A Two Week Blur

The last two weeks have been a total blur! My new job is keeping me super busy, and making for some long days. But, I'm glad to be working, and I'm appreciating the new opportunity. I enjoyed two government perks at my job this past week, and I have to share - first, I had this past Thursday off for Remembrance Day! And second, my original contract was only for two weeks, and was supposed to end on Friday - but, they extended it until the end of January, and gave me a raise with the extension! I had to laugh, because even though it was only a fifty cent raise, it still came after only two weeks, and I had to fight for a raise at the golf course after TWO YEARS.

Three days a week, I get off work early to get to skating - and those are particularly long days. But, skating is obviously still very important, and I couldn't leave the kids stranded. I've been busy getting my kids in Tweed ready for an upcoming test day, and our first competition is coming up soon, too!

Curling has been going well, and it's great to get out of the house and enjoy something together. Curt has been doing really well, and I...well, I have one or two good ends a game :) It's like golf though - in golf, one good shot a game keeps me coming back, so one good end in curling should keep me coming back as well. The beginners luck wore off quickly though, we haven't won since the first week. The second week was a bit of a blow out, but last week we did at least give the other team a challenge.

Last weekend we went to Acton to celebrate Nolan's third birthday - and as always, it was a good time. This was a whirlwind trip - we didn't get there until after 7pm on Saturday night, and left just after 7pm on Sunday! But, it was worth it.

Well, this has been a really boring post...but, that's all I have for now. We're actually just about to head out to visit friends and watch the Amazing Race. Then it will be back to the grind for another week.

Skate Canada International

So, with all the work stuff straightened out, I was able to enjoy Skate Canada on the weekend. I went Saturday after skating, and got there just in time to see the Men's FreeSkate. It was a great event - and Canadian, Patrick Chan, was amazing. He came back from a fourth place finish in the short, and won the event!


Men's Medal Ceremony - Patrick Chan getting his GOLD medal. I know this isn't a great picture, but I wanted to post it anyway - I realized I needed our other camera, with more zoom, and took it on Sunday.

Canada was well represented on the podium - although the second place skater is Japanese, and the third place skater is American, they are both coached by Canadians! The American skater, Adam Rippon, is coached by Brian Orser - and I'm not sure who was more entertaining to watch...Adam, who is an amazing skater with great jumps, or Brian Orser, who never stopped moving during Adam's entire skate! He seemed to walk through the whole program on the ground - he was so into it. As a coach, I loved watching Brian, too.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the Pairs competition, but I did get to see the Pairs medal ceremony.


Pretty proud moment for us Canadians! Kirsten Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch were second, and Paige Lawrence & Rudi Swiegers were third. Two young Canadian teams, who obviously have a lot of potential in the next few years. Oh yeah, and the girl second from the left is a skater from Quinte! A number of our skaters were selected as volunteers and got to do a variety of cool jobs.

I also got to see the Ladies Final on Saturday evening, and there was another Canadian medal! Surprisingly, it wasn't Cynthia Phaneuf who made the podium (she had a disappointing skate in the long, and dropped to fourth. But, Amelie Lacoste was consistent, and won the bronze! I don't have any pictures of the Ladies, the battery died in my camera.

I was back at the competition on Sunday, and watched both events - the Free Dance and the Exhibition. Despite all the highlights from the day before, I think Sunday was my favourite day - I LOVE ice dance!

I think what made it extra special is that Canadians Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier won the event. The reason that's special to me is because two years ago, while at a coaching clinic, I got to share the ice with these two. The clinic focused on coaching dance, and these two came to do on-ice demonstrations for us. They were really nice, and not all that well known at that point - and here they are, only two short years later!


Ice Dance Medal Ceremony - Vanessa Crone, looking pretty happy, being congratulated by the President of Skate Canada.

One of the things I was most looking forward to, was getting to see Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skate, live. However, weeks before the event, Skate Canada announced that they had to withdraw because Tessa had surgery - so that was disappointing. But, I did get to see Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam skate - a young dance team, and relatively unknown, for now. And they were like a mini Tessa and Scott - in looks and in style. They teamed up in February 2009 and won Silver at the Junior World Championships in 2010, after skating together for only a little more than a year! They were awesome, and placed fourth - amazing for one of their first competitions at the Senior level!

And, although they didn't skate, Tessa and Scott were there - they gave a speech during a presentation to a Canadian judge, she was being inducted into the Skating Hall of Fame.



The exhibition was amazing, and it was great to get to see so many Canadians perform again. It's nice to see the top skaters perform in a lighter atmosphere, and I enjoy when they put on a real show, rather then just coming out and doing another competition like performance.

I got home from Kingston just in time to start welcoming the trick-or-treaters! Maria and Henk & Amy were here for the night too, so we played some games and watched a 'scary' movie. It was a great finish to an awesome weekend.

Rewind to the End of Last Week

It's been so long, and I've been so busy, I don't even know where to start.

In my last post, which was last Wednesday, I was talking about going to Skate Canada International on the weekend, but I had so much happen on Thursday and Friday, too.

Thursday morning I had a job interview for a position with World Vision. They were hiring people to work in the mall for six weeks leading up to Christmas; it's the first time they've come to the mall here, but they come in and set up a 'booth' and try to get people to adopt/sponsor kids. I was really excited when I saw the job posting online, I immediately knew it would be perfect for me. The interview, which was a group thing, went really well, and I left feeling confident that I would be offered a position. So, that added to the excitement of the weekend.

After the interview, I drove straight to Kingston to watch some of the practice sessions at the competition. As I was parking, I got a call regarding another job, one that I had an informal interview about earlier in the week, but that I assumed wouldn't amount to anything because skating conflicted with the hours of work. Well, I was wrong - I was offered the job?!? Total shocker.

Later that night, when I was on the ice coaching, I got a call from the person about the World Vision job, and I was offered the job!

Job stuff never seems to be easy with me :) I was really torn between the two jobs, both had their own positives and negatives, and I stressed over making the right choice. I kept flip-flopping back and forth, and questioning my decision.

Anyway, I went with the second job, which is with the Ministry of Community and Social Services - more specifically, the Ontario Disability Support Program. It was such a good opportunity I couldn't pass it up - I mean, I may finally put my degree to good use!

I started the next day, so last Friday. That was one of the negatives, I started right away so I wasn't able to go to Skate Canada on Friday :( But, having been at the job for a week now, I'm over missing the competition, and I am feeling like I made the right decision.