Lost email

This is for Lorna. Your email was accidentally deleted from my inbox, and now I can't respond. Can you send you me your email address, and then I can get you the numbers you wanted. Thanks so much. Hopefully you check this! Merry Christmas!

Packin' up and Movin' out

Today is the day. We're going into work for just the meorning. Chris has an exam this afternoon, while I will be running last minute errands and oacking up the car. Then Scout and I will pick up Chris and we will be on the road to winnipeg!! We're so excited to see all of you! Tonight we will get to Edmonton, snd then bright and early we will be on the road again on Saturday, hoping to get to winnipeg late Sat night barring any weather problems. For all of those who I know like to worry. Don't worry we will be careful, drive according to weather conditions and not speed. if we're too tired we will stop! As much as we are in a hurry to get home, we want to get home, so we will behave ourselves!!!
Can't wait to see you, and Scout is looking forward to meeting all of you!!

December Weather?

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are all enjoying your Saturday. Today it is a sunny 9 degrees, and all the snow we had last weekend is now completely gone. We went from -30 on Tuesday to -4 on Wednesday to +4 on Thursday, +8 on Friday and now +9 today!! CRAZY!!
I spent the morning painting pottery at the local pottery spot, while Chris worked on a last minute paper. Tonight we head off for some curling with people I work with and then off to the work Christmas party. Chris' work Christmas party is tomorrow. One of those busy weekends, but they all seem too short no matter what we are doing! This time next week we will be in Saskatchewan heading to Winnipeg!
We can't wait to see you all!!
Love,
Claire :)

Let it Snow...

We have been told that we are slacking in the blogger department, so here's a note to let you know we are all still alive and well, but just feeling very busy with work, and Christmas preparing!
It snowed for most of today and so we have at least five centimetres now. I think the grass is finally covered. It may all be gone again by next weekend, as the temps are supposed to be between 0 and 5 by then.
Chris put up Christmas lights today and I decorated our 24 inch tree. It looks hilarious to have such a tiny tree but normal size ornaments. The Christmas lights look good though!
Hope everyone is nice and cozy!

The Big Beaver

Last week Chris and I went to Grande Prairie, and on the way we passed through Beaverlodge. Sang had expressed interest in the giant Beaver at Beaverlodge, so Sang, here is the giant beaver! Hope it meets your expectations:)

Jenn's turn!!!

Happy Birthday Jennifer Rose!!

I will try and compose a birthday poem for you.

I know a girl named Jenny R,
From me, she lives very far.
I love her dearly,
As we all know clearly
Have a fun fun birthday par-
TY!!!

Well, it almost rhymes. I should be working right now, so don't tell!! Anyway, I guess back to work. Jenn, I hope you have a great birthday and I wish I could be there to celebrate!!! love you lots and miss you just as much!!!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy happy birthday to Shaleen!!
Have fun with the fondue,
WIsh we could come too
And fondue with you!!!
Love,
Claire, Chris and Scout

A few more of our baby

She's so sweet we just love her to bits!! Can't wait until you all get to meet her!

Birthday wishes

happy happy birthday goes out to Sang!!! make sure everyone who sees him gives him a birthday hug! happy Birthday to Sabine all the way in the Netherlands. You can give her a birthday hug if you see her as well, but she might be a bit harder to reach from Canada! Hope you guys have a great day!

Everybody's favorite little pumpkin!

Audrey with her mummy

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Have a fun and spooky day!
Love, Claire, Chris and Scout

Strike is OVER!

Monday morning I am going back to work! As the eloquent Homer Simpson would say, "Woohoo!"

Cruisin' the country

We talked it over, looked at all the pros and cons and have now decided that we will be driving to Winnipeg at CHristmas, so we will arrive late afternoon or around dinner time on SUnday the 18th and then we will leave on Jan 1, if of course, the weather is being agreeable. This way we have our own time table, we don't have to be without Scout for a week and we will have a car when we are in winnipeg to get here and there. Also much much cheaper, which means more money to spend on Christmas presents!!!

Happy Anniversary

We wanted to wish Shaleen and Blair a Happy 3rd Anniversary!! Way to go guys! We hope you have a special evening planned tonight or this weekend. I woulc love to be there to look after the little munchkin for you, so you could go out to dinner, but hopefully someone else will do that. I'll be jealous of them!!

Thanksgiving weekend

We would love to hear how all of your spent your thanksgiving weekends. We had a lovely weekend with mostly sunny weather, and spent our time relaxing, playing in the park with Scout, running a few errands, and then having company for dinner Monday. It was our first attempt at a thanksgiving dinner, and my first thanksgiving in Canada in three years! The dinner turned out well. We had apple zucchini soup, homemade bread rolls, turkey, roast potatoes, multicolored beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflour and then mandarin cheesecake for dessert!! We also got to use all our nice dishes that were wedding presents!! We then had a great time playing Mad Games which is the funnest of board games (it doesn't really have a board though!
Next holiday is Halloween! What are everyone's plans?

It just keeps on gettin' better!

Ok, well, the strike is still going on, but not only that, they have now made it an illegal strike,so now I am doing something illegal!!!! I'm not a criminal, honest, at least I've never been caught for anything before...not that there would be anything...As Bart Simpson used to say, "I didn't do it. Nobody say me do it. Can't prove anything!!"
Happy Thanksgiving!

On Strike!

Hi Gang,

Just thought I would update y'all and let you know that tomorrow morning at seven am I will be on the picket line! The BC Teacher's Union has had a 90 percent vote for an illegal strike starting tomorrow, so I have to participate since I am part of the union. You can't cross the picket line, and you only get strike pay if you picket. Fifty bucks a day for three hours of picketing. I hope the strike doesn't last long. I certainly wasn't expecting to have to go on strike after only working at my new career for a month! I agree with what the teacher's union is fighting for, but I just hope the strike is short, because I want to be working! We've just finished most of our assessments and are about to delve into actually doing therapy with these kids, and I am so excited to get into it!!
Chris has started working in the office and is enjoying it. When he works in the office he has the same time schedule as me, so that is nice for us for carpooling.
Tomorrow we are going for thanksgiving dinner at a coworker's home, and we are planning to have our own thanksgiving dinner on Monday. Hope you are all well. and look forward to hearing from you! Enjoy the long weekend!

one more welcome back

A big weclome back to Allison and Sang who were a bit closer to us the last couple of weeks because they were in Vancouver. AT least they were in the same province. You're getting warmer......not quite here yet, though:)

Birthdays and welcome backs

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are all enjoying your Sunday and we just wanted to send out some happy messages.
First:
Happy Birthday to Seth!! He is now five years old, and such a big smart boy!!!
Happy Birthday to Mel, who is turning the old quarter of a century!! We wish we could celebrate with you, and finally, but of course not least...
Welcome back to Mary and Colin who have just come back from their honeymoon in Cuba!! We can't wait to hear all about it!!!

Happy Sunday

Scout's sweet new ride!

Hopefully the pictures show up. If not I will try again. Here is Scout in her brand new car. She really likes to drive it and she hates being put in the very back!! I guess we'll have to let her be the driver;) Our new car is a wine coloured 2005 Honda CRV. We are finally rid of the stationwagon and we now have a reliable car plus BC insurance, so that is a huge weight off our shoulders!! Hopefully this weekend we can take it for a bit of a drive up to Grande Prairie. I will be driving it down the Taylor hill tomorrow and am so excited!!! Enjoy the pix!

A special gift

Scout and I were going out for our morning walk this morning before I had to go to work, and when we opened the door there was a package there. It was addressed to Miss Scout Piper Wylie and inside was a brand new squeaky toy all the way from Lorna in Wales!!!! Scout was very excited to see her new toy and as we speak I am sure she is busy playing with it, since I am at work!! Scout would like to say thank you to Lorna for her new toy!! She loves it lots and lots! Thanks Lorna, that was really sweet of you and such a nice surprise. It was a great way to start off the morning!! Hope you're all having a good day!

Congrats to Dan

If anyone runs into my little brother, Dan be sure to tell him Congratulations!! He just won a really big award from the university and so they'll be cutting him a fat cheque for the next two years!! Go Dan!!!

Scout's Christmas plans

To answer all those who wanted to know. As long as we can take Scout on a plane we will be bringing her to Winnipeg to meet all of her extended family and friends at Christmas time.
We just got back from a weekend in Edmonton with Shal, Blair, Audrey and Kody, and Shal's parents. We had tons of fun, which I'm sure Chris will fill you in on tomorrow. I have to work and he doesn't so he will probably do the updating. Stay tuned for more pictures!! Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend!

a few more pix

Family photo I wish Chris could learn to keep his eyes open because he lookes like he's on drugs. We took this picture six times and this was the most open his eyes got!!!


Scout in the bath tub

Some pictures

Colin I heard that you would like some more pictures of Scout so here they are. Also their is a picture of the front of our place with Chris and Scout in the doorway. This is Scout's favorite spot in the car. On the floor of the passenger front seat.


Sleeping in my shoes

Weekend Update with your hosts Claire and Chris Wylie

Chris and I went to Grande Prairie this past Friday to do a little shopping. We of course, hit Michaels, and I, of course, did not leave empty handed. Scrapbook paper was 50% off so I had to get some of that, and then I bought some yarn to make a blanket for our new couch. We also went to Jysk and Staples where we bought a desk. Chris went to Future Shop and bought his much anticipated speakers. So we know longer have to hear about how much he wants speakers!! He has them, case closed! ;)
The rest of the weekend was comprised of mainly running errands, although Sunday afternoon we went to the movies and saw The Brothers Grimm, which was pretty good. The one thing that bugged me about it was that it is supposed to take place in Germany, but every single character had a different British accent!! It was entertaining, though, and that was what we were looking for.
Today we went and got BC driver's licenses, so I think we only have medical numbers to go, and that takes three months before we covered anyway so we have to hang on to the manitoba ones for awhile.
Puppy training continues. She is really good with "come" and is learning "sit". We're still working on the house training. She's getting better, but there are still plenty of little accidents to clean up! We've been leaving her alone for a couple hours each day to get her used to the idea, and she no longer cries so that is good news. She also has caused no distruction beyond ripping up a newspaper, which was our fault because we left it in her reach. No permanent damage, so we're pretty relieved about that. Hope it stays that way!!
Talk to you soon!

full details

Okay here are the full details:
Name: Scout Piper Wylie - Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird, Piper, well that one is obvious and of course, so is the Wylie
From: Dawson Creek SPCA
Birthdate: Canada Day, July 1 2005
Backstory: Her pregnant mother was found and brought to the SPCA where 8 puppies were born. Scout is the runt of the litter.
Skills: We worked a lot on "come" today and she is a millions times better at it than yesterday! We also took her on a long walk to and from Walmart today and she did great!! SHe is gettingmuch better on the leash. Also she had two car rides today where she did not cry, so she has now found her favorite spot in the car. Unfortunately it is on the floor in the front passenger seat so in a couple months she won't fit there anymore!
ANyway, we promise to try really hard and not turn this into a Scoutblog!
IN other news, we are thinking of a road trip tomorrow down to Grande Prairie since Chris doesn't have to work. We thought we would see what that town has to offer.
It has the nearest Michaels and I haven't been there since before the wedding which is three weeks, so that has got to be some kind of record for me!! Don't worry though, even without the nearby Michaels I still have about six projects on the go!!
Talk to you soon!

pictures of the puppy

Here's out little puppy!! Isn't she adorable? I hope you guys enjoy the pictures!

Scout Wylie

We now have our puppy. Her name is Scout and she was born July 1st,2005. She has four white feet and a white tipped tail. She has a white tummy, with a white strip down her chin and between her eyes. The rest of her is black, but the black is starting to turn grey so we think she might be part husky.
Bringing her home was the first time she had ever left the shelter since she was born there, and she was not too impressed with the car ride. She cried most of the way home, which Shaleen, totally reminded me of Audrey on our way home from Grand Forks!!
She is a very playful little girl and pretty vocal as well. She is so little that she knows absolutely nothing and you've got a 50/50 chance that she'll come to you when you call her. Sometimes when you call her she stays where she is and just barks at you like, "Why don't you come here? Why do I have to go over there? your legs are longer you could get here quicker!" It's pretty funny.
I was up at least once an hour with her last night because she needed constant reassurance. Hopefully this will resolve quickly because I am tired! it was her first night somewhere different without any of her brothers and sisters, so I'm sure she was quite nervous. Today I am tryingto get her an appointment with the vet so we can make sure she is healthy.
I have taken pictures to put up, but we are having problems with the router so I can't get internet on my computer. Chris' computer doesn't seem to be able to put up pictures because it thinks the function is a pop up. So if the router was working we could pictures up with my computer. Hopefully we can fix it up quick, and then you guys can see our little cutie!
Hope you're all having a good day!

YAY!!!!

I just got a call from SPCA and we get our puppy!!! Tomorrow afternoon we are going to pick her up!!! YAY!!! I'm so excited I'm bouncing off the walls!!! Chris and I better decide on a name for her now! Can't wait to send you guys pictures of her!

Allison's turn

Happy Birthday Allison!! You are now a quarter of a century old!!! Yay for Allison, it is your silver anniversary of your birthday!!! We wish we could celebrate with you, but we will do it from here, and send you long distance hugs and kisses!!!Everyone it is national hug day today, so be sure to give Allison a hug if you see her, and for that matter hug anyone who you happen to run into!

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!!!! Wish we could celebrate it with you! Have a great day!

...and a few more!

One side of our kitchen
Gary's impression of the Karate Kid in Fish Creek
More of our kitchen
On the road to FSJ. Our sign in the wedding got us lots of smiles, waves and honks as we drove across the country. it says "Just Married" in case it is too small for you to read.

and some more

This is a tad bit close,okay, it's too close.
There this is a bit further away.

Chris in a hike at Fish Creek. About two minutes outside of the city of Fort St John
Chris' parents on their visit to see us.

some more pictures

These picture are all from the lookout about ten minutes from our place

Pictures at last

A view from the car as we waited on the side of the road when the car died.
Everyone trying to be helpful, while I just took pictures ;)
A view from a lookout about ten minutes from our house.
Thumbing a ride after we realized we couldn't fix the car.
A scenic walk.

Puppy love

Well, Chris and I went doggie hunting yesterday, and all the dogs at the SPCA in FSj were too big, so we went to the SPCA in Dawson Creek, which is just under an hour away. There we found a dog who had five puppies. They are adorable and look just like little Piper puppies, but smaller. The one we chose is the runt of the litter and she is just gorgeous with her little whitetipped tail. We just have to wait for them to contact our references as well as make sure with the landlord we can have her. Also she is only seven weeks old so we have to wait another week for her. We're busy trying to choose a name for her right now. Can't wait to get her and show you guys a picture!! There were so many dogs there that we wanted to bring home. There was one in particular who was two years old and she was so sweet and timid, Apparently she has lots of emotional issues and trust issues, so if both of us weren't working we would have got her, but there is no way we could get an emotional disturbed dog when it will have to be alone during the day. Poor doggie. Hopefully someone will come for her, but unfortunately we can't have them all!

Burning the House Down

I just heard from Chris and he has been offered job number one, and is now off to interview number two. Looks like a celebration may be in order tonight!! I am trying to be a nice wife while he is out and so I was making him chocolate chip cookies. Well, I now know that the fire alarm works! I followed the exact instructions but apparently I have a really hot oven, because the timer beeped, I opened the oven, and the nice fluffly little chocolate chip cookies I was expecting were little lumps of charcoal!! Well, we do know that Chris likes his food well done, so maybe he will like them anyway;)
YIKES

Blog Hog

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that Chris is a blog hog and he is beating me there everyday which is why all the posts have been from him ;) Looks like I got in first today!
The update for the day:
Chris's parents are leaving our place this morning and heading on their way to Prince George.

HAHA, it is I, Chris. I have deftly stolen the blog away from Claire by distracting her and telling her to brush her teeth. :)

We got the car back yesterday which is great news.
Okay, I kicked out the blog hog. I think he needs a sound beating!!!
Anyway, Today Chris has two interviews to go to, that will hopefully result in one job that he will enjoy. I think I may go in to the school board office and attempt to get some paper work filled out. I am being summoned downstairs at the moment, but I will try and get bach here again shortly. I hope you're all doing well!
Claire :)

All The Best to Christopher and Caire

As of 6:00 AM this morning the newly-weds are traveling across half the continent to settle into thier new home in BC. I thought i would take the liberty of starting a post so anyone who wishes to leave a message for Chris and/or Claire, may do so. Just click on the little "comment" link below this post and leave a message, signing up for an account with Blogger is not required.

I'm sure Chris and Claire would love to see a few messages from thier friends when they get themselves reconnected to the inter-web. So don't walk, RUN! click the link and say "hello" or "hi" maybe even "hey"...

Sang (tomato)

Start

Well, I think I have started to figure this thing out. Am I looking like I'm on the right track, Sang?