HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!

Hallowe'en at Providence

Here are some of my kiddies, trick-or-treating at Providence...pretty cute if I do say so myself...

Out on the town in Calgary...

Just got home from a night at the "Rocky Mountain Wine and Food" festival at the Stampede Grounds, downtown Calgary. I'm not sure if this is "blog" worthy, but I thought you might be interested to see how we are keeping busy with our day to day entertainment: tonight was lots of fun, with tastings from restaurants and wineries all over the region--lots of yummy eats and treats!! Unfortunately, I have to do my first aid/CPR course tomorrow bright and early, so I had to make it an early night (with more "food" than "wine"!)...For details, see:
http://www.rockymountainwine.com/

We also had another fun night out on Wednesday: enjoying Cirque du Soleil's "Delirium" at the Saddledome. We weren't really prepared for the "concert" atmosphere, having seen more "intimate" shows in Toronto, but this was definitely an interesting and entertaining experience: just a lot more singing and dancing, and a lot less acrobatics than we were hoping for. To see a preview of what it's all about, see:
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/delirium/intro/intro_default.htm

That's about it for now!
The countdown is on until Mom and Dad Brewin arrive on Wednesday: we are looking forward to showing them around our city, now that we are getting to know it a bit better. Just hoping that they have better weather than Mom and Dad Jackson did--although the forecast for Wed is -5c and snow? Ugh!! :)

News from J&J!!

It's likely that this is not "news" to most of you-- we were waiting to get the official word from Joel and Janet, now that most of their extended family has been told in person-- but we are SO excited, so I had to make a post to share their news:
Joel and Janet are pregnant, and due in April 2007! This will be the first grandchild for my parents, and the first niece/nephew for Dave and I; and while Amy and Jay are already a proud Aunt and Uncle 3 times over--with Morgan, Madison and baby Dakota, needless to say, we are all so happy and excited about this new addition to the Jackson family!
Janet reports that she is feeling much better now that she is through her first trimester and the nausea and exhaustion have eased a bit. We are looking forward to sharing the next few months with them and of course can't wait to meet this little one in April!!
Congratulations also to our friends Ines and Jamie who are expecting around the same time next spring--looks like there will be lots of reasons to come back to Ontario for a visit!! You will all make absolutely wonderful parents: we are so happy for you!

Updates, and thanks at Thanksgiving

(Unfortunately, without a camera to record our lives in photos, it doesn't seem quite so interesting! We will try to keep you up-to-date nonetheless...until we have a new camera up and running that is!! )

This weekend, Dave played in a hockey tournament in Banff. The boys had a great time, but he is exhausted after lots of activity, lots of beer, and very little sleep or wholesome food!

My weekend was quite the opposite: Claire and I had a quiet night on Friday--stayed in with movies and pizza, then headed out to her family's ranch on Saturday. The "Bar Eleven" ranch is on hwy 22 near Chain Lakes Provincial Park, on the road to Fernie. Saturday was beautiful and sunny, about 24c, but very windy. Most of the leaves are gone already in the valley with all the wind, but it is still so beautiful to be in the foothills with the mountains all around. The drive out there was amazing: it truly is "big sky" country, where you can see for miles and miles! The ranch itself is an old log cabin. The inside reminds me of my Grandpa's old Ancaster house: so many memories and neat old photographs, books and magazines from the 1940-50s. Unfortunately this time of year, there was a thick layer of flies (living and dead!) throughout most of the house: apparently they like to live and breed in the wooden log walls. It didn't take long to sweep and vacuum most of them up, but on a sunny day like yesterday, there was a constant buzzing at the windows! A little disconcerting...

As far as life and work updates go, I spent last week in "IPP" meetings: our Individual Program Plan meetings where we meet with parents to discuss their children's goals for the year. It was an exhausting week: it seems more draining to be answering questions and reassuring parents than to be chasing around after their kids! Things should slow down a bit now that I am more comfortable with my role, and have gotten to know my colleagues and the kids a bit better.
Dave is still busy with the ED (Emergency Department) project, and travels from hospital to hospital through the week. Fortunately, he is still always in the same city, so we are enjoying having more time outside of work to spend together and to enjoy our home and the city. (Dave used to travel a lot more when he was with GE). We continue to go to the Talisman centre to work out and swim at least a few times a week.

Our biggest recent excitement was the purchase of a 42" flat screen LCD TV. Dave has been shopping around for a few months now, and finally made the decision last week when Mom and Dad were here. Next on the list is a new digital camera to replace our old one that seems to have given up working after the Shuswap weekend.

We are looking forward to coming home to Ontario for the holidays, and have booked our flights into Toronto on Thursday December 21st, returning to Calgary on Tuesday January 2nd. Hopefully we will be able to see many of our friends and family when we are back in town!

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend. We will be thinking of all of you, and wishing we could share our "thanks" with you...So in that spirit: thanks to all of you who have supported us over the years in our various adventures. We appreciate the love of our families and the great times shared with our friends, and hope that you realize that we never take this for granted: we are always thinking of you!!
Lots of love...xoxoxo

(this photo is one Mom and Dad took when they were down: it gives a good idea of the "Big Sky" we saw on the way to the ranch, and I thought it was a nice Thanksgiving photo!)