In Calgary right now, not much time to post. Well, I have lots of time in the afternoon/evenings, but no computer access from which to post.

I am not a fan of Calgary. I would like to go home now please...

FTR-It is definitely not worth $142 to try and save 10 or 15 seconds on a late night drive home by cautiously ignoring the color of the last traffic light nearest to home. And it ends up using up an extra 5-10 minutes while the officer does his paperwork.

I am currently taking this class off right now, and letting Vanessa teach. Art and painting are definitely not my subjects to be teaching.
First up, I do neither of them very well.
Secondly, I understand that even though (or because) I suffer from the first reason, I do not have the patience to try and teach little people how to paint. Or craft. Give me a box of lego though, and I can teach a few engineering points. And how cool a spaceship can look.

Halfway through my second day of "unemployment" and so far, it's been great. I had a really good day with Eleanor in the morning, working on math while Thomas was at a Dr. appointment. Then some crosswords while Vanessa took over the teaching after lunch, and a quick science lesson before dinner. It is difficult to be the "earth" and rotate & revolve around the sun, while having a "moon" try to revolve around you at the same time.

Staff bowling party last night (by staff I mean the staff of where I used to work...) was interesting. Not the best social venue to visit with people, 6 lanes of people all focused on not breaking their fingers in the 10 pin bowling balls. Thus, I was coerced in to spending some after bowling time visiting the people.

I am expecting a phone call today...soon in fact...with the training plan. *fingers crossed* that it involves Vancouver more than Calgary.

Still awaiting the schedule for next week. Actually, still waiting for the official "you are employed by us" date. At this point, I am thinking that I'm going to end up with a week off. That wouldn't be terrible, as long as it is only one.

Today as we were driving to the dentist (that's another story for another day) we passed through a relatively new area of town. I guess the area isn't really new, but all the homes are new. Pretty new homes, tiny yards all neat and tidy. So as we are driving, we look over to our left and there are 4 random chickens pecking away at the lawn in front of one of these neat-as-a-pin new homes. Vanessa exclaims "chickens!", which draws the attention of the little people in the back seat. Eleanor sees them, and her first reaction is "that's incredibly unusual!"

What a great vocabulary she has. It's great to have an example that school at home is actually not turning their brains to mush. Also nice to have a bit of a positive example that they really are still learning, amidst all of the skeptics.

I am about to begin my last week at my current restaurant. I can't remember if I have ever told you all out there which restaurant it is, but if I haven't here's a clue-it's somewhere you would go if you were celebrating a MILESTONE.('s)

I am looking forward to this week, as well as feeling some sadness. I am about to leave the old and familiar, which has grown stale in the last year or two, for the shiny and new. I know that there are a lot of "stories" out there about people doing this particular thing, leaving the old for the new, and having it not work out for them. I am hoping that this is not one of those instances.

There are people I will miss, and people that I will bring with me to the new venture. Alas, I can not take all of the people I want to. It's just not the right venue for everyone. I am cautiously lamenting the turn from a 38 hour work week to something closer to 50. Who am I kidding? Closer to 50? I'll be happy if I can keep it to 50 in the first 6 months. After that I should be able to cut the hours back.

I am working hard to stay positive in my saunter to the finish line at work. I really am trying to make an effort to do things the same as I would if I just started out a few months ago and was trying to impress. Fighting the "I don't care" attitude will be a challenge. I just have to remember that God would not be impressed at me slacking off this week, so I will do my best to put all of what I have in to it this week. Or at least as much as I have been for the last year or so, which isn't all but still quite enough.

FTR-sometimes I would like to secretly videotape people at family dinners saying obscenely inappropriate things after having 3 too many drinks and play it back for them when they are sober so they may see how hurtful and painful their drunken comments really are to those around them. Not to shame them, but to help them realize how foolish they are behaving in hopes that they might be encouraged to make a change.
*sigh*

how good is He?

Last night after dinner the four of us went for a walk/bike ride/scooter ride. Vanessa and I were walking, and Eleanor on her bike. Thomas thinks that bicycles are evil, and rode the scooter instead. Vanessa was trying to prepare me for the thought that Thomas may never be in to bikes, but I assured her that this would change. Maybe I'm in denial?

So we walk around the block, around the corner, up the street, down the street, and end up doing laps at the parking lot at the end of our street. (it's kind of a cul-de-sac. Our street ends with a must-do right hand turn, and there is a bulge off of this that ends up being cul-de-sac like. There is a parking lot in the middle of this).

Around and around they go, pulling over for cars as they go. Just after we decide it is time to head back up the street to go home and force the children in to their weekly scrubbing (bodies, not the house), when we are about halfway up the street a truck comes roaring down the street going far faster than they should be for such a congested street. Our street is pretty narrow, which gets compounded by the cars parked along either side of the street. So narrow is it, that two cars cannot pass each other without pulling over to the side to let the other by.

This truck comes barreling down the road, and literally screeches around the corner and in to the cul-de-sac that circles the parking lot that we were just riding circles around. There is NO way this truck would have been able to stop in time had we still been riding around having fun.

God is good. Good for putting in on our hearts to leave when we did, and good for encouraging the children to obey the first time we asked them to leave. Without complaining, they just came. Thankfully for them, they did.

FTR

A new type of post. FTR is a "for the record" post, one that will give people a quick heads up on whatever might be going on.

FTR-we did not get a dog. We got a fish for Thomas. (his name is luke, a lovely deep blue colored Betta fish). We saw some very cute tiny dogs at the two pet stores while looking for fish, but at no time did we actually do anything more than- pet, ooh and ahh, and get licked by a puppy in the store.

FTR-going to bed at 930pm is trouble. I woke up at 1:30am, and my brain decided to kick in to high gear and didn't stop until almost 5am. Would have much preferred sleep.

FTR-we are not in a cult, nor will we drink the kool-aid if we happen to land in one.

Tomorrow should shape up to be a seal the deal kind of day, which will hopefully bring some official dates for training. And the roller coaster goes up...