Calgary and Invermere

Aaah Calgary-I really like Calgary, I like the cold crisp weather, I like the tall pine trees, I like the lack of traffic and I love the Rocky mountains which are just down the road.
We spent the weekend with Andrew's sister Michelle, her husband, Andrew and her little boy, Matthew. We spent Thursday in Calgary and spent time with Andrew's Uncle Steven and Auntie Esther. We had great Dim Sum and did some shopping in the local asian market T&T.
On Friday we traveled to Invermere, B.C. to the McBride's newly built cabin by the lake. We had such a nice time. Their house is in the middle of a wooded area, a short walk from the beautiful lake/beach. They have a very nice delux hot tub at the back of the cabin-great for relaxing after a hard day in the mountains :)
On Saturday night we went out for dinner in a Scottish pub and there was a band there playing Irish music. I started chatting to one of the band members and it turned out he was from Kerry and they sang 'The Irish Rover' for me because it was a Cork song :) It was very nice to sit and listen and feel nostalgic about being Irish.
Andrew told Matthew some bible stories while we were there. He told him a story about 'The Good Shepherd' and he told him a story about Mr. Noah and the ark. On Sunday Matthew came into my room with Andrew's bible and proceeded to tell me stories from him it. Be careful how you tell a 3 year old stories:

"I'll tell you a story about Mr. Noah Sharon. Mr. Noah shut the door of the ark and wouldn't let any of the people or any of the animals on the ark. They were all in the water (this is from seeing a picture in his children's bible of animals and people drowning in the flood). Then Mr. Noah hit the Bad Shepherd with his stick. And then the Good Shepherd was on the ark and he saw some bad wolves on a mountain so he hit them with the ark"

Matthew tells a great story! :)

Bits 'n Bobs

So here are a couple of the things I've been up to recently...

Calvin and Tiffany's wedding with Andrew and Amy



Me with the state bird



Andrew amusing himself



Dim Sum with John



Angels of Anaheim with John



The three of us went to the Hollywood Bowl to watch a Henry Mancini memorial concert

Laguna Beach Pictures

back row, from left: Me, Ricky, Tim, Jon
front row: Sabrina, Patti, Mr. and Mrs. Harris


Natalie, Me, Tammy, Sabrina


Erick and Andrew - two handsome guys

Memorial Day Weekend - Laguna Beach

I had such an enjoyable long weekend this past weekend. Andrew and I went with our bible study "310". We stayed in self catering apartments which, surrounded by mountainous landscape that could be seen from our windows-such a change from LA!

The greatest thing about this weekend though was the Word of God. Greg Harris, who wrote the book 'The Darkness and the Glory' was the speaker.
All weekend we heard about the cross. I was convicted by a deeper understanding of what Christ did as He set His face as a flint and went to the cross for me. It was so lovely to spend each day hearing more about the Lord Jesus and that full and perfect work that He wrought on the cross and then to spend time reading the book (which Dr. Harris gave us)and talk with others about the heights and depths of what God has done for us. It was one of the best 'camps' I've been to.

Now I'm back to the grindstone for three more weeks. Next week the elementary section of SMMS is performing "Anansi the Spider and the Middle Passage". Khendyl (my colleague) and I are pretty much doing everything including making costumes so we're up the walls at the moment. I'm looking forward to our performance though. Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos (I really need a point and shoot camera of my own).
The week after that is the final week of school before the summer program. That week will probably be a week of fun events and little to no school work. I can't believe another school year has passed by again!
No long holidays for me anymore though! This year will be summer school!! I'm kind of looking forward to it though because there's time to help children catch up if they need that and a lot more extra curricular activities can be done.
Anyway that's the latest update, I will try to get some photos...

Snowing in Mammoth!

We had a really lovely weekend out of LA and in the snow. Just 2 hours from the sunny city of LA it snows. We traveled about 5 hours north of LA to Mammoth which is pretty close to Yosemite National Park. There was a fresh fall of 5 feet of snow the day before we arrived and it was like a whole world away from LA.




I snowboarded for the very first time. I tried going down the slope on my own the first time and I met a guy on the way down who was an instructor and he gave me a free lesson :) He told me that I had lots of 'athletic energy' and that it was kind of surprising that I hadn't snowboarded before cos I was already doing S's. I kept thinking he was talking to someone else :P Anyway I loved the snowboarding and I even think I may prefer it to skiing :)



















On our way back from skiing we got to enjoy the amazing scenery of this part of California. We stopped in one town called 'Lone Pine Tree'. It was like a scene out of a wild west movie. It was so nice. I could have spent a lot more time there. As we drove through the countryside I kept thinking what it must have been like for the first Californian settlers as they traveled through this wilderness in their covered wagons to set up homes and and start communities. When you live in the West of America the 'Wild West' takes on a whole new significance.




















It seems like California has everything one could want in the recreational realm-from beaches to ski slopes! Life is tough! :)

Click here for the full album

Cold in LA and other ramblings...

Today it is cold in LA/Santa Monica...I had to turn the heating on in my classroom. I have the AC on now though, cos it got too warm. It's a quiet week this week because it a three day week and on Wednesday we're having a big Thanksgiving feast in the school, which I'm really looking forward to. Then it's off to Calgary on Thursday morning, which apparantly is the right time to go because traffic on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving is always the busiest in the year...I dread trying to just get home from work...
I don't know if I have enough warm clothes for Calgary. We may go ice skating or skiing!! I have a big bruise on my knee from ice skating on Saturday which I'm rather proud of, but I should probably try to not bang my knees on the ice too much... I may need to borrow some warm clothes from my Canadian friend. We Irish people aren't too into our warm clothes despite the weather we usually have :)

Weekend

I'm off for the weekend to San Francisco. Andrew's sister Michelle and her husband and little boy will be there. Andrew's other sister Amy lives in San Fran as well so it will be a little sibling get together that I'll be tagging along with :) Andrew's very excited to be seeing his nephew again. I'm looking forward to sizing up Naomi's future husband-they've been matched since birth :P

Andrew and Sharla Fanous Wedding

Andrew and I were at a wedding in Ottawa. Here are some photos:

Mexico

So today I visited Mexico for the first time. It was a very short visit and I was just relieved at the end of it all that they allowed me back over the border!
We had a very interesting visit to a factory run by a Messianic Jew. It's late now so I'll hopefully give you all the details of my story another time along with photographs...