Who knows what will happen next

Have you ever said to yourself, "I never thought I would ever be doing this today"?

That was the thought that went through my mind yesterday as Sari and I tried to thaw a dog off of our sidewalk.

Yep - you read that right.

We are babysitting a couple of dogs from next door - one of which is a big hairy one - a Samoyed to be exact - named Clara. She is like 14 yrs old and can barely move. Usually when we bring her over to the yard, she just flops down on the sidewalk right inside the gate so that she does not have to go any farther than she has to.

The weather was nice yesterday, so the snow around her melted and some of the water from the roof dripped on her. After the sun went down, we went to take her home only to find that she was welded to the concrete.

She was so stuck that she could not move. Sari could not budge her. I could not move her. The two of us together could not get anywhere. So what do you do? You can't just keep pulling. You can't use a blow torch. You can't wait for spring.

Three bucketfuls of warm water poured on the walk beside her finally got her up and moving again.

The moral of this story:
1. You never know what you are going to have to deal with in life.

2. If you get so old that you can barely move, be cautious about sitting in one place for more than 9 hours at a time.

A weekend with Lennys

I have not updated the blog lately - not much fun posting pics of our whole family huddled up inside (and I have not really figured out how to take pics of "cold") - since that has been most of our last two weeks you can just imagine it yourself. :)

Kurt (aka "Lenny"), Tracy and family were down here for the weekend. I thought about posting pics of Lenny and me watching the Daytona 500 (we watched a lot of racing this weekend - just ask Tracy and Sari!), but I decided that those pics may not be very interesting either. Mid-February is like Christmas in Nascar, so that was fun for us anyway! :)

We took all the kids to the Bruin's game Saturday night (there were no races on that night!). Fun time - good game. Best part was that it was the last game of the season so people were getting rid of their leftover season tickets - so we all got in for free (People just handing out tickets at the door. I knew the one lady who gave us tickets - never met the other dude. I like small towns for stuff like that) We saved almost $50!!!!! Then to top it all off they were handing out free toques! FREE TOQUES!!!!! Woooo hoooo!!!! :)

It did warm up on Saturday and we went sledding. Sari took some pics of that......

Conner and me......

Sari and Mumpy......
Getting ready to race (I banged my head on this run....)
Matthew contemplating the next run (wearing the free toque that he won last year when we took him to a Bruin's game - it is a tradition now).....
Katie and me......
Maybe the only smart one - Emily in the van (she eventually did come out).....
Somehow we did not end up with a pic of Tracy - please draw a pic of her on your computer screen to make up for it. :)

Dastardly Don

For many years now, I have played in a curling bonspiel in Langbank, Sask. This event is usually a fund-raiser for our Bible Camp or our Bible college and it is a lot of fun.

Every year I go with high expectations - "This year..... this is the year that I am going to win!!!!" - and every year I run into "Dastardly Don" from Dauphin.

Now, let me make this clear: I like Don a lot. I have known him for 20+ years and he is one of my favorite people in the whole world - but I HATE curling against Don!!!!! He beats me every time!!!!

In fact, I think that Don could curl on a team with two goats and a chicken and still beat me!

True story: One year he came with 3 little girls - his two daughters and his niece, if I remember right - and I thought,"Woo hoo!!! Here is my chance!!! I am finally going to beat Don!!!!"

(PS. I know that it is sad to rejoice at the thought of winning a game against one man and three little girls - but I will take whatever joy I can get!)

Did I win????? Nooooooooooooo!!!!!

Don's little girls could throw the rocks just far enough to get them across the hog line, but not far enough to throw them through the house. Every one of his rocks was in play every single end!!!! By the second end we were so far behind that they had to start using the scoreboard on the next sheet to hold all his points!!!

This year, we tied our first game, won the second and lost the third - thus putting us in the "B final" against....... Dastardly Don!!! I was determined to beat him this time..........

Ok - I admit it - maybe that was me booing loudly when Don got up to claim his prize as "B side champ".... but can you blame me??? How much punishment can one man take???? And the worst thing about it..... he was soooooooo happpy about it!!! (Note: Don is happy about everything - so there is nothing unusual about that - but I took it as a personal insult..... just because).

So if you happen to be in Dauphin, Manitoba and you see Don wearing a "Western Christian College" toque - know that it was supposed to mine!!!! Ask him if he is enjoying wearing my prize and then...... swipe it off his head and mail it to me. I'll give you $5 and Don will be just as happy - one way or the other! :)

(Pics below include our friends Rose and Shane who curled with us)