Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Officially...

I'm working for UBC!!  I interviewed in the summer for a job I applied for on a whim, that I didn't really know much about or want for that matter ~ especially after I found out more about it.  I had hoped to just get an interview, so they could know who I was if something else opened up.  I hadn't heard anything back from them and didn't really expect to.  I got an out of the blue phone call last night offering me a job as a clinical instructor, which is really what I've thought about doing and think I would like to try at some point, so why not right?.

So I thought about it over night, and accepted this morning!!  It's part time, which is awesome, and I'm hoping it's not more than I can handle.  I have orientation tomorrow!  YIKES!  Pray I get awesome students.

It's scary thinking about all that lies ahead, so I have to just take one day at a time... "sweet Jesus".  I guess when something like this falls in your lap after saying, "Id take a job if it were like this..."  and then it is, what more can I wonder about?  I guess we're up for a new adventure, which is sort of what my restless mind has been looking for.  No turning back now.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

It's starting... the September hurry...

It came in the mail:  the big grad. student package with all "the stuff", the events that are going to happen, the calendar for the year, the credits and grad. info. and all the busyness of the school year fell into my lap.  I wasn't ready for it, and I'm still not. Grade 12!!! I spent some time putting all the important dates on the calendar and September is filling up, and fast.  But we still have 2 MORE WEEKS of summer!  I want to savor the last dusky days of the season.  To sit by the lake and feel the sun heat, to read more books than I have this summer, to stay up late with my teenagers making milkshakes and talking in the dark.  And I want more time with her.. this last year!? When did that happen?  When did she turn from pigtails and blonde curls to tall and lovely, thoughtful and thinking her own ideas?  It all just needs to slow down!  The world can stop spinning today for a bit and let me wait a little longer before some more change overtakes us.

So I will hold on to the moments I get with them before the busy season returns and I go back to work next week.  Some boring, long summer days will become more lasting and we'll cling on to them when they are the last few.  We'll take a walk by the river and maybe jump in, catch that drive in movie we haven't seen yet, go for ice cream one more time, swim in the lake before it's cold,  meet friends for supper at the beach, paint that bookshelf still waiting, do a hike in the wilderness before city life closes in.  What about you?  What's left of your summer list to hope to's?


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Family Time

Had some good times with the inlaws this past week.  The kids drove back from Alberta with Kevin's parents, and then the rest of the siblings joined us.

a LOT of volleyball action, all of Kevin's siblings played and all the teenagers play
Gramma, a bit of a texting addict at the beach

I love this kid...  drinking laying down? relax a little would you?

Erin and Morgan got into Uncle Cam's motorcycle gear! Village People?


Dinner time on my deck!

trip to the Kangaroo farm

Sebastien and the joey

Sam and the joey in his "pocket"

Erin, the animal whisperer as usual

hanging out in the pool

The Drew 5

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Alberta Trip

Erin and Jacob flew to Calgary and spent 9 days with all of the grandparents.  Erin took lots of photos, and I was happy because I could see what they had been up to.
A trip to the Calgary Zoo with cousins. 

 A ride on the Stettler steam train with both of the Grammas and their cousin.
 The train was robbed.

  I love this photo (below) of the girls together.  All the rest of the cousins are boys!

Riding the train

Our Moms ( looking shorter all the time) with Jacob and Morgan

I love this crazy pic of these 2!!

My gorgeous niece!
 They made a trip to a Creation museum.  I love that Erin took photos of every exhibit so she could read and study it all later. She just finished her Bio 12 "theory" of evolution unit.  She is a science nerd and I love it!

fish fossils


genealogy of King Henry VIII back to Adam

Erin and Papa in a corn maze somewhere in Central Alberta
They are home, made some great memories,  and life is back to normal for us :)  Kevin and I enjoyed some nice dinners out with and without friends, a few bike rides together, got some stuff done around this place, and realized we still enjoy each others' company.  All very good things.

Quiet.. the Power of Introverts in the World that can't Stop Talking

I can't wait to get into this book!  I caught wind of it somewhere, I don't remember where, and have been on the library wait list for about 3 months.  Now I have it in my hot little hands.

She discusses and I believe it's true that our society has created an "extrovert ideal" and that it's easier to function in this society, if you fit into it. So I can't wait to see what she has to say, and the research she's compiled.  With 2 or 3 introverts in my house, and me pretty much smack dab in the middle of the extroversion/introversion scale, depending on the situation, I think it'll be a good read.  Already it brought up some good discussion with the 1st chapter and some other introverted family members, like my brother in law, saying, "Ya that's me!" And feeling like it's OK to be that way, rather than feeling like you "should" be different.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Spokane or Bust

The kids have been in Alberta visiting all the sights, playing with cousins, taking steam engine trains across the prairies, and visiting the penguins at the zoo for the past week.  It's been awfully quiet around here.  We've been discussing what it'll be like to have an empty nest, but not for like 10 years!  And I don't like the idea ONE BIT!  We have had some needed alone time and also some fun.  We decided to head south and do some shopping cross border and scored some serious deals!  It also worked out that we had the same plan as our dear Calgary friends (what a fluke blessing!), so we met up there, and had an awesome time and peaceful dinners on restaurant patios!  It was also nice to send the boys shopping for screws and hardware and have someone in the Kohl's change room to analyze outfits with.  Not that Kevin can't do that, but not with the same interest or enthusiasm level.
We are in the midst of some home reno. projects, and hauled back 800 pounds of tile, as well as outdoor flooring for the deck, and a new bathroom vanity for 1/3 of the prices here.  That, and our cooler full of cheese and grocery stock up, and we were pretty close to our limits.  I'll post before/after photos, but it'll be awhile!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Here

I am not a writer, don't claim to be, don't want to be, but I do love the written word.  Something about the way some people can weaves stories into words that can evoke emotion in a quick moment... is really a gift.

So I'll try to put into story something on my head.  Inspired by "5 Minute Friday" where you are to write for 5 minutes on the topic she gives you and post it... for my 1st time ever:

Five Minute Friday


I could feel pain the moment I glanced her way, dripping from her like open wounds, starting to heal, but still so fresh. One small twist the wrong way and they could burst open again.  I wanted to be so HERE, in the moment, available, PRESENT.  I had asked, no begged God to let me be anything He needed me to be in that moment, that nothing in my pre-conceived mind would interfere with the grace He wanted to bestow and maybe possibly could through me.  Yet, right here I could see eyes thick with tears, the kind that make it so blurry you can't see through them, and yet they don't quite have the chance to fall.  My heart aches for the pain, the losses, the desire for a "do-over", looking into a broken heart and I want to be able to pick up the pieces. To sit all afternoon and put them back together, like the obsession I get with a jigsaw puzzle and not being able to stop until it's done.

That part of me comes from somewhere, wanting to make it right, wanting someone to sit with me all afternoon over lemonade, with real lemons floating circles around the glass until all the ice cubes melt. But that isn't my job, doing the puzzles, fixing.  But only to be here, live in this moment of time with what is right before me.   And I wonder how we can actually be more present for each other.  Make a difference to the hurt and share forgiveness and grace, fix our messes together.