Holiday fun

Laptops galore
Originally uploaded by shareski.

This is what the holidays are all about. Watching some quality shows and working wirelessly on your laptops.

Progressive Supper

The 2nd Annual Progressive Supper was held on Wednesday, December 21st. Val organized this event involving 9 couples.

We began at Buchanan's with appetizers supplied by Penny and Julie. We headed over to Lisa's for soup made by Debbie. Sheri hosted and supplied a shrimp salad. The main course was at Val's and she prepared a chicken thing wrapped in a big fat noodle with almonds and green beans. That's a brutal explanation but Paula's not here to provide me with the correct details. We finished up at our house for Tarimsu.



More photos here.

Update: Allan and Darlene have posted more photos as well.

Meredith sings at Open Mike Night

Meredith took advantage of an open mike night at a local coffee shop Sunday night to perform with Kurt.

Her prof's have encouraged her to pursue these opportunities. They did very well and also performed well at a wedding Saturday and will also perform on Christmas Eve.

Something Stupid

The Road Trip

I'm sitting in a hotel in Jameston, ND eating pizza and watching football highlights. Me, Sam, Dalton, Tegan and Mark are on our way home from a weekend in Minneapolis. We saw the Timberwolves and Lakers, Vikings and Rams and a number of shopping venues.

We discovered Mark is an amazing shopper, Dalton prefers finding a nice bench and the hotel room was a dizzying array of sights and sounds. We learned many interesting things.



More pictures can be found here.

Paula and the Great One

Paula and Gretzky
Originally uploaded by shareski.

Paula's always' been associated with greatness. She still is.

Bethlehem Live

Saturday we took Martha and her friend to Bethlehem Live. This is a dramatic portrayal of the Christmas story simulating the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Live actors and animals made this a nice beginning to the Christmas season.

kurt is tierd

kurt is tierd
Originally uploaded by mereyy.

The title you see is written by my 18 year old who is taking advantage of a fairly expensive college to pursue her musical talents....Unfortunately spelling is nowhere to be found in her learning. But she done reel good.

Farmer Jim

farmer Jim
Originally uploaded by mj161.

My trip to Big Muddy

My younger days

Some photos of my younger days thanks to my father-in-law.



Clicking the image will take you to my Flickr site for more information.

I hate snow

It snowed today and I hate it. Martha was quite pumped and stayed out late building a snowman. Glad someone likes winter.

Bungee Jumping in Edmonton

This little clip is from summer. I'm trying out a new video service called Sharkle.

It's Official!

Although we've known for a few months, Meredith is now officially engaged to Kurt Buchanan. For those of you out of the loop this may come as a big surprise. Not to us. We're very happy and pleased with their decision.




Paula tells me this will be expensive.

Rudy Sings

Rudy provides us with a musical treat. Whenever Shea practices her viola, he joins her in a little duet. Here's a ten second clip of his howling.

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The people I live with

Do prove that I have quite a challenging crew to work with, here's proof:


I'm obviously up and about doing work, as usual.

Here's Martha who not only snuck the camera but is engaged in a number of questionable activities. Taking a picture of herself in action, may not have been the best move.



Click on the picture to see the details of all the trouble she's got into.

The New Shower's in, the new shower's in!

I had my first shower in 2 months. That sounds bad but I can assure you I have bathed, even though I hate it. The renovations are not quite complete but for me, this is what I've been waiting for.

Paula in her crib

Paula in her crib
Originally uploaded by mj161.

Looks like...Martha? Meredith? maybe even Shea.

Paula's dad recently purchased a slide scanner to convert his slides to digital. Not sure if this was a slide or old photo but we're hopin to get all our photos digitized.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Video

I did a little promotional video for our church today. Check it out. It's a 18MB download so if you're not on highspeed, start downloading, make a pot of coffee, do some laundry and it will ready.

Martha's Birthday

We got through Martha's birthday last week. It had a Paris theme. Here's the 3 minute highlight video.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This weekend was jam-packed with activity. Dad arrived Friday night and Saturday we managed to "install" 2 ceiling fans and a wall sconce. Dad and I golfed at Deer Valley and returned to have supper at Boston Pizza.

Brenda and Terry and Thomas arrived Sunday afternoon and Paula made an incredible meal. Before we ate, all the boys headed out for some geocaching.

Later that evening, we had coffee and pie in Barr's backyard.


Monday, after breakfast at A&W (Thomas couldn't get over the fact that the average age of the patrons was around 87), Terry, Dad and I golfed at the Hillcrest. The Redpaths left right after golf. Dad completed a few other small projects around the house and I helped him develop a presentation on geocaching that he's doing next week. (not exactly brain surgery but anyway...)

An excellent weekend.

Big Day at the House

Thursday turned out to be quite at day at our house. Martha turned 7 on Wednesday and had her party Thursday. Sam drove the van for the first time. Sam and Shea both received awards for top average in their grade. (Sam's actually came with $250 scholarship that I believe will buy him all the Cherry Coke he could want). Click on the images for the big picture.

Crosspost

I posted a photo essay of my day. Check it out.

The Amazing Race....Family Edition

For those of you who don't know my wife is a bit of a reality show fanatic. She loves her Survivor, Apprentice (Martha Stewart or Donald Trump), Big Brother but most of all The Amazing Race. This season's edition is for families of four.

So Paula has decided that this will be a family affair in our house as well. All five of us (sorry Meredith, you're not eligible) have chosen two families and the person with the winning team wins $25 (totally contributed by Mom and Dad) and second place gets $5. We plan to tape and watch on Wednesdays as a family since Tuesday's is our nutso day. Paula is also planning to put up a map of the world to track the teams. (you know your mom and dad are teachers when.....)

Here are the teams:

Martha: Gaghan and Weaver
Shea: Linz and Godlewski
Sam: Rogers and Schroeder
Paula: Aiello and Paola
Dean: Branson and Black

Wish us luck.

Let Me Help Make Your Life Easier

Those of you reading this blog will often get an email from me when I add content to the blog. There is an easier and better way.
This article explains a little about how to subscribe to blogs using RSS. If you read more than one blog or read news sites, this will make things much easier. Read on for the details. Let Me Help Make Your Life Easier: "

Update: This article is also a very good step by step tutorial on using Bloglines

Note: When he talks about news readers, my preference is bloglines simply because it's accessible from any computer.

Rudy entertains

I taped a bit of our Canada Day Celebrations with the Buchanans. I thought I had lost the tape but found it the other day. The tape is largely about my dog Rudy barking and trying to chase a cat. It's 92 seconds.

'Canada Day and My Stupid Dog'

By the way, you'll notice I changed the design because the other one was not displayed archived posts. I hope this one is more stable.

Life is Full

Everyone when asked, "how's it going?" will say, "Busy." Here's our schedule:

Martha
Gymnastics: Tuesdays 6:00pm

Shea
Volleyball: Mondays, Wednesdays 3:30-4:45
Voice lessons: Mondays, 3:15-4:00
Dance: Mondays, 6:15-8:15, Tuesdays, 6:45-8:30
Voila: Thursdays, 5:00-5:30

Sam:
Piano: Tuesdays, 9:15-10:00
Volleyball: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays 2 hours each

Paula:
Hits the gym everyday for an hour to keep her shapely figure
Runs her bobbysocks website/businsess

Dean:
Completing Masters work this year
Managing 5 websites
Currently working on 3 video projects
Golfing as much as possible given limited time.


I can hardly wait till summer holidays!

The Back to School Video

I'll link over to my educational blog for this posting.

Surprise!

Paula's mom's birthday is the same day as their wedding anniversary. I'm not even sure if this was a birthday present or anniversary present. Anyway, we got Larry and Rosa in the car Friday afternoon and headed north to Saskatoon. Rosa didn't know where we were going. We picked up Terry and Brenda and drove to the Barn Playhouse.

We had a great meal outside and then watched "All Things Bright and Beautiful" in the barn. I think we surprised mom and had a great evening. We continue to build culture. More pictures here.

The Shareskis get cultured

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon in the park in Regina listening to the Regina Symphony. This was our birthday present to Paula's mom. About 4,000 people gathered. I even managed to get in a very short nap. Enjoy this 94 seconds of Mozart.

Meredith arrives safe and sound

Meredith has arrived in Toronto and spent her first day getting her room set up. We've talked to her a few times with Skype and she's obviously very excited and pleased to be there. Here's a link to some photos of her last week.

See you in four months

We said goodbye to Meredith this morning as she and Kurt headed for Toronto. It will be a different house without her.

Last night we had a little farewell for her highlighted by a special presentation by her "boy friends". Here's the video of her reaction.


There are also some other photos on our Flickr site from some other summer happenings.

Franny the Flamingo

Martha spent her money at the Build-a-bear store. Here's the story of Franny, her new flamingo.

Skype Me!

I've been using a program called Skype for several months and now many of my friends and relatives are catching on to it. It's slogan is "the whole world can talk for free." It utilizes VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) and allows you to use your computer to call long distance to other computers for free. The quality is excellent. All you need is a microphone or headset. It's not recommended for dialup users but it still works. I'm guessing in the next 2 years, all phones will use VOIP. It's already available for regular phones in many areas.



So download it and give me a call sometime. My skype name is dean_shareski.

Reporting from Saskatoon

We're in Saskatoon today after 3 days of fun and shopping at the West Edmonton Mall. I've got a seminar here and we're heading out for dinner with Brenda and Terry.

Had a nice day with the Blocks in Waldheim before heading off to Edmonton.


Martha was thrilled with the water park and amusement park.


The thing that scared me most was she was as excited about shopping. That worries me.

Can anyone lend me some cash?

The Double Life of Meredith

I've been wanting to get a picture of Meredith in both her getups for work and finally got it. She works at the Superstore Deli cutting meat in the mornings and plays "Fanny" in the Tunnels of Moose Jaw tours. As you can see it's quite a contrast.

She will remind anyone who will listen that she is the only one around our house who is doing any work this summer. Her perceptions are quite skewed as are most teenagers but she can continue with this illusion as she only has a few more weeks at home.

We'll be heading to Edmonton and Saskatoon next week for some holidays and a 2 day workshop I'll be attending in Saskatoon. The summer of 2005 is continuing to be a good one.

Our own Private Saskatchewan

The hot weather returned and we were able to escape by joining the Dombowskys, Barrs and Begins at a secluded beach on the east shore of Lake Diefenbaker. It's tough to find an ocean near our house but this was as close as it gets. Beautiful sand, clear water and privacy. The following video of two and a half minutes, captures the day.

Reno project completed

We managed to get another little project done. Pastor Al and I (yes, that's not a misprint, "I", did make some contributions) finished the back steps.

Al did a nice job of designing them. Paula still needs to paint them. She's been busy painting the doors and trim on the front and those steps will be next. We also got the wallpaper upstairs put in and will be working on the downstairs bathroom next week. The summer of renos continue....

Getaway at Good Spirit

We had a great time last week at Good Spirit Lake. Days were filled with golf, beach, hiking,relaxing on the deck, cards and general fun. The mosquitoes also were part of the picture as well.
You can see all the pictures here. The highlights included the much talked about family races. After months of trash talking between Paula and Meredith, they finally proved once and for all who is the fastest. The video highlights the race as well as a typical "Brenda and Dad moment". This is a 3 minute excerpt from the full 8 minute video which chronicles the entire week. You'll have to contact me for the full version.

A break from Renovations

After completing Paula's sewing room, it's time for a break. We're heading off to Good Spirit Lake for a few days. We'll be meeting the Redpaths and my dad.
Paula is quite pleased with her new room. She did most of the work and I made some small contributions (you can click on the images for a larger photo).After we get back, we'll be tackling the front and back steps. I'll post some pictures and likely a short video from our getaway.

Me and Jayda and our Painting

Me and Jayda did it. We made a record. We played for six hours and didn't fight.

The pictures we did was me playing basketball and "I love Canada" with hearts.

Meredith's TV moment

For those who may have missed it, here's the video of Meredith's Canadian Idol performance. She had a terrific time in Toronto and knows a number of the finalists.

She continues to work her craft as she plays Fanny for the Tunnels of Moose Jaw shows. She has only six more weeks till she's off to Humber College to begin her Bachelor of Music degree. I'm still hoping she'll do some blogging. Working two jobs keeps her pretty busy and the free time is left to maintain her social life.

A Perfect Day at Buffalo Pound

It heated up here in Moose Jaw and so we headed for Buffalo Pound Provincial Park. We met Sheri and her girls and enjoyed an afternoon in the sun. Sam is at camp and Meredith was working so it was just Shea, Martha and her friend Jada. We barbequed and then headed over to another part of the part to watch Saskatchewan Express. Hansen's daughter Deborah sings in the group. This was the group Meredith sang with last year. This was close to a perfect day (not counting any day that includes golf). You can look at some pictures here. As well as a short video of the day.

Martha's life

I'm Martha. I'm six years old. I'm going into grade 2. I'm a Christian. I like to play basketball, swim, sing and draw. I'm working on a quilt with my mom. I'm drawing the pictures of my dog Rudy. I just got home from camp and it was fun but I got hurt one time.

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!

What a great way to begin our summer holidays. A BBQ at Buchanans, great weather and Fireworks. Okay so the fireworks doesn't compare to Disney's but it's Moose Jaw for Pete's sake.