Spring break...and now back to winter

Just finished my first week back at work since spring break. Everything feels strange when you've been away for a couple of weeks. The first night back, I woke up in the middle of the night and remember standing in the hall trying to remember where I was. Strange how that happens when you haven't slept in your own bed for a while. Especially when you've only lived in your house for a month.

But, now everything is back to normal. Mike is working over-time (he just got called in for the second time today) and I'm back to life in grade one.

The trip was really great though--we spent our time very efficiently, as Mike put it, going for breakfast with one friend, meeting another in the afternoon, and then organizing dinners with as many people as possible. We managed to walk in my favourite places; the dyke by my mom's house, the Cherry Creek road to the farm, around downtown and the harbour, and through the Finnerty gardens at Uvic.


Down by the creek, where I used to go "kerplunk" with my Granny. Mike and I raced boats made from blades of grass like I did as a child. (Mine won).


Our nieces missed their Uncle Mike--we went to Jenna's fifth birthday party with her--at the wave pool in Nanaimo.

Then, there was the best restaurants; Moxie's with my sister and mom, Paggliaci's with Mike for soup and bread (3 baskets full), the Tapa bar for the baked tortellini and glazed carrot tapa, Rebar, and of course, Eggs Benedict at the Blue Fox. I meant to take pictures of all my meals, but I guess they were too yummy, because I forgot every time!




I also finally ate one of the enormous candy apples at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.


Mike and I saw an Imax one day, shopped the downtown stores and my favourite book haunts, although I missed out of the malls due to lack of funds and a desire to not tempt myself. We also mini-golfed, played board games, and Mike even went to work in Port Alberni for two ride-alongs, with his troup mate from Depot who is currently posted there. Apparently he loves his job so much he can't stay away. One of the highlights was getting to see our favourite high school teachers, the Duperrons, who grew up in Dawson Creek and are still at the high school in Port Alberni. We surprised them and had a nice chat after school one friday. I got to hang out with my Victoria girlfriends and have a nice dinner with just the gals as well.



All in all, it was a great trip. We saw our favourite things, and favourite people (although we missed a few who were on their own spring break trips) and soaked up as much spring weather as we could before heading back to D.C. where it can't decided whether winter is over or not. I arrived home to about 10 degrees and sun, and by the following day, my yard (which was growing tulips and not yet green, but brown) looked like this:


In any case, it is good to be home again, but I am already thinking about my next visit, which will hopefully include a flight down to Disneyland!

Going home...finally!

Tonight is my last night of winter in Dawson Creek.

We leave tomorrow afternoon to head over to the island for spring break. And, when we get back it will be the 2nd day of spring. Outside my office window, I can already see about half of the grass in my yard as we have had a warm spell and the snow is melting very quickly. Here's to hoping it won't snow again.

I've just been packing and have no idea what to bring home. I'm assuming I won't need to bring my snow boots, tuque, or winter coat. Haha. It's so strange to pull out the shoes I haven't worn in 6 months, but it's kind of like getting a whole new wardrobe all over again. It also makes me realize that I have a lot of shoes. Especially when 80% of them can't be worn until the snow melts!

Today I did some baby visiting with my friend Kim and her baby Gwen, who gets and amazing mohawk when she wakes up from her nap. I also visited my friend Lindsey and baby Keturah, who has discovered the joy of banging blocks together. Every time Mike hangs out with the babies in our group of friends, he gets this longing sort of look on his face, and you can't draw his attention away from them. He so wants to have a baby. I told him if he takes me to Ireland and Disneyland this summer then we could talk. So, we're doing Disneyland this summer and Ireland next summer!

Well, I better go finish packing. Anyone who wants to visit, now is your chance! I'll be home for 12 days, so just send me a message or give me a call.

Happy Spring break!

Winter, winter, go away

On Friday afternoon, I had the joy of standing outside my house in the pouring rain. It was the first time I'd been in the rain since about August! It was very exciting, and I thought, finally, spring is coming.

I guess I spoke to soon, because later that evening, the temperature went from +3 to -18 and we got stuck on the highway in a complete white out, while on our way back from the Grand Prairie airport, where we were picking up our friend Lindsey. It was the scariest drive I've ever taken. The snow was swirling in all directions around the car so that you couldn't see any part of the road. Luckily, we were able to follow a semi most of the way home and only partially drove into a ditch before Mike got us out of it. And, now it's March and it's still winter. But, next week is spring break and I'll be on the island and by the time I get back, winter better be over!

Pretty soon, it will be time to start applying for jobs for next school year. I'm desperately hoping to get the job of the retiring French and English teacher at the high school. She's leaving and I'm hoping they hire someone to replace her. I would actually not even mind if it was part time, because then I could spend the rest of the time writing. I finally started my idea for a novel. There's only about a paragraph written so far, because I can't start writing until I've done a lot of research usually. I'm hoping that my mental block in poetry means that I should be spending my time writing fiction. I sent a story away the other day that I'm pretty optimistic about, but I have to wait 3 months to find out if they will accept it or not.

Well, I think I will go try to finish reading "The Catcher in the Rye". Can you believe this writer/english teacher has never read it? My book club is doing it this thursday, so I am finally getting around to it. Happy March!

Here is a pic of me and my girlfriends here sporting our wedding dresses at our bridezilla party: