Graduation

Today many of my students graduated from ESLI. Most will be entering into an English-speaking university in just a few weeks. At certain points during the ceremony I found myself just brimming over with pride. They have worked so hard. I just had to share some photos of my wonderful students.



Above is our valedictorian giving his speech. He encouraged his classmates to continue on in their studies with diligence, something that he has more of than anyone else I have ever met.



The graduating class!



Yes, this past semester has been a ton of work but my students are worth it.

Looking for a new Christmas movie?

Check out "The Shop Around the Corner" from 1940.



Yes, it does have good old Jimmy Stewart in it! It's the movie that was remade into "You've Got Mail" - but I think this oldie is definitely the goodie!

Looking Back to the Good Old Days

Do you ever feel like half your day is spent in front of the computer screen? I know I do. Looking for activities to do in class, creating a test, recording grades - and that's only at school! Then I get home and need to check email, pay bills, shop for Christmas gifts, search for recipes, and, er, update our blog.

Well, today I was reminded of the good old days. Remember how in first grade there was that one special day when you got to go to the computer lab and do fun things like paint and practice typing your name? Then second and third grade came around and you were blessed with two computer lab days: plenty of time to get your math facts down with Number Munchers! Fourth and fifth grade, I know, were most students' favorite computer lab years because of the original Oregon Trail game.

At work today one of my colleagues gave me resources for teaching John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" ON A FLOPPY DISK! We weren't able to find any way to retrieve the resources from the dated data receptacle, but it really took me back.

The Grey Cup

For all of you football lovers, this blog post is for you. We all know what the Superbowl is, but what is the Grey Cup? It's the CFL (Canadian Football League) version of the Superbowl. This year the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes were pitted against each other. Watch what happened:



Yeah, can you believe it? Poor Saskatchewanites.

Proud & Strong Supporter

Our Sunday School memory verse today was Acts 17:25b in the NIV:

He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

The lone male first grader asked,

"Does He give that to girls too?"

Yes, most definitely yes.

THIS is why I am a proud & strong supporter of the TNIV.

Feliz Navidad

Our friends Dohnson & Dok Joo have been introducing us to Korean food lately, so today was our turn to have them for North American food: tacos & cookies!



Here's "Little John" with his taco. He eventually decided he preferred soft shells as hard shells are too much like crackers.



Joseph really mastered the "turn your head and bite" style of taco eating! He also invented his own taco variety - taco meat, a little cheese, and apple slices :)



The kids groaned when I told them they had to help make dessert, but when they found out that meant decorating Christmas cookies, they were all for it. Here's Una with her cookie snowman.



Dok Joo's cookie was the prettiest of them all. What technique!



Dohnson's hobby is photography, so he got us to take this picture. Isn't it fun?



Afterwards, we used up our sugar-energy with games of Guesstures and Sorry. It was such a great day.

Baker Sighting!

We've had 22 days of straight rain. Ugh. Even though it doesn't beat the record, it's a long time. Yet today there were blue/grey skies AND you could see Mount Baker in Washington! Let me tell you, it was a real emotional lifter!

Two Random Things I've Learned Lately

1) Pineapple Express - Admit it, when you first read this, did you think it was a new kind of drink or some kind of crazy train something-or-other? When my colleague first started talking about this, I thought that she was for sure pulling my leg! Well, it's a real thing and it's a BIG DEAL here on the West Coast. Rather than trying to explain it using the correct terminology, I'll let you look it up.

A quick explanation is that it is a certain type of front that comes from down by Hawaii and brings huge amounts of precipitation to B.C. In two days we received twice as much rain as we normally get in November. In the mountains they get snow but a pineapple express also brings warm weather, so the fear is the snow will melt, causing huge flooding issues. Tack that onto the fact that this November has fully lived up to being the wettest month of the year up here, and you know the umbrellas have been out in full force.

2) Yam vs. Sweet Potato - These two foods have always intrigued me. A can of sweet potatoes shows orange root vegetables, but every grocery store/farmer's market I've frequented have the orange root vegetables labeled as yams and the brown-skinned ones are labeled sweet potatoes. I like to buy fresh but I'm never sure which ones to buy!

So I looked it up. Low and behold, you can't buy true yams in North America! (At least not in regular stores - probably can in stores that sell produce from all over the world.) There are actually two kinds of sweet potatoes - the light brown variety and the orange-flesh variety. The USDA actually allows the orange variety to be called yams to help with differentiation, but they aren't true yams. True yams grow in Asia, Africa, South America, and Oceania - and can grow up to 8 feet long. Imagine buying one and carrying it home!

Now I can buy the orange variety and know that I'm buying the real deal.

A Weekend with Family

We just spent the last three days with John's brother, Ethan, and his great family - Anika, Anamarie & Amelia. An afternoon was spent in Langley and then we headed to Vancouver!



One of our first stops was at Capilano Suspension Bridge. You've heard of Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge many times, but this bridge is double the length - 140 meters! Once you cross the canyon, you find yourself with many trails you can follow. Our favorite was the Treetop Adventures, where you get to walk on more bridges up in the trees.



Our hotel was the Fairmont Hotel. Quite a luxury for us - yay for travel agent rates! We had a great view from our room:



Look at what was waiting for us!



You know you're in Vancouver when your hotel bathroom has a permanent umbrella stand in it.



Believe it or not, the Fairmont Vancouver has two resident dogs!



It's November, so we experienced cold and wet weather. Check out how Anamarie survived the rain.



There were respites from the rain, however, like when we were at Lonsdale Quay Market.



We ate awesome food all weekend, ranging from fresh fish to delicious Chinese to scrumptious pasta. Of course we stopped at La Casa Gelato for some dessert! Despite all the choices, Amelia & Anamarie easily made up their minds - Cotton Candy & Bubble Gum.



Thank you so much for coming to visit us, EAA&A!

Annual October Visit

Tradition, tradition!

A much loved song in our household! John's mother has told me that she had to be extremely careful to do anything new when John was little because he & his brother would announce it was tradition and his mother had to do it that way from then on. Since we've moved so much since we got married, we ourselves haven't been very good at starting traditions. However we were excited to have John's dad start a tradition for us: his annual October visit!

He was here two weekends ago - you know, the weekend with the Packers vs. Vikings game and the World Series. We spent lots of time watching sports and playing cards. The sunshine on Saturday did call us outside, and we went east to Cultus Lake. I absolutely loved how the path was COVERED with leaves.



Being in the Northwest the leaves were damp, so no crunching...
but who cares? There were so many!



Below shows you what a lot of trees look like in the parks.
The moss is incredible.



A macro shot for you.



The view of Cultus Lake from the top of Teapot Hill



While I worked on Monday, John & TomDad went to Vancouver. They toured around like they like to. The funny thing? They went shopping for boating supplies!

Tarnished Silver Jewelry? Read on...

Saturday night I went through my jewelry box, to reorganize it and to of course learn the depressing news of which earrings have lost their matches. Ugh.

Anyways, I have a few nice pieces of silver jewelry that were no longer wearable because they were so tarnished. In short, coal black. I decided it was time to take care of that because, well, what else does one have to do on a Saturday night?

Here's what you do:

Boil water. While it's getting hot, place a piece of aluminum foil in a glass pan and put the silver jewelry on it. Pour the boiling water over the jewelry. Then, sprinkle a little baking soda on top of the water. Now watch.

It's unbelievable. Within twenty seconds, the jewelry looked new again. You have to witness this chemical reaction!

Leave the jewelry in for five to ten minutes. Then, take it out and wash the jewelry with a bit of dish soap. Enjoy your shiny accessories!

Live Webcam: John in the Library

Here I am, deep in thought and hard at work in the library.

Who is Breader Pedder?

This was the question I was asked a few days ago in my beginning ESL class. Breader Pedder? As you can imagine, I needed a bit more information.

• "He's old. Lots of hair on face."
  
• Hmmm.... I needed a bit more.
  
• Amidst a jumble of Mandarin I hear "beautiful girlfriend."
  
• Um, Angelina Jolie?
  
• "Yes!"
  
• Brad Pitt?
  
• "Aah, Brad Pitt! Yes, Brad Pitt."

Never knew Brad Pitt's alias was Breader Pedder, now did you?

Back at the Cafe!

What's on the table tonight? Well, John is enjoying my favorite: a turtle moo. What is it? It's a steamer with a shot of chocolate and a shot of caramel. Takes me back to my ski team days. My cup? What a bummer it is to order spiced cider, get the cup, take a sip, and discover it's from a mix. Still warm though...

So yes, we've made it back. Before the updates some have been asking for, let me share good news. Internet is being hooked up in 8 days. My wonderful husband was patiently persistent and finally got through to someone (the 5th person he talked to) who could run an American credit check. That means we'll be able to talk on the phone again...we've missed you and your voices!

Next thing: pics of our new place. We took some and then enjoyed it would be much more fun to make a video. Sorry about the bad lighting. We get so much light from the huge windows during the day and there's lots of light at night for us but it of course looks different through the lens. Enjoy...



A few additions that must be made to the video's commentary:
1) Did you notice the windows?
2) How about the dishwasher?
3) The full-length mirrors are great for John's daily moonwalking practice session.
4) Anybody notice the windows? Not as notable when the blinds are closed, but they're there!
5) Outside our front door is a patio, a small lovely backyard that we get to ourselves, and a grill that we get to use!
6) We forgot to mention the storage closet - great for all that stuff we used to store in the 2nd bedroom.
7) Did I mention the windows?

We're really loving the place. Our old home was very nice but ever since we moved I've realized how down I felt and how little motivation we had to really do anything. There's really something to bright sunlight!

It's been awhile...

Since we moved 20 days ago, we've been living without internet. That really cuts down the time one has for blogging! Tonight we decided to go over to a nice coffee shop and fill you in on what's been going on in our lives. Make sure to check the posts that follow this, as I loaded them by the date the events happened instead of all on today!

Coming soon - photos of our new abode!

The Cranberry Festival

The area we live in supplies Ocean Spray with many of its cranberries, so there's the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival to celebrate the fact! It's actually quite fun. Last year we attended but only had a short time to walk around because I had to go cook at Earl's. Well, today we experienced the whole thing!

Have you ever seen a field like this and thought "Well, they say it's a cranberry bog but I really don't see any berries?"


You have to take a closer look.


When the berries are ready to harvest, then the bogs are flooded. The machine below - a beater - then drives through the field to separate the berries from their runners, and up they float.


Then all the cranberries are pulled together using this rubber band.


Then they are sucked out of the bog, washed, and the process of turning them into juice begins. Did you know that 95% of all cranberries grown are used for juice? The other 5% are used as fresh cranberries in products, turned into wine, dried into delicious snacks, or...


used to create a cranberry bratwurst! Believe it or not - absolutely delicious.

More Midwest Visitors!

My parents and sister came and visited us at the end of September. The first thing we had to do was celebrate Dad's birthday - I'll just let you guess how old he is from the fire on top of his apple pie!


They'd already been on the West Coast for a week visiting family and friends, but Mom, John, & I were amazed that Dad & Katie could both fall asleep on our coach! They slept this way for a good hour and a half.


While touring around Vancouver, we spent some time at some new spots. The first - La Casa Gelato! This restaurant has over 400 recipes for gelato, and there are always 218 kinds available for you to choose. This is not the place you want to go if you're indecisive. They do give lots of samples. One to stay away from - curry. Trust me on that one.


Not your typical picture of the city from Stanley Park!


The other place we explored a bit more was Coal Harbor. This is where the seaplanes take off from and land, where the Olympics broadcasting will take place, and where some great boats reside. A fun photo of Katie.


We found these HUGE yet comfortable chairs along the harbor. Designed for Paul Bunyan, they are easy to share.


We ate a bunch of good food while they were here - thanks for all the meals Mom & Dad - but one that was especially fun to go to was Earl's. We were already quite full from fish and chips but we headed over there for dessert anyways. It was fun to show them and have them enjoy two of the dishes that I used to make from scratch!


Thanks so much for coming! We'd love to have you again if you're ever out here again!

The Fruit of Fall

Don't you just love this time of year?

The PNE

Summer was drawing to an end, so we had to do something to celebrate summer while we could! What better way than attend the Pacific National Exhibition, the big fair in BC? We headed off to Vancouver and were soon taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. The best animals we saw were Babe the Blue Ox's descendants. They obviously haven't been trapped in any snowstorms, however, as they are still white.


What would a fair be without the food? John thoroughly enjoyed his freshly made corn dog.


Being the OREO lover that I am, having them deep fried was an opportunity I wasn't going to miss! They were good, but dunking them in milk is still the way to go.


You know my husband - he can't pass up donuts, especially not fresh mini donuts!


Believe it or not, the food wasn't the big draw for us. We'd been hearing about the RCMP Musical Ride all summer, and they were performing at the PNE that weekend. The RCMP Musical Ride is "a formal event showcasing the equestrian skills performed by thirty-two cavalry who are regular Members of the Force" (Wikipedia). It's like a drum corps but with 32 horses. It was actually really amazing.

Is Summer Over?

Instead of attending class this year, John'll be researching and writing his thesis. That means he gets to choose when to start school. Now some of us might wait until others started school but not John! He chose to start today. Here's our "first day of school" picture of him:


I'm not quite ready for summer to end, though, so when he got home I took him out for one of our favorite treats since college. McDonald's fries dipped in their vanilla ice cream - yum.

Berry Math

1 bee sting + 2 hours + 3 spider scares + 4 cups of sugar =

BLACKBERRY JAM!