Playing with my niece Casendra

I'm gonna miss this little girl.....

Downtown Calgary

I need to go downtown sometime and get some good pics of the skyline etc. I just took these out the window the other day as we were driving around. I love Calgary. and I love Three Hills:)
I'm just packing, some stuff is going in boxes to stay here (not much), some is going in our suitcases, some is going in boxes to be sent and some is either being passed on to others or going in the garbage. I wish we could just bring it all of course, it's hard to decide what we should bring and what we should leave...
David is in Calgary for a few days -he's going climbing on Monday, getting our stuff sent off for our visas and doing a few other errands. I'm trying to get a lot of the packing done now as Emma and I will be away for a week in Thunder Bay. When we get back we'll only have one more week left till we leave...
Generally I am really excited about getting back...I was looking at old pictures today of our friends in Tuva and the scenery and out little concrete apartment and I was feeling a little homesick- Yay!!! nice feeling.

Christmas Smiles

Josiah playing on the Wii with Journey and Solomon

Josiah and Hudson bought me these bangles and David got me an ipod!

Cascade Falls

We just got our camera back that we had forgotten with Matt after they climbed Cascade Falls at the end of Nov. So here are some pics, a little late:) We were a little worried about them climbing as the weather (at the time) was sooooo warm and ice was hard to find. They did find some and even though there was water flowing behind the ice, they didn't have any problems. Matt and David are very safe and don't take risks so we don't really worry about them. We were just worried that they wouldn't find any good ice to climb but they did:)

I just finished wrapping the presents and making cranberry salad. We are so glad that we are able to celebrate Christmas with family this year. And this is Hudson's first Christmas in Canada ever!

I'm sure I'll post again soon. Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas!!!

Matt at the top of the climb

I like how David got the whole process of Matt arriving at the top of the climb- first you can just see the ice from his axe, then his axe, and then you see Matt.

Emma's Heart Check

Some of you have asked how Emma's heart checks have been going. On Friday, she had an ultrasound done to see every little detail in her heart. It really was interesting and now I know so much about hearts:) Her heart looks completely normal, in fact a little better than usual the technician said. But the condition she has is not one that you can see (though sometimes I guess you can see it if it is real bad). She had another ECG done in which you can really see the marker for her Wolffe- Parkinson- White syndrome. I don't know if I can really explain it very well- it makes perfect sense to me though now that the doctor drew me a diagram etc. Basically our heart sends out electrical signals to beat. Emma has a wee little (unseen) place where the electrical current goes through besides the one place that we all have and where it is supposed to go through. So when her heart beats she has a wee little surge of energy before the big surge so on her charts it goes up a little before the big spike on each beat. You can't tell from just listening to her heart or looking at her heart but it is very clear on the ECG.
What it means practically is that she could get a racing heart beat, especially if the electrical current slips back in and out again through the little unseen hole so it would go in double time or worse. Emma has no outward symptoms at this point, never short of breath, she never has fainted or felt light headed, she hasn't had any heart pain etc. etc. so she is most likely very low risk. She had a test on the treadmill today where they got her up to as fast as she could go and then monitored her heart rate- she did really well and there was no stress on her heart or anything. She came home with a holter that tracks her heart activity for 24 hours. A bunch of stickers with wires and a big computer thing strapped on her waist. (sorry no picture) It is a little uncomfortable but she can handle it for one day. It will see if there are any activities or times of day where there is more stress on her heart.
So- we are pretty sure it is nothing. It usually doesn't affect children much- maybe more when they are in their teens but she could never have any symptoms. There is an operation (quick easy one) that they can do to get rid of the little unseen hole which would make it like she didn't have it at all but we will wait and see. Maybe next time we come home if she seems to have some symptoms. We have great medical insurance so if she ever showed any signs like fainting we could come back right away and have the operation done. It is a really really rare thing for it to cause any problems and again- we'd never know that she even had this if we lived here as they'd only check for it if she showed symptoms.
We are so thankful for all the appointments we've been able to get with such good doctors/nurses. We really feel better knowing all about this condition and what we should be looking for/ expect. The doctor will let us know later on this week if anything shows up with her heart monitor though the doctor and us are fairly confident that it will show the same results as all the other tests have- nothing:) Thanks for thinking about Emma- she is sleeping at Grandma Charlotte's tonight with her cousins Sierra and Ocean- probably good for her, she'll be distracted from all the annoying wires on her:)

Alberta Children's Hospital

I could have taken many many pictures of this hospital. The kids loved it- I don't know if they meant it to look like it was made out of Lego but it looks like it to me. Every little detail in the hospital is designed for the kids. You feel more like you are at a zoo or mall or something than at a hospital. We stayed a little while after Emma's app't so that the kids could play and have a great snack while we worked on our visa applications with the free internet connection in the hospital food court. There was a choir singing christmas carols there today too so it was really fun.

Holiday in the Mountains

David's mom, two of David's brothers- Peter and Jon and David's dad.

Can you see how my hair is frosted white? We had a wonderful time in the mountains with David's family- there was 24 of us I think! We had meals together, quick cold walks:), swam, relaxed, played games, did crafts and had lots of good fellowship. It was a great time together- a good little break before Christmas.

Emma's Last Day

Yesterday was a sad day for Emma as it was her last day of school before we head back to Russia. She LOVED it. She made some really great friends like Skye and Gillian. Skye already emailed Emma saying she misses her...sweet. We are so glad that Emma could go for this semester that we were here. Her teacher was amazing. I took this picture after Emma gave her a huge hug.
I'm writing from the lobby at the Delta Lodge Kananaskis. SO nice. The hotel is all decorated for Christmas and outside the window are snow capped mountains....mmmm. Having a great time with our family out here.

One More Visit!!!

Well, I was hoping we would find some super cheap flights so that I could get in one more visit with my mom, dad, brother and others in Thunder Bay. Seeing as we got the 3 year residency (YAY!!!!!!!!!!) we could be gone a long time before I'll get to see them:( Tickets are half price right now so I booked them! Emma is coming with me- so we'll have a ladies holiday! We fly to Thunder Bay on Jan.1st and fly back to Calgary Jan.7th. That will give us 7 days when we get back to pack and say our goodbyes to our family and friends here...
Time is going by very fast....
This weekend we are going to the mountains with David's mom, dad, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews etc. A little time for the family to enjoy Christmas together... It will be beautiful..especially because we have so much snow now!!!
Tomorrow, Emma has her appointment with the cardiologist in Calgary. It will be good to know all that is involved with her heart condition. I'll let you know what they say.
So glad I'll get to see you Thunder Bayers again!!!!

Skyping

Today we figured out how to work Skype- so much fun. We can chat to our friends in Moscow (J and B) for free and even see them!!! The funny thing was when I was chatting with our friends I had strange settings on so that I had a bridge in front of me and (I didn't know at the time) I had an audio effect on so that I sounded depressed- though they tell me it just made me sound more like a man. Ooops. Next time I'll use my normal voice allthough it is tempting to try out the other effects. We were playing with the different options for the webcam when I took these pics.
It is just so cool to be able to see people and chat with them almost like in real life and really see them- especially for free!!!! At the same time I was chatting online with Vanya on facebook. But even with all these new ways of talking....I'm still so glad we will get to see them for real soon!!! 29 days left!!!!

Emma only has 3 more days at school:( She is really really going to miss it. Here is a picture of her from today- it was red and green day. The little girl next to her (Sky) is one of her best friends... Sky will be the smallest in the class again after Emma leaves!

Emma is just getting ready to go figure skating with her cousins Ocean and Sierra- fun day!