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:

Wanted: brilliant poem ideas.

I've been avoiding my blog lately. Procrastinating from writing and instead just thinking about writing. Which isn't all that useful after a while. I might get some good ideas but that's as far as I get. And, I have several deadlines for submissions and contests coming up. The thing is, I just feel so restless. I want to go out in the sunshine (it's finally warming up) or get on a plane and go somewhere. Luckily my trip to the island isn't that far away. But I want to do more than that. I want to travel EVERYWHERE and I'm just sick of waiting. Sigh.

There is a contest deadline this week for a poetry site I've been submitting too, and I desperately am trying to come up with a half-decent poem to send off. The thing is, my ideas are completely dried out at the moment. I keep reading old poems, and re-reading my favourites, trying to remember how I came to writing them, and how I got the good idea in the first place. But honestly, most of my poems just come to me. I barely revise them at all, they just arrive in a rush of words, usually scrawled in a notebook, and I revise as I write, working until I get to the great ending that started the poem in the first place. Or, I'll see a great image, or someone will tell me something that just seems to fit perfectly with a poem.

So, anyone got any great ideas?

On the bright side, I finally got my office organized to do some writing without feeling so cramped. And, I sent off the story I've been meaning to send off for like a year now! Trying to stay positive here, can you tell?

I'm also excited that I get to teach English 12 all day tomorrow at the high school. Finally! I actually get to teach my favourite subject and grade. Methinks I should prepare some extra work to bring in just in case the teacher left us no lesson plan... (let's just say my last subbing experience in the computer lab was basically spent fooling around on facebook with the rest of the class as the assignment took up about 15 minutes of the 80 minute class!).

What else? Oh, did I mention that it's been above 0 for a week now! And that I can see my grass? I know, you can really only appreciate my excitement if you live any farther north than I do. But, I actually went out onto my deck in my t-shirt and just SAT there, enjoying the warmth on my arms for once. I even skipped taking my vitamin D that day. But, in a couple of weeks I'll be enjoying the island rain once more. And for once I realize that I LOVE the rain. Life just isn't the same when there's no rain 8 months of the year. Can you even imagine that? It's just bizarre.

Leaving you with a pic of my Dawson Creek friends:

Mike's birthday

In the midst of moving, it was also Mike's 25th birthday. He worked the day of his birthday, so on Sunday the 3rd, we went out for lunch and then had an afternoon of bowling with our friends from church. Amazingly, everyone and their kids were able to come--we usually have small turn outs due to all the shift workers in our group. It was a lot of fun to be all together. Here are some of the highlights (even the baby girls made it!):




The newest addition: Baby Gwen, born January 4th.


Can you guess which ones brought babies?







At the bowling alley--I came in second!

At long last

I've finally got my internet connected, and some time to post pictures of the house, which I realize are long overdue. We are still unpacking, but every day I get something new accomplished, such as new phones, and smoke/co2 detectors. How exciting. Now that we have a house, there are so many boring things you have to buy before you can get to the fun stuff!

This past week has been super busy, with the move, and a bridezilla party with some girlfriends on the weekend (we wore our wedding dresses) and also Mike's birthday yesterday. But, first, to the pictures...





The huge tv room at the back of the house, and the windows that look into the backyard.





The kitchen, the brick wall in the kitchen, and the dining room.


Here are the bathroom, laundry room, and the living rooms with some of their furniture in them.







Well, hope you enjoyed the pics--let us know when you wanna come visit. Although it was in the minus 40s last week, so I would recommend waiting for spring!

Moving Day

Well, we have our new house, keys and all! We started moving in yesterday while I was at work, as Mike has his Dad and sister here to help. They actually did most of the work, but today we are planning on finishing the moving, so I'm very excited! Just wanted to update you all on that. I will try to post some pictures later today of the house before all the boxes were in!

Craving

Today I had the biggest craving to be somewhere warm and tropical. The snow is still beautiful, especially today as it was fresh and the sky eggshell blue. But, that got me thinking about spring, and how it is already warming up. Which got me thinking about summer and lying on a beach and being warm and swimming. I'm such a summer person, I think that except for the snowy Christmas time of the year, I could go forever just being in summer. No socks. No laces to tie up. No scraping the car inside and out. So now I realize that in order to last through the winters up here I'm going to have to plan a holiday to Hawaii or maybe the Domonican Republic, or somewhere like that.

Speaking of traveling, Mike and I have booked our ticket to the island in March, so I'm planning on eating at all my favourite restaurants in Victoria in one week as well as replacing my lululemon's, which have lasted me three good years of being worn at least 3 times a week. I think that was worth the price they cost me.

And, I finally made it to the gym today after a week of being too ill to go. Still sick, but hoping to be better by monday so that I can work this week. Still packing up the apartment, but moving day is only a week away now! Will post pictures of the house once we're moved in!

Sicko

That's me. Only three half days and one friday of teaching the first week back and I'm already sick. I lost my voice on friday, and then didn't feel well friday night because my throat was so raw. I thought it was just from losing my voice, but then my ears started throbbing too. I guess that's what you get when you work with elementary kids.

Although, why is is that being sick always comes on the weekend? There are many things I wanted to do this weekend, including packing and going to the gym, but instead I spent most of it trying to sleep with my head propped up.

Oh well, hopefully I can get lots of packing done this week and next weekend. The big day is coming very soon and Mike's Dad is coming to help us move on the 25th. I'm so excited to have some family come up here. Anyone wanna come with him? We could go sledding, it would be fun....

Last night I watched one of my all-time favourite movies, Roman Holiday, with Audrey Hepburn. I had no idea she won the best actress Oscar for it, which is incredible as it was her first film. My favourite moment is when she is in Gregory Peck's character's apartment and is about to say goodbye and get changed and as she tries to walk past him to the bathroom he grabs her and they hug each other so tightly and her facial expression is just perfect. It's so romantic.



It got me thinking, how many movies are there that I enjoy watching again every year? Here is the list I came up with:

1.Roman Holiday
2.Love Actually
3.50 First Dates
4.Practical Magic
5.The Fellowship of the Ring

Notice that the first four are all semi-romantic. I guess that's just me.
But now I'm curious, which movies do you watch again and again?

Winter fun

This last weekend before Mike and I both went back to work was a lot of fun. We hadn't had the chance to really do any winter outdoor activities, but after it started snowing again, we decided to plan a day of sledding.

Our friends Matt and Lindsey took us to this place they used to go sledding at, about 80 km out of town, in the direction of the Peace River (north east of us I believe). As you get to the river valley, the road starts to slope downwards and around, so on the left of the highway, there is a "forest" (although it did actually have some nice big thick trees scattered in amongst the spindly ones). The cool thing, is that at the bottom of the hill, there is a landing where you can park in the snow, a fire pit, and an opening in the trees that leads all the way up the hill through the forest to the road. It's actually for skidooing, but we took our sleds and climbed the huge hill, (it took about 20 minutes just to walk up it) and eventually found where it came out at the top of the highway. We marked our spot, and then the four of us sledded down the insane hill, with L and I sharing a double sled. It was soo scary, but the best sledding I've ever done. In fact, after this, I don't think anything else really counts as sledding. When we finally got to the bottom, I think my face was pure white as I was at the front and got all the powder spray. I kept thinking we were going to crash into the forest because there were some really steep parts in between the flatter areas, with big jumps and holes in the snow. Thankfully it's so powdery up here it doesn't hurt too bad, although I was really sore the next day.

Once we got to the bottom, we drove back up to the top and sledded down again, this time by ourselves, so that one person could take turns driving the car down to pick us up at the bottom. Yes, the hill is that long. I think it took me nearly 10 minutes just to go down the hill once. I realized how strange it must have sounded when I told them it was the first time I'd been in a forest that was covered in snow. You don't really realize that there aren't many chances to take a stroll through the woods on Vancouver Island when the trees are all powdery and white. It was a really beautiful trail.

When we got home, I had to quickly get changed because our friend Kim and Nathan had finally had their baby, and we were headed off to the hospital to visit. I got home, took one look at myself in the mirror, and couldn't stop laughing. It turns out that the first run had completely melted mascara all around my eyes and had been that way all day! And no one told me. Sheesh. You would have told me, wouldn't you? Oh well, at least we all looked pretty silly, being red in the face, with matted, powdery hair.

At the hospital, I got to meet baby Gwen, who was born on January 4th. I got to hold her and couldn't believe how tiny newborn babies are. I always forget, because I'm so used to all the older baby girls here. I can't believe how many there are. 2007 was the year of the baby girl. If I count all my friends up here and in Victoria, in the past year, there have been 7 baby girls born, plus, just in my new church here in the last year, there were 7 baby girls born, and only 1 baby boy. It's kind of cool though, for a group of mothers who are friends to all have baby girls in the same year, because they can grow up playing with each other. Kind of like the sisterhood of the traveling pants or something.

Okay, enough about babies. I still haven't listed my new year's resolutions, or goals as I like to call them, but they include:

1) reading the bible every day
2) losing weight/exercising/eating healthy
3) making a better effort at keeping in touch with friends
4) sending off all my poems and stories for publishing
5) saving for my trip to Ireland, which I really want to accomplish soon, before Mike and I start having kids.

I think that's all of them. Last year I started reading more again, and getting back into the YA fantasy mind set so that I can start writing them, and I did accomplish that goal, since I read about 20 of them last year. It feels good to get to the end of the year, and realized that you've actually been consistent with one of your goals.

Well, to end off with, here are some of our sledding action shots. It's hard to capture the best moments, but they do give you an idea.



Matt and Lindsey going for a ride.




Me sledding at the bottom of the hill ( I was always the slowest one).




The boys attempting to survive without crashing on the steepest part of the hill.



Mike, arriving at the bottom.

Happy Winter!

Books this year

Taking the idea from Ciboulette, I have decided to also post the list of books I read this year. I haven't made a book list since I was a kid and very dorky when it came to my book list--the purpose was usually to show how many books I could read in a year--usually around 150 novels, mainly Nancy Drew. I can't believe how much time I used to have to read!

So, this year's list is quite funny, because while Mike was in Regina and I was on my practicum, I read way more than I had during my entire degree. And, since I could finally read for pleasure, and wasn't forced to read adult fiction novels, I began catching up on all the YA fantasy series' that had been written in the last few years. Thus, my list has only about 3 adult novels on it, although I did attempt to read One Hundred Years of Solitude to make up for it (and only made it half way through. I'm also currently reading Ireland, by Frank Delaney.



So, here they are, approximately from least favourite to most favourite.

23. Beyond the Deepwoods, by Paul Stewart and Chris Ridell
22. The Magician's Nephew, C.S. Lewis
21. Lost, Gregory Maguire
20. Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce
19. The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
18. Princess Academy, Shannon Hale
17. Enna Burning, Shannon Hale
16. Avalon High, Meg Cabot
15. The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
14. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
12. The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
9. Mimus, Lilli Thal
8. Trickster's Choice, Tamora Pierce
7. The Golem's Eye, Johnathan Stroud
6. The Amulet of Samarkand, Johnathan Stroud
5. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
4. A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore (most hilarious book ever)
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2. Inkspell, Cornelia Funke (could be tied for first)
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

If you have never read any YA fantasy series, or if you've only read Harry Potter, definitely read the Funke books, they are very good. Also, not on my list as I've already read them all are O.R Melling's books for young adults, which she has recently re-written and re-published, but they are amazing too. Happy reading for a new year!

Another year? What the heck!?

On a snowy walk.



snowy sunset in the Dawson Creek park.

Snowy view from our building.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is that last day of the year. They say time seems to go by faster the older you get, which I think is true so far. It's hard to believe it's been a year since Mike went away to Depot, or that it's been a year since I started my practicum, or that I've already lived in D.C for 6 months!

Despite having no family here, our Christmas was really awesome. On Christmas Eve, I went to church, and Mike stopped by in uniform near the end. Then, I was invited to Matt's parents house where they were playing games and eating food. On Christmas morning, I made waffles just as Mike was getting home from work, and then we ate at 5:30 am and opened our gifts before going back to sleep. We were delighted to receive a CD from Mike's mom and Dave with video of them going around to mine and Mike's family members. We cried watching all our relatives say Merry Christmas and sing us songs. The best was when our nieces sang us "I want a hippopotomus for Christmas...". So cute. So that was a great surprise, and then we also got spoiled by everyone. Some of our gifts included, new comfy pj's from Mike, a new board game, a really cool digital camera (so I can finally post pics once I figure it out), a cookbook, a book on home reno's (which we are going to need!), some french books from my sister in Quebec...all in all I was very spoiled. Thanks everyone!

Christmas dinner brought us to Matt and Lindsey's house, where my carrot dish (thanks Granny), cheesecake and good pudding were a hit. We ate early so that Mike could be there, even though he was sooo tired and heading off to work for another night. Then, we played Cranium, where the girls kicked the boys butts, and some card games (I now know how to play poker). Mike surprised us by returning in his uniform to hang out and then drove me home later on in the cruiser, which is always fun. Either the people in the building think I get picked up by the police a lot, or they now know where the police live...oops.

Boxing day is always fun as no one I know was hospitalized like last year, and neither of us had to work! So, instead we had another turkey dinner with two other members, and played games until 2 am.


Mike and I at our boxing day dinner.

We're getting so excited to move into the house now, only 25 days. I better start packing. My wallet is definitely shrinking from all the things that have to be paid for though. We did get a 50% couch, loveseat and chair set thanks to the Brick's boxing day sale, so that was exciting. We can now almost furnish both living rooms in the house.

Mike is back to work for 4 days now, but I can't wait until he's off again, because it just snowed a lot, so we are going to go sledding on friday or saturday!


Happy New Year everyone!

Spoiled teacher, gingerbread, and Christmas music

Friday was my last day of school, so I'd planned a Christmas party for the kids. It went really well, although a little crazy as all the sugar and icing (we decorated cookies) made them extra hyper. But, what can you do? It's Christmas and I was happy to be able to make them so excited for it. I was also incredibly spoiled by my class--there were 19 of them in class on the last day, and 16 of them brought me gifts. I'll take a picture of them once I open the camera I know I'm getting for Christmas...teehee. But they included about 10 Christmas ornaments, candles, chocolates, and many decorated Christmas cards. Including the one that was labelled "M.Happy" for Madame Happy, from a little boy who calls me that as he has difficulty saying my last name! Haha..so cute. Although I would not have said the same thing if a high school boy was calling me that. Grade one is fine though.

But, I now have this enormous gingerbread woman that I decorated but I'm so sick of sweets that I can barely eat it. I know, I know, me sick of dessert. But yes, I just feel like eating tons of veggies and fruits, how strange is that?

The best part of today was receiving a CD from my friend here, Kim, who recorded a Christmas CD with a friend of hers. I'd listened to it at her house and told her I loved it, so she wrapped up a copy and gave it to me at Church this morning. It is so amazing, I wish I could play it for you, but I will be listening to it until Christmas that's for sure.

Although we have no family coming, and Mike is working over Christmas, I was invited to a gathering on Christmas eve, after the church service, so I'm excited for that. And then Mike and I are having an afternoon dinner on Christmas day with Matt and Lindsey and their family, and then on boxing day, we've planned a dinner with another RCMP member and his wife, who are also new and have no family coming. So, it should be a lot of fun.

I am disappointed, however, as Mike was supposed to have New Year's Eve off and most of the next day, so I was actually planning on going out for once this year, as usually we both opened the stores we worked at on the 1st. But, it turns out he now has to work night shift on New year's eve, which means that we can't do anything. I was really mad at first, because he's alreaday working Christmas, and it seemed to me that they should ask someone who has Christmas off to work New Years. He's not even the new guy on the watch anymore, he actually has seniority over about 4 other new members. But, I think I've gotten over it now, as really it's flattering to him that when they needed an extra member on one of the busiest night shifts of the year, he was the one they asked. Or maybe I'm just forcing myself to look at it that way. It's Christmas, right, so I shouldn't complain. Plus, most exciting of all is that we got our house! Everything went well with our other inspections, and we take possession on the 25th of January. I'm already decorating in my head all day!

Well, there is 1 day and about 8 hours until Christmas. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and that you remember the reason we all celebrate on this day. No matter how materialzed it has become, and no matter how many people call Christmas the "holidays", it will always be Christmas to me.

God Bless.

9 days till Christmas!

I can't believe how quickly the Christmas season is coming and how quickly it will soon be over. It still makes me sad on boxing day morning every year. This week was one of the busiest since we moved up to D.C. Not only did I have my school Christmas concert, my bible study Christmas party, Mike's work party and my work party, but we also decided to buy a house!

It's not finalized yet, but we put in an offer on Monday that was accepted. We had the bank approve our financing, and then we had the house inspection done on Thursday. Unfortunately, it turns out that there are a few things that might need repairing soon, so we have extended our deadline until Thursday to try and sort out the cost of the repairs, and then we may change our offer depending on that.

I really hope it works out though, as I still love the house, but so far we haven't gotten a hold of any electricians who can give us an estimate on what it will cost to repair the electrical mast on the house. I was told a few thousand dollars, but then a woman at work said she had hers replaced for 500$. It's hard to know, but let's just pray that it is all sorted out in time on Thursday and that we still get the house. My biggest worry is whether we will be able to resell it when we leave Dawson Creek. I'm not worried about making money on it, I just don't want to lose any.

Buying a house is so risky, especially one that needs work when you live in a city with limited resources.

Now that all the Christmas parties are over, I'm not sure what I will do this week. I finished my presents, mailed off all the gifts and cards, wrapped the ones for Mike and now it's just a matter of waiting! I'm enjoying the constant play of Christmas shows on CBC--right now it's Rudolph, but later they're playing the Polar Express, which I loved.

Oh, and I forgot to mention it was also my 8 year anniversary (not of marriage, just of being together) on tuesday. So, we had our traditional Christmas date which wasn't the same without the Butchart gardens, but we went to the old fashioned Christmas at the pioneer village for free food, including chestnuts roasted over a real live open fire...haha. I've never tasted them before, but they actually are quite good. The best part, however, was taking a sleigh ride through the snowy dark fields pulled by horses with bells! Seriously, it was a lot of fun. There were so many kids from the school I teach at. On our way over to the sleigh, the horse-drawn wagon passed us and I heard a chorus of girls yell out "Bonjour, Mme L'Heureux"! It was so cute, I couldn't help but laugh, as it was dark and they had recognized me by the gray knit tuque with the pompom I always wear.

So, a lot of Christmas fun has been had this month, and I am looking forward to reading some books, playing board games with Mike, and a Christmas dinner at our friend Lindsay and Matt's house in the afternoon before Mike heads off to work. We are hoping to spend two weeks on the island for March break, but it all depends on whether he can get his schedule changed--he had booked it off already, but then they decided to shuffle the watches around, which means that he's on a completely different schedule as of January. Hopefully it doesn't ruin our plans. Fingers crossed, because I am already dreaming of breakfast at Rebar, Pagliacci's, and the Blue Fox.

Merry 9 days till Christmas everyone!

Buying a house

After looking for months, and checking out about 7 possibilities in person, Mike and I have decided to put an offer in on a house in our neighbourhood. It's listed on mls.ca if you want to have a look at it and tell me what you think! Or try this link.

If that didn't work it's number 6779. It's a sort of 50s retro style house, built in 1957 by a mayor of Dawson Creek. It's had some renovations, and we love the huge family/entertainment room they've added on through the french doors at the back of the house. It has a fireplace and is super cozy. We'll definitely be needing some new furniture for it though!

I'm nervous as to whether we'll get it or not, as we are meeting to put an offer in tomorrow. It's so hard to decide what to offer though, as I don't want to start too high or too low. Also, we will need to buy a washer and dryer and eventually a new stove and fridge. I also want to do new flooring as it is pretty mis-matched at the moment. The kitchen definitely needs new floors.

I'm so happy to think that this summer I could be barbequeing and lying out in the sun instead of stuck in an apartment. The one downfall though is the flat roof, which Mike may have to shovel every once in a while if there is too much snow. It's been super warm though today--only -1 compared to about -32 at the start of the week.

Well, I'd love to hear what other people think of the house. I need to go finish wrapping the last of my presents to mail off tomorrow. Feel free to offer thoughts on decorating ideas, colours etc...!

More poetry

I found out this morning that I won first prize in a Canadian poetry contest. The contest required a poem written within the theme of Canadian Landscape. Mine was chosen as first place winner, tied with another writer from Abbotsford. Please check out the website, where I am also currently a "featured writer".

Winter is definitely here although the calendar says it's not so for another 20 days. Every day is a new cold record for me. Yesterday it was about -20. I also attended my first Christmas party of the season with my church last night. Afterwards the girls and I watched "Love Actually" and broke my no junk diet by eating lots of chips and brownies. Well worth it though.

Today is a lazy day as I slept in until noon, but I think I should go do some Christmas shopping and finish making my Christmas cards. There's not much time before I have to mail them off!

Happy December!

This week in point form

A few good things to write about but must get to bed...pro-d day tomorrow morning:

The dinner party was awesome--16 people in our apartment! Plus, the girls kicked butt at Cranium.

Went to the Christmas tree light up the other night with Starbucks hot chocolate and 3 lovely ladies. Not super impressed by the lights but it was still fun and festive...K's comment was "I think we should decorate the tree ourselves next year". Let's just say it could have used a little tinsel. Mike was busy doing traffic control and will now spend the rest of the holiday season prying drunk people down when they try to climb it. (They replace the mile O post below in the center of the intersection with a big christmas tree)



The best part was when Santa rode in sitting in the bucket/crane thingy of a big truck. Wish I'd had a camera. I live in such a redneck town but I love it.

Just saw Enchanted at the theatre with Mike and another couple--we dragged our husbands along but I think they secretly liked it.

It's very cold out right now. Plugged the car in for the first time and I think I could feel the snot freezing in my nose. I'm a true Northerner now.

101 posts

Hey, I just realized that I finally got 100 posts on my blog!

Even better than that, though, is the fact that today I had my first good friday with my grade ones. I was so happy by the end of the day that we'd made it through and that I was able to drive home without wanting to cry or drive my car into the ditch...just kidding. But it was a really great day. The library was the best part. Usually, they are sooo bad in the library that some of them have been threatened with being banned from coming back. But, today, I read them a story and they all say quietly on the carpet and listened! It was amazing, especially considering that it was a Friday afternoon.

So, now I get to be stressed out and busy this evening, preparing for my first dinner party tomorrow, with the gang from our bible study. I'm making a pretty elaborate menu of different appetizers I've been wanting to try. I tried to make them all semi-Italian so that they go well together. Let's just say I bought a lot of cheese.

First, there is cranberry and raspberry punch. Then, there is dill and three onion dip with veggies, bread and a brie/havarti tray, cambozola and grape canapes, spinach and artichoke dip with pita chips, sicilian meatballs, mandarin apricot chicken wings, mushroom caps, mushroom and cheese pastry bundles, spicy yam fries, italian chick pea salad, and apple, celery, grape salad. Hopefully it will be good. For dessert I made cherry mini-cakes, truffle brownies with ganache icing, and lemon squares.

Okay, really, it's not all made yet. Which is why I should stop typing and start cooking!

Un jour de souvenir

Today, as I sat in Church during the Remembrance day ceremony, with Mike up front in full Red Serge, carrying the Canadian flag, I thought about my Nonno, and what he must remember and think about on Remembrance day. As an Italian ex-soldier, who was living in Ethiopia at the time WWII began, he is not celebrated as a war veteran in Canada, although I am sure he is glad for those in Canada who fought for this country, as it is their sacrifices that allowed him to be able to move and live freely in Canada. But, at the same time, he must remember his friends and comrades who died for Italy, and who are not remembered in the same way for having been on the "wrong side" of the war. Yet, they were young and far removed from Hitler, and did not have a choice of whether they were in the war. Luckily, my nonno was taken prisoner by the British early on, and spent the duration working on a farm until the war's end. The real difficulties came for my nonna, who was raising the daughter my nonno didn't know existed (she was born right after he left) and the only communication they had was through letters that were blacked-out and censored.

I can imagine her fleeing Ethiopia, trying to make her way back to Italy to be safe with my Auntie Connie. Living, as she claims, for five years, on nothing but oranges, which I imagine grew abundantly in Sicily. And that was the last time she saw Africa. It must be so strange to grow up in a country, spend a quarter of your life their, and then never go back. What would it be like if I left Canada today and never returned. I have no idea what it is like to live in Tunisia, or Ethiopia, or to have no one to speak your first language to most of your life.

And yet, if they had not perservered through this time, and come to Vancouver island, my mother would not have been born in Port Alberni, where she met my Dad, where I was born, and eventually met Mike.

So today I am grateful that they made it through a separation much longer than the one I endured while Mike was training. And grateful for Mike, who and all the RCMP officers who are willing to serve and commit to the cause.

I guess I spoke too soon

About the snow, I mean. On Monday I had a very entertaining day at work, which involved about 5 puddles of vomit on the kindergarten room floor. I love the little kids, and they're usually very cute, but when they all get sick at the same time and everyone is crying that they want to go home, it's not so much fun.

Then, as I was just getting to the end of the day, it started to snow quite heavily. Then, I remembered the after school meeting I had, and by the time I got to drive the 3 blocks home, the roads were snowy and slippery. I nearly crashed right into a detour sign as I attempted to turn the corner on my way home. Why do I always choose to live on a hill?

Thankfully the snow melted yesterday, then resnowed this morning, then remelted. So, we're back to no snow. I can't help but give the huge trucks dirty looks as I pass them in the snow. The way they take up two parking spaces, and splash muck all over poor little Tercel. I defy you trucks and your snow tires! Ha ha!

Seriously, though, Tercel does just fine in the snow. But, I don't think I'm going to take any jobs that require me to drive out to Chetwynd every day. Not that Mike would let me. He nearly got into an accident driving out there himself, and he's much better in the snow than I am.

So, I'm thinking of starting a book club, because I've been reading a lot lately and it would be fun to discuss books with like-minded individuals. Must find enough people though. I also don't really know how to organize one. How often do you meet?

I'm hoping the weather is okay for tomorrow, as I am subbing at a new school across town that I've never been to before. Hopefully the kids are good. I sure wish I would get some calls to the high school though, I miss the teenagers.

Here's a quote I enjoyed from the book I started reading last night.

"...storytelling--from wherever it comes--forms a layer in the foundation of the world; and glinting in it we see the trace elements of every tribe on earth." (Frank Delaney--IRELAND)

This is a book all about storytelling, and it is really good so far. The perfect book for sitting on the couch with a cup of my favourite tea. (Candy cane lane--It smells like Christmas, and I just found it again the other day, after having used all of mine up.)

The one nice thing about early snow is that I can start listening to Christmas music earlier.