August 30, 2010

Today is the first day of school here in Alberta, so I thought it fitting to do a project. I'm not really planning to go full-speed with school til later in the month, but it's good to go for appearances, right? ;)

So today we went for a nature walk and collected leaves and other signs of the approaching Autumn season. Now, I have to admit that Alberta has got nothing on Nova Scotia for foliage. It's actually a pretty sad little show. But with enough persistence we did manage to find an assortment of shades to create our poster, entitled "The Colours of Fall". (See how I even made the extra effort to use the Canadian spelling there?)


Then we moved on to some coloring, cutting and pasting. I am attempting to strike a balance between C's need for K/Grade One challenges and A's beginning skills at the early pre-K level. So some things, like this project, fall right square in between the two:

The pages for this activity are here:
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/cutpaste-seasons.htm

Some big-kid work for C - including a math sheet of addition with numbers up to ten.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-holidays.com/fall/images/b-maze4.gif

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-holidays.com/fall/images/bwordsearch-easy.gif

http://www.kidzone.ws/math/autumn/t_math.asp?add.asp?au=10&al=0&bu=10&bl=0&d=v

And finally, reading/vocabulary:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/fall/mbrady.htm

New words: rare, beneath, content, gleaming, stark

Happy Birthday to me...

Okay so it's not my birthday but hey, so what? LOL I told hubby today that he's off the hook for my birthday as I bought a new fridge and stove today. Gotta love the credit plan at the Canex, the payments are spread out and divided evenly as payroll deduction with six months' no payments, no interest over 24 months, and since we're in Alberta, there is only 5% sales tax on it. I just bid farewell to our old appliances - they were given to us for free, so I passed them on for free - and I'm awaiting delivery of the new ones. I hired someone to deliver them for me, saving the hassle of trying to find people who could do it during the excessively limited hours of our Canex store. I went with Samsung, which is a first for me. Being as I was doing it through the Canex I couldn't do my normal procedure of shopping around, comparing brands, reading reviews, etc, as their selection is rather limited. So I went to the store, looked at the available models and went with the fridge I liked the most and the stove I liked second best. (The one I liked the BEST was a new induction range... but that alone would cost as much as these two together, so.... no.) I'm just hoping that the delivery comes soon, because I'm sitting here watching thunderclouds forming and rolling in, and seeing yet another "Severe Thunderstorm Watch" posted on the Weather Network... and I have to think that if it's thundering, raining and/or hailing, he may prefer to wait until tomorrow to make the delivery. Which is fine, but it sure would be nice to have it today.

Tanner seems to be settling into his new home just fine. Last night he and the girls both slept nearly 11 hours - no complaints from me! I had him out to potty at just past 8 last night, and then C took him out this morning around 7:30, and he was fine all night. I guess this is part of the benefit of getting an older dog rather than a puppy! I have to think he's feeling the heat, though, with such a thick coat. I gave him a good brushing yesterday and a lot of undercoat fur came loose. I suspect I'll do that a few times a week. In a few weeks when hubby comes home for leave, the plan is to bring him to a kennel to spend the night and have him groomed at the same time, ie nails, teeth, and a bit of a haircut. Nothing too drastic, just some trimming around his paws, underneath, and the fur that's long enough to be dragging. He is pretty just the way he is, but I think some tidying up will help with cleanliness. I've seen no skittishness so far about the kids, the neighbors or their dogs, or the fighter jets overhead.  (Hopefully that is also true about thunder and other loud things!!) He did bark when people came to the door, but stopped quickly, and that is what I would hope for, so that's all good. So I have to say that so far, this seems like it will prove to be a good match. The big question will be how well he accepts hubby when he gets home, but I don't think it will be too catastrophic. I'm not letting him sleep on my bed or anything like that, and I'm doing my best to make sure he knows that I am the boss, not him.

We're home!

We arrived here Friday evening after a veeeerrrrrryy long day of travel that started in Nova Scotia at 4:30 am local time. The weekend was a bit of a blur of tired mom and crabby children but we're getting settled. We're mostly unpacked, and I found the energy today to do laundry and dishes so that's a good sign. C is still not quite herself though and has been plummeting into a foul mood at the drop of a hat through most of this afternoon so we're headed for early bedtimes tonight.

One of the things I had told the girls was that we would get a pet this fall. Well, before we left Nova Scotia, I was browsing the classifieds for here and saw an ad for two shelties looking for a new home.  I emailed their owner, and heard back from her today. We met them this morning and they really are dear little things - the female is six and the male is twelve, and before we met them I was thinking we'd adopt the six year old. When they came here, though, C fell in love with the older (and much smaller) one. He's quiet, calm, good-natured and pretty much made himself at home. But I didn't make an immediate decision, and she carried on to take them to see someone else who had shown interest. This afternoon she called back and said that the six year old is definitely going to another home, so that removed the debate of which one. Although I was actually strongly considering getting both of them.

So now I think we will go ahead and get the older one. He won't have all that many years with us, being in his old age already, but he does seem like he'll be a sweet pet and we can give him a nice home anyway.

The other source of debate was that the local shelter has a Golden Retriever and a Maltese Terrier (crossed, methinks). Both are apparently good family dogs - the Golden more so - but both will need a lot of energy and commitment from us whereas the 12yo Sheltie is way past the puppy stage and won't need a lot of energetic playing.

Anyway, hubby was all right with getting the six year old and left it to me as to whether to take the other. Things have changed slightly now with her being spoken for, and now the discussions around here are centering around how long before A can get a kitten since the dog we get was C's favorite. LOL