Super Teach

Peter accepting his teaching award from UBC. The award means he is in the top %10 of all teachers at UBCO as evaluated and voted on by undergraduate students.
I need to do some work today so this will be short.
I purchased a set of learn to read books for Pip yesterday and she can read! She read her fist book, cover to cover, out-loud several times yesterday. She loves the alphabet and is always asking "How you spell that?" so I determined she was ready to start reading and is she ever--the little darling just turned 4!
Mist is home today, perhaps bronchitis, I will take her to the doctor. Tabs went back to school today after several days at home with a nasty cold.
Man I love to salsa! I definitely have to do salsa Thursdays. It's the kind of dance/music that I can get lost in. It is so passionate.
Date night tonight--yee ha! Swedish film (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and tacos I'm thinking.
Purchased an amazing book on Malaysia and Borneo and now I am so excited about our July trip--Jungles, beaches, snorkeling, Orangutans! I have little interest in exploring Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, I just want to get to the beaches and jungles and experience the nature.

Shakespeare in Summerland

Princess Penelope.
My last MA class is in sight! Only 2 more Saturdays! I am going to get to go to some of Tabs soccer games this season after all.
 This Saturday my group hosts the field trip to Oyama. It will be a cultural/natural experience of the area culminating in making a ceramic tile at the local studio.
Artemisia is over playing with Pip at the moment.
Peter is busy all week with the conference he is hosting thus, I have cleared the week of all suppers and we are dining out. Tonight I will make the girls a little something because I have to run to Zumba. Perhaps I'll bring us home a movie tonight.
I almost bought myself a fluffy novel at Chapters today "French Kissing" but the $22 price kept me away. I'll spend that much on a good book but summer fluff--not so much.
Friday night we are off to Summerland to watch my nephew Kyran in a Shakespearean play. We'll get supper there and meet my sisters and their families.
I want to finish all my class notes tomorrow so I am free to start my thesis. I feel it will be delightful to only have my thesis to worry about (temporarily). Then I will need to hunt down a good MFA. I am happy though, because I am aware of my need to only pursue degrees which have me painting or writing fiction. If I am not doing these 2 passions I feel like I am being smothered by a life not of my choosing.
Mistaya has been accepted into math honours next year. It is competitive. Students have to be teacher recommended and then must score high on a math honours exam and have a stellar work ethic history. We are proud of her.
I am enjoying my new hard-core weight lifting 3x a week. I feel I am building a super strong muscular foundation. Do not misunderstand me, it is boring and it is hard work but I will keep at it simply because these 3 mornings a week give me a really, really strong frame and defined muscles.
Starting to get a little nervous about the jungles of Borneo. I so want to do a jungle trek but I am a tad nervous because I don't want to pick up any tropical parasites or viruses--I have 3 babies to come home to. I'll have to way the risks.

The Big Buzz for BC Children's Hospital

Here she is in all her bald glory: darling Mistaya. On Friday she had her head shaved to raise money for Bc Children's Hospital. Mistaya raised $500 personally for the cause. Thank-you to all that supported her! And I just have to say, could that little bald head get any cuter? She still has the stork bite birth mark at the back of her scull I have noted ;). She is pictured with a friend who also made the bald journey.
Yesterday was exhausting. A field trip to a retirement centre. I chatted one on one with an elderly women. I will call her Ev. She was very interesting. Her teenage memories about her schizophrenic mother made her tear up and cry. It was so heart wrenching, how cruel her mother was to her that I nearly cried too! She was forced to leave home in Winnipeg to live with her Aunt on the coast. She always knew when her mother was taking her meds--there would be amazing fresh bread greeting her in the kitchen when she came home from school with homemade jam. But Ev's mother often went off her meds and was cruel.
Also, Ev's stories about how she met her husband after WWII were so romantic. He had just returned from the war and was finishing his studies at UBC. She was working as a telegraph operator. They met at a bus stop and he got on her line and off at her stop even though he really was supposed to be on another bus line.
Then we drove down to the second field trip in Penticton. We studied Kettle Valley Railway artifacts at the museum. I adore KVR artifacts as I love the old railway line--biking, hiking along it is paradise--I never want to leave. Also, I wrote my first junior fiction novel based on the railway line. It definitely fires up my imagination.
Tabs played well in Soccer while I was away. She has been busy creating a power point presentation for school. Even though the teacher said not to start yet, she couldn't resist and has spent her free time creating an amazing presentation on the rainforest with video even.
The girls received updates on their orangutan sons in Borneo. They are so adorable. I am leaning towards Peter and I doing a snorkeling holiday in Malaysia and then a jungle trek through Borneo and stopping to visit our dear little boys at the orangutan sanctuary. So two weeks spent in Malaysia and Borneo in July. The conference is only 3 days in Panang, so we have plenty of time to explore and Malaysia is supposed to have some of the best diving/snorkeling on earth! I read of a three day jungle exploration on a river boat through Borneo--I want to do this as you see all the amazing wildlife like orangutans in their habitat. I have to find out all the vaccinations I'll need. The jungle is something else.
And today all 3 gals are heading up to Aunties for dear little Artemisia's 4th birthday party--lately she and Pip have had yellow mustaches from smelling all the dandilions in the yard--they are so precious.