And so it begins......

The end of 2010. The beginning of thinking and talking about a new year, new goals, new promises... new energy to face the winter. Someone said to me how much they hate January. I don't remember ever hating January.... January is always my good month... with lots of willpower and resolution...

**we won't even talk about February... quite yet!**

On their way home!

at 7:40 this morning, they are over the Pacific Ocean.....

Ah... Duke... its ok... its. ok.....

So.. its been a hectic two weeks.. can't even begin to explain to those who do not work in an elementary school. But imagine 450 kids, 50 staff... and its report card season, and a new (frustrating) computer program for doing reports... well, for doing everything in the school regarding students... and its Christmas concert practice season, its turkey dinner season, its flu season, and there is stress all around us.

Today... turkey dinner for 500. Today.... reports go home, but not before several final reprints of several sets of reports. Today... training a new working partner.... Today... a heart warming conversation over my walkie talkie which all began with a student coming in, out of breath from the playground.

"There's a dog"... "he's on the playground"... "he's tied to a tree".... "its all wrapped around him"...

The phones are ringing, the dinner is still going on, and I have to print last minute report cards. What do I do with a dog, tied to a tree, on the playground and there are over 400 kids on the playground... can you picture this. I can't think.... the noise and interruptions are almost unbearable... and then I hear Chantal come over the walkie talkie.

"Donna".. I see a dog in the woods... he is all wrapped up in a bush." " I am going to go see what is going on", she says. I send the girl off to class, and I wait to hear from Chantal.

"ohhhhhh, hes a puppy, ohhhh, he is all wrapped up in a chain... I think he's a Rottweiler"... "ooooh, he is all shaky". "I can't get to him".

So, I am now thinking, its a vicious dog that someone doesn't want and they have chained to a tree. "Don't go near him Chantal, I am calling the RCMP". "Ohhhh, he looks sooo scared," she whines. "Don't go near him.... just wait."...

"OK".... she says.. and leaves her walkie on.... I hear... "its ok, puppy"... its ok"... "oooh, he is so tangled he can't even sit down".......oh, its ok.. little puppy.

The RCMP give me the animal control number, and the animal control people answer, and I explain and she said she will call the Dog Catcher... Thinking about a conversation I had with a boy earlier in the morning, who said he heard branches breaking in the woods, and thought there was a man sitting in the woods.. I now realize that this dog has been there for a least 4 hours. I asked how long she might be, and she said at least an hour.

Just as I hang up the phone... I hear on the walkie " Donna, I can see his tag.... he's name is Duke.. and there is a phone number...... As I right down the number, I hear "its ok Duke, its ok buddy"......

And I call..... "Hello"... I explain who I am and ask if he has a dog. He says yes, and I have been looking for him for a while. I tell him about Duke, about Chantal and then I am in the middle of conversation between Buddy on his cellphone and Chantal on the walkie, and he can hear her and he is giddy on the phone as he drives closer to the location... and he laughs when she asks on the walkie " ask him if I can touch the dog, will he hurt me". He laughs and re assures her and then she is giddy, and unwrapping Duke from his chain while buddy is driving up to her.

Duke was freed, and Chantal comes back to school... and I called the dog catcher to cancel the call, to which she lectures me about a dog with no county tag on would cost the owner $225 to get him back... geesh....

Later in the afternoon, one of our youngest teachers comes to me, with tears in her eyes and says "what happened to the dog"... and I explained about Duke, the owner and Chantal.. I answered several questions all afternoon, from big hearted students and teachers who were worried about duke...

A happy ending, and a heart warming moment to a very hectic day.

Thanks Chantal.. you are a hero!

Well, so far... I suck at NaNoWriMo...

I will get back on track... really... tonight.. hee hee. Thanks for the pic, Jill, by the way.

It is time.... to say thank you

I have been doing Children's Liturgy at Church for about 16 years.. I think. I have always worked with Kay, who is the mom of 5 children, mother in law to their 5 spouses and Grandmother to their 8 grandchildren. But when I first met Kay... she was supermom.. to 4 girls and one boy. Not only do I work with her on a weekly basis at Church, but I get to see her often at school where she is a super mom to 400 kids outside on duty most days of the week.

Kay and I get together at least once a month to go over the readings for each Sunday of that particular month. We then have to gear our talks and crafts to the 4, 5 and 6 year old kids, and make them relate to the readings. Kay is an expert at it. I have learned so much from her about what all these mystery readings mean, what they stand for, and how we learn from them. She has given me a deeper faith, and confidence to teach this to others... That is the bonus of knowing her.. the real meat and potatoes of Kay is her patience, her knowledge, her wisdom on how to be a good mom and gramma.

In every one of our "meetings" we not only dream up crafts and invent "how Jesus and folded jumping frogs" relate to the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary time (for example).... Kay also guides me through some of my parenting heartaches, my fears, my challenges and my celebrations. With 5 children of her own, and 4 of them girls... she certainly has lots of ideas, successes to share and failures for me to learn from. And I always leave Kay's home with a fresh and sometimes still warm loaf of homemade bread...

Ok... that is the history... this is the reality. When ever Kay is globe trotting around the country visiting her family, I do Sunday Morning lessons with the kids on my own. We each have a Church bag.. filled with story books, magnets, scissors, bells, paper projects and "the books" we do the readings from. When Kay leaves for a couple of weeks, I get her bag, because she carries all the story books, the action story scribblers and the hard covered book that the Father hands to the kids.

I just couldn't stand to drag that decrepit bag around any more. It was made of thin cotton, with ripped handles, torn in several spots and way to flimsy to be carrying all the heavy books that are treasured by both of us..

Now, Kay went away two weeks ago, and I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to make a replacement for her ugly bag... I got my sister and her awesome sewing machine to make a couple of "Kay" patches and she sent them down with Michelle. With no pattern to follow except experience, I designed a sturdy bag, with heavy duty handles, and lots of space for her books and a row of pockets inside to hold the magnets, ribbon, pencils, scissors and even the gold bells I found at the bottom of her old bag! I choose funky and modern flowered fabric to accent the canvas and to make the lining....

Thank you Kay, for all you have taught me, shared with me, talked me through, and laughed with me. I love you and your whole family.... but I hated "the Ugly bag"! It was time for it to go! Hope you enjoy the new one....

Its time to Remember

I am so proud to be a Canadian and I haven't even travelled anywhere to get the foreigner's prospective on Canadians. But my children have, and lots of my friends. I don't have that flag waving, heart thumping, in your face pride... I have that "look straight in your eyes.... know that I am a Canadian" pride.

Remembrance Day is one of those things that I am proud of. We remember. Even if we don't remember the war, even if we don't have family who were in the war, even if we don't associate with the Military at all, due to where we live, or what we do for a living..... we remember.

I was raised in a Military family, in Military communities, married into the Military, who was raised in a Military family, and lived in Military communities. When I was a kid, I thought it was only the Military who remembered. When I moved out of the military environment, and into small town communities... I realized that everyone remembers.

Our schools honor and teach it... our businesses do as well. In Nova Scotia, there is no school for anyone, and all businesses are closed. I am not sure why, but I like it. Wait, I know why, because its Remembrance Day, and we get the whole day off. But, what I meant was, why are we so lucky to get the whole day off... I like it, anyway. Therefore, at school, the Remembrance Day ceremonies are attended by all students, staff and community members, on the day before Remembrance Day. Thats ok... it gives kids a great sense of the day, and then they get to have the whole next day off.

In Ontario, and many other provinces, children are in school all day and most businesses are open at noon. Government workers, Military and Civilian, are off all day too. You know, some people say that is not right, that schools and businesses are open on this day... but... I am ok with this. In every school, the children take part in a ceremony that teaches Remembrance. They do the exact same thing as we do in Nova Scotia, but on the proper day. Businesses remain closed until noon, in respect for the 11th hour. The moments of Silence... where we can all reflect, even if we only have a moment to reflect, its at 11:00.

I feel we are lucky in NS to have the whole day, and I wouldn't ever want that to change, but I don't think that the other provinces are wrong in what they do. I appreciate that schools and businesses respect the day. I appreciate that we have the FREEDOM to do what ever we want on this day because of the wonderful men and women of the past who served our country and allowed us this freedom.

Don't worry, if the schools keep doing what they do... and businesses do what they should... we will always Remember.

Rain Rain.. go away..

There is no other topic for today other than RAIN. It would be impossible to even blog today except about our weather. We had warning that it was coming... rain rain rain rain.. in the forecast but man, I don't remember ever getting 3 full days of constant, never stopping rain. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft.. but nothing but rain. I worried all Friday night for Michelle's drive home, because of this darn rain, and add to that, high winds... and here it is, the end of the weekend and its still raining.

Of course, a few at church this morning were thankful and relieved that all this rain wasn't really SNOW.. which we did get, this very weekend, in 2002.

I remember, because we had a storm day at school on Nov 7th, and Natsumi, our Japanese Exchange student, and Michelle... made an incredibly cute snowman, in the driveway.. no less.

It was Natts very first snowman. She was full of adrenaline and excitement, working diligently on her project.

She was so warm while working, she took her coat off.. as it wasn't very cold for a snow day.. She lost her luster for snow, by Xmas, that year... which.. of course we all do.

So, people, I guess we can live with the rain.. for now. But I am worried about all this water. I am seeing giant puddles where I have never seen water before... Our river, behind the house, in the summer is calm and quiet during a normal summer day.

But it doesn't take long for it to fill with rain water, after a day or two of rain. But today, it is a raging torrent of water... with a potential of flooding the houses in the neighbourhood.

We have giant puddles in our yard too.... well, not as many in MY yard, as there are in my neighbour's yards. These puddles are a little concerning... Rob brought his rake over and pulled leaves from our ditch so the draining system throughout our little knot of houses, runs good.

We can usually gage the disaster level in the community by how high "Lake Sometimes" is.. and I drove over today to snap some pictures of the results. I am surprised that I only think to take pictures of the Here and then gone Lake we have on Bridge Street, when the water is high. I need a pic or two of when its a sea of green grass, dandelions and Willows.

Our village pond and wooded fitness trail has a whole new look to it today.

The forecast said the rains will let up by noon today... except its now 5:30.. and its still raining. Michelle called me from the Mammoth and its dry and cloudy there.. no rain.. I am glad for her, I hate to think of her driving in this again!