First Snow is Today...We Think

At least that is what the weather network says.  It definitely feels cold enough outside.  Inside we are warm and cozy though. :-)  And Pearl is feeling well again...even perky.  Last Sunday was a different story.  She came down with a bout of hemorragic intestine infection.  That means when the infection is so bad, blood enters the intestine.  She was really looking bad by the time I got her to the vet, but was put on the right meds immediately and with a few days was really looking good.  Another week of antibiotics and she should be back on track.  I posted a pic of her though when she just needed to sleep a lot.  She is waiting it out sleeping in the duvet.

Everything else though is going well.  Work is great.  I really am thankful to Jehovah for providing a place where I enjoy going everyday.  This week has been a bit trying though as I have a Saudi in my class who has been very privileged in life.  As I have said before, the Saudis are generally my favorite students because they are very devout, and I of course appreciate that quality in a person, and they have been sheltered from the rest of the world so there is something different about them in their outlook on life.  However, if you get an arrogant one, it is usually arrogance to an extreme.  Soooo...there is Aqhmed.  He has spent the last several weeks asking me how I cannot recognize his excellent quality of speech. :-/  And how I cannot elevate him to the highest level. :-/  The other day I did an oral reading test at which time I listen intently to recordings of the students' voices and circle any pronunciation errors they make so they know exactly what to work on.  After he received his sheet back he came to me and said as usual "I disagree". :-(  When I see him rising from his seat I can usually predict what words he is going to say.  He then proceeded to tell me that he didn't make any pronunciation errors and he wanted to listen again with me. (Bad idea).  I jested with him at first and said that if we listened together and I heard any pronunciation errors for every circle on the paper he would have to pay me $1000.  He responded that this deal would be acceptable. Considering there were about 30 circles on the paper this would have been my opportunity to make a years salary.  But when I realized he was more than serious I read him the riot act and sent him back to his seat.  Grrrr...anyway, Ahqmed, tells me I am his favorite teacher because I have high standards for him but there are a few crazy little moments along the way where I just need to clench my teeth and say nothing for five minutes.  He has told me before at most colleges and unis even in Canada because the Saudis are "money pits" they basically get whatever they want and now he has someone saying no to him everyday and it is hard.  I tell him almost daily that when he leaves my class he "will speak BEAUTIFUL English and work hard to achieve it!"  Slowly I think he is realizing I am serious.

We had an absolutely wonderful one day assembly yesterday.  The speakers were great but especially Brother Clark from the Canada Bethel.  I have 5 pages of notes just from his talks alone because he has a fabulous way and putting points across.  Very motivating.  :-)

Now today, it is time to be lazy and go through the notes again.   And I hope all of you can have some lazy moments today too. :-)

Love to all,
d :-)

Busy Busy Getting Ready For Winter

Wow!  Time really does fly.  It is cold here now.  I have spent the last four weekends getting ready for winter.  Within a month it will likely snow so I feel like I really have to get all this done.  I was telling my mom yesterday that after this weekend I just want to be able to do things on the weekends that don't revolve around winterizing - like enjoy service, have more time for meeting preparation, read a great book do a hobby, fun stuff. :-)  After today I think that will be possible.  Mom with her keen eye found me some carpet so we are laying that today through the entire unit.  This is the last item necessary to make this into a wonderful little warm cave for the winter months.  Everything else has been tucked away.  Oh one last thing is waiting...the kayak.  But I have a plan for that - going to slip it under the unit and let it stay all cozy under there until the weather gets warm again. :-)

Harvey and Pearl are gradually adjusting to the colder weather.  Harvey and I are pretty much on our own for the morning walks though.  When I hold up the leash Pearl runs to the bedroom and crawls under the covers, but she is all hyper and happy for the afternoon walks when the sun is out.  I guess the appeal of walking when it is black out and cold at 5:30 in the morning just isn't there for her.  Wish I could go later for the little coot, but gotta keep on schedule due to work.

Biking to work is still going good and saving huge on the gas bills.  Have to say though the other morning when I was riding at -4 it was a tad chilly on the toes - when I got to mile 10 I could feel it.  I have some sheepskin in the cupboard though and am thinking I will sew some toe mitts.  Really they were the only part of my body that was feeling the chill.  I want to go as long as I can though because I feel so good when I arrive.  It probably sounds laughable but the cold air for an hour in the morning really makes a person feel alive.  However, my students say that the skin on my cheeks doesn't turn back to a normal colour until mid morning. :-/

The little guy that was living with me is gone now.  It was great having him around.  We made a bunch of videos of him having fun because it was all new for him. so here is the last one we shot.  My mom taught him how to ride a bike the first day he was here, and by the end he had become a master. Just really happy I was able to give him six excellent weeks of life.

Okay, should get running.  Lots to do. :-)  There is one last video I am including here because I believe the message behind it...doesn't matter if it applies to our goals in the Truth of just how we live life.  Hope everyone has a wonderful week...or month. :-)

Love to all,
d :-)

The Oregon Coast Was Just Wonderful!

Hey hi everyone! :-)

Everything is going just great here.  We got back from tenting on the Oregon Coast a few days ago.  Couldn't have gone better.  We took off from Kelowna on a Friday morning and drove down to Lake Chelan.  It was just beautiful - crystal blue water and hot hot weather.  Totally loved it and would go there again.  It was hot all the way through Oregon and only dropped down to the 70s once we hit Nehelem Bay.  Beautiful State campground.  Economical, but a fabulous place to stay.  Free entertainment for everyone in the park in the evenings, and a free junior ranger program each day for the kids.  It also had paved roads for the kids to ride their bikes, and endless beach for walking.  I got up early in the mornings and walked Harvey and Pearl way down the beach.  Pearly got so tired that I had to carry her back in her little pack.  Mom and Dad, and Mike and Marcelle and their kids, Jack and Paulina and their kids and Sabrina and her kids were there so there was tons of association for everyone.

We took off from there the following Friday and drove to Seattle then did shopping on Saturday and drove straight through and arrived late Saturday night in Kelowna.  Couldn't have been a better trip.  :-)

We have a new addition around our place too.  A young guy, eight years old is living with us.  His mother has some health problems so he will stay with us.  So in our pictures you will see lots of him.  Harvey and him have become close buddies and now Harvey is in heaven to have someone that will brush him and rub his tummy 20 times a day.  Pearl is not really the play type but she likes him too, and watches intently as him and Harvey play ball together.  And actually it worked out well camping because him and Harvey could be lazy bones together and sleep an extra hour in the tent in the mornings while Pearl and I went and chatted with mom and dad over coffee in their RV.  Anyway, there are lots of pics to come but the only ones I have downloaded so far are of Christopher doing things.  The ones of Harvey and Pearl are trapped in my camera still with the dead battery holding them hostage.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the ones below as I think they will give you a peek at the scenery we saw.  Jehovah certainly has created some beautiful landscapes. :-)

Love to all
d  :-)

Christopher riding his bike on the trails.   He has become quite the mast bike rider.  Nothing can slow him down.

Christopher and Liam burying themselves in sand.

Christopher floating on a log in the ocean at sunset.

Jack wave jumping with all the kids.

The beautiful trail that led to our campground through the sand dunes.

Okay, We Are "Practise Camping"

Or should I say "glamping".  That word is apparently for people that like camping but with extras like lights in the tent and a fan, and laptop, and a mini George Foreman, and coffee maker, and ... :-)

Anyway, in the middle of August we are going camping/tenting, something I haven't done many years, but have decided it is the kind of travel I can afford for the time being.  SO...I have collected, and others have collected for me, some equipment.  Some from secondhand stores, and some from the back of dark garages, etc., and now I have this cool little campsite organized.  I thought I would set up early so I could make any tweaks before we actually hit the road...AND Harvey and Pearl have never slept in a tent before so I thought we could sleep in it a few nights over the next couple weeks so they will be comfortable and hopefully won't bark all night in the real campground. 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

love to all,
d  :-)

A Few Pics of Life This Week

Hey hi everyone,

Here is a little bit of life in pics. :-)

1) We've had hot sunny weather lately so I thought it would be safe to have a bbq.  Well!  We got a great thunder lightening storm so we all crunched under my 10ft awning and watched.  It was like being back in the tropics and everyone shared their worst storm stories.

2) Pearl is always so cute.  Here she is napping on the deck, just loving life.

3)  Harvey cracks me up all the time.  I decided to wash the bed mat and then dry it in the sun over the picnic table.  Harvey obviously got tired, and decided to take his nap on the bed mat, regardless of where it was on the bed or not.

Hope everyone had a good week too!  Love to all,
d  :-)

I Feel So Inspired!

I just arrived at school after riding the entire 25 kilometers.  And surprisingly I did it in exactly one hour.  Google Maps said that it would take 1.25 hours so I gave myself 1.5 hours just to be safe, so I was really shocked when I rolled in early.  However, I kind felt a bit odd at the half way mark.  My left leg started going numb.  There were a few different thoughts going through my mind, like "maybe the lower half of my body is having a heart-ache, or maybe this is how a stroke starts but no one talks about it", but then I realized as I was bearing down on the stretches I was leaning my left butt cheek against the inside of the cheek and cutting off the blood supply.  As soon as I stood up for a sec, walah! I was healthy again. :-)  Anyway, the day is off to a great start now.  This riding is great for working out daily, and I am seeing that it helping me economize too.  Less gas and use of the vehicles.  So a double whammy in a good way. :-)

Everyone have a great day.  Love to all,
d  :-)

A Couple Details I Forgot to Share

Someone told me I forgot to share a couple details about the Bible Study since the first time I wrote about it.  What happened is that before the study in China, the lady wrote back and asked if she could invite some of her friends to sit in.  I saw the message she sent to everyone, it said:"I have found someone to study the Bible with.  She says I can invite some friends.  If you want you can join too."  So on Bible Study night I logged on, and was surprised when people kept on joining...and joining...and joining, until 65 were logged on.  They were all very excited.  I just put the book on the screen and everyone followed along and answered the questions.  The man from the Middle East was even more wonderful.  He was just so thankful to find someone to study the Bible with him, and kept saying thank you over and over.  ...I am extremely thankful that Jehovah God is giving me the opportunity to do this, because it is adding so much to my life in the way of service. :-)

I Am Surviving Riding The Bike

Hey hi everyone! :-)

Hope all is going good.  Some days I feel like my tongue is hanging out so far that it will get caught in my spokes, but I have slowly built up my riding and now going back and forth from UBC (this is where the bus stops at the university.).  I am not really keen on riding the whole 15 miles, but with time maybe that will happen.  At this time 9 miles from the uni seems to work.  It is the climb coming home that is a bit of a killer at this moment.  I can only average about 12 miles per hour due to the climb to the airport.  And I quickly figured out that I have to take a jug of water twice the size that I started out with.  The heat is about 95 degrees right now so as it cools down in the Fall, that part of the ride will probably be more comfortable.  When I lived in Palm Springs and rode, it would get to about 105 or 110.  It is just a matter of building up a tolerance.

The assembly in Vancouver was great.  Got to see lots of friends and touch base with what everyone is up to.  They had the same weather as Kelowna at that time - rainy and cool, but now since the first week of July summer weather has come to both places. 

Harvey and Pearl are doing fab.  We walk the trails in the field a few times a week.  Early on the weekends and later in the evenings.  It is too hot for their little bodies earlier than 7:30 at night.  I just take lots of water and we take pit stops under the shade of the big trees.  But they also just love laying on the couch in the RV too, lapping up the cool air from the ac.

Work is going great.  I am teaching my regular classes, but also the sports program in the afternoon.  That means I get to wear shorts and play football, soccer, basketball or some other game with the students in the park in the afternoon.  Some of the girls are so funny - especially from Korea.  Two of them dropped the class at the end of the first week.  I asked them why.  They said they didn't realize they actually had to exercise.  They thought SPORTS PROGRAM, meant that we read sports articles everyday together. :-/  But several more took their place so it all worked out fine in the end.

My Friday night Bible Studies are going good.  The first class 65 families logged on for the class.  But it was so overwhelming with all their voices, that I suggested that we limit to a smaller group of friends the next week, so then only 18 families joined.  Now I have convinced the families that I will study with six at a time, and give them all 30 minutes lessons back to back so that everyone can have a fair chance to talk.  They like that idea.  As long as everyone is learning and enjoying, then that is what is important. :-)

Okay, gotta go.  Time to teach.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Love to all,
d  :-)

I Am Excited About Service

This morning I was talking "praying" to Jehovah about service telling him that I find it difficult where I am due to my work schedule, which makes mid-week service impossible, and the cost of gas for service, blah blah blah...and said that "I enjoyed online service before, so if I could do more of that it would be nice".  WELL, I get up at 5am.  I received a message at 5:30am from a client in China, saying that she would like to study the Bible and was wondering if I would teach her.  Very happily I wrote back and said of course.  Then at about 6am, I received a message from a man in the Middle East, saying: "I am Muslim, but I want to love Jesus and know about God and the Bible, could you teach me."  I happily responded once again, telling him that of course I would.  I told him to go to bed and when he got up in the morning I would have all the details outlined for him in a message.  Anyway, I am pretty happy today because I am always amazed at how quickly Jehovah God answers my prayers.  The Faithful Slave is correct in telling us to be dead specific.  And despite my whining at moments he listens.  Gotta love that. :-)

Hope everyone is having a great week,
love,
d  :-)

Cleaning The Dogs Pearly Whites

Okay, I am sitting here watching a pathetic scene.  Harvey must have failed "puppy chewing class" when he was a young'n in Korea.  When he was injured and at the vet the vet said that he needed his clean cleaned.  But because he is older I don't want to put him "under".  So some other vets online said the absolute best way to clean a dog's teeth is to give them raw rib bones so they can work the meat off and raw bones won't splinter or break .  Sooo...I have been giving them raw bones over the last couple weeks.  Pearl goes at them in a very rabid way.  With Harvey he just stares at them. :-/  The best success I have with him is browning the meat for 5 minutes so that he thinks its cooked, then he will try to lick it off the bone...so if nothing else he should have a very clean tongue.  But this afternoon on the way home from the meeting I stopped at the grocery store and there was a sale on big meaty beef ribs so a got a few of them  for the weekly attempt at cleaning.  Otto and Pearl are going at their rib bones like they hit the jackpot.  Then there is Harvey out there "cleaning his tongue". Sad little dude.  I have no idea how he missed out on learning how to chew. :-/

Meetings are great, but not always for the talk delivered or the WT covered.  As usual this morning I was making Jehovah God's ears bleed as I told him how I missed riding my bike back and forth to work such as in Palm Springs, Vancouver and Korea.  I have always liked exercise with a purpose.  At the end of a day of teaching the thought of working out in a gym is just dreadful.  So anyway, at the end of the meeting I slid up beside a sister, and asked her about life - I like her because she is very honest saying she is too tired sometimes to do much more than watch some videos, do laundry and wash a week's worth of dishes - basically do everything just to get ready for Monday again.  Which pretty sums me up.  Anyway, she was telling me a few months ago her boss which is an avid biker convinced her to start biking to work from Lake Country - 15 miles.  It has been taking an hour and she is loving it.  Inspired, now I am going to do it too.  Every time I mentioned it before I got the side-eyed glance from people, so it was nice to find someone like me in the congregation.  The sister's name is Erica, and really, if she can ride along a highway, and have a good time, I know I can do it too.  I will keep you all posted on how it goes.

Okay, gotta go check on the bone-chewers.  Love to all,
d  :-)