The Month That Was

I just looked at my blog this morning and couldn't believe it has been a month since I last posted something!

September is always a busy month for me.  Getting over my depression that I am no longer in Europe, returning to work, getting my classroom up and running leaves me with little energy for blogging in the evenings or on the weekends.

Here's what's been happening for the past 30 days......

I am teaching a wonderful group of Grades One and Two students.  There are 15 boys and 5 girls in my class.  It is a noisy, active, and fun (and funny) environment.

The boys are always making me laugh.

I have a classroom camera that they like to take photos with.  The shots usually include photos of their lego towers or K'Nex vehicles or unifix cube robots.  But nothing prepared me for this picture that I discovered when downloading their photos this morning:

See?  I told you they were funny.

We were invited down to Olympia, Washington to visit friends in mid-September.  On our way south, we stopped at 'Dick's'.  One of our favourite places to eat when we lived in Seattle.

Valerie and Don hosted us for the weekend in their beautiful oceanfront home.  We first met Valerie when she stayed with us as a 2010 Winter Olympics volunteer.  She and Don have become good friends over the past 2 years.

The third Saturday of September dawned bright and beautiful.  Joe asked me what I wanted to do for the day.  I said, "You know?  I have never been to the 'Word on the Street' festival in Vancouver.  I just read all about it in the newspaper.  It's on today.  Could we go to that?"

The next hour found us in the car driving down the Sea-to-Sky highway heading toward downtown Vancouver.  But when we arrived, I noticed people erecting tents and sound systems along the streets.  "Hmmm," I mused.  "They sure don't look very organized if the festival is today."

That's when I saw the sandwich board advertising the event for THE NEXT DAY!  We were a day too early. Sheesh!  Doesn't anyone read the fine print anymore?

To salvage our outing, we did what anyone would do in our position.  We found somewhere to eat!  We went to La Taqueria on Hastings Street.  Four delicious tacos and a Mexican beer took away any and all disappointment I felt about missing the 'Word on the Street' festival.

To round out our day we headed over to Stanley Park to walk the seawall.  But first we stopped to see the new Terry Fox memorial by Douglas Coupland.

I sure miss Vancouver.  It pulls at my heart strings whenever I am there as I was born and bred in the metro Vancouver area. Joe and I just may move back there at some point in our lives.

Paige's job on the tourist train ended toward the end of September, so she spent a week with her ma and pa.  Our kids love to return to their childhood home to drink their father's scrumptious lattes, eat his delicious food, sleep in comfy beds, go for long walks with their mother, and lay on her lap while she strokes their brow.  Pretty good life, wouldn't you say?

In a recent issue of Oprah magazine I read about a woman named Patience who writes the blog 'Kindness Girl'.  (http://www.kindnessgirl.com/).  Patience's passion is about spreading kindness.  In one of her posts she wrote about Dolores whose adult son Jimmy had died in 2009.  Dolores' son was a fabulous cook and his favourite meal to prepare for family and friends was spaghetti and meatballs.  Patience suggested we all honour Jimmy's memory by cooking spaghetti and meatballs and inviting friends over to share it.

On Saturday night we invited some of the Moberg family to do just that.  We toasted Jimmy and dug into a fantastic meal cooked by our chef Joe.

As this weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada, we invited our nearest and dearest for turkey dinner.  Our children, our parents, and Joe's 96 year old grandmother graced us with their presence on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.  "Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart." - Seneca


And that is the month that was!