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| This slideshow design created with Smilebox
I finally figured out how to do this on Smilebox and I am delighted with the results. I hope whoever sees it likes the pictures of our "Year In Review".
Another year has gone by since I last "blogged" (I still can't get used to that word). Now it is almost Christmas time and here I am doing the usual run to the finish line trying to get something accomplished by way of Christmas Greetings. In fact, I should be getting ready to go to work this morning so I will try to get this done as quickly as I can!
A good discussion about how the year progressed must include the weather, especially if you live where we do! It snowed so much we thought it would never end. At first we were both good sports and shovelled. However, it got increasingly difficult since it snowed all the time and it snowed a lot. Not only that but it was darn cold too. Bernie, who likes to be fit and who sometimes does things the hard way (I think just to annoy me) jumped in the truck one day and when he came home he had a snowblower in the back. Even he had to admit that it was too hard to do everything manually. It was kind of comical the way he would plow down the sidewalk and do the entire block and then the neighbour (who must be eighty by now) would follow him with his little scraper.......what is a guy to do?? Enough about snow.
We kept ourselves busy with bowling every week and I curled with the ladies. We are so dedicated to curling that we drove in a blizzard to Brownfield, not once but twice, just to curl in their bonspiel. They ended up cancelling some of the curling and the banquet (shucks, that's the best part) so our bonspieling was curtailed to a certain degree. I also curled with my team in the Coronation Ladies and in the Oil Ladies. We ended up winning the second event in the Oil Ladies. That was a busy weekend since I also had my head shaved to raise money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer.
Bernie and I both signed up to ride with Team Travis in the Ride to Conquer Cancer so we were busy trying to find ways to raise the money to ride in this event. Generous donations from family and friends and then the incredible support from the whole community for the Head Shaving Event provided enough and then some. Many thanks to everyone who supported us. Of course my head was cold and I had to wear a toque for a month until I had a little growth; but it was worth it and I would do it again. Bernie spent a good part of his time substitute teaching in Veteran and Coronation and then for the whole month of March he was at the Veteran Hutterite Colony......that was different. In his spare time he worked in the basement trying to solve problems and then he started to clear out a crawl space and build a new basement wall. As a result of all this we have a yard with piles of dirt. I have given up telling people who ask what that is all about. One of these days it will look like a normal yard and I won't be looking out my west windows praying for the dirt to go away!! In September Bernie came out of retirement and took on a full time teaching contract. That was a change to our lifestyle since I was just getting used to him being around the house more when I was home. I spent a good part of 2011 helping the Coronation Centennial Celebration Committee get ready for our Centennial celebrations in August. It was a huge undertaking for our community and a lot of extra time was taken up with meetings to organize and prepare. I go to a lot of meetings anyway as a result of being on Town Council so this was just one more thing to do. I still work at Assisted Living (well it is now called a Designated Supportive Living, but none of us answer the phone that way! ha ha) and I now have a permanent part time position there. I am also on the Home Care casual list but I can't seem to find any time to do that anymore. This past summer we managed to get away on a couple of little holidays with our trailer. We joined our niece Susan and children William and Sarah from Calgary for a camping trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park in July. We took my mom with us and then my sister Carol and brother-in-law Gord from Saskatoon joined us. It was Gord's 65th birthday so we celebrated that as well. Happy Birthday Gord!
We spent a weekend at Wizard Lake in August which was lovely and then towards the end of August just the two of us and the dogs travelled to Whitney Lake Provincial Park. The weather was perfect, hot and sunny and the camping spots were perfect......secluded and lots of trees. That was it for the summer and I thought that we would get away again in the winter to San Diego but this year it isn't going to happen since Bernie is back to teaching. I guess we will wait until next year and see what that brings!!
We left the dogs at home and Susan, Will and Sarah came as usual for the traditional Coronation weekend and Labour Day Classic event. (it is a Rider thing). Niece Tracy and daughter Becky came from Saskatoon so Grandma had lots of company and the dogs were happy as well! Thank you girls for keeping things going at home while we were away.
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| Leah dancing with mom.
At the end of September my two cousins Sandra and Barb brought their mothers, my aunts, Norma and Joan to Coronation to see mom. Mom was over the top to see her sisters and they had a wonderful two day visit.
Mom will turn 87 years old on January 3rd and she enjoys very good health. She had a hip replacement done in July of 2010 and it made her as good as new. She lives in one of the Seniors Manors in town and life is good.
Nicholas and daughter-in-law Pam are fine and well; we don't see as much of them as we would like, we'll have to change that. Nicholas is a journeyman electrician and he is working up at Ft. MacMurray right now. Because of his work and the distances to travel back and forth from home they will be spending Christmas in Edmonton.
That pretty much brings us up to date since after that weekend we did not go anywhere, working too much. Bernie settled into teaching every day and I carried on with my usual routine. I started going to bootcamp in March and again this fall and I really enjoy the benefits of staying in shape and getting fit. I am all signed up to go hard again in January. We are so lucky to have a fitness instructor like Kendra; it is a great benefit to our community.
Our household increased in size in March with the addition of a new puppy - Sarge. He is a shih-tzu crossed with something we are not sure what......poodle maybe?? He is a delightful little guy and we really enjoy him. We thought Duke needed some company and they have their moments but for the most part they get along.
I will be working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We are going to go to Invermay and to visit with Doris and Baba during the week between Christmas and New Year's day.
I hope whoever reads this enjoys the commentary and the pictures. We are enjoying our life and we really don't have anything to complain about and if we did we wouldn't anyway!
From our house to yours Merry Christmas to all and we hope that 2012 is a year blessed with love, luck and laughter.
Bonnie and Bernie
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