Birthday Week ....

Well another birthday has been and gone - unfortunately for you all there are no cheesy photos of me (so here is a picture of Jinx on the prairie) with a birthday cake, masses of candles, surrounded by presents, breakfast in bed or anything of such kind to laugh at as Chris was out on the prairie from silly o'clock in the morning and away overnight - did he plan it that way?? But a big thank you to you all for my cards, phone calls and facebook comments. I did have a lovely surprise to end my day as I opened my backdoor at 9pm to find Jo and Kay (2 of the girls who live in the village) who decided to come round for a birthday drink and brought the wine with them. However for those of you who don't know my birthday present from Chris (who is really good at surprises) is a flight to New York to visit my friend Harriet who luckily for me has been posted to NYC for 2 years - yipeeee so excited. So I am off to NYC on the 4th August for 3 days whilst Chris is in charge of Tegan, Fraser and the dog. I return to Calgary on the 7th August and we head straight off to Canmore, Banff, Lake Lousie, Jasper and Edmonton before returning to Ralston in time for the annual Ralston Rodeo - so not a bad start to the month of August.

A weather update - things have improved, our last thunderstorm was on Tuesday and since then the temperature has steadily risen, getting to 32 degrees on Saturday and that was at 8.30 pm. The downside would appear that after so much rain the mosquitoes have all hatched and are gorging themselves on our newly imported flesh. Poor Tegan woke this morning with her eye totally swollen after one had had a nibble last night. They get everywhere and even smothering yourself with 'OFF' a deet repellent they take no notice, obviously they can't spell. It sounds as though in your second year of living in Ralston the mosquitoes don't bother you so much as new blood has arrived, looking forward to it. Due to so much rain the prairie is very lush and colourful but this will turn to burnt brown very soon I have been told.

So I have just completed week 3 of the children's 9 week summer holiday and I have to say that it seems to be going ok - or could that be because my very large order of wine has just arrived from the Wine Society (thank you to Sophie and Chas for introducing us!!!!). On Saturday evening I took Tegan and Fraser into Medicine Hat to see the Horse Show and Jumping that was taking place at Med Hat Stampede Park which is a prelude to the Med Hat Rodeo which starts on Wednesday this week. Fraser was fascinated especially at the horse and hound competition - basically a rider and horse jump their course, then a dog has to jump his course followed by another rider and horse and the best team wins on time. So along with swimming lessons each morning and our daily dogs walks days are being ticked off.

Chris was at home on Sunday afternoon for a few hours so we had friends Paul and Jeanette round with their children Erin and Molly for a bbq. Although we got out the paddling pool and filled it it managed to spring a puncture so towards the end of the afternoon Chris and the children decided to have a water fight. We are not sure who was on who's team but they all got very wet including Chris who then had 15 minutes to get ready for work and off he went - again!

Today (Monday) Tegan has started her Fairies in Flight course at Medicine Hat college which is for the week - I shall let you know more next week.

Friends from Hohne have arrived in Ralston today, Les and Jackie McCulloch for those of you who know them. So I popped round to say hi this evening and see if they were ok, Jackie was looking a little shocked and dazed - needs a good nights sleep.