House update

Well, we bought a house.
After looking at a bunch of houses prior to our holiday, returning back and looking at a few more, we made an offer on a house on Lipton street. It's a 3 bedroom house with a little office on the main floor. Kitchen and bathroom are remodeled, main floor is tile and hardwood floor (don't want carpets with our pooches), and there is a front porch and a back deck. Electricity and plumbing have both been updated. Need to complete the fencing next summer, and do a couple of minor repairs, but the big things are already done.
We don't take possession for a couple of months (Oct 28), so you won't see any pics of the house until then.

Swimming Lessons

Nathanael completed his summer swimming lessons this week. Didn't pass level one, but he did swim in the deep end without screamnig his head off. As long as he's wearing the life jacket, he's willing to do it. We'll have to sign him up for lessons over the winter and keep working at swimming in the shallow end without the jacket.

Catch up.... kind of

Been playing with flickr since we returned from Alberta. Wanted to find a way to put pictures on the Internet so that my parents and sister could see them easily. Now I find out that Mom can't view them at work. Oh well. Maybe after she retires...:-( Dad's not a techie at all... but we are working on him.

For anyone interested, the link to the tags page is
http://www.flickr.com/photos/budlong/tags/

Some neat tags to check out would be:

GrandmaGrandpas - Nathan - there are pics of the boys here. More to come.
Orfflevelone2006 - pictures from orff course.
Liptonstreethouse - saw this house last week and are considering buying it. It's a nice house West of Arlington in the West End. Still close to downtown and closer to Nathanael's school than where we are now.

I will still put pictures on here, but if I have a whole bunch, like these ones, I'll post the link or the tag.

Can't sleep

woke up in a coughing fit - and can't get back to sleep. I hate summer colds.

Wading pools

We're hitting the wading pool again - this time it's the one close to Nathanael's school. The one in Vimy Ridge park is being redone - may be sometime I'll take some pics and put them up here as well. It's pretty depressing, though - it's taking the whole summer for them to be done - August will be done before they are finished working on it.
It's getting us into the heart of Wolesley, though, which we do like.

Orff Level One - done tomrrow!

Been away from the blog these past two weeks because I've been working on my Orff Level one. It's a 10 day intensive course at U of Manitoba, and I have one day left - Day nine, today, was the last of the testing days - I had 5 tests - recorder improv, dance presentation of the anulelul, movement test, Orff lesson, and my Basic Orff instrument skills test. I'm very tired now.

I've definitely learned a lot - and really am looking forward to taking the things I have learned here and applying them to the Music program at the school I teach at. Perhaps I'll have some pictures to post after tomorrow - we are doing an Open House as our final presentation.

TTYL
Chris.

I'm an uncle!

Check out this photo - my sister's baby at mid June - already sucking his/her thumb! Cool!

summer is here

July 1 has become a milestone for me since I began teaching. It signals the beginning of the summer and two months of recuperation and recharge time for me. I will be spending some of the summer relaxing, but I do have some things that I will be doing that people wouldn't call relaxing.

In preparation for the next school year, I am taking a two week course for music. It's Orff Level One, and the course runs from 8:30am to 5:00pm for ten days (July 5-18), with homework on each day. Needless to say, I expect to be very busy with this. The advantage is that it is a 6 credit hour course, and I am taking it for credit.

I have been confirmed with Winnipeg One again for next year - 1/2 time music, and 1/2 time Reading Recovery. I knew nothing about this program until this year, and it seems that everyone I meet knows a bit about it, or knows a student that goes through it. I hear nothing but good things. The training for that begins in September, but I have 4 books to read over the summer (total thickness 4 inches), so I'll start that after the Orff course.

Other than that, we are both involved in a drama for church in August - that means a number of rehearsals throughout the month of August.

So, my summer is not being spent lazing around - although I am sure to fit that in somewhere. Maybe I'll do that at my parent's place in July (we're going after the course is done).

Goldeyes Baseball!!

Took Nathanael to his first Goldeyes Baseball game today. It was pretty good - he lasted until the 7th inning, and then started to loose concentration - too tired. The "fish" won 6-1 over Edmonton.






The best part was the autograph session prior to the game. Nathanael's favourite signature was from Goldie, although Matt Mann was a close second.

UPDATE: - Goldeyes swept the Cracker Cats. Good job, guys.

I hope this works..

I saw this video from another blogger - there's piles of videos on exploding pop. Enjoy!