Sunday, May 25, 2014

Week 21 of BZ Adventure

May 17 - 23

It is so awesome to be home (and not working yet).

We have been able to fix things that are broken, finally trim our hedges properly, spend lots of time with my parents, make our garden bigger, open our pool etc. etc.

What was really wonderful was the opportunity I had this week to visit my new school. I am going to be the principal at Northdale Central PS in Dorchester. It's a grade 4-8 school was a terrific staff. I enjoyed my afternoon meeting staff and participating in their school improvement plan writing.








I also expanded our veggie gardens.








So excited to grow more stuff.

Our pool is starting to take shape.




















Lastly, I took our awning off and finally cleaned the crap out of it. What a pain in the butt.





It dried totally perfect.
I also spent a ton of time working on my course. Love my new desk area overlooking the yard. Got a book review done and I get to lead the on line discussion on a reading all next week. Cool.







I am really happy for Lennie. He is golfing, doing stuff around the house, seeing friends, and getting some shifts at the restaurant. He is so happy, healthy, and enjoying his time. We are making our meals, exercising, and sleeping in. Perfect.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Week 20 of BZ adventure

May 10 - May 17

Saturday May 10
Got up and the boys went with Felicity to get her gymnastic photos done then left to go to Wild Play so Lennie could bungee jump. Sheila wasn't feeling well so slept on the couch while I worked on our next course.

At 3 we left to do some errands. At 6:00 we were expected at our friends Doug and Marsha's for dinner. We walked over and when the boys got home they met us there.
They have a beautiful home and yard. Doug is an amazing cook and bbqer so the dinner was amazing. We had some great laughs and had to borrow their wagon to bring Felicity home. We tucked her in the there and I pulled her home.


Sunday, May 11
Happy Mother's Day. We had a wonderful day celebrating and enjoying the beautiful weather. Dwayne made coffee and cinnamon buns, we face timed my mom and Megan, we called Lennie's mom, and went to brunch. Dwayne has shares at a winery and we have visited before so brunch there was terrific. Felicity our niece had made me a necklace and it was cute.


Lennie went downtown in the afternoon while we sat in the sun and returned the wagon to Doug and Marsha. Sheila went for a run while Dwayne washed the cars. For dinner Sheila wanted fish and chips so the boys went and got us some really good ones. Lennie went out to met a friend for a beer while we watched TV and talked about education. Sheila teaches kindergarten so she has a great perspective on teaching, students, and leadership. I love talking too her about our jobs.

Monday, May 12
Today was about getting stuff done. Got our boarding passes, did laundry, ordered a laptop, read my text book, did some course posts, met a friend for a drink, and had Doug and Marsha over for dinner, whew, full day, tomorrow we fly.

Tuesday, May 13

Our flight left Victoria for Calgary at 9:40, landed at 11:30 and we moved to the next flight at 1:40. My dad picked us up and took us home to drop our stuff off then my mom made us dinner.

The house looks perfect and tomorrow we will hang the awning, start the gardens, get my desk set up, and see the Purvis'. Life is definitely good.


Wednesday, May 14
Got up late from an awesome sleep in our own bed. Open all the mail and solved some problems; we have been receiving the paper - weird, taxes are due - yucky, and OPC dues need to be updated - ok. I downloaded all our pictures - about 5000 and set up my desk area for my course. Lennie grocery shopped and put out the patio furniture plus got the pool pump going. I talked to Megan and went to visit my parents again. Lennie worked at the Alibi then stopped in at my parents. Tomorrow I pick up a new phone and computer from work to get started on work for the fall.
I am moving to a new school so am excited to start learning about that community and students. I will do some school visits and attend some planing meetings in the next couple of weeks to prepare for the upcoming school year. I got some very nice welcome messages so I am happy to be moving there this fall.

Thursday, May 15
Today is my brother Jeff's 50th birthday. He doesn't look it or act it.

I went to the board office today and picked up my new phone, printed off some documents for my course, submitted a cheque request, saw my friend Renee, picked up a laptop, and left. I went to my favourite antique mall as I am looking for a desk and chair to work on and add to our family room. Found what I want and will probably pick it up tomorrow. We went to East Side Mario's and met my parents and Jeff for dinner then visited the Purvis', good day or what!

Friday, May 16
I puttered around the house today till noon at which time I had to go to Victoria hospital for my annual cancer screening test. Neck ultrasound looked good with no cells to be seen. See you next year radiology.

I decided to buy the desk and chair so I picked up my husbands truck and bought the set.

Brought it home and got organized for a couple more years of work on the doctorate degree. I read some course work while Lennie worked at the Alibi. The Memorial Cup is going on so many people are celebrating hockey for the next couple of weeks.
It's great to be home. Just realized there are still 15 weeks till the new school year. I will use this time wisely to continue to rest, grow, nurture relationships, be with my parents, and reflect on what an awesome life I continue to have.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Week 19 of BZ adventure

May 3 - May 10

Saturday May 3

Woke up after a good 6 hour sleep and headed out to Saltys for a brunch with the family through Vicky's work. It was awesome because it was delicious and located at the habour.

We took a couple of cars so Lennie could return the rental. The girls left and went shopping. My sister in law is a shop crazed person so it was fun. We even hit Nordstrom's Rack.
We returned home at 3:00 and left for event number 2. We headed to Jack Root's house (a manager at Vicky's work) for his son's 1st birthday party. We didn't know anyone but it was fun to meet so wonderful people and hang out with over 20 kids aged 0-12.
We returned home at 6:00 for event number 3. Vicky invited the Grenann's over. They are great friends and we had met them before in Vegas. Johnny BBQd and we had a great meal. They have 3 boys so Portia played with them till 11:15pm while we played games and had a few drinks. We were pooped and went to bed.
Sunday May 4
Woke up after another 6 hour sleep - amazing. The room. Johnny has made into their guest room is wonderful and cool so we are sleeping well. We got dressed and headed to church as it was. Portia's first communion. She was so beautiful and the service was wonderful.

We had a cookie and coffee reception after where the whole family was there to see.
We returned home where they hosted an afternoon lunch with everyone. We love Vicky's family and her sisters, brother, I laws, parents, uncle, and friends made for a wonderful event.


At 4:30 everyone left and we cleaned the house and kitchen. We watched TV , I started my next course for my Doctorate and hung out with Rolfe who was now home from his basketball tourney. He's so cute, and tall now. Lennie and him are best buds so it's so fun to see them laughing and being silly.


Monday May 5
Vicky had to go to work and the kids went to school so we slept a little bit then Johnny took us out for errands. Returned some stuff, got Vicky a Mother's Day gift, and ate lunch. We also picked up our ferry tickets for our tour to Lennie's brothers in Victoria.

We've been here to Seattle many times so seen all the sites already. Seattle traffic is nuts so I hate driving around but breweries, market, and restaurants are awesome. We picked up the kids after school and drove Rolfe to basketball. We watched for a bit then took Portia to baseball. She has a sore wrist so didn't bat but played outfield. We left and met Vicky and Rolfe at a restaurant for sandwiches and drinks.


Tuesday May 6
Got up and Vicky had to leave to go to San Francisco for the day. We hung at the house, Johnny did yard work, I worked on my course, and Lennie went golfing. At 3:00 we went out and picked up the kids for piano then Rolfe's baseball. We got pizza and chomped on it at the baseball diamond. Rolfe played amazing and we had a great time. We came home and started packing for our trip to Victoria tomorrow really early.


Wednesday May 7

Johnny drove us to the Victoria Clipper ferry at 7:00am. It's a 2:45 hour ferry ride to Victoria that we have done before.


Dwayne was there to pick us up after we went through customs. We were starving so Dwayne drove us to an awesome place for poutine.


We pigged out. Dwayne has a great house we can book a community suite to stay in while there so we stopped there and dropped our stuff off.


We then moved to their house and sat in the sun, read email, and had some drinks. The boys left for Dwayne's chiropractic and I waited for the girls to come home from school.


We had a delicious chili dinner, walked to our friends Doug and Marsha's house to meet their daughter then came home to watch hockey. The buys are playing golf tomorrow and I am going to work on my course. Today was a great day.

Thursday May 8
Woke up and wished the golfers good luck. I worked on my course, got my nails done, went to the casino and tried to find a grocery store for these awesome cookies Sheila has. Came home when the golfers returned and when Sheila and Felicia were home from school. Dwayne BBQ'd and we watched the movie Coraline with Felicity. It was rainy so we couldn't really hang outside. Sheila went to the gym and we chatted till late.

Friday May 9
Woke up and hit the road with Dwayne and Len. We did a ton of errands including visiting their friend Doug's new metal stamping business. The best part of the day was visiting Felicity and Sheila's school. It is a beautiful, safe, and smart school. Felicity did a little presentation with us in her grade 2 room and it was so cute. I got to talk for a while with the principal, teachers, and a lot of parents. I drove home with Sheila and we made homemade nachos for dinner. Their friend Doug came over and we chatted about his business some more. We watched a movie, the boys went for a walk, and Sheila and I hung out.