SPRING????

Once again I don't have much to say. However, I have emerged from my bundle of parkas, boots, toques and fleecy line mittens to tell you this. Every morning I look expectantly at the thermometer hoping that we are getting nearer to the 0 mark. This morning once again I was sorely disappointed when it said -39. I guess the spring fairies are stuck in the okanagan keeping everyone there warm. Eventually they will slip free of your evil grasp and come my way. If not I will deal with everyone this summer (after the ice has melted off my body that is).

I THOUGHT IT WAS SPRING

Here we are March 14, spring break is over, which theoretically means that spring should be here. However this morning when we left for work is was -40. Does that sound like spring to you? Somehow the sight of big winter boots, huge down parkas, full face framing hats, and fleecy lined mitts doesn't evoke visions of spring. I guess the groundhog was wrong - there were more than 6 weeks of winter left. Maybe it was a psychotic groundhog or something.

Oh well, whether it is spring or not does not change the fact that we have less than 13 weeks of school left this year. One of the other teachers is also counting down, however she doesn't count March (because we are already in it) or June (because we only go for part of that month). That leaves her with 2 months of school left. Sounds good to me however you put it. The only down side to this short amount of time is making my body swimsuit worthy. It will probably never happen though so, I just worry my little head about it.

ANOTHER MEMORABLE HOLIDAY MOMENT

This moment also occured last summer - the summer of flat camper tires! We had returned from our vacation and after a couple weeks at home drove down to Liard Hotsprings to meet Eric and Jo who were coming to visit. We had a great time there with them.

Here's the kids hanging out in the cool part of the hotsprings.

Anyways, after a couple days of relaxing it was time to go home. Jo and I were driving the truck and pulling the tent trailer. About 20 minutes out of Liard one of the camper tires blew. Of course, in the truck you can't feel a thing from the camper. However, I looked out the mirror and saw what I thought was dust. But being smart as a whip, it only took me about 10 seconds to realize it wasn't dust, but smoke from the tire. So, here we are with a blown tire in literally the middle of nowhere, with 2 hours to go before we reach the next town, and only a small gas station between. Our spare had gotten a hole on the way down to the hotsprings, so we were stuck. But brilliant minds came up with a plan. Brian and Eric put the spare back on the camper and were going to start driving and hopefully make it to the gas station. Jo and I took their car and headed to Watson Lake where we could, hopefully, buy a new tire and then head back to meet them. On the way, Jo and I stopped at the gas station and asked about tires, we were nice as pie, but to no avail, he didn't have any of the right tires. It was a good thing we stopped there too. As it turns out Brian and Eric also stopped there and the guy there only patched the tire after he found out they were with us. It's a good thing we were such angels. Anyways, after Jo and I got the tire, I left her and the girls in Watson Lake and drove back to meet up with the guys. By the time I met them they were about 45 minutes out of Watson and everything was good. Needless to say, after approx. 10 flat tires in one summer vacation, we sold the trailer.

YET ANOTHER MEMORABLE MOMENT...Is there no end to them????

This one occured when we were living in Kitimat - the memory of it still makes me smile. We were going to Kamloops for Christmas in our Wagovan. Our kids were pretty small back then, so we managed to squish April into our car too. We were loaded down with luggage and Christmas presents, I'm sure the car was dragging on the ground. So, the six of us were on our way. The roads were pretty slushy and our windshield sprayer didn't work, so Brian was trying to wipe off the windshield with napkins, etc, while we were driving down the highway. We had to pull over every 15 minutes or so to wipe it down with snow. You would think that this all by itself would be something to remember. However, that is not all, oh no, that is not all. We had stopped in Williams Lake to buy chicken, etc to eat on the way. Well, with the car as packed as it was we didn't have room to carry along a paper bag of chicken bones and dirty napkins. So, we pulled in at a rest area just before we got to 100 Mile House and unloaded our garbage in an appropriate garbage can. Brian was just getting back into our loaded little car when he looked up and there is this truck backing up at full speed towards us. He squealed to a stop beside us, stormed around his truck and approached Brian. He looked at our BC license plates, nodded to himself and then yelled through the window "Look at that sign - FOR TOURIST USE ONLY!!! What part of tourist don't you understand!!!" Brian, looking somewhat bewildered started pointing to the car and trying to explain that we were tourists. Finally the psycho garbage man dragged Brian over to the garbage can, snatched off the lid and exclaimed, "Aha!!!". Then he looked down and saw that there was only a little chicken box in the bottom of the can. He apologized by saying, "Sorry, some local keeps dumping their garbage here. I've been trying to catch the perp for months." The funniest part of this whole episode is that he actually used the word "perp". Aaahhhh, another fond memory.

MY OBSESSIONS...

I seem to have one of these obsessive disorders. For instance, I am very obsessive about the placement of things such as cutlery. It all needs to be lined up properly or it will drive me nuts. I know that considering the state of my house this seems very unlikely, but, alas, it is true. I am also obsessed with spelling. It irks me when I see blatant spelling mistakes. One of my newest obsessions is flossing my teeth. This also seems very unlikely considering the rotten state of my teeth - if only I could have had this obsession when I was 25 years younger. I developed this obsession after Santa put a flossing stick into my stocking at Christmas. You just clip a new floss end on and away you go. Some nights I spend an hour playing with this new toy flossing and reflossing my decaying teeth. My most painful obsession is falling. Just yesterday I was feeling pretty good and realized that I hadn't participated in this passion of mine in at least a couple of months. So, as we were heading outside, I made sure that I fell down the stairs. I didn't just bump along down the stairs, I flew into the air and landed with a thud and a yell on the stairs. It is a good thing they were coated with a thick layer of snow or I could have seriously hurt myself, maybe broken some bones. However, I just have a few very tender spots - behind my shoulder, on my buttock and the back of my leg - each place that hit a stair edge. But now that I've satisfied that compulsion I should be good for a few more months. Maybe I need another obsession that is not quite so painful.