Thanksgiving (aka any excuse to party!)

Last weekend was Thanksgiving, which meant a long weekend. I was lucky enough to get up to my parents place and it was awesome!!! I haven't been able to get up there since we were up for our wedding in February, and it was so nice to get on the farm again. So on Friday I packed up the woofs, the guns, my riding helmet, my boots, and drove the 9 hours up to the Husch Home in northern Alberta.

My dad turned the big 50 this fall, so we used the long weekend to have a party for him - and all the other birthdays that exist in our household in the fall (my mum is the end of August, Dad and brother in end of September, and other brother beginning of October - I'm the random baby in January, loner). It was the kind of weekend where you just get to soak up doing the things you love with the people that have grown you (kinda like a tree, I'll stop before I get lost in the simile). I was mostly busy with all the fun activities like riding, skeet shooting, bocce balling, and of course eating, but I did manage to take a few pictures along the way.

 The not so glamorous part of skeet shooting - picking up the plastic packings after.

I made my best effort to frame the shooters so they looked awesome.

Awesome.

Thomas took a couple pictures of me shooting. 

They turned out like this...

Not quite as awesome. I know I'm not super great at skeet shooting, 

but now I can't even pretend that I look vicious doing it. 

Maybe you should stick to shooting guns Thomas, not pictures. 

The house I grew up in. And made so many memories. 

Erin came over to visit, I have the most wonderful friends :)

 Now. One of the biggest things when we have a family party is how to cook the meat. We take some kind of pride is this primeval ritual, and this is usually half the celebration. For my brother and sister-in-law's joint stag-stagette party we roasted an entire pig on a spit and it was a whole day affair for the dads. They sat and nursed the pig and a few beers ("a little for me, a little for you") the entire day and I'm not sure what it is about men and cooking meat but they were just so very happy and content to be roasting that pig.

But alas, it's October now and the weather isn't quite so perfect any more to be outside nursing a pig all day, and for something a little "new" (although they've done this before), they decided to do a pit roast.

Our supper is in there. Somewhere.

So, I'm not sure exactly how it works. But they dig a big hole, line it with big rocks, light a fire in there, and throw in a bunch of big pieces of meat. Big. This year we had a huge chunk of beef. Huge chunk of pork. And a huge turkey (c'mon, it's Thanksgiving!). The fire needs to be started soon enough before putting the meat in so that it dies down to perfect cooking coals, and all I know is that usually the night before we eat the men set their alarms for some crazy time of night (3am anyone?) and are out with the pit/fire/meat situation. By the time I get to see it it looks like a messed up part of the lawn. Smack dab in the middle of the lawn of course (whole quarter section of land and the best place to dig a roasting pit is of course in the middle of the lawn).

Papa working for his birthday roast. 

The fruits of our (ok, the guys) labour!

There's a funny story behind this sign, which did its job so well to protect the meat from falling dirt. When we were fifteen Erin and I went camping. And we found this sign in the ditch along the highway. It had obviously been down for a while, it had shotgun holes in it, and we thought we were sooooo cool when we brought it home. Taking the crime watch sign. Crazy kids right. My mum made me feel awful about it and like we were some kind of terrible criminals taking the sign. A few weeks later we found an abandoned road blockade that we brought home and my mother made us feel so guilty about it that we took it back and placed it back in the ditch (what?! mothers don't like their children bringing ditch garbage home??). Such delinquents we were. But somehow the sign made it through the guilt trip of ditch-garbage-stealing and has served all kinds of purposes, at some point it got cut in half, and this latest purpose was to help us cook a bunch of meat. 

Kitty up in a tree. 

What a suck.

Sofi had such a great weekend. She played. And played. And played and played and played. And near the end of the day on Saturday she was pooped. She was so tired she let us do anything (see the above picture - "why won't you just let me sleep??"). It was pretty funny. Everyone immediately fell in love with her - of course.

This is WallE, Allison and Markus' pig. He is the most hilarious animal you've ever met. He's a teacup potbelly pig, only we're not sure what happened to the teacup because he now weighs about 50 lbs. (We say it's all love!) He's really quite the pig and has such a personality. He will let you know right away what he thinks of you, and since they've had him I've gotten to know just why there are sayings such as "eating like a pig". (tip: the way to his heart is food. ANY kind of food! I won him over with horse treats.)

Winston is Thomas and Jocelyn's little dog. He is so full of energy, so busy, and so smart. He too is hilarious. Between all the dogs (there are 5 just from our family and then we had friends bring over more!) and the pig and all the people the house was absolutely bustling. 

Winston chasing the bocce ball game. He chases any thing.

He's very ferocious. 

P.S. bocce ball is AWESOME.

Happy piggy!

Doing tricks for treats.

Winston, Belle, and part of Bailey 
(dogs everywhere! Nova the elusive picture-avoider managed to make it through almost the entire weekend with no pictures).

With my amazing brothers (there's no such thing as too many plaid jackets).

My lovely lovely sisters.

(Psst, see Nova in the corner? Elusive.)

Now, most of the weekend was spent with the big party on Saturday. Sunday night we spent playing Risk (which one should never play with the Husch girls, we got bored halfway through the whole world domination thing and ditched the boys for ice cream - and created quite the upset) and eating left overs.

All the same, I love Thanksgiving. I love what it represents and I think that we should be grateful every day of the wonderful things in life that we're blessed with. I'll try not to get too mushy, but this past year has been quite the amazing one for me.

Last Thanksgiving Keith asked me to marry him, and since then so much has happened that has made me sit there in awe at all my blessings.

Be thankful friends.

Every day.

House Details

There are many small things about the house that just make me oh so happy. Of course the floor plan and the widows and the view of the field and the entire big picture just makes my heart swell, but there are some small things that I was able to take pictures of that we will be using every day that just make me feel good inside. Knowing that the right choice was made with these teeny little details. They're not huge things. They're not fancy things. But I love and appreciate them all the same.

The drain in the ensuite master bathroom. The whole shower is tiled and beautiful and I just love the floor of it. Including the drain. Which I'm sure Keith will have to figure out how to clean (comes with the territory of loving my long hair).

Hello Mr. Toilet. 

I'm sure we will get to know each other quite well.

Our tub is beauuuutiful. I am looking so forward to many many baths in that lovely soaker tub. (There's also a window right above the tub, and I'm a huge fan of ALL the windows.)

I'm one of those people who is so much a klutz that I have hurt myself on more than one occasion on cabinet hardware. When there's a loop I tend to find ways to catch my fingers in there and it is painful! So for our house, we have no loops, just knobs. These beautiful little brushed nickel knobs that I hope will keep my little klutzy fingers safe.

All of the lights/hardware and such match in the house. Brushed nickel and the lights are all a cloudy white glass. Other than these darling little pendant lights we have over top of the island (that's right, I said darling). They're my little "something different" lights, and I love them. I can't wait to see them all lit up.

I believe it's important to have an appreciation for these little things in life. After all, not every day is going to hold something spectacular or particularly memorable, how exhausting would life be if we were overwhelmed and amazed every day? But now and again it's good to take a little look at the little things, remember that they're there and they're important all the same. Some of my little things:

Finding Keith's legs in bed to warm up my freezing feet. (I really miss this "little thing" when he is away and I fall asleep with freezing feet.)
The random super blond eyebrow hairs that Keith sometimes get that always seem to have a mind of their own.
When Nova gazes at me with her gentle almond brown eyes.
The sound Sofi's feet make when she tries to run really fast (they're like huge paddles slapping the ground.)
The smell of a vanilla scented candle.
Laying in the new house and realizing I can't hear anything (no traffic, no nothing).

The house is now here. And I will have to dedicate another post to the entire house-moving process, but the process of getting everything ready for us to move in has now erupted. This week the service guy from the building company is down installing our cooktop and doing the last layer of paint and such. The electricity should be hooked up by tomorrow. Plumbing I believe is next week. It's soooo many phone calls (pretty much all for Keith), and it feels like a whirlwind. We (dogs included) are getting really restless now in the city. The house is there, we spend quite a bit of time out there, enjoying the sun and the space. And then we come back to our little den in the city. I should make a note that while I complain plenty how dark it can be in our rental, this is in comparison to our super bright and cheery house. There is nothing but windows, lights, and bright colors in that house. Which is exactly what I wanted.

Pictures to come soon once everything is a little more organized :)

Get Back Up

One of the best lessons I have ever learned in life, is from riding horses. And that simple lesson is:

When you fall down, you get back on that horse as soon as you possibly can.

This has been pounded into me. Whenever I have fallen, so long as I wasn't heading to the hospital (and I've had a few of those ones too) I was getting back on that horse right away. It is a lesson of perseverance, of courage, of not backing down, and of pushing through any initial fear that the fall may grow. Because the longer you stay off that horse, the more that little seed of fear grows. And before you know it you're terrified to get back on that horse.

I haven't been feeling well the past couple weeks and it's had me a little bummed out. I know I shouldn't let it get me down, but I've felt my poor little heart sagging. I had my little life lesson dawn on me just this past weekend though. And I must not let myself get me down. Because that's what happens. Maybe it's a hormonal thing but I let myself start digging a hole and before I know it I'm wallowing in tears on the bathroom floor. What can I say, I'm a far too emotional person and I suffer from a leaky face. And having been under the weather with my poor little sagging heart the past couple weeks has definitely brought that up. But that time has run its course. I must get back on the horse. And get over it.

So I'm getting back on the horse. And I'm getting over it.

And I dont' know why

But with you I'd dance

In a storm in my best dress

Fearless

Photo taken Summer 2009 by Gabriela Husch