Father's day celebration

Last month, I wrote a blog on how we spent our Mother's day. And now, it is my turn to commend my hubby for a job well done for being a perfect daddy to Ella. Since its now summer time, we opted to visit some tourist spots here in Alberta and the Tyrrell dinosaur museum in Drumheller (1-2 hours away from our place) is a perfect place for kids and kids at heart like myself and Noel.

We hit the road at around 10:30am, and since we didn't ate anything for breakfast, we stop by at my fave coffeshop and grab a grande hot choco for two and banana cake to go with it. Ella is also feasting on some chocolates in her car seat but it turn out to be a messy food to give your kid especially that, it went all to her shirt! Good thing, i always have my trusted diaper bag with extra clothes and some wipes in the car to clean all the mess. So off we go. It took us atleast 2 hours to get there as we missed our stop (which happens most of the time) as me and hubby never runs out of topic to talk about while he is driving (two things at the same time..hmmm... not possible). We finally reached the museum at 12:30 and there we met with our family and friends who were vacationing here from Vancouver. Since we were late, they went home just after we greeted each other at the entrance of the museum. So, my family of 3 just proceeded to exploring the dinosaur museum and we all enjoyed the dino fossils, the rich history of Drumheller and over all, my daughter was so amazed and really love looking and touching the dinosaurs! Hmmm... I can sense a first Paleontologist in the family =)

Here are some pictures inside the Tyrrell museum.

After a quick tour at the museum, we went home and quickly prepared dinner for the family. We invited some friends and families to spend the Father's day at our home. Nothing really fancy but some good ol' way of thanking our dads for a job well done of raising us and now that I have Noel, its one way of saying, he is important to us and that we love him so much!

On another note ...

...Wherever you are Papa, happy Papa's day to you too. I miss you.

Summertime!

Now that summer is almost in the air, this is one season we all look forward to. Here in Calgary, almost 3/4's of the year is Winter. I mean from Fall, to Winter, to Spring -- Calgary is one city in Canada where you can see snow coupled with super frost-biting coldness during these 3 seasons. And only Summer is the excemption. And for the past 3 years that I have been living here, I get excited whenever Summertime is coming. Although, my favorite season is Spring but you can do so much during Summer that you will "keep" with you during the Winter months of just plainly staying home and wondering when summer is coming again.

This particular summer would be a busy one. I started with some renovations in our backyard. When we bought our house, it comes with a very spacious backyard and a nice deck where you can make barbeques while catching up with some friends. But this year, since Ella is already fond of playing outside the house, it would be a perfect time to beautify our backyard and to start off, we had someone build our fence for us. It took some time to finish it but it was worth every wait and money. And I feel safer that we had this fence and it will somehow keep future intruders out of our property.

Now, our next project is putting up the sod (or what you call the grass). Noel and I decided to do it on our own. We just need to order a free cut "carpet" grass and top soil to go with it. Prepping our lawn is quite a challenge but at least, it is something that my hubby and I can do as our "bonding" time.

Noel is also planning to put some pebbles in our front lawn and some pave stones to go with it and some flowers to add beauty and a good size Gazebo just parallel to our deck but let's see. We don't want to just spend our summer fixing our backyard or front yard and not having some time for ourselves for a short and sweet vacation. Obviously summer is really fun and a "precious" time of the year here in Canada and we want to make the most of it as well.
Since hubby is still at work, Ella and I decided to explore our deck and backyard for some mommy and daughter summer bonding.

3 wishes...

My birthday is coming up in less than a month and I was thinking, this one is going to be different from what I used to. I've decided not to have a birthday party and no sumptuous meals in the table. Instead, a quiet time with my family (hubby and Ella) and 3 prayers that I would like to share to everyone.

First, I would like to thanked God for what He has given to my family. A successful career for my husband. For making Noel a dedicated, loving, unselfish husband and dad to our family. For a healthy and happy daughter that He gave us. And for making me a strong person as I am now. Also for a beautiful and contented life that we have right now: a small but a happy home, foods in our table, and other stuffs that make us happy.

Secondly, I wish for good health to everyone in my family. I believe that a healthy body will lead to a happy and normal life. I once said this to some friends and to hubby. That the mere thought of the word "hospital" is giving me a phobia. And true enough, after what happened last year, I always wished for good health and nothing else for my family. Knowing that everyone is not sick is giving me peace of mind.

And for my Last prayer, I wish for strength. Strength to be a good wife and mom as my family would like me to be. Strength to be a good daughter and sister to my other family as I know after Papa left, they look up to me for decisions and they see me to be their protector. And overall strength for any circumstances that may come my way in the future.

Things really changed. If I was asked 10 years ago for 3 wishes, I could have wished for anything tangible but not these 3 that I wrote. This means we grow as a person. We don't get stagnant. I - for a fact, have witnessed some changes in my beliefs over the past years and this feels even better =)

Live. Laugh. Love.

Confessions of Ella, the shopaholic

Here's Ella's pictures in her shopping mode:

"Mom, let's go i'm ready!"

~ trendy Ella sitting in the shopping cart

"Vroom... vroom!"
~ Ella, trying to maneuver the cart.

"Hello, I'm busy. I need to do some shopping. Can you call again?"

~busy driving while on her phone and holding the cart on the side.

"i'm done shopping!" *whew*

~carrying a shopping bag.

To drive or not to drive? Definitely to DRIVE!

I have been for the 3rd time reviewing the Learner’s book (similar to Driver’s book). And hoping I get the exam, pass it and practice driving. I must admit, I procrastinated for years and now I am in a hurry to get my driver’s license ASAP so I could use it for my daughter and for work. And I get tired of taking a cab or bus. It feels comfortable to just sit in your own car, max up the AC and listen to my fave music in my XM radio.

How did this happen? I have been in Canada for almost 3 years and I do not drive my car yet.

Well, to start the story. I came here November 2006 and its winter time so obviously, I have to wait until Spring to Summer to practice driving. So came May 2007, I was already working at Brainhunter and my office is in the South East (I live in the North West), so you could just imagine If I will be driving, it would be more convenient for me as it takes 2 long rides (sometimes 3) to go back and forth to my work. But then again, as I was about to take the driver’s test by June 2007. I found out that I am pregnant! And I was so nauseated to even ride in the bus that time! I had to take a cab to and from work. Of course, if Noel is around. He drives me to/from work. And I red in a paper that it is not a good time to practice driving if you’re pregnant. Of course it is ok to drive when you’re pregnant if you are already a professional driver but in my case, I am just starting so it is very dangerous to try that. Ok, so I had to wait again for another year to practice driving. This time, I am more eager since I thought to myself, I have to do this since I will be mostly visible to medical clinics as I have to bring Ella for monthly check up, immunizations, etc.

So came May 2008. It’s Spring time! And I am still on maternity leave (here in Canada, we can take a year off for our maternity leave and its paid by the government). Just when I was ready to take the exam and practice driving, I never thought it would be this hard for me to manage my time. While Noel is at work (he works in the oil field and usually he’s not home for 2-3 weeks). I attended to Ella up until May 15th, after that I’ve decided to go back to work (as requested by my boss) and leave my daughter to the care of my Mother in law. I was hoping then to insert some time to my already busy schedule, dedicated only to driving. But it didn’t happen. My routine was wake up in the morning at around 7am, leave for work, home by 5pm, cook food for us, clean the house, clean Ella’s bottles, etc. By the time I’m done, it is almost sleep time for my daughter and on top of that, I am breastfeeding her. So what happen to weekends? Well, my mother in law is going home by Thursday and not here until Monday morning or Sunday night. Obviously, I can’t drive as no one will take care of Ella. Did I mention that I even bought a brand new SUV just for my daughter?! Well, I figured out that It would be uncomfortable for us to use my husband’s car (it’s a two door sports car) to travel with Ella. So I’ve decided to get myself a brand new MDX to serve as a family car as well as a mommy/office car if I drive it to work.

So this year is my last chance so to speak! I have to do this for myself as I am getting tired of commuting where in fact, there are 2 cars in our garage waiting for me to drive them. Well, only one as Noel’s car is manual so I am left with my mommy car. Again, I HAVE TO DO THIS FOR MYSELF! It’s now June 1st and summer is until September so I only have 3 months to go. Goodluck to me. But it’s now or NEVER! =)

Acura RSX and MDX