A day of surprises!

On a day when we thought we were all out of fun things to do we were invited out to Richard's farm for a sleigh ride. What a ride through the valley. A snowy day that made us all smile and laugh out loud. From tipping back our heads and catching flakes to the "Who can hold on the longest contest?" it was a day to remember.

B and A's JPEGs of BNL A OK! - TKP

BNL with B and A

So what do you do in Saskatchewan when it is - 34 and the wind chill makes it feel like - 44? You get in a vehicle and drive for a total of 4 hours to a concert - that is what! :)

Sari and I got together with our friends Ben and Amy and went to see the "Barenaked Ladies" (for though of you who don't know - there is nothing to worry about here... no one was bare, or naked or even ladies for that matter - just a silly name for a band of 5 rather strange looking guys!) in Regina.

It was a lot of fun. They came on stage at about 8:30 and did not quit until 10:45 (no intermission, no real breaks - just 2 + hours of music). We stood up when they came on stage and did not sit down again. Sari was clapping - I was "WOOOOOOOO" ing - Amy was dancing - and we were not really sure what Ben was doing! ;)

One of the nice parts was that because they have been around since the late 80's/early 90's they can play for 2 hours and you know almost every word to every song. Well, except that stupid rap in "One week" - I can never get that.... "gotta getta better setta clubs, the kind with tiny nubs, so my irons aren't always flying on the backswing...." etc (If anyone can learn that rap and do it at exactly the same speed as Ed does without missing a word or messing up - I will give you $20 - seriously!! Find me and prove it - I don't think you can! Come on, Lenny, here is your chance! ) :)

So, of course, we had to go for coffee afterwards and then drive home - didn't get home till 2 am. Up at 7 to go get the girls from the Hill's house and then to work all day. No nap - No problem!

I AM NOT OLD YET!!!!!!!! :)

So that was the big excitement of this week. I will post some pics of the whole event here later.


PS. Remember - "One Week" rap - $20 - try it.

Buckled in....

So - the decision you all have been waiting for has been made.......

But, before I reveal the answer to the question "Flying or Driving" - I must say that I am shocked that not more of you took the opportunity to vote on this burning issue.... our forefathers gave their lives so that you could have the right to vote and what did you with their gift????? Nothing - that is what! Well - Crystal and Ben voted - but only Crystal actually acknowledged the $100 voting fee - and that was the important part (the cheque is in the mail, right? I mean, it has been a few days now and I have not seen it yet. I guess the cold weather is delaying its arrival, right?)

Well - after much debate and many long hours - we booked airline tickets today!!!! So, that is it. No turning back now. Flights, hotels room, rental car - all locked in. There is no way out now (Well, I guess I could just refuse to go - all this stuff is on Lenny's credit card after all) :)

The only bad part now is that if every decision that we make on this trip is as hard to come to as the "Fly or drive" question - Lenny and I are going to spend the entire eight days standing on some street corner in downtown Charlotte going, "I don't know! Which way do you want to go? We could go left.... or right. Left looks nice - but right has its advantages. Maybe you should go left and I will go right and then......." :)

The problem is (I think) that we are both being too nice (believe it or not). We are trying to consider how our decisions will effect others (like our wives). We are trying to be considerate of what the other brother wants to see or do and how much money he may want to spend.

I don't expect that to last! :)

Decisions will come much more quickly as soon as we start tapping into our "Pippus rage" - they may not be the best decisions (in fact, I can almost guarantee that!) but they will come fast. No more mamby pamby "What do you want?" - "I don't know - what do you like?" stuff!!!! What are we.... girls?????

So - I expect that now that we have that "niceness" thing out of the way - things will go much more smoothly.

I am getting excited now that we have a plan!!! I just need a few of you to come through with your $25 "reading my blog" fee and I will be set!!!! (I don't care whether you knew I was charging for my blog or not!!!! Unless you can completely erase from your memory every word you have just read - you owe me $25!)

Thank you in advance for your patronage! :) TKP

Lennys and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!!! :)

So, it is happening!!! After many years of being nothing but big talkers, Lenny (otherwise known as my brother Kurt) and I are going to a NASCAR race in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We have tickets to Cup qualifying, the Busch race and the Cup race. Our hotel is within a mile of the speedway and is near all the race shops. The race shop tours are going to be cool. They are huge and really interesting. You get to watch the cars being built, most of them have museums and stuff like that as well.

As I said, this is something that we have talked about doing for years and the time has come (Well - actually my wife told me "The time has come, stupid!" - though she did not add the "stupid" part - and she actually said "Happy Birthday" but I know what she meant!) :)

Now we just have to decide how we are getting there. Do we pay the big bucks and fly down like adults, or do we do the "Planes, trains and automobiles" version of the trip and drive 30 + hours??? Is the cost saving worth the grueling marathon trip or not? Or is the trip 1/2 the fun (think of the memories.... "Lenny, remember the time that we fell asleep and almost ran into that bridge abutment??? Or the time we felt like throwing up because we had been in the car all day, every day, living on McDonalds and Gas Station food for three straight days??? Or how about the time that we fought all the way across Indiana????" (Could be Good times, huh?) :) I am taking a pole to see which way we should go - so please leave your comment below (Also please note that every vote for "Flying" must be accompanied by a $50 bill to help offset the cost. Check that - make it $100 - it is a long, expensive flight!)

What could be more fun than a week in the southern states, looking at race shops and 800 horsepower stock cars? I can't think of anything much better! :)

All Bugged OUT !!!!!

Wild and wonderful things have happened to these children and here is the story of their visit to Pippus ville. Having just enjoyed a trip to the brand new Walmart (to purchase the all important bug eyed glasses) and a cup of hot cocoa at the local Tim Horton's, the gang all went sledding when the windchill was -28. The hill was out of the wind...if a hill can be out of the wind in SK. We ate lots of snacks and went out for a hockey game...the Bruins won! We got up too early and skated in circles, played playstation until our fingers were numb and gathered up for a picture when it was all over. Here's what we looked like, our eyes all buggy and red...but give us a few weeks and we'll be ready for another gathering of the Pippus crew. No animals were hurt in the taking of this picture.

Makeover Madness

When you are stuck indoors for weeks at a time one begins to look around and say "yuck". For the last week or so Tim has been working away at projects that have been sitting here for a while. It is actually a great hobby to divert the brain away from the everyday and challenge it to dream of how something could look finished. Now for all you husbands out there who are thinking that I just cracked the whip and the Tim is working, this is all done and begun under his own steam..no prodding or nagging. Now nagging does happen but not about this getting done. I am pretty sure the project itself has been doing most of the nagging for me. I am planning to get some painting done this weekend too. The lime green walls of the basement while fun are just a little much. So I would take before and after pictures but maybe you will just have to come and see for yourselves. While we may get finished, I doubt it will be the end, as a change around here is as good as a move. Nothing like a little paint to change the view. Maybe I could paint a beach with palm trees...I am missing summer just a touch. Today is the first full day of sunshine we have seen in about 30 so we have been out in -20 weather soaking it up. I'll take the sun any way I can get it. Well I am off to pick up the paint and get started. Stop by to see the changes when you can.

The Pippus ZOO?????

Dogs, Dogs and more dogs!!!! Recently some friends of ours left for a holiday to the sunny shores of Belise....nice! Okay so yes it is colder than stink here and warmer than stink there but I am not jealous even a little. With that said you should know that when they go on holiday we get to dogsit their lovely Samoyed dog Clara. Well this time came with the bonus of their son's (he works all day and has no yard) dog Cody a very pretty Husky. So as I lined up their bowls to feed them I thought it resembled a zoo just ever so slightly. Now all the dogs get along very well but the dining room where they spend most of their time is not that big and they each weigh 50+ pounds just to give you an idea of what our zoo is like!!! So you wonder what we are up to at least this weekend....letting in and letting out...feeding...watering...scooping...walking....playing....and so on...... Hope your "zoo"was as fun this weekend.

Man's Best Friend - HA! :(

(Those who have weak stomachs and do not like even slightly gory details - maybe you should skip to the next posting - Tim) :)
Those of you who read Sari's last post will know that I was violently ill in Dauphin last week. I mean violently ill!!! I never get sick, but when I do it is a doosy! :)
I woke up at 2 am in the upstairs bedroom and I felt awful, so I got up and ran downstairs to main floor. Now the main floor bathroom is right beside my inlaws' bedroom, so being the kind and considerate (not to mention handsome) son-in-law that I am, I kept going down the stairs to the basement bathroom. Immediately upon arrival I was in trouble and so I did the only logical thing I could do - I threw up in the bath tub. (Some may not see this as a "logical" occurrence, but, believe me, considering the alternative it was!) :)
Now, my lovely and nice wife followed me downstairs and when she arrived and saw what was happening she promptly announced "Oh gross!!! That is disgusting! There is no way you are coming back to bed with me!" (If you ask her she will tell you that she was trying to be kind and said "Oh you poor dear! Let me make a bed for you in this room so that you can stay down here - nice and close to the bathroom" - but I know better than that!) :)
Every 1/2 hour from 2 am till 5:30 am I was in the bathroom (here comes the somewhat gory part)...... 6 sessions of throwing up 3 full times. Throw up 3 times - go to bed - get up - throw up 3 times, etc (It was so bad that, by the end, I was throwing up stuff that I hadn't even eaten!)
So what does this have to do with the title of this post ("Man's best friend - HA!") you ask?
Another valid question at this point may be, "Why am I wasting my time reading this at all?"
While I have no answers for the second question - I can fill in the dog part for you.
Murphy's kennel (with Murphy sleeping in it) was right beside the bathroom door. Every time my "parade of puke" forced me to get up, I had to turn the light on (how else would I possibly have found the tub again, right?) and each and every time I turned on the light on, I could hear Murphy in his kennel take a deep, deep breath and then let out this sound....

"SSSSSSiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

He sighed at me like 16 times that night!!!

And I don't mean a "Oh that is too bad" sigh. It was an, "OH BROTHER!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, MAN???? I AM TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!!!!" sigh.

No sympathy! No whimpers of concern! Nothing!! Just 16 big, inconvenienced, sighs!

Maybe, though, he would have been a little more sympathetic had I not laughed and laughed at him while he ran around the yard during the whole "Hydrogen peroxide" incident (see earlier post). Oh well!

Man's best friend - HA! I DON'T THINK SO!!!! :)

(Ps. The rest of the story..... I Stopped throwing up at 5:30 am - ran a fever and slept a good share of the day - ate some soup at 3 pm - some potatoes at 6 pm - then I did what any smart, highly fevered, weak from throwing up, Canadian prairie boy would do - I went to a Dauphin Kings hockey game! And now, I feel fine! Hockey - good for what ails ya!)

Dauphin New Year

We spent the beginning of 2007 in Dauphin with the folks there. It was a treat to check out the new rink and find out why hockey players where padding...thanks Joel! We spent the better part of a week sledding, having bonfires in the yard and going for walks in the winter wonderland of the parkland. Dad is doing well after his first treatment for leukemia and we all enjoyed and savoured being together just a bit more than usual. Dad and I even tried out the snowshoes and laughed at trying to scale a hardened snow drift in them. A few of us got the flu...well everyone but the girls and me. Go girl power!!!! Sorry Tim:( A wonderful holiday time doing what we hoped we would..well all except for Tim and the long night of.......he can tell you more about that if he wants to.

Moose Jaw Christmas

We spent the first part of our holiday with the folks in Moose Jaw. Arriving on Xmas eve we got to Deb and Dorians in time for a yummy supper. Then we all piled in our van and headed out to check out the lights of the "Moose". (A tradition to Tim's side of the family) Then we ended the evening with the viewing of the black and white version of a Christmas Carol.(Also a strongly held tradition) On Christmas day one of the highlights for Tim was playing on the outdoor rink his brother has been working on in his backyard. The kids loved it too. Megan stayed out and skated back and forth for several hours. Katie and her cousins played hockey when they could get the ice time away from Tim and Kurt. We all were treated to a wonderful Christmas supper from Tracy's kitchen.
All in all we really had a super time with much more to tell and so little space to tell it in. "Christmas ROCKS" or so my oldest daughter says. I would have to say I agree.

May the seasons peace
wrap you in its arms
May its joy dance
in your heart
And may its love
fill your life now and
throughout the New Year

Merry Christmas
From the Pippus Family

The last day for the dog of black and white (almost)

So tonight we are out celebrating the festive time of year with friends and return home to what looked like an explosion all over the back yard. My good friend and neighbor had been Santa and left gifts for us at our back door. Now if you know nothing about Murphy our dog you will preface the rest of this story with this information. He has cost us at least $2,000 since his adoption into our family. Something that of course has endeared him to Tim. He rarely chews on anything and has stayed clear of all gifts even ones containing chocolate... SO in the debris of the torn gifts and ripped packages we found the remains of 12 lindor chocolates. All consumed by you know who. The girls began to cry (depending on the size of your dog and the amount and type of chocolate your dog can die within 24 hours of eating it) and so I began to look up what to do online. That was no help and so having an in with my vet ( I clean for them) I decided to call them. She advised me to give him a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to make him vomit and he did alot and so he is alive and puking. I won't even mention what he did in the yard later on. ewwwww! So if you are planning to be Santa the front door is an excellent way to get to our house or the chimney or the windows... :) What else could this beautiful season hold for us?????
S

The Last Week before the Man in Red

We have had a full weekend and really a full month. We have spent time with friends and enjoyed this season and all that it brings. One of those times was spent at our church Christmas supper. We had a hotpot luck supper and sang carols. Tim inspired us with words about family and times like these to be thankful for. Some shared moments of thanks from the past year. It was a time to be reminded of how good life is when you share it with those you love. It is hard to believe that this is the 13th Christmas I have been here. You learn a lot about a group of people in that time including just how blessed you are to have so many people who really love each other. My kids said the best part of the night was watching pictures of everyone on a power point show of a bunch of events from this year. So as we look ahead to holidays we are all ready for a break. We are looking forward: To being with family. To doing nothing. To laughing. To watching the Anne movies for the first time with my girls. To playing with the kids toys. ( after all why be a grown up if you can't play with the toys you picked out:). To staying in our pj's. To sledding. To skating. To playing games. To sharing why Jesus was born. To drinking hot chocolate and spice tea. To just being together.
Have a yummy week!
S

Boarding Boy

Yes this is what it looks like and no that is not a snowboard. Our Saturday afternoon fun did not end in any broken bones but we learned a few valuable tidbits. Did you know that after a certain age you no longer bounce when you wipe out??!?!?? And did you know that things that Tim makes look easy are not easy for Sara..?..I tried it and only got about 15 feet before crashing. Some people have to learn the hard way...yes I kept trying it thinking I would "just keep trying" and get it eventually...well not so much. Anyway the kids had a lot of fun and enjoyed the break from the chilly weather that has bogged us down for the last two weeks. We walked up this long hill enough times to go to the moon and back...at least that is how it felt when we took the last run of the day after 3 hours of slippery fun. Oh by the way "Don't try this at home" there at least I have said it and if you feel inclined to try this just remember to roll. And don't plan anything important for the next few days...especially if you are over the afore mentioned bounceable age.

Snow Snow and more Snow!!!!

Winter has really arrived. Although not officially here yet according to the calendar it is here in a very deep way. Each of us has enjoyed the coming of this glorious season (yes I am one of the freaky people who actually enjoy winter) in our own way. Tim has taken a crack at Noon Hockey and came home after finding only one other skater to play against...it was a very cold day. He redeemed himself by taking his girls to a hockey game on the weekend...also a very cold night with the windchill it was -38. The girls of course have been down a hill or two already. Testing to see how many times one person can have a concussion!?!?!?!?. Katie smacked her head while trying out a snowboard...while on her Christmas list it may not make it under the tree without an airbag system attached. Megan has had the joy of a snow ball slithering down her back while dressed to the gills with snow gear. Only to wiggle out in time to find nothing but icy water. I have had my driving out to the middle of nowhere adventures which you can read in my other posts. And shoveling out the yard and driveway at least six times now. But I have also had the best french vanilla cappuccino after being out when it was so cold that my nose hairs froze. I have also seen many a scene like this snowy fence line and thought "amazing". I like that winter slows me down and makes me sleepy and reminds me that I truly can't survive on my own.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!!!!

I got up this morning and after hearing my husband say "You better stay home" I headed out to a farm south of Estevan to work. Well I drove on sheer ice and went about 40 kms/hr til I reached the grid road and thought Crud!!! The snow on the grid was 2 feet deep and I was driving the van. I decided after much thought...all of 10 seconds of it...why not go ahead? SO using the laws of momentum I plowed on and almost headed to ditchdom several times. You know the wild careening out of control fishtail thing you do in deep snow...well at the half way mark I pulled onto an approach and breathed in really deep and then I backed up and headed on again. I reached the farm yard only to find that the windbreak at the yard had made the drifts at least 3 feet high and a lot scarier looking. Now normally I would have stopped here but I could see the house and figured if I hit the ditch I could walk even though the wind chill was -35. So I plowed on and made it through and then I parked the in the driveway and went in. I stood in the doorway shaking like a leaf only to hear my employer say "Oh I was going to call you and tell you not to come out" Well a fat lot of good that did me. So I stayed and worked for 3 hours and then I realized everyone was leaving the farm for the day and maybe staying in town for the night. This meant if I couldn't get out I would be stuck for the night. Well the minute they included me in the mass exodus I was on that train. Toilets are glamorous work but sometimes a girls got to do what a girls got to do. So I made it back into town only after following a Dodge diesel that was like eight feet taller than the van. I was considering a stop at my local Dodge dealer to pick one out for myself and then I realized oh yeah I am not Oprah and I slunk home. I sat in my warm house and was glad to not be out in the cold. I can now say that Tim was right...that's right Tim was right...there I said it. (Oh and remember don't believe everything you read.)
Hoping the weather is better where you are
Sara

Tim's Side of Sari's "Black Friday" Experience

When Sari got home at 9 pm on Friday night - I could not believe it!!!! She had all taken all the stuff that every one of the 10 girls in her group had bought (and all the stuff that several other people from Estevan whom she did not even know bought) - and stuffed it all into our van!!!!!

Actually - that was my first thought - then I realized that all that stuff was OUR STUFF!!!!!! I did not know that a van could actually expand at the seams like that (like a briefcase or luggage) but somehow Sari managed to make it happen! Good thing there was a strong southeast wind blowing her home - I am not sure that the van would have had enough power to make it up the hills with all that stuff otherwise! :)

This display of shopping prowess brought about an intellectual debate regarding the size of our bank account and its ever increasingly quicker free fall into a black hole of utter despair vs. buying a present (or 17) for EVERY PERSON IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!! (Including but not exclusive to the unborn, the about to be thought about and anyone who was living but may have passed on to their reward in the past 56890809478904870987 years. The presents for the deceased apparently will be sent to their heirs or to any other person who just happens to be walking by our house..... Sari has been doing that - running out with presents in hand - "Merry 'You just walked by our house on a day with more than three letters in it' day!!!! Here is your present!!") :)

So after a nice discussion in which I made a few really good points (like "So are you" and "I am not a moron!!!").... I decided that generousity and joyfulness was the way to approach this festive time of the year (that and the fact that she had already thrown out all the receipts and could not return all this stuff anyway!) - so that is how that went!

It truly is "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" :(

BLACK FRIDAY

I can now say I have been through a Black Friday in the US. The day after American thanksgiving has become the day to begin Christmas. So 7 friends and I arrived in Minot on Thursday night and began to shop at the few stored that were open. Then we headed out to eat and back to the hotel for a soak in the hot tub. All the time knowing we were going to be getting up at some time before 5 am to be get the best deals. We dosed off at just after midnight and some of us tossed and turned all night in anticipation of the next day. Me being one of those people. We set three alarms and got a wake up call and then we all rolled out at 3:45. We split up and went to several different stores. For the record a mad dash to any item or elbows flying or running over little old ladies never happened. I am sure I saw over a hundred people from Estevan and really had a lot of fun shopping with my friends. By 8:30 in the morning we all felt like it was 10:30 at night but the sun was just coming up and so we continued on. By noon I had all of my Xmas shopping done and spent the rest of the day browsing and trying to catch up on sleep. We went out for an early supper and headed home at about 7:30pm. I don't recall ever being that tired. I got plenty of great deals which I will not mention here due to little eyes at my house which do read this so.....
A super day which I would do again.... for those of you who are worried about materialism and this kind of shopping experience I can see how that could be an issue. But for someone who would like to get something thoughtful for people and not have to break the bank to do it I really felt good about it all. Thanks to all my friends who went along for this crazy day.
Sara

Nothing like throwing up!!!

When your kids grow up too fast it is easy to forget that they need you. Well yesterday was one of those days for Megan. We woke up to her coughing and not sounding to good. I tried to get her to stay home, knowing that I had the day off and so we could be mellow together. She said she wanted to go to school because she had swimming lessons to go to. So I sent her to school with some halls. At lunch she came home and stayed home. We thought we could go run an errand or two on my list and after one store she wanted to go home. We got to the front yard and well there really is nothing like throwing up.....SO I am reminded that you never outgrow needing your mom. I am not sure what my neighbors thought we were doing but we went inside and she crashed out. I am sure there are bigger things that braver parents than me deal with everyday. But my kids just don't have very many days like this anymore. Anyway I am hoping whatever bug Megan moves along to bug someone else. I am glad for the chance to be here to know when the girls are just in need of a bit of mommying. Hoping for a quiet night.....