Happy Wednesday!

Wednesdays are now my "Saturdays" since I work on Saturdays. (don't feel sorry for me though, I play Wii Golf with cute elderly people on Sat.)  It's really nice to have a day off during the week to get somethings accomplished, but it's taking some time to get used to such an irregular schedule.  I have my calender constantly with me to keep myself on track.

My new job is continuing to go well.  The residents I work with are super sweet and very encouraging.  The classes I teach have remained very full despite the transition and the residents keep telling me I'm doing a great job.  It's so good to hear positive feedback. 

Working with any population, kids, adults, the elderly, you're bound to have some funny stories.  Here are a few amusing stories from my work week.

One of the residents, who is the sweetest lady in the world next to my Grandma Betty, falls asleep quite often.  She even falls asleep during the middle of my Sit Fit class!  Several times!  It's so hard not to giggle or smile when I'm teaching and all of a sudden I hear a weight drop to the floor and see her dozing off in class!

Another resident whom I work with plays the piano every Friday evening for everyone. Lots of people come and sit around the piano to watch and listen to him play.  The funny thing is, he doesn't really play the piano.  He "pretends" to play it.  He plays a cd or record in the background and pretends to move his hand along the piano keys like he's actually playing it!  I asked him one day about his "piano playing skills" and he told me, "I don't really play the piano, but they don't seem to know that"

I'm sure I'll have more funny stories for you as time goes on...

Update from Matt

Friends,  If you've ever been new somewhere, where people only have a glimpse of who you are, and it feels like everything is just slightly off, then you know how we're feeling.  I don't want to dwell on problems of new, but please continue to pray for us to find places to know and be known.  For financial stresses to dissolve, and for good friends.

What I'm excited to tell you about is my new part time job.  Library janitor.  I don't mean to brag, but its kind of a big deal.  I get to run a vacuum, dust books, and enforce the no food/beverage policy.  For four hours a night twice a week, I get to be as quiet as a mouse hopping and bopping around the John Richard Allison Library at Regent College.  Sometimes if its really slow, I get to make sure the books are in the right order, and if it's really busy I get to help the circulation desk.  In all seriousness, I'm really grateful for the extra income and mostly tedious mindless work.

Finally, a quick report on classes.  I've been reading quite a bit, mostly historical overviews of the early church and background info on the Old Testament.  Did you know that Constantine was baptized an Arian (the heresy claiming Christ was not God; refuted in the Nicene creed)?  Or that the monastic movement was a grassroots attempt to flee an increasingly power-hungry church?  
I've got my first (moderately) big research paper coming up and a fill-in-the-blank midterm on half of the Old Testament.
Hebrew is still hard.  I got back my first test and got a C+.  Not good enough.  A fun fact as you read the OT, the word "melek" in all its various spellings is the word for king.  That's why so many kings and court officials are named Abimelek or Melech or Ebed-melek, etc.

Thanks for following us.

No more training wheels!

Today was my first "official" day at work without my training wheels on.  I spent 3 days last week watching and observing classes, personal training sessions and learning all the other basics of the job.  This week I am on my own.  I get to jump right on in there and give the job a try.  Today I taught two classes, Total Body Fitness and Sit and Be Fit.  They both went pretty well, but there's always room for improvement.  I also got to work with two residents today which again, went well but I could definitely improve.

I'm so thankful to have a job! The learning curve is just tough to get over.  So many new things.  So many new people. Change for residents and myself. Change can just be difficult.  I'm just ready not to be new anymore and feel comfortable in my surroundings.  That just takes time though...

Update on our house:  Still not rented.  Our property manager emailed us yesterday and said she had a showing Saturday and again showing it to the same person on Sunday for her to measure to see if her furniture would fit.  She then said she had a few other showings this week too.  It's great that so many people want to look at it, but still no permanent residents yet.  Also she informed us that someone stole our lawnmower, a flower pot, and some chairs from the porch (which we didn't have any chairs on the porch, so I don't know what that's about?)  Ahhh...to not worry about the house, will that day come? Anyone want to rent a house?

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Today is Canada's Thanksgiving! It's great to be an Amercian in Canada because we get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year! I think this is one holiday we might bring back to the states when we return.

On Saturday, we went over to our Canadian friends Ester and Sarah's house for Round 1.  We had lots of yummy traditional thanksgiving food, fellowshiped with friends and played fishbowl...a game that is a combination of catchphrase and charades.  Overall, a great night!

On Sunday, we went and had dinner with a real Canadian family! Our friend Erin invited us over along with several other students to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family.  Again we had a wonderful meal, wonderful conversations, and even more wonderful desserts!

It was really fun to see another country's Thanksgiving!  Their Thanksgiving is really similar to ours.  They spend time with their families, have turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, other fixins, argue over which is better...cranberry sauce or cranberries from a can.  Such a joyous holiday to celebrate!

Thanks friends for making our first Canadian Thanksgiving a memorable occasion!

Happy Two Years!!

On Monday, Matt and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary!  Since Matt does not have class on Mondays and I don't have work, it was the perfect day (minus the clouds and rain) to go explore Granville Island!  We took our favorite #14 bus down to Granville Street and then walked over to Granville Island. 

Granville Island isn't really an Island.  It's actually a Peninsula!  The History of the Island is pretty interesting.  In brief, it once was a large industrial area.  After the Great Depression, lots of factories and mills closed down and it became a "shantytown".  During the WWII era, industrial development picked back up again due to the war and need for products.  After the war however industry again declined and so did the Island. The Island remained desolate until the 1970's when the government decided to turn the area into a better place.  Now it is a very popular tourist destination. There's a public market, a waterside park, lots of shops, restaurants and residential housing.  I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few for you to enjoy!

 House Boats

Dragon Boats

 

Fall is here! ...and so are the pumpkin spice lattes!

Happy Fall everyone!

The most wonderful season of the year is here! The cool crisp air, the colorful leaves, pumpkins, football and Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes!  I just love Fall! In Vancouver, Fall means the beginning of grey, cloudy days and rain.  We thankfully haven't fully experienced the days and weeks of cloudy skies and rain here, but apparently they are coming. One of my gymnastics student's parent was giving me some advice on living here the other afternoon.  She told me to go out and do something for myself after the 5th, or 6th so day of rain.  Go see a movie, go to a coffee shop or the aquarium because you'll need it!

Speaking of work....I have another part time job! Such a HUGE blessing and encouragement!  It's part time for now, but has potential of being full time down the road (possibly January?)  It's great because I can still work at the gymnastics studio with my students too!  For this new job, I'll be a working as a Kinesiologist in this pretty fancy retirement community.  I get to lead elderly individuals in fitness classes and personal training sessions.  In addition, I get to help out with Wii Golf tournaments on Saturdays and occasional recreational events!!  I think this sounds like such a great job for me!  My first day is on Tuesday so I'll let you know how it goes!!  Between these two jobs, I get to work with both elderly people and kids in the areas of health, movement and fitness!  What could be better? 

photos from: housebeautiful.com