I should just call my blog "a year of sunsets"

It was another spectacular sunset tonight.  I watched it all while I caught up with a month of photo blogs...I'm heading out of town tomorrow, so there will be a little bit of variety for a few days :)

I love roses

Patricia brought some roses over to say thank you for hosting the shower - in fact there were 2 dozen of them.  They were beautiful - this is just one of them

Tonight was Stake Conference - it never ceases to amaze me that we manage to fill the Stake centre right up through the gym and on to the stage on Saturday nights.  It was a lovely session this evening

No excuses this time

There's no point in trying to explain myself...and no point in apologizing, because I know I have another one up my sleeve for Sunday.

I love my grandkids!!

I came home at lunch time today to see Kathryn and the kids.  Bethany shut herself in my shower...I think because she didn't want to leave...bless her cotton socks!

They are so adorable

I had a surprise visit from the grandkids today, and a bonus sleepover.  The downside of surprise visits is that I usually have other stuff already planned - so I didn't get to see them until bed time, but it was so worth the wait...I adore these kids!   I think Bethany is channeling her inner Cosette in this photo, and Ezra is channeling his inner Ezra!!

Let the count down continue

I had Shannon over this evening to work on the Time Out for Women stuff.  It was so lovely to visit with her for a while, we did a little TOFW stuff, but mostly we just chatted....nice.

I'll be thin tomorrow

I've had the treadmill for a couple of days and finally got around to using it today.  I've decided I can watch an episode of Downton Abbey when I use the treadmill, so I walk for 45 mins to watch a whole episode.  Very enjoyable

..or maybe I'm just cheating

It always looks good, but it's too easy to take photo's of the temple!

Beautiful sunset - boring

Seriously - how many of these photo's can I publish?  Maybe I should limit myself to one a month.  Heck, this is my blog, if the sunset takes my breath away every day, then I will give it a place in my blog!

This will look lovely

I think I ordered this cabinet about 6 months ago and we're finally getting it installed.  It will look lovely when it's finished

This is a big job

So...the ward boundaries have changed, and we needed to completely re-jig the visiting teaching routes.  It was a big job...when I started doing this I was convinced there was a better way than just moving names on a whiteboard....but there really isn't.  Sometimes "old school" is best.  We took photo's after we'd finished, just in case I dropped the board and messed everything up!

BABY SHOWER!!

I've never hosted a baby shower before, and I must confess I was a little nervous.  I was hoping there would be lots of ladies there - I thinking I was hoping for more than 10...there were 35, I shouldn't have worried.  Patricia was overwhelmed by the attention and the gifts....and she did have some super cute stuff!  I was so glad the sisters came to take the food away!

Maybe I'm a pyromaniac

Or maybe candles are just pretty.  Look at the detail on this wick - never noticed that before

Eeeeeuuuuuwwww

Today was the first day of the HR leadership off-site.  I'm not sure if it will be a habit in the new CNOOC world, or if it's just the novelty of the situation, but we had Chinese for lunch, and they brought in chicken feet especially for Quinn...that's just nasty

It doesn't matter how many times I try

...or how good it looks in real life - I just can't seem to get the moon looking right.

TOFW!!

We had a pep rally for the Calgary TOFW (Time Out for Women) team today...these are very nice ladies that I get to work with! and we all got our new TOFW bags as well, don't we just look fashionable!

Time for a camera course

So how do I actually get the full moon to look clear, it seems to work ok when it is dawn, but I can't get the exposure right for night time.  By the end of the year I'll take a good photo of the temple with the moon setting....this isn't it

Home seemed nice today

After 2 reasonably stressful days at the EILT off-site, I could hardly wait to get home and relax

The long awaited off-site

We have been planning this off-site FOREVER.  I was secretly hoping it would be cancelled because of the CNOOC announcement of close, but unfortunately the announcement hasn't happened yet, so we went ahead with the off-site.  We had about 40 people there from around the world, and for some very strange reason we decided to hold it at the zoo.  Remember that it is the dead of winter and we had to walk 15 mins in -20C snowy weather to get to the room.  Not the smartest thing to do.  Anyway, the meeting went just fine - except for the fire drill at 8am and we were all sent outside, I mean really??

Anyway, at least we got to see the penguins :)

Really really nice restaurant

The ILT (International Leadership Team) were all in town today - so we went out to dinner ahead of the EILT (Extended International Leadership Team) meeting.  We went to a cute restaurant in Inglewood called "Rouge" - I have never even been to Inglewood, and it was actually quite nice, and the restaurant was awesome.  It is in a converted house, so there are lots of small rooms - it felt as though we were quite secluded (which we were) and yet there were dozens of others there.  And the food was spectacular.  A very nice evening

Same old, same old

 I cant actually remember if I took this photo from my house or my office....I'm thinking that I took it from my house, just because there's usually a reflection of light from the hallway in the office, but it makes me realize just how blessed I am that I get to see this kind of thing every day - the view from the office is just as spectacular as the view from home.  Is this really my life?

We are the Champions!

I went to watch Trystan play in the finals of his hockey league today;  it ended up being a little too close for comfort, but they won.  I may be biased, but I think Trystan is the best player on the team :)  I then went out to dinner (at the Phoenix Grill again :)) with Alyson and Matthew...a delightful evening!

Memories

I got a glimpse of some of mum's art work that I had left at the old house.  Arlan delivered it to the lawyer and he let me have a look at it.  It brought such lovely memories back. I need to find someone who can maybe fix the discolouration on this painting - and then I'll plan to get it framed :)

I like my camera's

I took this photo of my candle holder....maybe I just didn't have anything else to take a photo of, but I really still like the camera quality!

McDonalds has never been this good

This was an awesome evening.  Tanya (in the pink top) does a lot of volunteer work at the Ronald McDonald House, and she has encouraged us as a team to volunteer and make a meal.  We all went along (well 8 of us) and prepared a meal - and it wasn't just any meal; it was Beef Wellington followed by Apple Crunch.  Dave was the brain and skill behind the Beef and Ruth was the master chef of the apple crunch...but we all helped.  It was a great evening, and we were able to feed 40+ people. Nice :)

Seriously beautiful sunset

This would have looked even better if I'd had my decent camera with me.  I also must get on to doing a photography course; All I want to be able to do is show how things really look....sometimes the sunsets (and sunrises) are so breathtaking.  This photo was taken by Bev's house, I took it with my i-phone when I dropped her off after work....beautiful!

I love my candles

I light candles at home almost every day...I love the smell, and I love the look of them.  Very homey :)

Poor Cuauhti :(

Cuauhti had his wisdom teeth out yesterday, and he was still at Church trying to smile...and today was even his birthday.  Bless him!

Delicious!

I went out with Alyson tonight, we ate at the Phoenix grill, had a healthy salad and then shared a delightful dessert....that is WAY better than having an unhealthy meal and a dessert each!  And we didn't even finish the dessert!!                                                  

More mountains

Well, the same mountains actually.  This is the view of the houses across the way over Rocky Ridge Road.  One of these days I would like to work out the names of all of these mountains - maybe I should etch an outline on one of the windows with all the names on there...I probably won't do that, but maybe I could label a photo.  I'll save that goal for 2014 !

FIRE!!!

I somewhat reluctantly volunteered to be a fire marshall for the 30th floor...I was sure someone else would volunteer, but apparently not.  Now I get to wear this fashionable outfit if we have a fire.  This is SO my colour.

All change

I vaguely remember that when I got married it took me about 2 years to get my name changed on everything.   Now that I've decided to change back to my maiden name, I've started the process in reverse -  I legally changed it on Saturday, and I've changed my email address/Facebook/Linked in/telephone.  Now I've changed the name on my office...it's comfortable being a Whiting again.  I never did change my signature, because it was illegible anyway, so at least I don't have to change that!

I had a heart attack!!

I went to the temple this evening...and this is what I found when I got home; This is the BEST kind of heart attack :)

 How long can I leave this up without it looking like I'm sad? Is a year too long?!

Why was that so hard?

When I moved in, I had the internet set up pretty quickly, and the guy that set it up could only find one spot for the router - WAY in the back of the basement in the electrical cupboard - which is a tad annoying and occasionally inconvenient...I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Telus on Saturday, and the end result is that they sent someone over to move the router - now it is comfortably located next to the piano.  My ipad still doesn't work properly, but that will probably be a call to Apple to get that fixed...hopefully that won't take 2.5 hours

A little CDO

I'm pretty sure most people have a little OCD in them; mine comes out pretty strong on occasion, and it was out in force today (I like to call it CDO because it's way tidier in alphabetical order).

I am the visiting teaching coordinator for our ward, and we have a magnetic board with all the names of the ladies and the visiting teaching partnerships and routes - and it was kind of bothering me that the magnets were different shapes/colours and sizes.  So I spent over FOUR HOURS tidying it up and re-printing them onto the same size magnets with the same font printing and the same colours.  MUCH better.  Now I can sleep easy!

"I've got bubble-lights you know"

Two things to report on today...firstly, I bought some actual art from an actual gallery; and you know it's proper art when you can send a note to the artist asking for advice on lighting it, and he actually comes to your house to help.  So here is Edward Michell and a piece from his "Heritage" series.  See those lines?  They're crushed diamonds - very cool.  So my interpretation is that the big line is the veil and the lines at the top are the people that have passed on and the lines at the bottom are us in mortality.  I'm such an art geek :)

This evening was Rod Hudsons 50th birthday party and most importantly I got to see Jan's Bubble-lights...she has been talking about these for months, and I must admit, I actually quite like them!

Happy birthday to me

Funnily enough, I remember exactly what I did for my birthday last year.  I was in Dallas, and I decided to stop in at Ruth's Chris for a steak on the way home from work...it may have seemed odd having a slap up meal on my own, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Today I went to work for a few hours in the morning, then took my team out to a movie in the afternoon - only a few of us went...Me, Natalie K; Teresa; Lucille and Tanya, and as it was my birthday I got to choose the movie....so we saw Les Miserable again - loved it!  Then I went to the temple, and finished the day off with a little soiree for my birthday at Marcia's place...a lovely evening with some good friends.  A perfect birthday.   I recieved a couple of gifts that I got in England, and no-one is owning up to - a pen/stylus and a bracelet - I love them both, but don't know who to thank :)

Girls night out with Bex

I love hanging out with Bex - she's always such good company; and I always like the excuse to go out to eat.  I'm sure she gets bored of going to the same restaurant every time, but she hasn't complained yet.  So this evening, we went to Joey Crowfoot for the usual Lettuce Wraps and chocolate lava cake.  Life is good!

This NEVER happens

I actually thought that I might have family coming to stay this weekend, so not only did I launder all the sheets, but I even ironed them....I NEVER do that, but it's surprising how nice they look when they are ironed!  I might even do it again some time.  Family didn't come to stay, so I'll get to practice again in a couple of weeks!

Here's to 2013

One of the great things about starting a new year is the resolutions....I don't know why we need to wait for a new year, but it seems to work.   I stole one of Dee's ideas from a few years ago; I set a goal for every year I have lived...so this year I have to set 52 goals.   I'm feeling pretty positive about it at the moment - but it's only day 1.

One of the 52 is to blog a daily photo again....I missed so many days last year that I really just gave up. I went down to Okotoks this afternoon for a New Years Dinner with the Etheringtons, Williams and Wallaces...it was delightful....and I even remembered to take my camera - and I took a lovely photo of the kids at the dinner table....when I realized I had no card in the camera - d'oh!

So I took this photo of the punch with my i-phone....how did we ever survive pre-PDA?