Bev was at work tonight...

...so I decided to introduce the kids to the music of my childhood. I dubbed the music in just as it played while they danced.

More Christmas cheer with the kids.

Merry Christmas from Evelyn, Ethan, Bev and I!

Evelyn and Ethan Perform a Holiday Classic Like Only They Could

She's a Winner!

If you can, recall a pic I posted last month of the kids colouring contest entries. Evelyn won the 0-4 yr category! We went to pick up her gift basket today. She was SO excited and proud. I asked if it was a draw, or if the picture was chosen. The woman said she chose it because of the energy and effort it showed. She liked how she used the colours in an unconventional way.

We begged her to let them take a picture and coached her to give a big smile. I think she took us a bit too literally. Eventually, after some more coaching to just smile a little bit, we got a decent picture.

3 new videos

Some short (approx 2 min each) clips of what we've been up to this month.

Panis Angelicus

Panis angelicus
Fit panis hominum;
Dat panis coelicus
Figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum
Pauper, servus et humilis.

Te trina Deitas,
Unaque poscimus,
Sic nos tu visita,
Sicut te colimus;
Per tuas semitas
Duc nos quo tendimus,
Ad lucem quam inhabitas.

The bread of the angels becomes the bread of man;
the bread of heaven is given a bounded form.
O wondrous thing! The poor, the slave
and the humble man feed on their lord.

Of you, threefold and one God, we ask:
Come to visit us as we worship you;
lead us on your paths to where we want to go:
to the light in which you dwell.



What a great song! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

A visit from Nana

On Tuesday, I was in Bonnyville for an orientation to a new casual job. I will be working with the Alberta School Employees Benefit Plan. This is like Blue Cross health insurance for teachers. They are working on a healthy living illness prevention initiative. We will be screening for things like high Blood Pressure, cholesterol and lipid levels and blood sugars as well as BMI/weight issues and mental health. After having their risks identified, the hope is that the teachers will want to change any risk factors that they can. If they want to change, we will point them in the right direction and link them up with life coaches who will act as accountability partners.

Anyway, all this is just a preamble to say that I travelled on Tuesday, and it started to snow at that time. The conditions were actually really bad on the road that night.

The next day, we had had enough snow that our car needed to be shovelled part way out of our crescent. We then got stuck in Boyle and I shovelled some more. Finally, we made it onto the main highway and we arrived safely at West Ed Mall where I took the kids to visit the playground in Galaxyland.





It was actually +2 degrees last Wednesday! On Friday night, the temp took a drastic turn and we woke to -25 degree temps on Saturday. Add to that a windchill and the temps were, well, FRIGID! As far as my fingers were concerned when I unplugged the block heater and got the car ready, it may as well have been absolute zero!

Anyway, enough about things I have no power to change. We chose to live here - right!?


I picked up a tree in Bonnyville and we decorated it on Thursday evening. Evelyn passed up the ornaments and Ryan and I placed them on the tree. The kids tried hanging a few themselves, but our tree is so incredibly sharp, they decided to let Ryan and I suffer the sharp pricks. When we were done decorating, Evelyn put the angel on top of the tree and then said "Now we have to all hold hands and sing a happy Christmas Song" She's watched the old 'Grinch' cartoon a few times and I guess she felt singing around the tree was a great tradition. So, we sang "We wish you a merry Christmas" and the "Daboo Dooreah" song from the 'Grinch'. I think we will continue the tradition. As we drove home last night, I was thinking "Hark the Herald" would be a good song. Any one have any other suggestions?

Ryan's mom made us some melt-in-your-mouth shortbread to enjoy, and we decorated a gingerbread house together.




The kids each worked on a side. They did a great job! I love the shark that is beached on the roof of Evelyn's side. Ethan stuck the maximum amount of candy on his side that could possibly be stuck. As you can well imagine, not all the candy made it onto the house! I like the end result.





The kids enjoyed having extra snuggles with Nana and having the extra playtime too. For some reason, Ethan kept calling Nana "Auntie Kris-sa" and would ask "Where'd Antie Kris-sa go?" whenever Nana went outside. I had not realized that our last visitor made such an impression on him!








We attempted to get a nice family picture. The kids would not co-operate and kept wiggling and hiding their faces. This was the only way we could keep them still ;-)

Sunday came quickly and we went into the city a bit early to visit Chuck E Cheese before dropping Nana off at the airport. I forgot my camera, so I'll post a few pics when I get them from Nana's camera. We all got a plastic ID card with our pictures on it. They are pretty cool.

After dropping Nana off, we decided to head back to West Ed Mall. We were surprised to find it closed at 5 pm on Sunday. So, it was a short visit. Then, Walmart and McD's and home at around 10 pm. Whew!

In other news, Evelyn is getting really interested in words that sound similar. She'll hear a word like "hearse" (this word was introduced to her after we passed a traffic collision in Edmonton and she asked what type of car a dead person travels in) and then she'll pipe up and say:
"Hearse kind of sounds like 'purse'... and 'nurse'! That person in the accident needs a nurse. Mommy, your're the best nurse in the world."
(thank you Evelyn!)
"Why don't you fix the person in the accident?"
(Ummm...)
"I'm a nurse too. I have to go to work tomorrow. But, I'm a doctor now. I will fix the people in the accidents. 'Cause accidents happen and that's okay. Does that person need a hearse?"
(No, I think they will use that ambulance to go to the hospital)
"Oh. Only dead people go in a hearse."
(Right, and that person is just hurt)
"Are we going to the big Walmart, or the little one?"

A conversation of a few moments ago as I did her hair after her bath:
"Why do we have belly buttons?"
"When you were a baby in my tummy, your belly button connected to me and that's how you ate"
"Oh. But Ethan doesn't have a bottle anymore."
"Um, no, he is a big boy now"
"But why does he have a penis?"
"That's what makes him a boy."
..."Why are our tongues pink?"
"They are muscles. Just like the muscles in our arms and legs. All of our muscles are kind of reddy pink in colour"
"But, why do we have tongues?"
"They help us talk and chew our food"
"Why do we have this?" (pointing to the bridge of her nose)
"Your nose? it lets you breath and smell"
"No, not my nose, this part!" (Indicating the bridge again)
"Oh, that is a bone and it supports the holes in your nose so you can breath in. Otherwise your nose would sound like this!"(I make a sucking stuffy sound with my nose)
"That's funny Mommy! It's kind of like a bridge!"
"Yes, a bridge that holds our skin up"
"What do bones do?"
"They support us and give us shape"
"What if we didn't have them?"
"We'd be like a blob on the floor - all jiggly and wiggly."
"We'd be BLOBS! That's so funny! So, bones are kind of like dinosaur bones. Why do we have dinosaur bones?"
"Well, bones are really hard - kind of like rocks. After we die, our skin goes away pretty fast, but our bones stay around for a long time. That's why we only find dinosaur bones and not skin"
"Mommy, you're the best nurse in the world. You can fix up the people who get hurt in the car crashes and make them feel better. When they break their bones."
"Thank you Evelyn. I try to make them feel better."

She is obviously getting interested in anatomy and physiology. She is also still processing the idea of car accidents.

I really enjoy all these questions. You can all remind me of this statement in a few months when I am totally sick of them. But, now, I am loving her inquisitiveness and seeing how she makes connections between new concepts and those she already knows. Sometimes the conversations are a bit random, but that's how we think sometimes!

An interesting post about avoiding a mugging.

http://everydaygrace-alida.blogspot.com/

How to avoid getting robbed in Nairobi.

I think I'd be fleeced! I can't imagine living like that. Paranoid all the time that someone would steal my stuff.

Happiness May Be Contagious

Happiness May Be Contagious

An article by Caroline Cassels

Medscape Medical News 2008. © 2008 Medscape

December 8, 2008 — People's happiness is largely influenced by the happiness of those they are connected to — whether they know them or not — new findings from the Framingham Heart Study suggest.

"We've found that your emotional state may depend on the emotional experiences of people you don't even know, who are 2 to 3 degrees removed from you. And the effect isn't just fleeting," study investigator Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, from Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts, said in a statement.

The study is published online December 4 in BMJ.

According to the authors, happiness is a fundamental component of human health determined by a complex set of voluntary and involuntary factors. While previous studies have identified a broad range of stimuli identified with happiness or unhappiness, none has examined the happiness of others as a key determinant of human happiness.

Furthermore, the authors point out there is evidence that emotional states can be transferred directly from 1 individual to another by mimicry. "People can 'catch' emotional states they observe in others over time frames ranging from seconds to weeks," they write.

Can Happiness Spread?

However, they note, despite this evidence, little is known about the role of social networks in happiness or whether happiness has the potential to spread.

To examine whether happiness can spread through social networks that include direct as well as indirect relationships, the investigators used data from 5124 participants from the Framingham Offspring Study to reconstruct the social fabric in which individuals are enmeshed and analyze the relationship between social networks and health.

The data included all family changes for each study participant, such as birth, marriage, death, and divorce. In addition, there was also extensive information on participants' closest friends, coworkers, and neighbors. Coincidentally, many of these friends were also study participants.

The final analysis included 4739 individuals and more than 50,000 social and family ties. Using the Center for Epidemiological Studies depression index, the investigators found that when an individual becomes happy, a friend living within a mile experiences a 25% increased chance of becoming happy. A coresident spouse experiences an 8% increased chance, siblings living within 1 mile have a 14% increased chance, and next-door neighbors, 34%.

Popularity Leads to Happiness

However, the most surprising finding, say the researchers, was with indirect relationships. While an individual becoming happy increases his or her friends' chances, a friend of those friends experiences a nearly 10% chance of increased happiness and a friend of that twice-removed friend has a 5.6% increased chance — a 3-degree cascade.

"We found that while all people are roughly 6 degrees separated from each other, our ability to influence others appears to stretch to only 3 degrees. It's the difference between the structure and function of social networks," said Dr. Christakis.

With coauthor James Fowler, PhD, from the University of California, San Diego, the investigators also found that popularity leads to happiness and that individuals in the center of their social network clusters are the most likely to become happy.

However, becoming happy does not help migrate a person from the network fringe to the center. Happiness spreads through the network without altering its structure.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The authors report no financial disclosures.

BMJ. Published online December 4, 2008. Abstrac

Lets start an epidemic!

Pictures!

We have slowly been decorating the house for Christmas. I'm hoping to be able to find a real (from a tree farm) tree this week. We've had Charlie Brown trees for the past few years - it's just not the same.

Evelyn, Ethan and I worked on a few Christmas crafts this past week (no pictures - it would ruin the surprise!) Crafting with little kids is stressful! If we had a room covered in plastic drop cloths and with a tub in the room, I might not be so anxious. So much potential for large messes!

Ryan and I went to Edmonton yesterday to see the Vinyl Cafe with Stewart McLean. I thoroughly enjoyed it. When it was over, it took us - literally - 45 minutes to get out of the parkade. Everyone got to their cars about the same time, pulled into the aisle, and waited, and waited. After about 15 - 20 min (once our cars were warm) we all turned them off and waited. A man went around with some candies he had and shared them with all the cars on our level. That was pretty nice of him! Eventually, the cars below us cleared out and we got to leave. I have never felt so trapped before. Good thing we were not on a tight schedule!

We took this pic of me and the kids yesterday before we left for Edmonton. I am so impressed that we got a picture of both of them looking at the camera with happy expressions on their face!

I finally completed a sweater I started knitting at least 4 years ago. It was origionaly intended for a friends daughter, but, now it's Evelyn's! She really likes it. I love the colours. The tension on the front panel is a bit wonky, but it works.







Ethan continues to be a funny and silly boy. He has actually gotten a bit sillier lately. I loved watching him try on Ryan's shoes the other day. He even managed to walk in them to the end of the hall. He has a long way to grow before they fit!







Evelyn presented me with this pic the other day. I never saw her working on it, but I can't think of anyone else who could have drawn it! I am so impressed by it. Literally 3 weeks ago, her idea of a picture was a bunch of scribbles. What happened! ?








These last pics are from today.

The kids had a sort of tug of war with the foam fish. I loved how they were so focused on each other and were enjoying each other so much. They have been playing together lately. A very nice development! They still get a fair bit of joint naughty times for fighting, but not as much as they used to.

Tomorrow, I am in Bonnyville for an orientation day. I am starting a new casual RN position with the teachers health benefit plan. It's a health promotion and risk screening type of job. I get to get up really early tomorrow!

On Wednesday, we are back in Edmonton to pick up Ryan's mom Brenda. She is coming for a short visit before Christmas. We are all looking forward to seeing her.

Quick update.

Ryan has just taken the position of Vice Principal at his school. We're not sure exactly what his duties and responsibilities will be. They've posted his teaching position, but until it's filled, he is still doing that - plus some admin stuff.

So, anyone who knows a teacher who wants to work in Rural Alberta with Metis kids - give us a shout!