And the winner is....

This weekend is the Technical Emmy Awards. Basically this means that various catagories of behind-the-scenes folks are being awarded emmy's for their work in television. Several of my friends are nominated... again!! I am so very very proud of them! Go Gail, Iloe, Wendy!!! They are nominated for Gail - Make up and Iloe - Hair for "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee", and Wendy - Costume Designer for "Broken Trail". In fact both of these movies have multiple nominations in many catagories and I think the "Bury" is going to do very well, even at the televised event next weekend! Also, I just read in the paper this AM that "Jesse James" is going to be the opening film for the Calgary Film Festival on Sept 20th!! So excited about that! It will be playing at the Globe Theatre, which is not a huge theatre so I am going to call today and see if I can get tickets already.

Well, Ellie can ride her bike!!!! The other day, after Regan had pushed her off, she went about 15 feet and said, "Okay, I can ride me bike! " and figured that was her end of our deal. We said we think not! We explained that she had to push off by herself, and then ride half a block and back and stop successfully before we could close our deal. At first she was like, "What??!! No FAIR!" But shortly thereafter she relented and realized that we were right. So after school yesterday off her and Regan went and I watched from the front window. It's hard to describe the feelings I had while watching the two of them. I could almost hear the simmering argument that was constantly brewing between them. Regan was giving advice, and Ellie was trying her hardest to push off by her self. I suddenly realized that she was trying to start pedaling from a complete standstill... I thought... wait a sec, I know I haven't ridden a bike in (I'm embarrased to say) a couple of years, but dont' I usually scoot forward to get going first before I start pedaling? So I went out and offered the suggestion. And Regan said, ya, I guess I do that too. Anyway, she was very determined, which made me very proud. As she was trying to do it, Regan kept offering up suggestions and she finally said, "Dad, I can't concentrate when you are talking to me!" So we walked to the tail gate of our truck, and started chatting with eachother, purposefully ignoring our daughters struggles. Next thing we know we look up and she is barrelling straight for us with a HUGE grin on her face! She stopped in time and said, "Well? How was that?!" We cheered and clapped and then Regan began searching for her agreed upon reward. A Wii. I know it is extravagent.. and ridiculous... but I cannot impress upon you how petrified she has been for the last 2 years about learning to ride her two wheeler. I mean completely imobilized with fear. I at first offered up a Nintendo DS, which I thought was way above normal for this sort of thing, but then Regan offered up the Wii and she then became highly motivated to get 'er done. And did she ever! We have tried every single tactic under the sun to get her to learn over the past 2 years, but nothing worked. But frankly, it's some of the best money we have ever spent. She feels so great about herself! And then she spent the next hour riding around our cul de sac with the neighbor kid. And after supper Regan FINALLY found a Wii and we played it till bedtime... HOW FUN IS THIS THING!! So much fun for all of us! I think that is why Reg went for that instead of the solo play DS, this way we can all enjoy it as a family... hmmmm... makes me think Reg may have had a hidden agenda because after Ellie went to sleep I went downstairs and caught him fastidiously creating his own weird looking Mii. Hmmmmm......

Have a terrifac Friday everyone!