2008

Dear Friends and Family

Déjà vu! Another form letter with another recap of another busy year for the Bolt/Voeller family with another 12 paragraphs about the 12 months of 2008

JANUARY
This year we rang in the New Year at the Conquerville Dance just down the road from the farm. I helped to design the centrepieces and decorate the night before, but wasn’t too much help the morning after, mind you. Still, good fun was had by all. The boys are still on two different hockey teams and Ray’s working away in the cold at Iteration’s Gas Plant, and I am working Tuesday through Saturday at CHAT and embark on being their spokesperson for Herbal Magic. The Union was just voted in. The big fat raise turns out not to be so big or so fat, but I buy a new truck anyways, a black Ford Ranger Edge 4x4.

FEBRUARY
February is heart month of course, and I volunteered at Boston Pizza to serve heart shaped pizzas. Boys are in hockey full swing and February thaw is not really thawing. Reading break is filled with hockey rather than skiing or boarding and saving for our trip to Florida at Easter.

MARCH
Derek's team made it to provincials in Warner and after his final game, Ray and I headed to Grand Forks to Big Sky Harley to pick up his 2007 Road King Classic. He had the bike off the trailer and on the road almost as soon as we got across the border, then a few mini road trips, first to Etzikom and back and then to the Hat with his buddies for supper and to pick up milk - any excuse to ride. Easter was spent in Florida with Ray’s youngest boys, 4 sun and fun filled days in Orlando and 3 in Daytona Beach. My blog http://corona4242.blogspot.com/

APRIL
I was kept busy this month running back and forth to Bow Island as Poll Captain for the Canadian Cancer Society’s door-to-door campaign and Ray joined the S.E.A.R. Bike Club out of Seven Persons. Have I mentioned I lost almost 25 lbs on Herbal Magic? Did I mention Ray lost 20 along side me NOT on Herbal Magic? Short lived success unfortunately.

MAY
Weekends this month were meant for riding, no matter how cold it was - well, it does matter but we rode any ways. It was off to Moose Jaw to visit friends and we were treated to being allowed on the set for country music singer Jason Blaine's video shoot in a junkyard for My First Car. On the way back we stopped in Swift Current to catch Aaron Pritchett in concert and then returned home, only to jump in the caddy and go see Aaron again in Lethbridge! The next weekend we are packing the 5th wheel for a weekend with friends in Cremona. After Ray realized the keys to the Harley we are towing behind us were in his pocket back at the farm, he met his daughter ½ way back and we were able to enjoy a bike ride in the foot hills of the Rockies. The last Friday of the month was the launch party for the newest radio station in Medicine Hat, The New CJCY 102.1 the Lounge! I have the honour of hosting the midday show, Monday to Friday 9 am to 2 pm. You can listen online at http://www.cjcyfm.com

JUNE
It's been so busy since i started the new job and getting used to getting up at 6 am (okay 6:30 after hitting the snooze button 3 times) after getting up at the crack of 10 for the past 5 years is a big adjustment. But having weekends off is awesome. The Harley Owner’s Group poker run was spent socializing with the fellow campers in Centennial Park in Bow Island, then supper at the Bow Theatre and more socializing at the park. Most of the month was spent building planters for the deck Ray and the boys extended around the pool at the farm. Ray and his oldest son Brad installed garden doors from the master bedroom and I built ALL 4 planters and 2 benches ALL by myself! We enjoyed the band Skavenja at the Blue Turtle with my new coworkers, we took the fifth wheel to the Seven Person's “Here comes the sun” dance and the next day it was back on the bike to the Foremost Rodeo. At the end of the month it was off to Penticton to visit Ray’s eldest daughter Lisa and granddaughter Sierra.

JULY
Every weekend in July was busy with something different – after a week of wine tasting, tubing and biking in the Okanogan, and a few close calls of dehydration in 40 degree weather, the next weekend was spent in Seven Person’s for the Dead Hog Boogie. From outhouse races to mattress pulls, rock bands and tattoos, my first bike rally will not be my last. The next weekend was spent with friends taking refuge from the storm of the century and cleaning up torn siding, shingle and toppled grain bins. Then it was stampede week with parade, concerts and another bike trip to Cremona and beating the hailstorm home.

AUGUST
I got my first motorcycle lesson on Ray’s daughter’s 750 Custom Honda one day and the next day we were headed to Burdette. After stalling out, tipping over and nearly giving ray a heart attack when I missed a turn and headed straight to the ditch – but recovered nicely and found my way back to the road without missing a beat… yeah, I need a little more practice before heading to Sturgis in 09!

SEPTEMBER
Ray and I went to Vegas via L.A. to visit Christopher, who hasn’t been back to Canada in almost a year. After touring Chris’s work place on Sunset Boulevard we wandered the Hollywood Walk of Fame we all jumped in the convertible rental and drove to Vegas for a few nights stay at the Sahara and taking in a Magic Show, riding the mono rail, watching the Bellagio Fountain and stopping for a quick one at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill and of course, Lunching at the Harley Davidson Café.

OCTOBER
This month I got my own motorcycle, a Yamaha Maxim X 700 which has been sitting in the shop ever since so i spent most of the month painting and redecorating the spare and master bedrooms at the farm. After all the work was done, I was treated to weekend retreat with a group of girls from Medicine Hat and Airdrie at a cabin in Mountain View. Hat Night, 80’s night, and games night were a blast and soon it was over and back to work and chores.

NOVEMBER
Ray and I saw David Copperfield at the Medicine Hat arena, I was hypnotized at the Conquerville Dance and portrayed Dolly Parton, Shania Twain and a gopher protector. Our company Christmas Party was in Lethbridge along with our sister station 94.1 the Lounge in the midst of Derek’s Midget AA Home Tournament. (Jess is snowboarding instead of hockey this year - Which brings us to

DECEMBER
Which started with celebrating my best friend’s Mother’s 85th birthday party and continues to this day with preparations for the station’s client party at the Esplanade on Friday, Turkey dinner in Chestermere on Saturday, lunch in Calgary on Sunday and hockey game at the Moose Sunday afternoon. Once this weekend is over, I might get a breather to prepare for Christmas Eve dinner with the boys, Ray’s parent’s, brother and family, Chris home from California, Liz and her boyfriend Joel from the Hat. The tree is up and the shopping almost done, just one last thing on my list.. get this in the mail before 2009! Merry Xmas and Happy New Year! - xo Corinne & Crew!

Who I Am

All my life I have been known as somebody else. Paul's daughter. David's wife. Christopher's Mom. Will I ever be known as just Me?

Buried deep below the surface, beneath the layers of all the different people I once was and have now become, is the real me. The realization of self-discovery is a journey that sometimes has no end. It is constantly changing. With different paths ahead and destinations unknown, the decision of who you are and who you become is your choice. Circumstance may control the situation but your reaction will decipher the outcome.

As daughter of not just a school teacher but Vice-Principal, it is difficult to try to fill the shoes of the highly respected and renown man. As youngsters, my sisters and I would walk behind him every day to elementary school, trying to match the footprints of his large stride. He would break a trail in the knee-high snowdrifts for his three scarved ducklings lagging behind. Sheltered from the wind and blowing snow, we followed the echo of the muffled crunch of the crisp mantle that broke beneath his steps. In high school, his constant presence was resented. We were never allowed to be as free as our peers. Classmates were unforgiving of his status and unacccepting of us into their circle.

As wife of a career military man, it is necessary to be supportive yet flexible. The sometimes, confining role of the woman behind the man was dutifully assumed. Sea duty kept him away for lengthy duration and career courses were interspersed throughout the years to accelerate his promotions. We have moved from one end of the country to the other and have accepted the fact that home is where the Air Force sends you. The five moves have been exiting and exhilarating, yet have taken their toll. Every few years our lives are uprooted and must start from square one all over again. Shallow roots are never allowed to fully take hold. The nomadic lifestyle is inconceivable to native towns folk and temporary residents are not usually invited to fully participate in the community.

As mother of two, it is difficult to be many people rolled into one. To be a housekeeper, cook, maid, servant, chauffeur, seamstress, laundress, baker, teacher and nurse all in one day is no easy task. There are endless chores to tend to at home and away. Meanwhile the children have to be nurtured and pushed only as hard as they need to be pushed. They need to be allowed to test their wings safely before they are thrust into the world once they leave the nest.

For the past 15 years, a career has been sacrificed to be a housewife. Dreams and aspirations have been temporarily set aside. With this last move, the focus has been switched to take care of rediscovering me. Going back to school to learn a trade has not become necessary financially but also personally. It has sparked old interests and many new ones too.

As I tucked my daughter into bed last night, she said to me. “I’m sad.” It was because “I never get to hardly ever see you any more.” Our days used to be filled with building castles on sandy beaches and exploring playgrounds, flying kites, building forts, packing picnics and sightseeing. Now there is only the frenzied in-betweens, the clips of conversations in-between driving from here to there. That will soon have to cease to take time for second thoughts about priorities. I will always be Paul’s daughter, David’s wife,* but most importantly I don’t want to hear those two words again. Somebody needs me more than I need to be me. Somebody needs me, more than me. I, am Somebody’s Mother!

Corinne Bolt
English 082
October 19, 1995

(*ex wife now ha ha)