Inspiring Old Friends

Tonight Allen and I attended our stake's High Priest dinner and fireside. Mmmmm! Chinese food! Love it!

Even better than the Chinese food thoug, they had Lynn Rosenvall speak about his research on the geography of the Book of Mormon.  I have heard him speak on this topic before and I especially love watching how animated and excited he gets about it. He knows so much and has done some amazing work. When I listen to him it find myself wanting to be a more dedicated student, not only of scriptures and doctrine, but many other things too.

President Rosenvall's son, David, was a friend of mine in University. David has accomplished some amazing things. He basically created the online scriptures that the church uses and is currently responsible for all things involved with technology in the church. I remember so well when he was working on electronic scriptures. Who would have thought that the church would totally adopt what he had created? It is amazing.

I am amazed at the things some of the people I know have accomplished. I remember Brother Bennion speaking once at the institute and he said that the people we were rubbing shoulders with then would become our life long friends and that we would look back on those days as the formative days of our life. I never could have imagined how true that could be.

Month 3 ....Failure

I wasn't even that close. I didn't make my 100 km this month. I only did 44 km. That's terrible! Actually, I kind of gave up.

Allen has turned the taxing of kids over to me, which has really messed up walking home from school. Then there was tons of rain - really bad for my hair. We also got a van, so now I have ease of driving to school myself. I'm having to figure out a new way to fit walking into my schedule.

Looking forward to June! I will do 100km in June for sure!

100 Year Celebration Open House

Peirce's school is 100 years old. Tonight they had a centennial open house. What a celebration it was! They had displays all over the school - a museum of sorts. The children have been doing a lot of learning about King George, Calgary's history, and the history of their school. They've painted, made videos, sculptures, and written reports. Tonight they had a man who seemed like a historian of sorts speak and show a slide show of interesting historical facts. We learned so much! They must have advertised as they had LOTS of people show up who were alumni of the school. One man, a veteran in a wheelchair, even showed up who was the principal there in the 40s. They encouraged the alumni to write down memories and they even had someone in a classroom interviewing the alumni who were willing, to record their stories and memories. It was amazing!



Peirce got to share his presentation again as well.

Oldify!

Someone at work has an app called Oldify. Apparently this is what I'll look like when I'm 65.

Oh. My. Hell.

Perhaps I'll stop smoking and suntanning now. :)

Coaching

Jill's year of coaching has come to an end. It's always nice to be able to do something you love. It's even nicer when people think you do a great job and love you.



Presents! Necklaces and gift cards to some of her favorite places to eat!


And gratitude.

So fun for her!

Bugs

It's Spring. We're into bugs in my classroom.

It started with the bee. One girl found it. Everyone was fascinated with it so I put it in a bag and stuck it to the bulletin board.

Then today someone found a beautiful moth (which we're actually calling a butterfly). So we put it in a bag and stuck it to the board.



My guess is tomorrow we'll have a bunch more. The spark has started!

Sunday Off

Today we had a Sunday off. Allen went to his early morning meeting, but then he came home and we went to a baby blessing for his cousin, Virginia's little girl. It was so nice to sit through sacrament meeting not thinking about my lesson coming up. It was nice to go to Sunday School and just listen. Then we went to RS. They were having their VTing Conference. They had a short short lesson and then had a brunch! Score! What a relaxing lovely Sunday!

To top it off, after church we went to Virginia's house and had a family dinner. It was so nice to catch up on what is happening in their lives. Even better, we plan to do it again on a regular basis. We have quite a lot of family in Calgary, but everyone seems to have enough immediate family connections that we don't have family dinners with anyone very much. We plan to do this more with them in the future. It is going to be great!

Creative Peirce

Peirce is so creative. He made me the cutest little card/book for Mother's Day. He also made one for Grandma.

Mother's Everywhere

Lately I try to walk while my kids are at swim practice. It makes sense to walk while I am waiting for them. Today I decided, instead of doing my normal route around the pool neighborhood, I would drive over to a neighborhood where I haven't walked a lot and check our houses and yards. It was delightful.

I soon realized I was near Queen's Park Cemetery so I decided to walk through there and visit Destiny's gravesite. It's funny how I still can't do that without a good cry. It is such a beautiful spot - right next to a playground. I am happy with the spot.

The area has really grown in the number of headstones. It made my heart ache a little more. I vowed that I am going to get the money together to get her a headstone.

I was amazed at the number of headstones for stillborn babies. They always just have one date and often say "born silently". I wondered about those mothers and how they're doing with the loss. I feel a bond with women who have had stillborn babies. We hold an ache that never goes away.

Tonight, I came across a poem while catching up on Kirby Larsen's blog. It is written by a child. Perhaps even animal mothers know the heartache.

Mission Accomplished!

One of the major tasks Jill and I had planned for this weekend was to get a dress for her Gr. 9 farewell. She cooked up this idea to put a new bodice on a dress she wore seven years ago or so to David and Crystal's wedding. Crazy thing: the waist still fits her.

It seemed like kind of a fun idea. So we headed out today to Fabricland and we to start sewing. However, along the way we came across this dress shop in an industrial area. They had a sign out saying everything was 50%. Perfect!

 They specialize in those huge fancy dresses for grads and weddings.....really not what we were looking for. I detest those kind of dresses. Movie stars look great in them. I think most mere mortals look ridiculous in them.

We kept going deeper into the store though (I'm terrible for taking a step into a store, sizing up what is available from my first minute, and doing a 360 and moving onto the next store.....I call it efficiency shopping!) 

In the back of the store we found a rack of cute dresses that might work. I forced Jill into trying on a few (I think she shops a little like me....no sense trying something on unless you are REALLY sure it is a ringer for a purchase). They were so cute! One in particular was perfect, and only $50! We asked if they could hold it for her, and they wouldn't. 

Fine. Off we went to Fabricland. While we were at Fabricland we decided why spend all the time sewing this crazy creation and risk it not working out when there was this cute dress waiting - no sewing required! We went back, grabbed it, and sped off. Mission accomplished! I loved how efficient it all was too! Now that is my kind of shopping! No hours perusing the mall. No trips to the US to check out unique stores. Nope. First store. First dress. Done!  Love it!

P.S. I will post pics soon!

A New Perspective

I have stuck to my goal of being a walker for 11 months now. Three months ago I decided I set a new goal to walk 100 km every month. It has been going quite well. I can honestly say it has become part of my routine. It is just what I do and 100 km isn't even that hard! It is just very daily.

For the past 11 months we have been a one car family. That has helped me walk. When I need to, I walk to the grocery store. I walk home from work. I walk to the library. It has been great. I haven't minded just having one vehicle because walking has been a real benefit. Recently, though, we got a second vehicle. Wow! There are so many more things I can do now!

While I really have loved it, it has been an adjustment.  I seem to have to learn all over again how to fit walking into my daily schedule. I was feeling kind of discouraged today. I got up today and did 5 km and was feeling down about it because I am only at 27 km this month. As I looked over my stats on DailyMile.com I got a new perspective.

Last summer, I did 90 km in August, and it just about killed me. I would walk 5k and then come home and go back to bed! And there were months this past year where I did 25-30 km all month.

As I looked over the past year's stats I got a new perspective. I have come a long way baby!! And I am excited about it!

Now, I better get out there and do 5 more!

I Love Libraries

Recently I've read a few blog posts about loving libraries. I totally understand the sentiment. I was asked if I'd like to serve on a committee this year called "Learning Commons" (the new term for libraries) and I jumped at the chance. Yesterday a friend of mine posted some pictures on facebook from a school they visited in Europe (her husband is being transferred there). I found them totally inspiring. This isn't a shhhhh kind of library!! It looks like a place that kids would really like to hang out.

School? Fun?

In all the hustle and bustle of everyone coming into the school this morning one great one student jubilantly exclaimed, "It's learning time!"

Another student frowned and said, "Too bad. I like video games better, I think."

Heritage Fair

Today Peirce got to be part of a Heritage Fair. He did some interviewing of his grandparents to find out how some of his ancestors came to Alberta. He wrote about Frank and Justina Banman who came from Russia, about Anthon Marius Jensen who came from Denmark and Walter Ackroyd who came from England. Many of the other presentations were about other areas of interest in Alberta history. It was quite a lot of fun!



All of the kids were recognized for the work they did putting their presentations together.


They got to shake the hand of a colonel in WWII.




There were a lot of kids from Peirce's school there!


Even Mayor Nenshi came and checked things out. Peirce got to tell him about his research and Mayor Nenshi said he was very proud of Peirce and told him how his parents came to Alberta.


He was one proud boy!


Great job Peirce!

Reading Motivation

Best comment of the day today from a student who was absent yesterday while I was also gone to a workshop:

Me: I heard you were sick yesterday. Are you feeling better?
Student: Ya...and I would have stayed home today too but it's Book Club so I wanted to come.

Love that!!