OBLIVIOUS
Dec 27, 2009
It Takes a Small Village
One of the Hoyda family Christmas traditions has been to take an annual family photo, every, single, year. I don't really remember the very first one and if I were to go searching among the multitude of photo albums in my parents house I could be looking until next year; however, the family photo is something that has caused our group laughter, frustration, delight, anger, and thankfully many great memories.
The reason the 'photo' creates some of the unfavorable emotions is because all of us by nature are slightly... hmmm what is the best word here... not stubborn, not unyielding, but headstrong (except Mom, she's a saint and will go along with anything to make sure everyone is happy). So when the photo is taken, we all have very strong opinions about why this one is good or that one is bad. Some of the best excuses are; 'the way I'm standing looks weird' or 'the light behind my shoulder is too bright'. It's all code for; ' I hate this one of me'. But I think that one of the reasons the photo works out year after year is because we try to have a fun during the session - and this is the pic usually pick.
One of my favorite memories includes Ted's head and a suspended lamp shade. It's strange, but for some reason, (literally three years in a row) we took a family photo where there was this suspended lamp shade that always ended up hanging overtop of Ted's head. At the time, (1990's) we didn't have digit photos so we couldn't check the picture until it was developed and then we would discover that we took 50 shots all of which Ted looked like he had just arrived home from somewhere in Asia. Three years in a row too!
Then there is the time that Grandma and Grandpa Enns tried to take the photo. Us kids were all under the age of eight or nine and our attention spans were extremely short so my parents had the idea that if two people were taking the picture, the chances and odds of capturing the group smiling together were better. But nobody knew where to look and Grandma and Grandpa just kept shooting them. The final picture is a classic. We're ALL smiling in different directions which gave the effect that we were completely out of it.
Nate and I decided to continue the tradition in our relationship and if we're blessed, with our family. This year after the photo was shot, we discovered there was still some green painter's tape on the stairs in the background; but Mom and I were talking about it and we came to the conclusion that these little imperfections are what makes the pic 'imperfect' is actually what makes it (and us) extra special.
Here are a few of the interesting ones getting set-up and trying to find the right lighting from this year. Yes, it does take a small village.
Dec 26, 2009
Dec 13, 2009
House. Updates.
Weeks 19-22
(Nov.20th - Dec 10th)
HOLY BUSY!!!
Short story long - but hey, this is a blog.
The last few weeks have been a total gong show. I have always being extremely busy - and have always loved it; but this last stint has been especially wild. At Central, two of our mainstage shows went up at the same time which is kinda like working two full time jobs at once. Plus, I was teaching regular classes at the same time. It really has made life feel like a bit of a mad house. Thank goodness my colleagues are so amazing have been there every step of the way with support and encouragement. I love those guys.
The Astonishing Adventures of Awesome Girl and Radical Boy and The Albright Pact had fantastic runs. We had to cancel both Friday night performances on the 4th due to the torrential snowdump; but we made up for it the next day with four shows instead of two. It was crazy getting that organized last minute, but it happened and the kids did so well. I was so proud of them.
The shows received excellent reviews and responses from our audiences and we were happy to finally strike sets and begin the clean up phase on Monday. Literally, the next day my colleague and I began a week long process of auditioning students for our upcoming musical Les Miserables. SO EXCITING! The Oresteia is also starting rehearsals after school everyday. Busy busy busy.
The house is coming along too. We finally have all of our bathrooms in working order with more and more being completed everyday. Decorating is going to be really fun. I'm loving our new tile in the power bathroom (pics to follow). They have a bit of a modern/asian feel. We (and by 'we' I mean Nate) will finish the powder bathroom with a poured concrete vanity, modern lighting and medium to dark slate gray paint. Our master bathroom is also coming along beautifully. The harlequin tile looks insanely stunning - I didn' t realize that it would be so gorgeous. It was pricey, but in my opinion it totally makes the bathroom look parisian.
The basement, the two spare bedrooms upstairs, the laundry room, the flex room and all of the built-ins still have to be done. They'll obviously be completed in the New Year which is funny because both Nate and I thought that the house would be done by the end of September maybe late October. NOPE. The house is certainly livable, and perhaps the extra reno weeks give me more time to consider what I want decoration wise - there's always a silver lining. But it's funny, when people ask me how the house is coming along, I still roll my eyes. It's coming...sigh, it's coming.
Nov 24, 2009
COME AND SEE THEM!!! Dec 1st - 5th
I am so extremely excited. My students at Central Memorial and I (in collaboration with the PVA program) are FINALLY presenting our two Fall Mainstage productions. Both will perform next week at Central Memorial from December 1st - 5th. I have had the honour of adapting the choreography for these pieces while working with TWO guest directors. It has been cahRAYzee busy since September - but now we are finally ready to present our work.
The Astonishing Adventures of Awesome Girl and Radical boy - our Musical Theatre production and The Albright Pact - our Advanced Acting Play Production will be playing consecutively. Astonishing Adventures will present in the theatre and Albright Pact will present in the Drama Studio. You can see both shows for $15 bucks as they 'run' one after the other or you can see one for $10. Each are about one hour long. Here are the tickets that are available for purchase at the doors or you can email me at kaweiland@cbe.ab.ca and I will reserve you a few for the night that you choose to come!!!
Nov 18, 2009
The Weiland's entertain regardless of random unfinished renovations around the house.
THEY WILL NOT STOP US!
I must get it from my Mom. Growing up, I got used to my parents entertaining 'company' almost every weekend. The visits would vary from a wide range of different occasions; dinner parties, book club for the ladies, book club wind up party with the men, 'stitch-n-bitch', Christmas parties, New Years Shin diggs, or just random drinks with so and so from wherever. Mom and Dad loved having guests. You could definitely call Laurie and Don Hoyda the social butterflies of Calgary - in my opinion you still could. However, as a youngster laying in bed awake listening to adults laughing well into the wee hours of the evening (school nights too), I didn't understand the 'appeal' of sitting around and conversing your face off. Then, I grew up.
Currently, as a small homeowner, I feel compelled, eager, even anxious to have guests and friends over for dinner, drinks and fantastic conversation every, single, solitary weekend. Not to show off the house - the house is secondary - purely a location to 'house' all of the fun. But I mainly love entertaining for the time with our dear friends. I completely understand now why my parents are so popular and have had and have so many great companions and hope that Nate and I will aim to be like that and continue to build our fantastic group of friends.
Last weekend, we had Nate's best friend and the best man-of-honour at our wedding over with his incredibly beautiful, funny and talented girlfriend Nicole, who I pray will be Mrs. Weir one day. Nicole is super special. Before her, Matt was 'that single dude'. He flew solo for literally...well, FOREVER. He had been set up on numerous dates on numerous occasions to no avail. In fact, I personally even thought that I would take a swing at it and introduce him to one of my girlfriends - major fail. But that's alright because they are both super happy now.
But Nicole came along and stole Matty's heart. He was smitten and so were Nate and I because this meant evenings, weekends, possibly even couple vacations would be in our very near future. That's a huge 'heck yeah!!!'. Here are a few pics from our night. Love ya Kenzie ;)
Kenzie girls
The Bromance continues - Matt and Nate = hot dang boys.
Our tasty din din - skewers with Chicken, Shrimp, Tofu and Veggies
Waiting for the Company!
Nov 16, 2009
House. Updates.
Week 18
Nov. 13th - Nov. 19th
Master Bad-room bathroom - getting there
Hand rails going down stairwell - getting there
Garage completely built in the backyard - getting there
12 boxes of useless paraphernalia unloaded - done. Now, only 6 hundred to go.
and this isn't even close to half
Nov 10, 2009
I know Linda, you're right - I need more colour...
Parisian Paradise
House Updates Nov.6th - 12th
After visiting the most romantic and stunning city in the world, we decided that we wanted to go with a Parisian theme in the master bad-room. However, I'm finding the black, white and mauve grey colours that are synonymous with Paris are slightly, well, not to be mean but...dull. I would eventually love to get some deep mauves and creams or even possibly burgundy in there but I need some decorating direction. What would help? What would keep it Parisian classy and romantic but liven it up 'en peu'. I'd love to hear all suggestions and Peter, if you're still reading the blog, what do you think?
(little detail - book ends with a bit of burgundy and mauve)
Nov 1, 2009
House . Updates
WEEK 14 and 15
(Oct. 23rd-Nov.5th)
We had company over!!!
What a great weekend. Nate and I had some of our first guests over for two separate wine and cheese evenings - even though the house if far from being done. The first couple to come were the Radical Rands. Scott and Yael came over for little pre-dinner madness before we all went out for Moroccan food at Casbah downtown. The four of us have a really neat tradition. Every two weeks, we get together to go to a different country represented by an ethnic restaurant here in Calgary. We've been to Thailand, Italy and Morocco as a couple. Soon, we'll be going to Japan, (but really it'll just be Globefish Sushi in Marda Loop).
Nate getting the vino ready for the evening
The following evening, we had my best friend in the entire world (Jenny) over with her wonderful hubby Jesse. The four of us had so much fun talking, eating and of course Jenny and I had to break out in dance - something that seems to happen every single time we get together. The two of us hooked up the Ipod to the new stereo system and danced in the family room until 12:00 a.m while the boys continued to talk and drink. I know that secretly they were both watching the two of us dance around because they would stop at random points in the conversation and Jesse would stare at Jenny and Nate would look at me with that mysterious gaze of his. Here are a few pics of the fantastic night with the Shouldices. Unfortunately, we were to preoccupied with composing choreography to take any shoots in those moments. Priorities come first. What a wicked weekend.
Little Black Dress - a.k.a TROUBLE
p.s Check out the olive green glass tile backsplash -seriously beautiful in my humble opinion. It reminds me of old melted wine bottles. GORGE!
Oct 24, 2009
Oct 19, 2009
WEDDING WARRIORS
A few months ago, Nate and I received a really mysterious envelope in the mail. It was addressed to Katy (I'm Kate with an 'e') and Nathan Wieland (the 'e' and the 'i' were mixed up) at Majestic Paint (street name is Majestic Point). Inside the envelope was a full on wedding invite complete with a photo of two young people around our age smiling lovingly into the camera lens. It also included directions, time, date, gift registry - the whole meal deal. The one issue was that Nate and I had absolutely no clue who these two people were; yet, they seemed to know us, just not well enough to spell our names correctly. The situation was feeling kinda creepy in a twilight zone-ish way.
Now, in order to be fair, the next part of this story involves a bit of a history and/or cultural background. If you have ever been friends with or maybe acquainted with a person of Ukrainian origin, you will know that they are extremely nationalistic, very gracious and family oriented and really love to throw massive parties at monumental occasions with an overabundance of food - for example; weddings. I know, because being 50% Ukrainian, I had a little hunch that this might have something to do with an extended Ukranian family member. It turns out, my suspicions were correct. The boy in the photo was named Justin who also happens to be the groom and who is... wait for it ... wait for it ... my Father Don's first cousin, Gerry, whose oldest and only son is my second cousin... a.k.a Justin - who I've never met. So, being a part of this extended Ukrainian family my husband and I received an invite to his wedding without question or hesitation and to be honest it was also no question and no hesitation that my husband and I wouldn't be attending. House, work, free weekend, sorry, I don't think I've got the time.
However, after dinner with my parents one night, Nate and I were laughed about getting this random invite. My Dad looked up at me and said very seriously; 'well, you can't consider NOT attending. You and Nathan have been invited. You have to go.' 'Ummmmm,' I said; 'actually Dad, you CAN consider not going even if you have been invited especially since we:
a) have never met either one of them,
b) don't exactly have the time to six hours to Edmonton and back over the weekend for an early ceremony and a evening reception to celebrate someone's wedding that we don't know,
and c) Ukrainians won't have a vegetarian option on the invite. What am I supposed to eat?'
My Dad; 'Okay, (pause) well it's up to you (major sigh). But just so you know, it's extremely rude to decline to a Ukrainian wedding. This is your family. This is your heritage. This is your blood.' Then Mom pipes up; 'Yeah Kate. Please Kate, PAAAAAHHHHLEEEEESE????? I need you there, don't make me go alone. Think about how much fun we'll have. Think of the food and the dancing. Think of the wine Kate - think of the wine!!!' (I love you Mom).
Basically, after a few days of this thick blanket of guilt that Mom and Dad wrapped us in, Nate and I succumbed to the pressure and agreed to go to the Ukrainian wedding. Then, I figured that the smartest thing for me to do was to cajole (guilt) my poor brother Ted into coming too, which wasn't an issue for the family throwing the party. The more Ukrainians the merrier!!!!
So the Wedding night summed up into one word: WACKY. I say that in the nicest way possible because actually the people at our table were very kind and talkative which made it easier; but can I just mention that I didn't realize there could be so many interesting characters jam packed into one care center? Like WOAH. We now have some wild connections in Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan and talk about making your life more interesting in a matter of hours. If you're looking to do that, try to get yourself to a Ukrainian wedding pronto and just so you know, I can probably help you out with that if ya like.
Couples at our Table at the Ukrainian Wedding
(Some really nice and interesting people at our table - I talked to Trudy all night long, the one in the rose dress).
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