Growing up so Fast

Exactly one month ago, I welcomed an 8-week-old bouncing ball of fur into my home and family. He weighed 10.4 pounds, and won my heart with a lick to the face.

That was then.

Now, I have a hyperactive, crazy 20.8 pound, 3-month old pup. Is one jog in this cursed weather not enough?

The first time I saw Blizzard had been on a Saturday. He was just shy of 7 weeks old, and was one of 3 males in his litter of 11. Bursting with anticipation, we had rounded the corner to a nice farm, and walked into a pen of fluffy pups.

'twas love at first lick.

A week later, the preparations were made, and we drove back to bring him home.

Blizzard at 6.5 weeks

We were taken to a giant fluffy tornado of limbs and noses, and the biggest one of the bunch was placed in our arms. "Is this him?" I wondered. But there was no mistake. He was the only white male.

He weighed in at 10.4 pounds that day. Did I forget to mention that he was only two months old?

We brought him home to our pathetic puppy pen, designed for a smaller pup. Modifications were made, and we thought he was good to sleep in the pen till the crate arrived.

We thought wrong.

Blizzard's first day home (8 weeks)

Sometime the next week, I suddenly had difficulty holding him. My light little pup now weighed 13.4 pounds.

It doesn't seem like much, but that's a 1/3 increase in weight. Not much happened this week.

This week.

The next week, surprisingly, Blizzard hadn't gained a single pound. But no one was focusing on his growth rate. Something terrible happened.

It was during this week, that the big escape occured.

One morning, I dashed downstairs to take him out, and as I groggily fumbled around in search of the leash, hand met fur.

Innocent, cute little Blizzard had escaped his pen, soaked the carpet, stank up the house, chewed on everything, terrorized the poor cat, and ate all the cat food.

That was the last day anyone saw the pen.

Blizzard the escape artist at 9 weeks

Not much happened during the next three weeks, but now, he's doubled his weight, and his trouble-making capacity.

Every time I turn my back, he will dart off and grab my camera in his jaws, running off with it.

Yesterday, I took him to the offleash with his ball for a game of fetch.

He went chasing after that little ball, bringing it back each time.

I decided to give him a real treat, poised the ball behind my ear and whipped it as far as I could. Blizzard had a wild look in his eyes as he darted after it.

But as he reached about 6 feet away from me, he stopped short, and returned. He didn't want to leave me.

What? Me? I didn't chew up those slippers (12 weeks)

Where has time gone? How did he grow so fast? I blink, and he's sprouted another 5 pounds!

What are your dog stories?

For more Blizzard stories, and a picture per day, please follow @xblizzardx on instagram.

Our tech class

Hi my name is frad and I am going to be telling you about my class here at school.What I have learned  so far is parts of a computer and why they are their and how to make a google site what I can do to it.
And besides I  have some good friends in this class and I like technology

Reach.

Reach.

 I remember this epsiode of The Simpons. It made me HOWL!

The reason I am breaking my unknown-reason-why-I-took-a-break-from-blogging sabbatical is that I am looking through my colleagues "Creativity Journal" from my School.

The theme of it is, as you guessed it.....Reach.

An interesting theme. The reason I say that is that when I see the word REACH images and somewhat formed quotes are in my mind. Not being able to formulate them instantly I jumped to our good friend and know-it-all Google.

Lo and behold...as soon as you type in the word REACH and search the image database the massively popular video game "Halo" is there. Um....methinks TOO MANY images!

So, there was a dead end.I was at an impasse on what to contribute.

I set about for the next 30 minutes looking for THAT perfect quote or motivational poster to somehow include in one of my pagest hat I am contributing to this album.

Nothing spoke to me.

But then, almost at the point of giving up, I see two things that I did not expect to see related to the search. An image of a QR code and the image you see above.

My brain whirred and clicked and then I thought about it some more...lets mash it all together. Use a QR code to see the image and I could even say a few things on my mind. Sweet!

Love it. I hope you do to. Hello to all of my colleagues reading this as a result of the QR code that I posted in the Journal.


I love the image-the word REACH has so many meanings!

I will reach for my remote and make sure that I am watching DOG the Bounty Hunter's new TV show in April.

I can't wait until we reach summer....the trips we have planned will be AMAZING.

So, anyway, there you go....

I am glad you REACHed out to read this blog.
Reach. And that's the word.

Day 1 - The DINOtour

The below is a recount of the DINOtour that was was hosted by the Dinosaur Research Institute that yook place on June 29 - July 2.


DAY 1 - June 29th, 2012
EDMONTON - 3:30 am
I woke up at 3:30 am....quite the processs seeing as how school just ended. I am already in summer mode!

I managed to get on the road for what will no doubt be an amazing experience. To have a chance to explore many fossil sites and locales in Suthern Alberta with fellow enthusiasts and reknowned paleontologusts such as Dr. Philip Currie, Dr. Eva Koppelhuis - both of the University of Alberta, and Dr. David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum.

Saying goodbye to my family who were still all enjoying their slumber I departed...the sky was dark, and the sunset was such a sight to behold!

The early start of the day seemed uneventful...the lack of traffic between Edmonton and Calgary. The drive down to Calgary was quick, and was alone, not experiencing a single car until reached the outskirts of Airdrie.

Once I pulled into Calgary at 7 AM...a half hour earlier than expected based on my eagerness to start the day earlier than I had thought and the lack of traffic.

CALGARY - 8:00am
Leaving the muster point, our first journey was to Horseshoe Canyon, aptly named due to its shape. It is located on the outskirts of Drumheller. An offbeat spectacle if there was ever one as the landscape is flat as far as the eys can see, but just off the main road is a scar that extends into the Earth.....seemingly out of nowhere. BEAUTIFUL! Layered walls hundreds of fet below our position...with a few travellers in their own vehicles who stopped to take in the awe-inspiring site aong with our bus.

HORSHOE CANYON - 9:30am
A local vendor was on the side of the road selling fossils and other items that let you know that you were here in the past. I purchased a beautiful fossil turtle shell segment. The local wildlife even came out to say hi!

Not yet a fossil....

Phil Currie and his wife, Dr. Eva Koppelhuis met up with us...they summer down outside of Dinosaur Provincial Park, so it was neat to know that we were in THEIR backyard! After a brief discussion of th history and geologis story of the area, we were able to traverse the canyon walls. The incline was steeper than it looked  yet once at the bottom with the sound of a breeze racing through the canyon you wished you could stay.

The heat informed you of the conditions that are ever present and you cannot help but look a tthe ground in hopes of seeing a tooth protude out of the ground. Knowing that we had three more days of these activities made eager to move on, but in retrospect, Horseshoe Canyon was an area that I wished that we had more time....the canyon floor stretched out and begged you to walk its breath, savoring every inch of a place that, while inhospitable now, teemed with life millions of years ago. The Late Cretaceous must have been a sight to behold if this was an indication. What about the rocks that made up the walls? Whose eyes peered through field glasses and spotted a perfect locale for exploring for fossils?

And what did they find?

 Our time up, we loaded the air conditioned bus to head to our next location....The Royal Tyrrell Museum!

What are you looking at?

Today's Word: The Great Outdoors

Well, today was neat.

I ventured out into with my classes to the wonderful natural areas around our school.

We are ina fortunate position....we have a marshland to the north of us and a farmers field along with a tree farm to the south. We are literally surrounded by nature! #score!

Our first trip was to a walking path with a densely wooded area south of us. Having to walk doen a strret, past a construction zone where new sidewalks are being built and a path that will one day be directly behind a row of houses.

Natural? Not for long.

But, that was dashed as soon as we ventured in and a rather large hoofprint and a canine print. Adeer and a coyote? Within the first 2 minutes of our exploration? AWESOME!

We saw loads of things, and for a group of kids where many admitted that they do NOT get to the great outdoors that often many were amazed!


In the afternoon class, we decided to go in the opposite direction....at first glance, a farmer's field was definitely not tha tappealing, but once we walked toward the dense treed area ...we were enthralled!

Frogs, bugs of any kind, numerous species of plants and trees all made this experience extremely invaluable as our classes dicovered the biotic and abiotic elements of ecosystems around our school.

We were mezmerized by what we saw! There was even a huge pond in the back that seemed to materialise out of nowhere!


It was our first foray into the ecosystems...they had lots to offer....

They were indeed the GREAT outdoors.

And that's the word.

Today's Word is...short.

Well, my plans tonight did not include writing a blog.

But, sometimes you have something that you just want to say.

I looked outside today at an absolutely glorious late summer day. The sun as out, the traffic was light....it felt like something out of a dream.

I came home to my beautiful family and savored the time with them....by sharing dinner, a few laughs and by just being with eachother in the moment.

I have to admit, that somewhere in the back of our mind is the significance of September 17. It may not seem like much, but last year...exactly to the day was a day where everything seemed....complete.

It was like a ride on a roller coaster where the ride finally came to a stop where we could all get off and just look back upon the arduous climb and out-of-control freefall. The Cockroaches perservered and came through....a little worse for wear, but we came through. To quote "Divulge With Dani" on her blog (http://divulgewithdani.blogspot.ca/2012/09/happy-anniversary-to-cockroaches.html)...we were SOLID (by the way...red her blog....a good read).

That night last year was simply amazing. I have never seen my wife let go of her emotions like she did as she finally felt like everything was in place. Dear friends. Together. Laughing, crying and simply savoring being with eachother in the moment.

It has been said "Don't let the moment pass you by"...and two weeks later, and to this day we know the meaning of those words.

Our SOLID group experienced shaky ground as we lost Wendy.

My family, and our dear friends lost their laughter, and our best friend lost his soul.

The pain we have all experienced since that day has been difficult, but there has been something that keeps us all going.

It happened again yesterday....with the appearance of a single, solitary ladybug in the space between my wife and I as we sat and talked.

It came out of nowhere and seeemed to just linger in the space, daring us to look at it.

Unable to hold back smiles, my wife and I simply stared and marvelled how ladybugs seem to pop up out of nowere, and at times that seem to be heaven sent. We truly feel that ladybugs are a reminder of our dear friend, and we always see evidence of these tiny little marvels when we are discussing or are reminded of Wendy. We even dared her on Saturday night to make an appearance as we noted to one year passing of her....and would'nt you know it....there it was.

An unbelieveable coincidence, yes, but the little thing reminds us of our dear friend and we smile.

I think about the family that I have and the joy that I share with them...everyday. Life is ours to enjoy....rejoice in eachother's company. Savor the moments that you have.....even if they are....

...short.

And that's the word.

Today's Word...ALREADY???

Well where did the time go?

I figured with the school year upon me, it is time to focus on my blog again....as a way to just ramble and to wnlighten others.

Needless to say that I have not posted anything in quite some time.

No, not from lack of topics, but for a whack of reasons. I always told myself that when September comes I will get back on board the Blogging train with countless other educators hoping to have meaningful dialogue with others.

I look at the time between this post and my last post ans say "Already"???

Now that I look into it, I realize there are so many things to blog about...I really would not know where to start. As pictures are worth a thousand words, I figre I should start with the Dinosaur Tour that I took at the beginning of July.

My next post will include the notest hat I took on the trip...it was a beautiful experience and I hope that the photos that I have included do it justice....

 Horseshoe Canyon...STUNNING

So..sit back, relax and enjoy the ramblings of myself and the things that make me say "wow".

I am ready to get back into the blogging circuit....I believe that it will be very relaxing.

Its hard to believe that I am ALREADY done this post.

Already.

And THAT'S the word.