Sir Noah

We went on our first group field trip in Canada to the Glenbow Museum. We learned about knights and Noah was dubbed "Sir Noah." The best part was all the armor, chain mail, swords and helmets that each child had the chance to try on. We got to see all the exhibits on this period and tour the rest of the museum to learn about the history of Alberta.

Noah's Pledge to Mom and Dad

I will not be lazy and will do my work with a happy spirit. I will serve my mom and dad for the rest of my life. When I am a teenager, I will not be a hooligan. One nation, under God, indivisible, for Mama's rest. Amen.

Boyscouts

Fall

Grace's Description of Me

Grace made this for me today!

What I DId for my Summer Vacation

On the eve of the first day of school, I wanted to write the perfunctory essay entitled : What I Did for my Summer Vacation. I don't know why most American teachers engage in this ritual. It may be to separate the bluebirds from the crows, take some time to finish up lesson plans or savor the last few minutes of peace and quiet. Anyway, here is my contribution.

The summer is so short here from June-Labour Day. The snow was already covering the mountains today and I was wearing my "3rd winter coat."

We were honoured to have Grandma and the McCallums visit along with lots of dinner guests and invitations out. From the Icefields to Banff to Lake Louise and the Stampede, we always go so many more places with people coming to visit.

One of my favorite things was the weekend away that Grace and I took at a retreat centre in the mountains. I loved that old house overlooking a stream. Their idea was not to bring an agenda, but just relax and talk to God. There was a saying on the wall that said something about anytime you feel worried, don't blame God, you are just taking on more than the burdens of one day. I hope to remember that. John and Joshua had their own retreat.

It is noteworthy to add that I lost 15 lbs in June and have kept it off so far.

I guess I'd say that after 8 months, some of the newness of Canada is wearing off. I can at least find my way around the city better. We have had so many new experiences. I am even learning to lose my American accent.

I woke up to our Labour Day "dress rehearsal" for school. Noah was singing a song that said, " I know my mom loves me because she makes me do school and doesn't want me to end up mopping floors at Starbucks." I think we got through one subject.

Tomorrow we are starting piano lessons in the morning and the youngest are going to the dentist in the afternoon. I made the appointment so long ago that I can't remember the name of the dentist and I couldn't even get an appointment for a cleaning, only a time to meet the dentist.

The days are getting shorter with the responsibilities getting longer. It does have a cozy feel to be at home again and be together.

Three Amigos

Styrofoamia

Sneak Peek of Seattle

Our family wanted to see America again, to breathe American air, so since I have seen enough nature recently, we decided to go to a big city, Seattle. We used to live in WA state and I loved this city with the beautiful Cascade mountains, but I wanted to see people and stores and restaurants and most of all, my beloved, Target!

We left on Saturday morning and drove through Banff and Alberta and mostly through British Columbia. It was so much warmer there and rainy!

Our border crossing was a delightful experience. We were so excited and our guard was so kind. It was the first land crossing for everyone, but John and Joshua. At the end, he enthusiastically said, "Welcome to America." We were so happy.

Eating at IHOP was so fun. You have to understand that there are few good restaurants here and they are very expensive. Everyone in Canada eats at Subway and McDonalds and gone are the days of La Madeline, Panera Bread and Los Cucos. Children even ate for free.

The next day, we went into Seattle and took a ferry to an island. While on the ship the Blue Angels were having a show for some kind of Harbor Day and we were thrilled to watch their flyovers. We met all sorts of interesting people.

Next we walked to Pike St and Pike's Place Market. The kids were amazed at the Flying Fish store with the men throwing fish and yelling chants.

It was very crowded, but we did manage to find a Polish Pottery store. It was huge and someone is flying to Poland to get all this. They had some of my patterns too. I could only buy what I could carry.

We saw the original Starbucks on our way to THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY. It was a long walk down crowded city streets, but so worth it. We had the best time there. It was like a little bit of America and a feeling of home.

I asked the question to John, so "why is it so warm in Vancouver and so cold in Calgary when they are at about the same latitude?" This turned out to be so funny. In the end, I think I wanted an answer like. . .I'm so sorry it's so cold in Calgary and so warm in Vancouver, but then the explanations ensued with handmotions,vocabulary and the threat of flowcharts on napkins. . .I didn't even know that wind had anything with water temperature. Grace looked at me so funny at one point and just said, "Mom, if it's not on a test, God made it that way!" We laughed so hard. We used this line for the whole trip.

At night, we went to our Beloved, Target. We had so much fun shopping and decided to buy a video to watch at night called Food Inc. I heard this was good, so we gathered and it wasn't quite as entertaining as I thought. . .in fact we were all very disturbed.

The next day we did more shopping and went to the Seattle Mariner's game. We used to love baseball games and I grew up going to Chicago White Sox games and John was always an Astro's fan. It was great family fun. I love walking around and see all the people. . . they even had a Starbucks.

They opened the roof and the skyline was in the background. As the sunset, it was a beautiful night with a temperature of 61 degrees F. The Mariners won! It reminded me of the last time I was in that stadium when Grace was a baby and we lived in WA state. We saw Randy Johnson pitch. . .that was before Joshua was born and developed a fear of the sound of handclapping.

The way home was uneventful except the border crossing agent was really crabby and made us park and go to the office.

We bought peaches, blueberries, apricots, plums and cherries at a fruit stand on the way home.

13 hours later, as we approached Banff, there was the most magnificent sunset that I have ever seen. There was a double rainbow on Castle Mountain and base of the mountain had a rainbow on it too.

Columbia Icefield Tour

We thought that this would be a nice little tour. I thought it started in Banff. 4 hours later, Grandma, John, Joshua, Claire and Moriah made their way on the bus to drive on a glacier. John was enthralled with the triple Continental Divide - the only place in the world where rain falling on the North side of the "ice bowl" flows in rivers leading to the Arctic, where rain falling to the West flows to the Pacific and to the East and South flows to the Atlantic. The kids met some people from New Zealand. They left at 9am and returned at 7:30 pm. Not exactly a little tour, but the scenery was beautiful both ways.

Joshua had a daring afternoon biking down several black diamond ski slopes. Braving twisting curves, outrageous heights, and treacherous jumps, he survived to see another day. His favorite ride was Safari Planet with eight high jumps. With scrapes and scratches, he declares he would like to try again soon. Two busted fingers later, he had a wonderful experience.

Coconut Pie and Biscuits

Baking Powder Biscuit:

2 cups flour

3 t. baking powder

1/3 cup of shortening

7/8 cup milk

Measure all ingredients accurately. Never skimp on shortening as it is essential for tenderness. Start oven 10 min. Start oven 10 min. before baking at 450 degrees. sift flour measure and resift three times with dry ingredients, the last time into a three quart mixing bol. Three siftings prevent yellow specks on crust caused by incomplete blending of baking powder.Cut shortening into dry ingredients with a pantry blender over until flakes are the size of rice. Make as well in the dry ingredient and pour milk in all at once. stir quickly with a fork until dry ingredients are almost dampened. The dough appears sticky instead of liquid is throughly stirrede into dry ingredients but soon stiffens up. Cut out biscuits, place on greased baking pan, about one ince apart. Bake 12-15 min.

Easy Coconut Pie

4 eggs well beaten

1/2 stick of melted margarine

1/2 cup of raising flour+3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups milk

1 cup coconut

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix in order listed above. Pour into greased pie plate and bake 45 min. at 375 degree.

Grandma's Frozen Cranberry Salad

Recipe:

2 Large Cans whole cranberries

2 large cream cheese

2 12 oz. Cool Whip

2 large can of crushed pineapple (20 oz. each)

1 cup nuts

Soften cream cheese then beat until smooth. Blend in drained pineapple and nuts. Gently blend cranberries. Fold in cool whip. Put in 9x13 container and freeze. Freeze all day. Take out 20 minutes before serving.