My life at the Enmax

My week of residence in the Enmax Center has come to an end now. Four of the previous seven evenings were spent in the seats of the arena. Thursday night Tamara and I went with some friends to see Paul Brandt in concert.



Because Michael from work went to school with Paul he was able to get us some meet & greet passes for before the show. We got to chat with Paul Brandt for a few minutes and have a picture taken with him. Much like myself, Paul will be a father for the first time in the next couple of months, and like me, he is both scared and excited about it.



Round two of the WHL playoffs started on Friday at the Enmax. We were all heartbroken with the 3-2 Hurricane loss after blowing a 2-0 third period lead. They almost blew a 4-0 third period lead last night (see photo above: 3-0 at the start of the third), narrowly escaping with a 5-4 win in OT. The good news out of that is that we are guaranteed a game 5 in Lethbridge next Friday.

The Enmax Center: My home away from home

I'm thinking of having my mail forwarded to the Enmax Center; I've been spending that much time there. Brian and I took in game 6 of the Hurricanes' opening round series against Brandon on Sunday night. A dominant performance by the 'Canes that was, and they earned themselves a spot in the second round. So Friday and Saturday I'll goto the Hurricane games against Kootenay with some of the guys from work. Tonight, however, we're going to see Paul Brandt, and since Michael went to high school with him, we've managed to get backstage passes.

It should be a fun weekend! If you're looking for me, try section LL at the Enmax.

Birthday comes early

My birthday arrived a week early this year! I got the call from Note-able yesterday that my new guitar arrived. I love the colour and the look of it: an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus Top in translucent blue (not quite a Gibson, but close enough for me). The only complaint I have is the amber knobs. I'm going to look into replacing them with chrome ones to match the other hardware.

So far I've had about an hour to play it, and I can't wait for tomorrow to come so I can play some more.

I forgot my camera in Crossfield last weekend; better pictures to come when I get it back.

Weekend Excitement

This weekend was a busy one. We had a couple friends come down from Calgary for the weekend. My friend Melanie, who I grew up with in Revelstoke, and Josh's friend Mike, who he grew up with in Crossfield. Full house, but lots of fun. As usual, Mike brought some group video games with him. Was great fun. But the best game he brought was Rockband. Now, Josh plays this at work quite often, but I hadn't experienced it yet. It's beyond what Guitar Hero is! :) You have a full band, drums, guitar, bass guitar and singer. :) So I snapped a few pics of us playing!


We've got Josh singing.


We've got Mike drumming.


We've got the oh so enthused Melanie (she refused to play). Couldn't even get her to play Dance Dance Revolution (which is very tiring when your almost 7 months pregnant).


Here's a group shot. I think I liked the drums best. Guitar and bass were too much like guitar hero, and I wasn't brave enough to sing!


Also this weekend, my friend Jen threw a baby shower for me with a bunch of school friends. It was a blast! She made quite the feast, and planned a few fun games. I also snapped a few pictures of this event. I realized upon loading the photos on the computer, that I hadn't used my camera since last summer when I was working for the City of Revelstoke. Still had tombstone pictures on it!


Some of the girls at the shower (Melanie, Andrea, and Marissa).


Jen made a massive and delicious spread! Too bad she didn't tell us not to eat lunch first ;).


Check out this awesome cake Jen made. :) It was just as wonderfully tasty as it is wonderfully decorated.

Well...

Things have been very hectic around here.... and when there's time to crash, we've done just that.

School is busy with projects and exams. Last project of the semester is due next week, so will be nice to have that out of the way, leaving only exams and lab assignments. I sure am looking forward to being done school forever! :)

The little one is moving A LOT! Barely any rest for her! It's actually really amusing to watch her movements through my belly. :) Although all that movement is really not helping with my sleep at all. I think she'll be a rambunctious one! We've done a little bit of shopping in preparation for her arrival, and are starting to gather the things we'll need. 12 more weeks!

I have a pile of cards to share, but haven't been able to get pictures of them yet, so they sit and wait. Josh has also launched my website... but I've been slacking and it doesn't have any content yet. I'll keep you posted, and give you an address once I actually have something on it to show!

Hopefully I'll have pictures soon!

Brownies

Apparently these brownies were a big hit at Josh's office. And well they were just delicious... So I thought I'd share the recipe:

Chocolate-Cherry Brownies

1 (18 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs , beaten
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
1 (6 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In mixing bowl combine cake mix, cherry pie filling, almond extract and beaten eggs.
3. In sprayed, floured 9 x 13 inch baking pan, pour batter and bake for 25-30 minute.
4. Icing: in medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, butter and milk, bring to boil and stir constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth and creamy.
5. Remove from oven and pour icing over warm cake.

Photo shoot

We hauled out all the lighting gear tonight for some maternity photos.  Here's one of my favourites so far:

A little quiet around here

So it's been a little quiet on the blog lately. So here's the latest exciting news from the Schroeder home:

WE GOT A DISHWASHER! :) That's right... no more stacking dishes precariously hoping that they'll somehow wash themselves. :) Thanks to Josh's dad for doing the dirty work of adding the hookups and tearing out the cupboard to put it in. :) I'm SO happy about this development.

Our new couch has arrived. :) It's glorious chocolate brown leather. Has a recliner on both ends of it. :) Super comfy. Great view of the new LCD TV. The living room is mostly in order now, so we'll have to take a picture to share with everyone. The cats are enjoying having the living room back. Always ready for a snuggle on the couch.


It's currently reading week. SO I've been working around the house, doing some tidying, some crafting, and some project work. Currently working on a project that involves watching lots of movies and compiling clips. :) It's a very enjoyable project so far!

And finally, Josh took a few photos tonight. I'm looking big... and there's still 3 months to go!

It's a....

BABY!

It's actually a girl! But you knew that from the pic... right? ;)

A couple of cards

I finally am getting to do some crafting again:

Christmas '07

Half Dahlia Fold

Outsourcing

Help is getting harder and harder to find...

Living room laminate floors: complete

Thanks to my Readers Digest handyman book, and some support calls to my Dad I finally finished the laminate flooring in the living room. I'd hoped this would've only taken a few evenings, but given that we live in a four-plex, I had to shut down around 9 each evening. Add a couple nights off, and it turned into a week long job.



It's good to have this phase of the project finished. Now we can spend some time enjoying the living room again. In particular, the cats are going to appreciate that the construction has ceased for a bit.

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Thanks Mom and Dad Y.

My lighting gear, a Christmas gift from Tamara's parents, arrived in the mail today. I've now got some lighting umbrellas, stands, wireless triggers, and a few other little goodies to further develop my photography.

Here's my Pentax flash shooting into one of the umbrellas:


And me tinkering with the flash while it's attached to the stand:


Here are Tamara and Oakley posing under the new lighting:

Post weekend update

So after painting all weekend (a little tiring), we've now completed step one of our renvations. The colour looks great. There were a few mishaps, the most major one being this:


Josh accidently bumped into the paint can, which actually left us JUST short on paint for the walls. But on the plus side, we tore up the carpet and are now doing laminate. Josh is hoping to get installation started this week. Currently we have about half of the carpet in the living room pulled up, and we have stacks of laminate now in our dining room just waiting:



So that is this week's project (well, next couple weeks, since we are headed to Calgary on the weekend). We are planning to do the living room, hallway, landing outside the master bedroom, master bedroom and the 3 flights of stairs connecting all that. We figured if we decide to do the other 2 bedrooms at a later date, we can always get a different laminate.

Anyway, just a quick update. Our renovations are progressing and we have laid out our plans for the next few months. Sadly currently the only room that is fully useable at this point in time is our bedroom (which has some extra stuff piled in it, and the main bathroom. Everywhere else is in chaos at the moment. I'm aiming to get the kitchen in working order again today (just a lot of clutter from painting and such).

New Year

So, although we've been really bad about posting for the last year, I'm renewing my commitment to this blog.

I made 1 resolutions this year:
I will produce one card per day of the year
-this means that if I miss a day, I'll have to make an extra card another day.
-this also means that I will have to keep a craft corner permanently set up
-I will do all occasions and hopefully produce more than 365 cards in the year

Josh also made a resolution this year:
He plans to take a picture a day

So this year has started out alright so far. Since we got back from our Christmas travels and visits, we've been organizing and planning our house out a little. We have weekend projects coming out the wazoo. This coming weekend we are painting (living room, front entry, hallways, stairways), as well as replacing all light switches and electrical outlets. We will also be replacing all the baseboards. We decided to get this done this weekend, as there will be no couch in the living room (new one coming soon), and we haven't gotten our LCD TV yet, so it isn't mounted yet. So perfect time to get it done.

Other weekend projects we have planned are:
-painting nursery
-building DVD storage unit
-installing a dishwasher (FINALLY)
-clean basement out, and go through things stored in crawl space

I've got all the furniture planned on where it is going, but until April, when our tennant moves out, we can't access one room, making other rooms a little more crowded.

So this blog will now be converted to an family update (as it was before), as well as a posting site for all my cards and scrapbook pages (I'm just converting to digital scrapbooking. Josh may post some of his pictures here as well (hopefully). So this blog will definately pick up in posts, and hopefully regain some of its readers, as well as gain new ones.

Happy 2008 everyone!

More

Actually, here's one that is a whole series. If you just wanted a series that is slightly different but all quite similar.

For Melanie

New Eagles studio release

Didn't know this was coming until today, but I'm pretty excited about it, especially since my first concert experience was the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over tour on my 12th birthday.

Favourite TV Moments

This is totally random. I'm watching a TV show right now counting down the top 30 funniest moments in TV.

My favourite sit-com moments aren't necessarily the funniest of all time:

• Friends - In the episode where Joey and Chandler win Monica and Rachel's apartment, they make a grand entrance, riding their white dog statue into their new apartment, saluting the girls with their arrival. There's just something about that scene that cracks me up.


• The Office - After a successful prank on Dwight, Jim and Pam "air-five" from their desks. Priceless.


• That 70's Show - Leo giving Eric a tattoo. "Debbie's really gonna like this, man." A physics text book would even be funny if read aloud by Tommy Chong.


• Simpsons - After a successful bargaining session with Mr. Burns, Homer celebrates by spinning on the floor cheering "whooootwhootwhootwhoot." Another one that never loses its funny.

Accidental self-portrait

While shooting some panoramics of the High Level Bridge this evening, I happened to get an accidental self portrait as well. This was just one of my divider images between panoramic series, but the silhouette effect turned out pretty cool.

How's that for entertainment?

What's the most unique entertainment you've ever seen at a wedding reception? The shoe game? Hardly! How about a tractor trailer bursting into a blazing inferno? Now we're talking.

Today's Big Bike Fun

Today I took pictures as Jodie, Melanie and Deb rode the big bike for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. It was a lot of fun, and here is a couple photos I took.

Still looking for that portrait

I want to go for a walk

On the border

A neat feature of my new camera is the ability to shoot multiple exposures. I played with that feature a bit during a pit stop in Field.

Watching hockey

Teemo sat on the bed and cheered on the Tigers to a win over the Giants tonight. With his colours, he'd fit right in at the Medicine Hat Arena.

In bloom

Recycling photo shoots

Since I didn't take anything new today, here's another one of Oakley hanging out in a basket.

Playing in the rain

Since I missed yesterday, I'll be generous today.

Oakley and I tried the flower thing again today, and he was more interested this time.



And Teemo watched.



One more shot of the flowers in the rain.

A walk in the flowers

Bring flowers into the house and he won't stay away from them, but do you think I could get him to play with some flowers in the garden? Of course not. This was as good as he'd do for me today.

Wii would like to play

This is what I love about the Wii ... everybody has a good time playing it (and spouses can go a few rounds in the boxing ring)

Cats

Tamara's daily cat fix. The funny part of this is that Teemo would start cleaning himself, and Oakley would give him a whack.

Nothing better going on in Canada

Apparently there truly is nothing better to talk about than hockey in this country. The opposition parties in Canada's parliament felt that the choice of Team Canada's captain in the current World Championships warranted debate in the House of Commons during question period today.

Phoenix Coyotes' star Shane Doan was named captain of the national squad for this year's tournament in Moscow. So what's the big deal? Earlier in this season, Doan, an Albertan, was accused of making comments regarding French-Canadians during a tirade directed to a game official. Evidently, the opposition parties feel it is the government's place to select the captain of the hockey team, as they criticized the decision and targeted the Tory Secretary of State for Sport during question period.

Worth noting about this story:

• The NHL conducted an investigation about the alleged comments. It was never proven that Doan made such remarks, and he was never punished for doing so (despite receiving a game ejection for verbal abuse of an official)


• Doan has frequently represented Canada before and never indicated he has a disrespect for Francophones


• The captaincy of a sports team was being debated in our national government. I think that deserves mentioning again, just so that it sinks in

So, while we face things like long health care waits, shortages of doctors, serious climate change issues, homelessness, poverty, and countless other notable issues that our government should be focusing their efforts on, they are discussing the decisions of Andy Murray and Steve Yzerman in terms of personel decisions of a hockey team. My plea to all of our MP's: quit wasting our tax dollars; leave the hockey analysis and debate to the armchair GM's. If you care to join them, I'm sure there's a sports bar not far from Parliament Hill ... stop by after work to discuss it with some Sens fans while you watch the game and enjoy a pint. There are more pressing issues for our government to be dedicating their time towards.

Spring is here

Never mind that the flowers aren't real ... spring is here.

The impending break up

I know we haven't posted in quite sometime now. And I would like to say that life is dull, nothing happens, but in all honesty... there has been quite a few noteable events that have occured in the last month... (has it really been that long?) So here goes a few tidbits of our lives... just to tide you over for a bit.

Easter weekend, my parents came out and visited from Revelstoke. My brother and his girlfriend, Anh also came. It was a great time. I really enjoy hosting, and my family is my favorite people to host! :) I even made waffles and crepes (on seperate mornings). BUt we had a great visit, I got to finally break out the good china and silverware!

The Thursday following, Josh and I decided we wanted to trade in our x-box on a Wii (while we can still get a good chunk for the x-box). I brought it down, and everything we had added up to over $300, so that paid for the Wii and part of Wii play. They didn't have any Wii's in at the time, so I left, but when I got home, thye had called saying my Wii was in! So we got a Wii! We've been having lots of fun with it, and a lot of sore muscles! It's kinda crazy, everyone is having a hard time finding Wii's, and we go in and the same day we have one... no lines, or any hassles... and it was free (well not technically... but we didn't have to put out any money). I like the cow racing, boxing and fishing games, while josh picked up a football game. COME PLAY WII WITH US!!

Josh celebrated his 24th birthday on April 2nd.

We have a very strange cat. Our youngest cat (Oakley) is very very strange. He loves water.... you turn on a tap anywhere in the house he comes running. His favorite place is to lay in the sink. Even stranger... he'll be laying in the sink, and you need to wash your hands, so you turn on the tap and he just sits there. On several occaisions the sink gets completely filled and he just sits in it like its a bath. Strange kitty. I have some cute pictures that I will post as soon as I get josh to load them on my computer. Oakley also has learned how easy it is to sneak out when guests are here. So whenever we have company, as soon as they're in the front hall, he's waiting. Our other cat Teemo is one of the cuddliest cats now. :) He doesn't run away as often anymore at all. Definately need to load some cat pictures.

I have one more assignment to complete (for tomorrow), and one more final (Evolutionary Biology) next week.

I got a job out in Revelstoke for the summer!! I'm going to be the GIS student for the city. It'll be a great opportunity. So I can't wait. I start April 30th. Sadly Josh won't be able to spend the whole summer out there. His job has allowed him some time out there working from home and some time working here. So we have worked out a schedule for the summer. I'm sad he won't be out there with me, but he loves his job and doesn't want to give it up. But I think our time share plan should work out alright. I think there's no gaps longer than 3 weeks without seeing each other.... so this means there will either be double the posts (because we'll both have different things to post about), or even less. But we'll try to keep everyone posted on our lives.

So if you're in the Lethbridge or revelstoke area, come for a visit! We like company!

Anyways, that is all I can think of right now. I'll try to get some pictures up this week!

Looks like Josh is getting a new camera as well. Someone just offered to buy his current camera, plus with his birthday money, and the money from a website job, he has enough to buy the camera he's been wanting for quite some time. So that's exciting! :)

Currently listening to ...

Wow, an entire month since our last post. You'd think we both have other blogs that we're posting all of our wit and wisdom to. The truth is that we have no wit, nor any wisdom, so our other blogs get ignored as much as this one. Given that 1/12 of a year has passed since anything's been posted here, I figured I should come up with an excuse for a new post.

So with that, I give you what will be my standard filler when we need some content: I'm listening to ...

Our first edition features the new Relient K album, Five Score and Seven Years Ago. A nice progression of their prior work that characterizes the gradual maturation of the band. There is more reliance on vocals with the album, and some nice harmonics that carry some of the songs. Of course, the typical clever and catchy songs that have made Relient K so popular with their last few albums. Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care exemplifies this one for me. Catchiest tunes would be Come Right Out And Say It, Must Have Done Something Right, and Up And Up.

A solid recent release that is sure to please fans of Relient K, and likely attract many more.