially got kicked out for lack of commitment. Shanna and Florissie don't really have that problem. Certainly not Shanna who keeps playing, even if she does not have to practice. She's also exploring new songs that are not in her books. Floortje is a little less so inclined. I don't mind. Not every one needs to be that keen. For as long as she enjoys it.

Otherwise, Florianna has one birthday party after another and Shanna has had quite a few play dates. It's hard to get that all sorted (as discussed before) with them & friends enlisted in all sorts of after-school activities. There is not a lot of overlap.

And finally, our permanent residence application was approved, and we'll be official some time this month. Welcome to Canada. Hip Hip - we're happy.

And to celebrate Canadianess, it is time to watch the hockey. Calgary vs Vancouver, number one but last vs number one.