It seems like if you blink, several months can just fly right by before you even notice!  Here it is October, and our last post was back in July.  You’ve not missed too much, though there are a few new things going on in the Karpiuk family.

Oliver is still Oliver, and Winston is still Winston.  Oliver has turned six years old today, can you believe it?  Also today happy anniversary wishes go out to my little brother and his wife as well as our friends Joe and Jeri.  Congratulations on your first year of marriage!

Lucas recently switched jobs completely and is now working happily at Shell in web development at their big Shell Canada building downtown.  I’m still teaching; guest teaching full time until a position opens up for me.  I like it well enough — I’m teaching and it’s a new classroom every day, which keeps things fresh and exciting.  They’re really keeping me busy and I’m usually booked solid every single day, which is great! I spend a lot of time explaining especially to the elementary kids that my last name is NOT “car puke” … :groan:  I’ve really gotten to know a lot of teachers and principals as well as been able to get a taste of what each school in the division is like.  One school has already booked me for every opening they have that they know of right now up through May, lol.  I like being in demand when it comes to my work.

On a sad note, we made a trip back to Indy a few weeks ago to be with family during my grandfather’s passing.  I was able to help with the arrangements by getting pictures together, and the video slide show that the funeral home put together was beautiful.  Rest in peace, grandpa.  You will be missed.

Last weekend our little family decided we’d plan a trip out to Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park up in the gorgeous Canadian Rockies so that we could get the boys some fresh mountain air and take photos of the pretty fall colours before they disappear or are covered in snow.  Unfortunately the weather forecast didn’t want to play nice and it rained instead, so we’ve rescheduled our day trip for this coming Saturday.  We’re really looking forward to seeing the beautiful spot Lucas chose to propose among all of the autumn colours.  When we were out there last November it was so cold and the hiking trails were blanketed in several feet of snow. Cross your fingers for better weather this weekend!

So that’s what the Karpiuk family has been up to.  I know it doesn’t seem like a whole lot in the span of  just over two months, but we’ve been busy just the same. I’ve had no troubles updating my craft blog because as my darling sister-in-law pointed out, Christmas is just two months away (eek!) and I need to get cracking on gifts.  Plus I’ve recently been trying my hand at digital art and creating digital scrapbook papers and elements for my digital scrapbooking obsession.  Check out the pages I’ve made for our digital scrapbooks here. That will give you a visual of what we’ve been doing the past couple months instead ;)   But I’ll do my best to keep things updated here a bit better, ok?

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving next week, Canada — take care everyone!

The rest of the weekend we spent visiting with friends and family.  We had dinner with Lucas’ mom, spent time with Clay and Alyson and met baby Aiden, and had dinner and games with Lucas’ dad & Linda and grandma and grandpa Karpiuk.  It was boys vs. girls in an intense game that seemed to be a mix of a little Aggravation and Sorry.  The girls won, of course!  On Sunday we had a picnic lunch with the game crew on the shores of Okanagan Lake between Penticton and Summerland. It was beautiful.  Afterwards, the boys took a nap and Lucas took me on my first Sea-Doo ride ever.  We rented a 2-seater for a half hour and took turns driving. It was awesome!  We definitely need to get one of those.

So, the moment you’ve read all the way to the end for… of course there are pictures!   And knowing me, there are literally hundreds.  I think by day two of our long weekend I had already taken 237 photos. Mostly of the boys playing on the beach.  Can you imagine how photo happy we’ll be when we have REAL kids?  There’s even a couple little video clips I put together of some of our adventures that you can watch as a six and a half minute long movie HERE.  All of our photos can be found in our gallery under Travel, British Columbia Summer 2008, or via direct link to the HTML version of the gallery HERE.   Enjoy!

In case you’ve forgotten the link:
http://wedding.lookatusgo.net

The photos can be accessed directly at this link:
http://www.lookatusgo.net/gallery/index2.php?d=content/Lucas%20and%20Lesley/Our%20Wedding/

Note that the photos you’ll see initially are the ones from our personal digital camera only plus the photos we received from the photographer at the chapel after the ceremony.  As we receive photos from others in attendance, we’ll add them to the page.  We’re planning to set up an FTP server so that those of you with digital photos to share can login and upload/download at your convenience all in one central location to make it easy for everyone to get a copy of every photo they want.  The photos on the site have been resized, so if you want the full-resolution version, just let me know.

We are still waiting for the DVD version of the actual ceremony to be mailed to us from the chapel.  Once that arrives we will make that available to you online for viewing and I’ll send out another email to let you know that it’s ready.  Until then, we have strung together some little video clips we took with our camera of our adventures in Las Vegas into a little 5 and a half minute video that you can watch at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZcO1G5yVQE

Be sure to click the link that says Watch in High Quality just underneath the video so that you can get the most out of it ;)

Once again, thank you so much for your love and support and enjoy all of the photos and video!  We are planning to update the look of the HTML gallery a bit in the next few days, so don’t be surprised if you see some little changes here and there.  That won’t affect the images available to view there, and of course, as we receive digital photos from others you’ll see new photos pop up on that page to see.  Stay tuned for another post once we have the DVD of the ceremony ready for view, too!

love,
Lucas & Lesley Karpiuk

mom and dad came home last week with a new toy for me in the form of a puppy.  an 8 week old white miniature schnauzer puppy to be exact.  they think he’s cute (i hate to admit he kinda is) and they fawn all over him and try to get us to play all the time.  mom has been going camera crazy and it seems like in every other picture she’s trying to somehow get me involved, too.  don’t get me wrong, i love posing for the camera, but doesn’t she know that means i’d actually have to sit next to the little monster?  ew, srsly.  the other day she even made a video or two of us together.  we all know who the star is of the videos, though.  that’s right.  i am the established handsome one, and don’t you forget it.

the parental units call him winston.  i call him stinky.  he reeks of puppy breath and cuteness.  it makes me sick.  i’m the baby of the house, but now mama calls winston her baby and calls me her big grown up boy.  they even brought home some new toys that they keep telling me are winston’s.  i made quick work of that little squeaky steak toy.  serves it right for being such an inferior, wussy toy. everyone knows it’s all about tug of war, and while my new brother may have puppy breath, at least he’s getting the hang of my favourite game already.  at first i didn’t like having a shadow follow me around but it’s kinda neat that he wants to be just like me and go wherever i go.  when he’s not following me everywhere i start to worry about where he is and then i have to go hunt him down.  but it’s only because i want to be sure and catch him doing something he shouldn’t be doing so i can tell mama on him, not because i enjoy his company or anything.  that would just be silly.

ok really, it’s nice having someone to play with all the time, just don’t tell anyone i said that.  mom and dad are teaching me how to use my “indoor voice” when we play because i’m obviously so much bigger, stronger, and more handsome than winston, which means my barks are much louder and more manly than his.  i try to grumble and make a fuss when winston gets too close, but secretly i enjoy having him around.  i just have to act tough to protect my reputation, ya know?

anyway, i’ve decided that winston is no longer for sale. but i better go take those ‘for sale’ signs down before mom and dad get home.

So that’s what’s been keeping us busy lately. We’ve got most of our things put away in the new house where we want them and are working on the finishing touches to truly make the place feel like home. Luckily there’s an IKEA nearby to help with that ;) We have a few pictures of the new place, empty, that I managed to get with my older digital camera before we moved in.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and this year Lucas and I got each other tickets to see Serj Tankian perform his new solo album live at Mac Hall in March. I can’t wait! Serj is one of the lead singers for my favourite band, System of a Down, and I wasn’t sure it could get much better than when Lucas treated me to seeing them live last July at the Saddledome… but somehow, the idea of seeing Serj perform solo in a smaller venue seems even more above and beyond wonderful. Lots of excitement so far in 2008. Life never ceases to disappoint! Have a fantastic February :)

When I leave the house in the morning, it’s pitch-dark.  It feels still, and even though there’s traffic on the road, I can’t help but feel like the world has barely stirred.  But on my way to the school I’m teaching at for the day, especially when I’m going as far south as High River, I get the pleasure of watching the sun wake up. 

It starts off slowly, like a reluctant child who doesn’t want to get out of bed, and I don’t see the first true signs of morning until I’m well outside of the Calgary city limits and in a more rural setting.  This makes the whole event even better because in the wide open Alberta skies, the transition has nowhere to hide.

First there’s a crease of yellow across the sky that penetrates the darkness right at the horizon line, as if someone took a highlighter and underlined the dusk that was still lingering from the night before.  This grows gradually, making the heavy, low clouds turn more of a navy purple colour rather than black.

And then come the oranges.  And once the orange starts, the whole process seems to suddenly speed up.  The bright streaks of orange and pink stain the sky and clear away the bulky clouds with a triumphant push and send them on their way, leaving behind a little blue that pokes its head out in between the brightness, rubbing its eyes at the light of a new day.  The blend of colours highlight the clouds with a pinky purple hue that makes me think of thick cotton candy you’d see at the fair.  I love the way the farmhouses and trees look silhouetted in an inky black against the yawning horizon.

And all the while you look to the west and see darkness and imagine people still nestled in their beds fast asleep, unaware that morning is so nearly upon them.  When you are driving straight south like me, with the magic happening right before your eyes on the left side of the road and the darkness of morning still lingering on the right side, you can imagine that the transformation you see when you look straight ahead is pretty incredible.

As the orange and pink now fully dominate the east, the sky ahead turns a paler blue than what you see to the west, except for those random dark navy clouds that are dotting the skyscape as if a child had accidentally spilled some too-dark paint and tried to blot it up with a paper towel.  I hate when that happens.  But it sure makes for a beautiful drive to work.

And then I take my exit west into town and watch the sun fully rise in my rear view mirror, greeting me for another day.  Good morning!  Alberta is such a beautiful place.  I love it here :)  And I guess until I can take some pictures you’ll just have to take my word for it.  May 2008 bring you much love and happiness — and as a quick side note, only 164 days until our wedding!  Take care :)

So… now that nothing else can really top that news, here are more things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Now I know what you’re thinking: “But Lesley, you live in Canada now and Canadian Thanksgiving was last month…” This I know. But Lucas and I missed out on turkey and pumpkin pie last month because we were back in Indiana for Herm’s wedding, so we decided to celebrate on American Thanksgivng this year. Since we didn’t have the day off on Thursday when the holiday actually took place, we decided to do it tomorrow, so that in the typical spirit of an American Thanksgiving, there’s football on TV. We sort of impromptu are having some visitors over to help us eat all of this food — there will be turkey of course, and pumpkin pie made from scratch along with mashed potatoes and a green bean casserole. Mmmmm… I am thankful for homemade food.

But seriously, I am blessed and thankful for many things in my life. I am thankful for friends and family — both here in Canada and back home in Indiana. I have many wonderful friends that make life endlessly fun and colourful. And of course my family, who love and support me. Between my little family with Lucas and Oliver to my family in Indiana and back to my future family-to-be in British Columbia, I am a lucky person to have so much love and support that it spans two countries ;)

Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s hoping that everyone else out there had a wonderful and thankful holiday, too!

The weekend before last, Lucas and I took a day trip out to the Columbia Icefields. The glacier that we walked on is about an hour and a half north of Lake Louise, and it was all road that neither of us had traveled before. It was gorgeous. Not just pretty or fantastic, but breathtaking. Last summer when we drove through the Canadian Rockies, I swore that summer was my favorite time of year out there. And then I saw the Rockies again in the winter, with all of the snow, and suddenly winter was my favorite time to be in the mountains. But nothing tops seeing the Canadian Rockies in the fall, when you have oranges and yellows mixed in with the green trees, all dusted with light snow, and framed with snow-capped mountains in the background. In some places you’d swear it was already winter out there until you saw the orange trees to remind you otherwise. It was a beautiful drive, and I saw some of the most amazing scenery I’d ever seen in my entire life. Our new site banner above is a panoramic sample of some of the scenery we got to experience.  The trip was well worth the drive! And the glacier was spectacular! We stood on 300 meter thick blue glacial ice and walked around admiring the millwells (from a distance, of course) and other features of the glacier. It was really cold and windy out there, but worth every second we were given to explore. And of course, I got to go snow crabbing. Don’t ask, just check out the photos in our gallery under Travel.

Congratulations also go out to our friends Joe and Jeri, whose wedding we missed because they were married on the same day that Herman and Holly got married this past weekend. Hope everything went smoothly!

And then I cut north and it’s all behind me until later in the afternoon, when the only sure thing about the weather is that it means the sky will look completely different. Either way, I’ve decided to start taking photos of the sky whenever possible, because the opportunity presents itself often and the view is always fresh and new. Most recently I took a few pictures of the sky at a Stampeders exhibition game back in the middle of June, and then another photo a few days later, just after a heavy rain and hail storm that produced a pretty rainbow visible from our back window. I only wish I had a camera this morning — I love the way the sky looks when a storm is rolling through. In the same sky you’ll see both dark and menacing clouds alongside bright and sunny clouds, and that was what it was like this morning. Next time I’ll have a camera, but for now you can see what I’ve got in the ‘Calgary Skies’ directory under Miscellaneous in our Gallery.

In other news, it’s the famous Stampede Week here in Calgary. On one hand, I wish it were Stampede Week all year long because it means I can wear jeans into the office each day, but on the other hand, there’s only so much of cowboy boots and hats that I can take in my normal daily routine. There are some truly dedicated one-week-a-year-cowboys in the heart of downtown who even go as far as to put up fake wooden storefronts on their sleek city buildings, complete with bales of hay and silhouettes of cowboys leaning against fence posts. It’s insane. And I keep hearing about how hot it is lately, especially after we hit 36 degrees last week (that’s just under 100 degrees F for those of you that are like me and will forever think in Fahrenheit). To be honest, I’d never have known it was “so hot” unless someone had told me, because 100 degrees in Calgary and 100 degrees in Indiana are two very different things. I’ll take 100 degrees of dry heat in Calgary over 100 degrees of heat plus 90+ percent humidity in Indiana anyday!

Happy Stampeding!

I spent two weeks in Indiana visiting my family and friends, and Lucas came down to join me after his deadline at work was over to spend the second week with me. It was non-stop action; I think our itinerary was full every single day. That was fine with me because I’d not seen most of the family and friends back home in about a year, so the more I could cram into the trip, the better! I won’t bore you with every single thing we did each day, but some of the highlights include getting to spend time with my family, taking my little brother out to celebrate his 21st birthday (belated, since I wasn’t there when he turned 21 back in September), visiting my grandparents, shopping with my mom, visiting my old work and seeing all of my former students graduate from 5th grade, celebrating my brother’s graduation from college with our entire family, and bowling with friends. We also saw Scott and Amy in Morristown for a party, Somer for lunch in Cincinnati, Kurt who was in town from Pennsylvania with Kimmy (congratulations on your engagement!), and we got to hang out with some friends from high school I’d not seen in nine years. We had a blast! And I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of other things. I of course took several hundred pictures over the course of two weeks, and you can see a large chunk of those in our gallery under Travel -> Indiana Summer 2007.

While there was a lot I missed in Indiana, there was one thing I definitely did not: the humidity. I’d forgotten how sticky and hot Indiana’s weather was. The morning that my plane was due to leave at 7:30am, we’d had a freak snow storm that dumped about 6 inches of thick, wet snow on Calgary overnight. We got to the airport around 5:30am, and my flight was already delayed at least an hour and fifteen minutes. My flight would be delayed by 2 hours by the time they’d de-iced the plane and other technical precautions were taken care of. Which wouldn’t be such a big deal, except it meant I missed my connecting flight in Chicago and I got pushed back yet another hour once I arrived in the Windy City. All in all I was 3 hours late getting home, and I went from experiencing dry, below 0 C weather in the morning to enduring humid 35 C weather all before 7pm that same evening.

While we were on the trip I hit my one-year-in-Canada anniversary, so it seemed fitting that my Permanent Resident card was waiting for me on the coffee table when we got back Thursday evening; the card came in the mail for me while I was gone. Coming back on Thursday meant that we had a nice long weekend to get settled back into routine and relax before it was time to go back to work. We spent Friday during the day running around getting my Social Insurance number and my Alberta driver’s license, among other things. We also met up with Tom and Craig to go see Ocean’s Thirteen on its opening night, which I thought was pretty good. If you liked the other Ocean movies, you’ll like the third one. Now I’m busy browsing the paper and online sources for a summer job to occupy my time until next school year. It’s all so exciting!