News Update

Another year has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. This weekend has found us on the shore of Lake Okanagan graciously hosted by John & Marion—thanks guys! It's been a great week and year, and we are feeling abundantly blessed. This week we enjoyed Christmas events with the family in Regina. Enjoyable memories were created and not a few invented! Helicopters flew around the living room, and sometimes made successful landings. Shopping, gifting, Boxing Day, and returns were completed. Then, on Friday, we packed up the Sorento, added Kristian to the back seat, and headed west. We look to complete the trip to Parksville tomorrow. The holidays have cut the business week to just three days, but Friday was a good one, providing a full week's quota all by itself, so I still have a chance of making my monthly quota. American football is running out the regular schedule this weekend and there are a few interesting stories there that I will be following.

Haaken and Liam have enjoyed the week off from school, but that may not have been the highlight of their week: at their request Eric/A kept Christmas morning as a quiet family time. They were very pleased to receive several items on their wish list, and one thing that wasn't—iPhones. Now they are learning that with great iPhones comes great responsibility—like answering texts from mom and dad! Something that came off well was Haaken and Liam picking out their own gifts for Mom and Dad. It was very sweet, and Eric/A enjoyed watching them watch the opening of their picks. The whole crew got together with Eric's family for Christmas dinner. They had thoughts of a quick trip to the States since they had time for it, but they found out that the ferries from Victoria to Port Angeles were fully booked. In hind sight, they could have crossed to Tsawwassen, but they didn't have that thought in time to take advantage of it. The highlight was time spent in prayer with friends and family in honour of their 20th wedding anniversary. It was a very special time. Eric put together some last minute planning for their anniversary at the Tigh Na Mara resort. Now they're madly preparing for our arrival!

We enjoyed our reunion with Erin & Kristian this week. We had an extended-family celebration at Rich & Sue's on Sunday afternoon. Thank you, Ashley, for hosting that! Kristian has enjoyed learning to fly his helicopter. Kristian scored many more gifts on Christmas day, so he's been busy just getting most of them opened! Erin had to head back to work on Friday, but Kristian is travelling with us.

Travis & Joanna keep in contact with us through texting and FaceTime. They are also taking care of the house while we're away. Thanks guys! They had some sad news this week as their rat died. Not everyone misses it equally!! Otherwise, helicopters and the conure try to peacefully co-exist!

And that's about enough for this week! 

News Update

Another week has passed, and we have travelled from the shore of Lake Superior and my hometown to the shore of Lake Wascana in the Queen City. The final day of classes was Thursday; bus driving was completed well, and I enjoyed collecting gifts from my students. Especially touching was the number of high school riders who paused to shake my hand and thank me for how I treated them. I may get the run back when I return in March, but that is not assured. On Friday we drove up to Winnipeg and were graciously hosted by Mike, Peggy and Talitha; thanks guys! This morning, we packed Eric/A's newly obtained sled-bed into the Sorento and completed the drive to Regina where we are being graciously hosted by Dad and Dave; thanks guys! The weather became colder as we headed west. Some of my fellow bus drivers made fun of us trying to get away from the Thunder Bay Winter by spending three months in Regina! The markets have continued to whipsaw; the big news this week was the Fed beginning to taper their bond and mortgage purchases. Then, the US jobs data and GDP were upside surprises as well. Unfortunately, our economy is not keeping up, so the TSX is lagging badly. The DOW has gained three times (24% vs 8%) as much as we have this year. However, I shouldn't complain, I had another good week, but still need to recover from last week! There is nothing in particular that I'm following in sports just now. 

Eric/A and the boys are preparing for the holiday break and putting on the Bethlehem Walk. 

Erin tells us that Kristian has been eagerly anticipating our arrival all week; well, so have we. What a delight to get to spend some time with them again! Grandma and Kristian were into a Lego project already this evening! 

Trav, Joanna, Gemma and Andrew hosted our Christmas celebration for the Thunder Bay group, and we enjoyed a few good-bye gatherings with them before we left. 

And that's about enough for this week! Merry Christmas to all. 

News Update

We've had a week of cold weather on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. My bus has succumbed to the cold, and now gets plugged in each night. It was struggling to start at zero, so it is not a surprise that -20 proved too much! We've not had much more snow, but some is falling today. The markets have continued to be troubled; this week the decline is blamed on the government—who knew they could actually get together and accomplish a two-year spending plan?! That was too much for investors to digest and they went into a selling mode! So, I experienced the pain of a losing week. The week started with a big win by Brad Jacobs in the Olympic Curling trials. He will now be our representative in Sochi, and I'm expecting a medal for sure—hope it's gold!

Eric seems to be suffering from education withdrawal; he applied for and has been accepted to Penn State for a Post Bachelor Certificate in Autism. Fortunately he can do this on-line and work at the same time.

Bethlehem Walk

Eric, Haaken and Liam have been preparing for Bethlehem Walk this week. The church is expecting 10,000 visitors. Wow! Eric has had several practices this week, and the boys have made some really great drawings. Erica is amazed at their talent and how their styles are so different. Haaken sees things from such interesting angles and Liam is just so meticulous in his art. Both amazing! Erica has continued to have meetings every night this week. The Facilities Review continues with reports due earlier, meetings held earlier, and work having to be done earlier in preparation for the Christmas break. She's really looking forward to the break!

Erin and Kristian have FaceTimed several times. Kristian has had a haircut to match with Sadie! They seem to be getting ready for Christmas, but Erin has also suffered some ill health that has interfered with some of her planned activities. We look forward to seeing them at the end of another week. 

On Friday evening, we had a combination celebration for Andrew's Birthday and Christmas with Trav, Joanna and crew. We chose the traditional all-you-can-eat buffet at the China House; it was very good! Wendy scored a lovely iPad mini courtesy her children; she was surprised and delighted! I got some great gifts as well. Thank you guys! Best of all, we had an occasion together, complete with duelling helicopters, and nothing beats that!

And that's about it for this week! 

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

Carole and Carolyn

Aunt Carole was a mentor, music teacher, sister, friend and employee! We drove to her front door in  Yellowknife at about 2am in late July 1977. We were welcomed, cared for, accommodated. This conviviality continued as she worked with me and for me during the eighteen years we lived in Yellowknife. Among many other things, Carole was a driving force in the development of a new school in Frame Lake South subdivision of Yellowknife. I became the first principal of that school as she brought me on board her vision of a community school, and I supplied the expertise and positional authority that came from my training and experience as an educational administrator and teacher. She worked for me there as an educational assistant. When I moved on to start another school in Range Lake North subdivision, she would have come along, but the superintendent refused to allow both Carole and her son to work in the new school, so she remained at NJMacpherson. Her multi-year influence on me through the church, the family and school were earnest, effective and important. She remains one of the most important shapers of my life. 

Carolyn Joy, her daughter, although arriving to our consciousness on this date some years ago as "Carole and boy", has benefitted from the years of an even more intimate relationship. She became a beautiful young woman who accorded me the honour of officiating at her marriage; she has remained a friend and supporter all the while growing a loving home with Rick, and growing two fine young men. She embodies so many of the values that I admire in her mother. 

Carole was taken from us much too early by cancer, but her life, efforts and influence live on in her family, her friends, her community; these are her legacy. Now Carolyn has determined to memorialize her mother and honour her brave fight against cancer. She writes, "Many of you know that while in Regina (2008) I lost my mom to cancer. It was definitely during that time that I had some of my darkest moments as well as richest.  Life is funny – we all know that curve balls come from all directions. We learn so many lessons through the tough times! One of the lessons that mom left with me was to live life intentionally.  I have decided to sign up for the Ride to Conquer Cancer 2014 and make this ride about my Mom’s journey. Maybe in some small way I can make a difference. During this season of giving if you can make even a small donation towards my donation goal I would really appreciate it. I've committed to riding 200km and raising critical funds to support the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and I need your help. Please be a part of my journey and make a donation today."

Rick and Carolyn are both planning to take part in this effort. Please support them by following their respective links:
Rick
Carolyn
Thank you in advance for your generosity! 

News Update

We've had a cold and snowy week on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. Winter has arrived in earnest, and we've had several deposits of snow. I have finally had to get the snowblower out as I cleared the driveway. We even had a snow day on Thursday as the rural roads were so treacherous they cancelled the buses. Wendy has received disquieting news that her employer, Big Lots Canada, is shutting down. Perhaps it should not have been a surprising move seeing how disorganized they are, but they just spent big money completely refurbishing the store here and had a grand opening about a month ago! Sigh! Better economic data out of the US has hit the markets this week. Investors are afraid it means the end of easy money, so they sold most of the week. Finally, on Friday the news was so good on jobs both sides of the border and increased GDP in the US, that investors became afraid of missing out and began buying, so we got some recovery. I'm hoping it leads to a year-end rally! All markets were down about 1.5 to 2% for the week, but I was blessed with an excellent week and an above-quota gain—thank you, Lord! The Olympic curling trials in Winnipeg have drawn my attention all week. This afternoon, my favourite, Kevin Martin, lost in the men's semi-final. I'll be cheering for Brad Jacobs in the final tomorrow. This evening, Jennifer Jones won the women's final and will represent us well in Sochi.

Haaken and Liam are involved in Bethlehem Walk, an annual production of the church that draws tens of thousands from the Island and mainland. They are playing artists in Bethlehem who specialize in illustrating Old Testament stories, and featuring a few drawings inspired by an unusually large star that has appeared lately. Liam got new shoes; he's moved from size 9 to size 10.5 since the start of the school year—yikes! Haaken has been experimenting with voice-overs on the computer. Eric is playing a Rabbi in Bethlehem Walk. He is already demanding script rewrites and his own trailer. Erica is busy with school closure meetings most evenings. She'll be glad when that is over. She awarded herself a trip to the spa for a facial and an evening of relaxation on Friday, and has decided she needs to negotiate that into her next contract! 

Erin and Kristian are enduring some nasty winter weather in Regina. She has her winter tires installed, got a new battery and is installing a remote starter for her car as well. Sadie had a hair cut, so she's ready for indoor weather only! Erin has been called for jury duty, so we'll see how that develops. 

Trav got winter tires for his car this week. He's enjoying the improved traction! He and Joanna are keeping very busy; I guess that's good. Andrew is having a birthday, so we look forward to celebrating with them all. 

And that's about it for this week.