New Zealand To Do List

Good afternoon readers! Today I am gearing up for my up coming trip to New Zealand, and I thought I would give you the opportunity to add to my travel To-Do list. You see, when I left work at the daycare in May and headed out west to start my journey to NZ they girls at work made me one of the coolest going away presents ever. It is a little photo album and in it are decorated pieces of paper that each one of the girls from work wrote on. They didn't write good-bye messages or well wishes, but things they want me to do while I am traveling. I thought this was the neatest coolest idea! So they all did some research on New Zealand and what it had to offer and came up with an impressive list to keep me busy while I am traveling. Since then other people have added theirs to the list too, and now it is your turn to put in your two cents. I am going to complete this list and create an album on facebook with all the pictures of me completing the list. I will tag the person that made the suggestion when I do it. Also, I will be writing about said list in this blog. Below I have included the current list, so there will be no repeats, so you can have a read and if there is anything any of you would like to add please feel free to post a suggestion for me to add to the book. It is about 2 and a 1/2 weeks before I fly out, and this book will be coming with me. So get creative peeps, and I look forward to the additions!

Travel To-Do List

• Find out what ostrich meat tastes like.
• A 365 day photo challenge. I photo per day showing something beautiful. (I am tweaking this one and it will be a photo of something awesome instead of beautiful.)
• Learn the Haka, video tape it and post it online.
• Kiss a Kiwi. The fruit, the bird and a person.
• Complete an activity from the Mokai Gravity Canyon World Class Adventure Activities.
• Visit Austria and cross the Alp on the Von Trapp route
• Visit Niagra Falls Waterfall along the Caitlins Heritage Trail in the South Island.
• Skinny dip in a cold lake
• Go to the Auckland Zoo and experience an animal encounter.
• Get a new tattoo in another country.
• Visit old volcanoes around Auckland, post pictures.
• Go on a tubing adventure in the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.
• Climb to the top of a volcano
• Go to Wellington, find Willis st and have a beverage at Johns Lunch.
• Swim with sea turtles
• Go to an All Blacks game.
• Send Michelle Obrien earrings.
• Go base jumping
• Go Zorbing.
• Go to White Island.
• Take a picture in the sunglasses of a new friend.
• Purchase a household item shaped like a moose.
• Find a french person in New Zealand.
• Post a picture of the most crazy animal I find.
• Run through Hobbiton humming the Lord of the Rings Theme Song.
• Volunteer to rebuild houses in Christchurch, paint a moose somewhere.
• Climb a tree in an urban area and jump out and scare a random person.
• Find someone equal to or exceeding 'Canary Crazy' and take their picture. Bonus if I am in the picture.
• Hike the Milford track.

So there you have it,the list as it stands right now. Think I am missing something?? Let me know :)

Who Stole The Rhubarb?

Hey guys! Today I write to you with a challenge. How powerful is social networking and the Internet? Can we really be connected to everyone in the world via 6 degrees of separation? I would like to try a little social experiment and test this theory, but I need your help in the biggest way. First read this:

Nanny and Grampy on their wedding day.

So this past weekend I was at home visiting with my parents. For those who know me, know that it is very common for me to go home to my parents for a weekend every so often. I come from a close family and I enjoy their company, and hey, I need some place to do my laundry ;). So while at home this weekend my Mom and I got reminiscing about my late grandmother Greta. I was very very close to my Nanny, and my back tattoo is in memory of her. She was such a wonderful person with a spunky great, personality. We sat for quite a while talking about different memories from when I was a child, and the things I remember most about her. I remember pretending to figure skate on her kitchen floor and every time my sister and I fell on our ass we called that one a "flip or triple sow cow". Nanny loved watching figure skating on TV, and it started to rub off. I remember watching curling and wrestling with her, and boy you did not want to be sitting next to her during a heated wrestling match! I remember her knitting me countless pairs of mittens of all shades of the rainbow, and sitting in the living room while she combed my hair. I spent every summer I can remember as a child out at the lake at her cottage, my mother would come visit us because we refused to come home. My grandmother was all anyone could ask for as a Nanny, and I miss her all the time. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful memories that I can sit around and reminisce about it. There was also one other thing about my Nan that I have inherited to a certain degree, and that was her need to be in the know. My Nanny was pretty darn nosy! Haha. One time there was a note on the neighbors door and my Mom walked in on her in the pantry with binoculars reading the note through the window facing their house. Turns out the guy next door had a dentist appointment and wanted to communicate this to an expected visitor, Hahaha! Nan always had the inside track on everything but there is one thing, and as far as I know, only one thing she died never knowing.

My Nanny and Grampy lived in Wolfville on Highland Ave, for most of my childhood. They built that house and my mother and her siblings grew up in it. After they sold it when I was a teenager they turned the house into student housing for Acadia University. Well all the time they lived in that house they had a rhubarb patch in the backyard. It was a pretty big patch with lots of wonderful rhubarb that Nan used for pies, jams etc. Well every year, without fail, someone would come in the night once the rhubarb was ripe and rifle through the patch and take all they could carry. They never took it all, and always left some for Nanny and Grampy, but this happened year after year after year without fail. So much so that Nan had figured out when exactly they rhubarb thief would strike and set up a sting operation in the living room. The bay window faced the patch, so she figured she would stay up all night and watch the patch and finally be able to catch the rhubarb thief. So she lay in wait in the dark. Well she fell asleep and when she awoke in the morning, the rhubarb was gone! The thief had come and gone while she slept! She tried to stay up and catch them several years, but could never stay up long enough to catch them. The missing rhubarb continued until the year they sold the house and moved to Port Williams, and remained a mystery.

Shortly after moving into the new house my grandmother development dementia and went downhill at a fairly fast rate. She died six years ago never knowing who took the Rhubarb. So after laughing about this story with my mother on the weekend I said, "You know, now with the Internet and social networking, I wonder if we would ever be able to find out who that was." So here is my challenge to you: help me find who took the rhubarb. Obviously none of my family was ever upset over this, even my grandmother thought is was more funny then anything, and I remember laughing about it  when it was happening. I would love love love to find out who was doing it, and kept my Nan on her toes all those years. So in order to do this I need you to tell your friends, post it online spread the word and lets see if this experiment works. I am doing this more to see the power of the Internet, and to satisfy our own curiosity so lets hope it works. I have heard of crazier things before! Here is the information you need to know;

• Nanny lived at 108 Highland Ave. in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
• Directly behind her house was the Basinview Apartment buildings.
• The house was White siding with a Burgundy trim.
• The rhubarb went missing between the mid 80's until the year 2000.
• The rhubarb ALWAYS went missing by the cover of darkness, probably in the wee hours of the morning.
• For many years there would have been a big yellow Irving oil truck parked in the driveway.
• The patch was in the backyard between two houses.
• There were 4 pine trees separating the yard from the apartment building parking lot, and there would have been a fireplace and a dog house in the backyard for many years.

Wouldn't it be cool if this worked!? Lets see how powerful this is, my grampy would be shocked and amazed! Thanks so much for your help, post and share guys...post and share!

A Holiday Blog

Happy Holidays peeps! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their families, and are looking forward to a new year. I thought I would take advantage of this little break and do up a little holiday update for my followers.

I have had a most wonderful holiday with my family and friends and am most certainly not looking forward to going back to work! I was awfully sick and felt like 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag for the week before Christmas but once I got home and got under the care of Dr. Mom all that started to get cleared up. There is no match for the TLC of Dr. Mom! I had caught a cold from the infested little germ bags I take care of this time of year, which quickly escalated into a raging virus, sinus infection and ear infection. After going to the Dr. on Wednesday he gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way. Well by Friday I still couldn't breathe through my nose, I was deaf in my right ear and I still felt like bag of crap. So Saturday when my mom picked me up she knew I was in need of some motherly love. She took me home, fixed me up and I have been on the road to recovery ever since.

Despite the the illness I went out for an awesome light tour with the lovely Borgel family Friday evening. We did this last year and it was one of my highlights of the season! Darin is a crack navigator and knows all the sweet spots for looking at lights all around the HRM. We started our tour with hot chocolates in hand, and Christmas music on the stereo in Dartmouth. We have come to the conclusion that it is the middle class families that decorate the most. Just because you are rich doesn't mean you take time to decorate your obscenely large mansion, or even hire someone to do it for you. The low income families, well they have bigger fish to fry then Santa on the lawn. So it is the middle class suburbs you need to hit if you want a good light tour. We looped around cul-de-sacs and drove up and down side streets, faces glued to the window to see the sparkling lights. The houses and trees looked most festive with the recent fallen snow. We saw a lot of slightly decorated houses. A few things in the window, a strand of lights on the gutters, etc. I like seeing the beautifully done houses just like anyone else. The houses that take care with the placing of their lights, the carefully hung wreaths and spot lights that warm the cockles of your heart when you see the perfect little house. But what I live for is the real tacky, Griswold's type landing zones with a great big Wal-Mart special inflated on the lawn. I love me some tacky Christmas lights! I also love critiquing the lights with my fellow onlookers. I think we should go public with our critiques, and start naming names. Maybe start an annual publication of who's hot and who's not. A few of the comments from this year include; "It looks like they didn't know what to do with the lights, so they just threw them everywhere." "That house looks like some sort of Bordello in Vegas!" "I love the old style lights that let off enough heat to melt the snow on top of them......and burn your house down." Next year I am bringing a recorder in the car with us and I will transcribe our notes for the general public. The two winners of my favourite tacky Christmas lights goes to a house in Dartmouth, well a half a duplex, with inflatable figures as tall as the house. And my favs house in Fairview with the music lights and many animated features. The house in Dartmouth looked hilarious with the two big figures and multitude of lights filling their half of the house. It looked doubly as funny because the other half of the house was barely decorated while their neighbors looked like Christmas threw up on the lawn. Can you imagine being their neighbours?? Haha! The house in Fairview is my all time favs, and winner second year in a row. This house is no stranger to the decorating. They have lights often timed to music they play, presents that open and shut, and angel that moves her lighted arms, a waving Santa and so much more! Each house only has a small square footage to decorate but boy oh boy to they make the best of it! In all seriousness tho, as tacky and hilarious as these houses are to look at, that took some serious time and effort from the home owners. I say good on them for delighting the hearts, and senses of the passerby. We all love Christmas lights on a crisp evening! Thanks again to the Borgels for taking me on the tour, I smell and annual tradtion starting :)

Then Saturday morning my Ma came and picked me up and took me down to the farm for some good rest and relaxation. I spent Christmas eve there and on Christmas day we packed the car full and headed down to Bedford to my sisters for Christmas dinner and opening presents with the boys. It was very nice to have the whole family together for Christmas. Because of Marcus' visitation with his father and they way they divide holidays he wouldn't be coming back to the house until after 6 on Christmas day. I must say Jackson did extremely well and only opened one present from Santa and waited to open the rest of his gifts until Marcus was home. Not an easy feat for a 4 year old, but he did so well. As soon as Marcus walked in the door Jackson ran and gave him a hug and then made a B-line for the tree and grabbed the biggest box with his name on it. The boys were vibrating with excitement, and now it was time to open presents. I think it is so funny how different the boys are. Marcus has always been very anticlimactic and not easily excitable. So when he opened a gift he really liked you heard, "Oh awesome, that's really cool." Where as when Jackson opened a piggy bank he was yelling and throwing paper saying, "THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS I EVER HAD!!" So very different! They were very grateful and excited about all the gifts they got, and I am sure it will be a great couple of weeks playing with all the new stuff they got. After presents we snapped a few family pictures, and a few silly ones too. I think the silly represents our family. Through tough times and good our family tries to not take things to seriously, and have a sense of humor about us. I am so thankful to be able to have the relationship I do with my family despite and ups or downs we may have faced. After all the Christmas events we headed back to the farm where I spent the following two days relaxing and spending time with my parents.

Now I am back in the city, and getting ready to head back to work and I am satisfied and happy with my holiday.

Before I go I wanted to write about my travel to do list. I recently posted about this on facebook, but I thought I would put it on here too. You see before I was leaving for the summer the lovely gals at PPCCC made me the best going present I have ever had. Since they knew I would be traveling to NZ they all got together and made me a list of things to do while I am there. They are written on a card and placed in a photo album for me to take with me. I fully intend on completing as much of this as humanly possible, and would love for anyone who wishes to contribute to do so. Once I am away I will start ticking things off the list, and you can bet there will be blogging and photos to accompany these. So put your thinking caps on and let me know if you would like to add to this list. At a later date I will be posting the whole list for people to see, but I am open to suggestions before that.



Anyway, Happy Holidays and all the best in the new year!!

An Amazing Day!

Well sir! This group of days off have been my most amazing to date. I have done some pretty friggin cool stuff since I have been here, and have some more in the works but this day was by far one of the most amazing experiences I have had.

On Sunday Zaza gave me drive home and we devised a plan to go rafting on the bow river with Michelle. Well Michelle met us at home and then we went down to the river to blow up the raft. Once we got down there she realized that she didn't have the plugs for the raft to keep the air in. So.....we can't really go rafting on a deflated raft so we packed it up, a little disappointed and went to get something to eat instead. We went to a place in Kensington called Sams and it was really good food. Then we called it an early night because I had a very exciting Monday to attend to.

So Amy, my cousin, works for STARS. They run the air ambulance for the province of Alberta, and soon other provinces as well. The deal there is that when you work a statutory holiday you can apply for a family flight where you and two family members can go up in the helicopter. As some of you may remember I was scheduled to do this a few weeks ago but got rained out. This Monday they were forecasting sunny skies and no wind. I was super stoked for this! Monday I got up bright and early, had a shower and got ready to go. A little after 8 we headed down to the airport for our family flight! We went in, we met the pilot and signed our lives away before we went in the hanger. We were then given helmets with mics on them and led into the hanger, where they keep the helicopter. James, our pilot opened the door and

sitting on a wooden platform was a bright red helicopter. It was super cool to have a look around inside. James went over some safety stuff with us, like what to do in case of emergency etc. Then we stood on the platform while they towed it out to the tarmac. We put our helmets on and took a quick picture before it was time to get in. Amy, being the super awesome cousin she is let me sit up front with the pilot. So we got in our seats, strapped ourselves in and James readied us for take off. He showed me all the dials and gauges, and what the start up process looked like. The headset helmet was cool, and voice activated, so whenever I talked everyone in the helicopter could hear me. I could hear everyone, except Amy. I think there was something wrong with her mic because she was apparently talking to me and I couldn't hear her, and I also couldn't see her because she was in the back and I was in the front. Then it was time for take off! James switched the switches, turned the knobs, pulled the levers and we started to lift straight up from the platform. It was so cool! Then he did a little ballet move where he spun around before he finally took off. I really thought it was going to be a bit more rough, but it was a super smooth ride for the most part. We started out over the city, and it was just so amazing to see the city below us. We glided over suburbia and then over Nose Hill park. Then James said, "Okay, you can fly now." I was nervous and said no he could do it. Then

he took his hands and feet away from the controls and said, "Well my hands and feet are off so what are you going to do." Then I actually flew the helicopter! Obviously with instruction from the professional, but I steered it to the left and flew it towards the Canada Olympic Park. It was so amazing! I can't believe I actually flew a helicopter!! Then we went over the hospitals, swung by downtown, over heritage park and then turned around and headed back. On our way downtown he was telling me about how they can hover in the air just like when we took off. Then he did it. He stopped the helicopter in mid air and we watched down below as the rest of the world went by. Talk about freakin cool! Going by downtown was super awesome because we were so close to the same height of the buildings. It was so much different then being in an airplane. I took a bunch of  pictures and just sat with an ear to ear smile as we went along. The flight was about 20 mins or so and then we were back at the hanger. I thanked James, the pilot, and Bruce, the medic, very much for taking us up. Also a big thank you for Amy for hooking up the whole family flight deal. What an amazing experience! I am so happy I was able to do that. That is something I will definitely never forget!

Amy and I had a whole day planned. We were going to sail the skies in the morning and then go to Calaway Park for the rest of the day. That is the "amusement" park here in Calgary. So after a quick stop at the house we headed for Calaway Park. We went in the gates and walked around a bit before we both had the same feeling. The feeling that this park sucks and there is nothing amusing about it. Upper Clements park in Digby is about 5x better then this place. It was small, and all the rides seemed to be for small children. I felt embarrassed going on the rides, like I was some overgrown girl child or

something. We were going to go on the bumper cars until they told us that we all had to move in a clockwise circle. WTF! When does the bumping happen if you are just driving in circles like idiots!? So we got something to eat, walked around a bit and got the hell outta there. We spent the rest of the day at Costco and Value Village, which I feel was much more entertaining then Calaway Park would have been.

The rest of my time off I spent drinking beer in the sunshine and genuinely enjoying life :) Back to camp in the morning!                                                                                                   

This week at camp

This week at camp was nothing short of eventful that is for sure. You know I was so worried about last weeks family camp because of their preceding reputation and turns out they were just fine. This week however was a whole other story. The days of the week were pretty good, nothing major to talk about. Usual camp stuffs, carnival, grand council, the usual for the week Then Friday came, and it was time for family camp.

As per usual they rolled in at 5 and started the registration. The checked in, got some sleeping bags and then a slushie before hopping on the wagon for a ride down to their tipis. I was working slushies this weekend so I spent a few hours alone in the slushie hut passing out sugary beverages. I went on break from 7 - 8 and then headed back up to the hall to serve snack for the evening. After snack we had to go to our assigned sections and make sure the families are settling in alright and have everything they need. I came out of the hall and down the path by tipi town and in the middle of the wide open lake I see two girls smoking. Well for starters smoking is not allowed unless in the designated smoking area. So I stood and watched them for a few minutes. I could see that they were passing it back and forth and each time they inhaled they would hold it in for a few seconds before exhaling. Now I don't know one person that smokes a cigarette like that. I know lots of people that smoke silly cigarettes like that tho. So it was clear that these young girls were smoking pot, and we have a hard fast rule about any kind of drugs or alcohol. The rule is, if we see you with it, you're gone. At the time I didn't have a radio so I yelled up the hill to Lemongrass that was on her way down, to let me use her radio. As soon as I yelled that the girls in the canoe heard me and looked our way and put their hand down by their feet. Lemongrass came over and gave me her radio to radio our manager and Dragonfly came over to see what was going on. As soon as these girls saw the three of us standing there in our staff shirts they started bookin it for the dock. Zaza told me to go to the boathouse and meet them there, so I took off and the race was on to see who would make it to the dock first. Diana our director, who also works family camps with us, was on the other side of the lake already and also had a vehicle with her so Zaza radioed her and told her to head to the boathouse. As I rounded the lake in a near sprint I saw across the water that Diana had made it to the dock, so I could slow my pace a bit thank god. Diana was standing on the dock with her feet about shoulder width apart and her hands on her hips and had her fiery gaze locked onto the delinquent teens. The girls in the canoe also noticed that Diana had made it to the dock before me as I watched them both look up and when they saw her they dropped their paddles for a few seconds. I chuckled to myself over that one, it was pretty obvious that they were caught so they slowly made their way back into the dock to meet Diana. Now I don't know if any of you have been stoned as a teenager, but I will tell you that no one wants to talk to the cops when they are stoned and 16. Although we didn't have the cops we did have Diana, who when she wants to be can be quite intimidating and is the director of the camp. So they girls were not too keen on talking to her and hid on the back dock behind the boathouse. Diana talked to their leader and told her they had to leave right away no exceptions. So about 3 hours into family camp we had our first bust of the season and these girls were sent packin. I thought they were rather silly because our camp is surrounded by woods! If they had of hid behind a tree like a normal person I probably wouldn't have caught them, but since they were sitting in a canoe in the wide open lake it was a pretty easy bust! Just call me Morreeeny the crime dog.

The rest of the weekend was filled to the brim with needy demanding families. This makes for a super long weekend and it is very tiring to deal with. We all kinds of crazy people from the mother who needed a pair of socks for her 14 year old son because he wouldn't get out of the car without socks. To a crazy hypochondriac mother. The woman with the 14 year old son was just down right silly. She said she picked him up from cadet camp and brought him to our camp for family camp. He had forgotten his shoes and all he had was his cadet boots and he wore through his socks. So she needed us to get her socks so her son would get out of the car. I am pretty sure if that was my mother I would have been left in the car and she would have walked away. I am sure he would have come down to the tipi after a bit anyway. So we got that straighten away and they were settled for a bit, but not surprisingly were a needy family for the rest of the weekend.

tipi, she is hurt and we are afraid to move her." My immediate thought was oh shit this lady is unconscious, something was broken that we had a serious situation on our hands. I immediately radioed Diana told her what I knew and told her to meet me at the tipi, and she said she was on her way. I ran over to the tipi to where the woman was. Once I got over there I saw this woman laying flat on her back staring up at the small crowd of people that were around her. I went over and bent down. I asked if she hit her head "No" "Do you know where you are?" "Yes I am at (insert camp name here)" "Can you tell me what happened?" "Yes, I was coming out of my tipi when I tripped and fell and banged my knee." "Okay, is your neck hurt?" "No" "Is your back hurt?" "No." Then my internal voice said, "Then what the fuck am I doing here, GET UP!" What the hell lady! So you fell and banged your knee, get up and shut up! I helped her up and sat her in a chair and had a look. She had just scraped her knee and there was not a single drop of blood to be seen. Diana arrived and I filled her in, and then I left because I had better shit to do. Diana gave her an ice pack and sent her on her way. Later that afternoon before dinner she wanted to know who was going to transport her to the hall for dinner. I felt like saying, you and your two little feet and your heart beat lady. I refrained and told her that we were unable to provide her with transport to the hall and that dinner is served from 5-6 and it was now 4:45pm. She asked if someone could bring her dinner to her. I replied no not unless you want a cougar in your bed, and then you couldn't run from it because of your knee. Her concern was that she wouldn't make it before dinner was finished being served if she had to walk all that way. I assured her I would talk to the kitchen and tell them to save some dinner if she wasn't there by 6, and I left before I cursed at her. Surprise surprise she made it to dinner before it was even being served. I could tell by the size of her gunt that this lady was not about to miss dinner! Her whining was continuous until she said she was going to go home. I thanked Allah and told her it was too bad, but hoped she felt better soon. See-ya! But you know as frustrating as she was I must have been doing my job well because she went and talked to Diana and said that I was so helpful and she really thought I was great.

This family camp we also blacklisted a family because the father was kicking the horses. Yep you read that right, the father a grown man was acting like a sadistic toddler and got his whole family blacklisted from the camp. WTF! This was a super frustrating family camp and boy was I glad on Sunday when it was the start of my days off!

On My Days Off....

So along with another week of camp I had another set of days off. I have really been getting out and about on my days off and trying to experience the most of Calgary as I can. (With lots of help from Amy and Kev). To start this time off Amy came out to the ranch to have the grand tour and go for a swim in the lake with me. I have started swimming everyday at the lake, because I figure why not! After an afternoon dip in the lake we headed home to Calgary. Amy told me that we would be going to Japanese Village for dinner. I was excited because we don't have an abundance of cultural foods at home in the east coast, and it would be great to try some while I am here.

Our Chef

The Japanese Village was great food and a great atmosphere. The grills were right at the table so you watched the chefs prepare your dinner. When we walked in the room was a buzz with laughter, applause, chefs talking and the sizzle of the grill. We were shown to our table, and before long the chef came out to prepare our dinner. Our chef made excellent food but unfortunately wasn't as outgoing as some of the other ones around us. We think he may have been an apprentice or something because behind us they were having 'happy fun time hour' and our table was a bit dudsville. However it was cool to see him slicing and dicing the food, and he did a cool candle thing with an onion. We at our delicious dinner, and as we were finishing our dessert a guy came over and asked us if we wanted a little magic show. Who says no to magic?

The Magician

So this guy started with a card trick. He flipped through a blue backed deck and told Amy to tell him when to stop. When he stopped he turned over the card (a 9 of hearts) and gave it to me and got me to write my initial on it. Then he pulled out a red backed deck and found the 9 of hearts in that deck. He put the blue backed card with my initials on it on the table and told Kevin to put his hand over it flat on the table. He took the red backed 9 of hearts and moved it around a and did a little something something, and then told Kev to lift his hand. There was indeed a red backed card under Kevin's hand now, and the magician was holding a blue backed one. He flipped over the red card and my initials were now on that one!!! It was very impressive! It might not sound like it in text but it was awesome to see.
For his next trick he said he needed a 5 dollar bill that could be ripped. So a different guy at our table gave him a 5 dollar bill. The magician ripped a corner off the bill and handed it back to the guy and told him to keep the 18 cents. Then he folded up the bill and did a little something and then when he unfolded the bill it was a whole bill again. That was very cool, but not the end of the trick. Out of his bag he got a coffee cup and a butter knife. Then he did a few tricks where folded up the bill again and put it under the coffee cup, and then it would be in his hand. He did a few tricks where he made it look like he was dropping the folded bill through the coffee cup. Then for what I thought was the grand finale he dropped the bill through the coffee cup, when it landed he put the cup down over it, and when he pulled up the cup there was a lime under the cup. A LIME! His sleeves were rolled up, how in the hell do you palm a LIME! Then I looked at Kevin and said, "If the 5 dollar bill is inside that lime I'm going to loose it." No sooner did I say that and he stabbed the butter knife into the lime and pried it open, and inside there it was, the folded 5 dollar bill! I exclaimed, "OH MY GAWWD!" I was super impressed with that. Then before he left he signed the back of the card for me and gave it to me. It was pretty amazing! So good food, and a good show!

On Monday Amy was working so I headed over to a trendy little spot in Calgary called Kensington. It is known for having trendy little shops and cafes, so I went to check it out. It is a cute little area with lots of little shops and designer stores. I looked around a bit, debated going and getting the other side of my nose pierced (it is something I have been thinking about for a while) but ultimately decided to wait until camp was done. I bought a very cool leather bracelet, and ate lunch there before heading home. I spent the rest of my days off just relaxing, reading, napping you know all the good stuff. Now I am finishing this, packing up and heading back to camp for the week. I will let you know how it goes when I get back.

Much Love to my Fans ;) xoxox

Another Week of Camp

I had a good week this week, and even a good family camp. This week at camp I had a day that was very humbling. Part of my job is hosting groups from a variety of organizations that come out for the day. We have several regulars that come several times a week as well as several groups that this year will be their first time at the camp. The children I deal with are much higher needs then the children that come for week long camps, and often come with high ratios and lots of aids. I had an especially special group this past Thursday. One of those moments where it truly makes you appreciate life a little more. My group showed up Thursday morning in a wheelchair accessible bus, ready to rock and roll. I usually chat with the leaders of the group about what their organization does, what services they offer etc. After talking to the leader for a few minutes she told me that the children they had there today were all in palliative care, and in the end stages of their diseases. For those of you who don't know what that means, it means that all the children (except the siblings) that I had there that day were dying, and probably didn't have much time left. Three of the five children had feeling tubes, and machinery that came with them. They were all in wheelchairs, and various stages of alertness. Only one could sit up on his own and respond with noises when spoken to. Some of them laid back, and could almost not open their eyes. At first when I found out I was taken back, and pretty sad thinking that these children won't be returning next year and what a cruel world we live in that these sweet children were dying. Then I realized that this day could possibly be the funnest day for the rest of their lives. They were going to have experiences today that would be fun, freeing and memorable! And I was the one they were going to remember helped them do that. That made me more excited to for the day, determined to show these kids a fabulous time. They went on a wheelchair accessible wagon ride, ride on the pontoon boat around the lake and each of them got the opportunity to ride a horse. Even tho most of them were non verbal I could tell by the looks on their faces, and the noises they were making that each and every child in that group was having the time of their lives! One of them got to drive the boat, and I though for sure his face would break because his smile was so big. The staff and family that came with the group were so grateful and pleased with their experience at the camp, they all thanked me profusely, and I in turn thanked them. They gave me a gift that day that I will never forget. Even tho we only had a few hours together I will remember each of those children for the rest of my life, and I am so thankful I was the one that got to share that day with them. For those of you who get caught up in the trivial negativity of life please try to remember that we are extremely fortunate no mater what bumps in the road we experience.

So after a heartfelt week, really loving what I do it was time for family camp! I was kind of nervous about this weekends family camp and trying to get myself ready for it. I was warned ahead of time that the group we had coming was notorious for being rude, demanding, disrespectful, stealing, and possibly drugs and alcohol. So I went into the weekend amped and ready for anything they wanted to throw at me. Friday evening they all arrived and they started to get settled in their tipis. About 2 hours into the evening a very wonderful and nice family came up to me and told me they didn't have any sleep mats in their tipi. This was strange and annoying, because I know that we make sure to have 10 mats in every tipi before the families come. I was supposed to be going on break, but I headed down to take care of this. The family that said they had no mats were in deer tipi, and this tipi is right next to eagle. I don't know why, but on my way down to the tipi I thought that maybe eagle had taken the mats into their tipi. So I approached them and said, "Hey guys, I am just looking for some extra sleep mats. Do you have any extra mats in your tipi?" They said, "No, we don't have any extra." I then asked, "How many people are sleeping in your tipi this weekend?" "Seven." To which I replied, "Well there are ten mats in every tipi, so you have at least 3 extra mats. I am going to go ahead and go and get those now." I opened the flap and low and behold they had about 25 mats in there. They had built themselves double beds, three mats high. I informed them that they had left their neighbours without any mats and I was going to go ahead and take the mats back, and proceeded to start ripping their beds apart. I thought to myself 'Gawd! Two hours into it and these guys are starting with the shit already!' However it turns out the weekend went pretty well . There were a lot of  great families there, and I was glad I got to meet a lot of them. There were a handful of families that lived up to the reputation, but there is a handful of frustrating families in every family camp. I did however, end up  missing a pair of sunglasses, but that was my only property causality of the weekend. The best part of this weekend, was no cougar!

Sunday after we cleaned up the camp we had some team building time, which involved a swim in the lake. It was a great way to end a weekend of work. Then Amy came out to pick me up and I was able to give her the tour of camp and we went for another swim in the lake. I was super happy that she got to see the camp I work at. Then I headed back to Calgary to enjoy some much deserved time off.