Sandy McFadden

Yesterday Jen was not feeling well, so when Ella went down for her afternoon nap Caile and I went to get some groceries. We managed to get a little sidetracked though. Recently I had read that at Noggins Corner Farm there was a Bald Eagles nest with some new born eaglets. The wonderfully friendly staff in the Farm Market gave us one of their walking trail maps and pointed out exactly where the nest could be found on the walk. This was my first time going down the trail and although we didn’t go very far the path seemed to be very well kept.
When we first made it to where an Eagle was in sight another friendly staff member who was out doing maintenance on the trail stopped and talked to us. He explained the best way to get go to ensure we got a good picture of the nest and Eagles.
We did not get to see any of the eaglets, but we did manage to see one of the parents sitting out in plain site and then on our way out went soaring away. Although I didn’t notice it while looking at the nest when we arrived home and were examining the pictures we could see there was another of the parents heads just barely sticking out of their huge home.
Noggins’ website has a web cam setup pointed at the nest and other information about all the other things they have to offer www.nogginsfarm.ca.

It has been a rough semester but I now have four months to prepare for the next one. Overall the year ended better than I imagined. For a while I felt very confident that I would have to repeat at least one course. Fortunately that was not the case, I managed to squeak through a couple of rough ones. I was never in danger of actually failing a course, but for required courses a grade of C- or greater is needed to count towards a degree.

With all said and done this year I finished with a GPA of 3.0 and combined with last year it stands at 3.26 which is equal to a grade of B. If circumstances were different I’m certain I could have done better, but with the lack of time outside of the classroom that I can dedicate to school I am more than satisfied with these marks.

Now that I am done for the summer I’m looking for some work. So if anyone out there is in need of any website work please get in contact with me. In general I would not be able to work any sort of dedicated shift, but if your project can be a work from home at my own pace I would be a good match. If by chance the pay was enough and it was a job that would take up my whole break than we may be able to work something out. You can see my general resume at www.SandyMcFadden.comand examples of websites I have created at www.smcdesigns.ca.

First off it’s been a while since I’ve written an update. It’s exam time so I’ve been very busy studying as often as I can so I can hopefully be prepared. I’ve finished 4 out of 5 so far and there was only one that I am not confident in. Unfortunately that one is the lone computer course I was taking this term.

Since my last update we’ve kept busy with other things besides studying. I last posted a little before Easter, so I’ll start there. We had a good Easter, the Easter Bunny brought lots of chocolately treats and some other goodies as well. Easter was about the same time we went on our online Toys R Us shopping spree. They do have some pretty good deals every once in a while. For Ella we ordered two Little People play sets, Caile got a Barbie Mariposa Fairy, and Alex got a Bratz scooter.

The Oaklawn Farm Zoo opened up right around Easter and we have been there twice so far as well. With a trip to the city we played a little glow in the dark mini put at the Putting Edge. You can see pictures from most of these events at our Gallery.

Back to our Toys R Us love affair, we also recently ordered a wagon so that we can take the girls for long walks and them not get too tired out. Plus it’s a good work out pulling a wagon with two kids in it behind you. After that order they showed is their love by sending us a 10% discount coupon on our next online purchase. So because Alex out grew her bike from last year, and Daddy got a new bike this year, we ordered her up a new one. She has been out driving around testing it out and says she loves it. She was sad when it was raining out this morning because she couldn’t ride it to school. But after supper it had cleared up so Jen took them all out for a walk with Caile and Ella in the wagon and Alex on her bike. All this fun while I was at school writing a Sociology exam.

This has been a busy but fun weekend. It started Friday night. We took the kids to go see the Easter Bunny at Greenwood mall. Ella, like at Christmas time, still wasn’t fond of going and sitting on a strange lap, so instead she sat on her big sisters lap and made out ok. I really like the Easter Bunny in Greenwood, I’ve seen pictures from other parents with their kids sitting on a scary looking bunny knee. Here’s an extreme example lol.

Saturday, Alex and I went to her last skate lesson of the season. She thought it was going to be more of a fun day but they actually made her work. It took a bit of coaxing by the coaches to get her trying her hardest but what worked was them telling her if she didn’t try hard they weren’t going to give her the badge for completing level 4. That is all she needed so she tried hard and did complete all requirements for level 4. She was very excited.

Today I spent the majority of my morning going through the ridiculous process of registering Alex for swimming lessons. There has to be a better way than how they do it. But I went and waited from 10:30 until 1:00 and got her registered in the right level and at the time we wanted. Some people arrived a little after 8:00 to ensure they got their preference. Oh yeah I should mention that the doors weren’t scheduled to open until 11:30 and the actual registration start at 12:30.

This afternoon we went over to my twin nieces first birthday party. It was a good time, all the kids had fun and I think the adults did to 😀

Days like today don’t happen often enough. Right from planning today everything worked out very well. Jen had the day off work, I have had the whole week off school, and Alex only had a half day of school, so we planned a day in the city.

We have never been to the Discovery Centre before and being winter (to cold to be outside) thought it would be a good opportunity to visit. We all had a great time. There were many fun displays setup, but our favorites were definitely the different mirror displays and the bubble room.

For sometime I’ve been meaning to pick up a pair of skates. So yesterday I found a great used pair and picked them up. I think they have only been used once and had never been sharpened. Now I have not been on a pair of skates for over 10 years and never was a very good skater. But today Alex and I went skating at the Acadia arena. Alex kept telling me that she was going to teach me to skate and she was worried other people were going to laugh at me hahaha.

Well it went better than I thought. I didn’t fall once, came close a couple of times though. Even though I didn’t fall I was still pretty shaky. Alex can certainly skate circles around me. She is a great skater and she loves to do it. It was great getting out and doing something just me and her. We go places a lot but usually it is just driving in the car not actually doing something. Hopefully we will be able to get out a bunch more while there is still ice.