Surprise 40th birthday party!

Big thanks to Connie for the surprise 40th birthday party at the church on Friday night! Everybody had a blast, and even the kids had other to play with, and full use of the gym and games room. Thanks again to everybody who was there, or helped out!

Ugghh...sick as a dog...

As most of you know, we've all been pretty sick with colds, etc. over the past week. I ended up with a chest infection this week which was at its worst on my birthday! Things seem to be under control now - thankfully!

Crystal, Greg and Dino (the rabbit)

Crystal staying at a safe distance atop Grandpa Ronald as they pet the bunny (Dino)

Connie proceeds to semi-finals of Shining Star Competition

Connie has moved on to the semi-finals for the 94.3 Faith FM Shining Star competition!

(Forgive the low pic quality; I only had a camera on the phone: she's 3rd contestant from left)

There were 19 entrants, and 10 moved on to the semi-finals, where she will perform 2 more tracks with a contemporary Christian theme. Winners from the semi-final will perform at Centre in the Square in front of recording artist Jaci Velasquez.

What was really great to see was how Connie's spirit opened up on the stage. We were praying that she'd really be at peace. She told us however how amazing the experience was; like there was a big release.

The whole setup for the competition was well-done too; there were no Simon Cowells among the judges, and they prayed for each person before the performance and encouraged each other.

Visit with Dawn and Ross

Above: Crystal and Matthew staring at the fish in the tank; Crystal, Matt and Dawn playing with Matt's remote-control helicopter; Crystal, Melissa and Meghan at the punching bag (please forgive the photo quality: they're cellphone pics)

Christmas 09 Pics

Above: Crystal hanging off Daddy while he plays a game on the Xbox; Crystal in her new sweater for Christmas, Uncle Don up for a brief visit for Rich's birthday, Crystal in her Christmas dress.

More Christmas Party Pix

Christmas Party at Crystal's Daycare

CandyLand

Crystal, Richard, Marg, Connie and I got a chance to visit CandyLand in the downtown Preston Core on Sat. afternoon

Ten reasons to look before you get in bed...

Ah, yes... there's nothing like pet ownership. A late Sat. night ago, Connie and I went to bed. "This bed feels cold, doesn't it?" asked Connie. "I don't think that's cold we're feeling...". We turned on the lights to find JD took a leak on our 1-week old new duvet; so much so that the pee spot was about 1 ft. in diameter, and soaked thru every layer of sheet, but mercifully stopped at the waterproof mattress cover. We're sure JD was must've been saving a week's worth of pee, and decided Sat. night was as good as any to cash in. Needless to say, I (Chris) had the pleasure of crawling into the middle of the spot... To the surprise of many (including myself), the cat still lives.

The death of the Xbox(s)...

As some of you know, my Xbox 360 had "red-ringed" a.k.a the red-rings-of-death. It's kinda like the check-engine light on your car, except there's no fix for this error. Microsoft had such a terrible failure rate, they extended the warranty period to 3 years if you get this nasty little message. I shipped it away, and got a replacement console in a week.

This week, Richard - after waiting months to get the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, finally got the game, only to play it for less than a couple of hours and watch his Xbox red-ring (to his horror). So... it looks like the Ronalds/Donnellys are having a real run of luck: good that is - both of us get newer replacement consoles, and it happened to both of us in the last month or 2 of our warranty periods. Wahoo!

Halloween

We did make it out for Halloween. We closed up shop at our place, and gave the candy to Marg and Greg to give out (we later found out from the neighbours our street had a max. of 4 kids). This freed us up to take Crystal out together! Crystal was a ladybug again this year; Connie and I were Hamilton Tiger-Cats Fans. She's got the "trick or treat" thing down good, and says it every time we see a pumpkin!

Hamilton Tiger Cats game...

Some pics of me and Conn, and both of us and Don (Conn's Dad)

Jam in the hair..

I wish I had a picture for this one: Crystal decided she wanted to help Dad put Jam on her toast. I picked Crystal up holding butter knife. What I didn't realize, is that she wiped a whole load of jam in my hair. I didn't realize until I was about to head out the door for work, and ran my hands through my hair to see if it needed a wash. Let me just say that the slicked back hair was definitely not mousse...