Halloween party

Had a great time today taking picture at our ward Halloween party.

Dinner Club

Battle Plans

I'm such a nerd! I get excited about new notebooks and about ways to learn. I read a book this summer called Notice and Note. It is about sign posts to look for when you are reading...ways to work in close reading. I am going to try it out in my Battle of the Books team. Can't wait!

Bathroom Woes

Ever since schoo started there have been bathroom problems at our school. Now and then they have to close the boys. Then the girls. Sometimes the teachers bathroom too. Last week we had a day where no bathroom were usable and we had to go across the street to another school. The next day school was cancelled while they were working on the problem. As of Monday, we have no bathrooms or water. Instead, we have outhouses and a construction crew! 

I was totally stressed about it before  came in on Monday. It is going to be ok. Today at least was better than yesterday. Onward!!

Prayer

Today I got to play the piano in primary. They learned a song that was by President Hinckley about prayer:

Never forget to pray. 

Don't ever forget to pray. 

Kneel down every night and morning. 

Don't ever forget 

Don't ever forget

Don't ever forget to pray. 

This is the story behind it that I found online: At a meeting with the Primary General Board and President Hinckley, the General Primary President asked if there was a message President Hinckley wanted to share with the children of the church and he said, “Yes, tell them don’t ever forget to pray.” A member of the board was thinking about this council as she drove home from the meeting and a melody came to her. She stopped and jotted it down and the results are this song.  So it is a current message from our prophet to the Primary children.

It is a great message. I am humbled at how even though I am not perfect at always remembering to pray morning and night, he still answers my prayers. If been praying for Uncle Allen with his work. We have experienced the windows from heaven opening up! It is a great blessing. His business will really grow because of all of this. 

I also pray every day for my students. I have a bit of a challenging class this year. They are good kids. Some of them having some learning difficulties that stump me.  I don't have a lot f answers yet but I have really been aware of how I have been blessed with a real feeling of love for and patience with these kids. 

When I was a missionary I took great comfort in knowing people were praying for missionaries all the time. I hope you are feeling that strength. We are praying for to you!

Dawn

First Aid

Front: Ingrid, Pat, Regan, Swita

Back:Heather H, Heather D, Tanya W, me, Sam L, Leona L, Margaret A, Tara F, Jocelyn K

Had a great day  today with all these dummies!

Volleyball

I love going to watch Pierce play volleyball. He really loves the sport, loves being on the team and loves tournaments! I'm so happy for him.

Gift of Time

Our school has been having a lot of trouble with the sewage system since the year began. They decided it is time to do some serious fixing and gave us the day off tomorrow so they could work in the problem.

Yea for ishoos!!

Book Club

I love being part of grade three book club. Today I got to hand out all these books. It is a great story. You should read it too!

Gratitude

Since it is Thanksgiving here, I thought I would share a few things I'm grateful for: 

Safe travels: We drove down to Lethbridge and had turkey dinner with Grandma on Sunday. When we woke up Sunday morning, there was a heavy blanket of snow all over Calgary. AMA said the roads past Calgary were bare though so off we went. Apparently, AMA isn't all knowing. They were wrong. The roads were terrible!! The snow was relentless. It is still snowing. I really need a good yoga class now to get rid of all the stress from fish tailing and feeling like we were about to go into the ditch again and again. It should all melt this week though. Thank goodness there are highs of 15 degrees coming up!

Cousins: Jill has gone to Utah for a week with her Ackroyd grandparents. Her cousin, Maren, who lives in Provo, is leaving on a mission to Brazil. They went down for her farewell. We also got to visit other Ackroyd cousins this weekend. They were happy cousins catching up on each others' news, taking pictures, and watching old home videos. 

Inspiring Ancestors: While we were visiting cousins, Nana and Grandpa Ackroyd shared some stories from their family history. One story was about Grandpa Ackroyd's family arrived in Raymond on July 1, 1901: the day of the first Raymond stampede. Imagine pulling into Raymond, right behind the parade? Quite the welcome! They had been living in Bear Lake, Idaho. One Sunday their name was read over the pulpit from a list of families who were being asked to sell everything and move to Canada to help set up the irrigation system. Not everyone agreed to do it, but they did. It was hard. They settled some land and did volunteer work digging ditches and building roads. That is how they paid their taxes. The first winter they lived in a house where you could see the outside through the boards. Brrrr! It wasn't easy to come and get setup in a new country but they were willing to do hard things. 

Ether 12:27 "...my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Thanksgiving

Pierce learned to carve a turkey 

Post dinner recovery 

We have a driver!

 She did it!

Jordan's Going to Guatemala!

Oops. Allen and Peirce got cropped out. I'll blame Gaylene. I "borrowed" the picture from her Facebook page.

Tonight was Jordan's last night at home! We went to the Boyer's and had FHE together. I made a Kahoot game with questions about Guatemala and his mission. It was a lot of fun.

Mornings

I've always been a morning person. I still am. I often find I'm up before everyone else in our house, especially on weekends. I love the quiet of the mornings. I like love how the sun streams in, warming me as I read. I love mornings. 

Volleyball

Peirce is playing volleyball this year and loving it!

They have played two games. The won one and lost one. They also played in a tournament at Crescent this weekend. Let's just say they learned a lot.