The Sunday Scoop

Happy belated American Thanksgiving to everyone!  I think the hardest times to be in another country is on Thanksgiving and the 4th of July.  Obviously, they don't celebrate American holidays here in Canada so everyone just goes on about their days as if they were any other ordinary days.  Little do they know what they're missing just South of the border!

We really missed being at home with our families this year, but we did have a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with our American, Canadian and other International friends here in Vancouver! Sorry we don't have any pictures to post from supper, but just know that it was filled with friends, turkey and all the fixin's!  Matt made some homemade yeast rolls and I made my Grandma Betty's creamed potatoes to share.  Again, we're really missing our families this time of the year, but are super thankful for our "Regent Family" here.

Sunshine Coast

Eating Dinner

How Beautiful!

Our Regent Soup Group
(Minus a few)

The Sunday Scoop

Just got back from an AMAZING weekend on the Sunshine Coast with our Regent community group!  I forgot my camera on the trip (remembered the battery and charger though!) So we'll post pictures once we can get them from our friends. Over the weekend we ate meals together, went kayaking, played games, and had some more intentional time with the Lord together.  It was really great to spend time in such a beautiful place with some even more beautiful people!

In case your wondering where in the world the Sunshine Coast is....

We were in that green area east of Pender Harbour

Check back later for some pictures!

The Sunday Scoop

How Southerners survive a very wet winter int the Pacific Northwest (or the Great White North)...

Packages of rain gear from Matt's "Super-good-at-finding-amazing-northface-gear-at-yardsales-or-goodwill" Mom 

Lot's of Lipton tea bags to make sweet tea!

Hot soup, yummy grilled sandwiches and fruit salad

Great friends to enjoy Sunday Dinner with!

The Everyday

I've enjoyed posting about all the fun things Matt and I have gotten to do while here in Canada, but I thought I'd take some time to highlight our normal everyday life.  I'll start with my work, and "maybe" Matt can update you with his studies sometime soon. (Let's say, reading week?)

For the past year, I've been working in an independent living retirement community here in Vancouver.  Although I still miss being in the classroom teaching, I'm also enjoying my job teaching in a different way to a different age group of "students"

Some highlights from work this past year:

Arbutus Walk and Roll
1K Walk

Sports Skills Weekends:  Bocce

Fit For Life Day
Kind of like field day from Elementary School

National Seniors' Day Flash Mob

When I'm not spending my time choreographing flash mobs or playing Wii Golf, I encourage our fabulous seniors to exercise!  It is challenging, rewarding and always a good learning experience everyday!  Most of my average days are spent tracking down those who have forgotten their personal training times, counting repetitions (or mostly keeping count), and trying to figure out if the word "pain" is a serious problem or just a feeling of their muscles moving and being stretched.  The latest project I've gotten to implement in our community is a few small "interest" exercise groups.  One for Osteoporosis and another for individuals with Parkinson's Disease.  As with starting anything "new", it's both exciting and stressful. Will residents show up? Will they stick with the new exercise programs?  Will they enjoy it? Will this be a success or complete failure?  I'm hoping for success, but we shall see with time. In spite of my worries, I've really enjoyed researching and learning about how exercise can be a "medicine" for these conditions and hope in some way these exercise groups will benifit our seniors!  I'll keep y'all updated on how it goes!

Ka‘anapali Coffee Farms

While driving around Maui one day, we stumbled across the Ka'anapali Coffee Farm! How fun!  Who knew you could eat coffee right off the trees?  Well, almost.  Coffee Trees have these little cherry like fruit on them.  You can eat the outside fleshy part and the coffee bean is on the inside!  Just be careful not to eat the bean....unless you want to be bounceing of the walls.  It has 2-3 times the amount of caffeine than a roasted bean!

Coffee Cherries!

Finished product

 

 Coffee Beans

The Sunday Scoop

Sorry, this post doesn't involve any ice-cream sundaes, but we're going to try to update our blog a little more often for those of you back home!  Check back every Sunday for our "Sunday Scoop".  We'll blog about something we've been up to lately!

The scoop for today just involves rain. Lots and lots of rain!  It's back to that time of year where the days are filled with cloudy grey skies and drops of rain.  We've received lots of advice on how to survive all the rain and one piece that has stood out is: Don't wait for a sunny day to get out! If you're waiting on the rain to stop, you'll never do anything.  So with that advice in mind we put on our rain-boots and rain jackets, grabbed our umbrellas and went out for a walk! Yes we still got wet, but enjoyed a nice walk through the neighborhood streets lined with autumn colored trees and pretty falling leaves!  On the way home we stopped by David's Tea (my latest addiction) to sample their newest Winter tea collection.

Warming up and enjoying a cup of tea!

Matt warming up by the fire

Cocomint Cream Tea