A College Visit for My Son

This scarf was a gift given out to my son.

This account was written by my hubby.

I drove A up to Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, late Thursday evening for the TWU Preview Weekend. The border crossing had no wait. We stayed at a hotel. By getting there the night before we were able to arrive easily for the 8:30AM breakfast Friday morning. Once we got to the right place, everything was well organized. We were seated at a table labelled "Washington". One of the other families was from Ferndale but the second family to arrive was from the same school as A. The girl was a senior he knew from the cross-country team. Her family got up at 4:30 that morning and drove straight up.

The morning schedule included breakfast, and then split the parents from the students for some information sessions. The lunch was good because you sat at a table based on your planned major and there were professors from those departments. We weren't entirely sure what major to choose but I helped A find "Arts, Media, and Culture" which turned out to be perfect. There was a female professor of non-fiction writing and then a male professor who was both a film critic and an author of "Of Games and God" who had helped get TWU's Game Design major off the ground. The profs did a great job engaging the students over lunch. One boy from Santa Fe, New Mexico, wanted to start his own business in the area of video creation. The only girl at the table was interested in journalism.

After lunch we went to the academic departments of greatest interest, which for us meant going to the SAMC department and learning from the professors of Arts, Design, Music, Theater, Worship Arts, Media Studies, and Non-Fiction writing. A then went on to a sample lecture on movie criticism which he thoroughly enjoyed while I split off to get a tour of the science labs. 

In the evening there was a wonderful parents dinner while the students staying overnight were taken by TWU student volunteers for the night. My dinner was good. I again sat with the parents from Washington. TWU President Mark Husbands showed and discussed a very good video presentation about how nearly all Evangelical children today believe in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

My tablemates were tired and went to bed after I talked their ears off. I then retired to my hotel. I went to the lobby to relax and ended up being joined by a gentleman from the Preview Weekend up from San Diego with his daughter. We talked for about 2 hours before I retired for the evening. A stayed overnight in the TWU dorm.

In the morning I made my way back to TWU for breakfast. Eventually A rejoined us. Turns out after he had finished his breakfast he had a nosebleed and that took us away from the scheduled events. I met his chaperone Reed who was majoring in Education. Eventually, after calling the First Aid guy, the nosebleed stopped. Then I rejoined the parents university tour and A rejoined the students' program. We found each other later on that morning for the US students Financial Aid presentation and then the Travel Studies presentation which was really good. Fully 50% of TWU students end up doing some of their studies abroad before they graduate.

The weekend ended with a pleasant hamburger bar lunch after which we all departed for home. A found the whole experience valuable and eye-opening. The evening with the TWU students was definitely the "low-light" for him, for various reasons, but the students meant well and tried hard to be welcoming. TWU is definitely on our radar as a university with a legit academic program that interests him, a college that supports our values, is within our budget, and is "exotic" enough to demonstrate that he didn't just do the easy and convenient thing.

Don't be fooled by the photo. He isn't miserable. He rarely smiles for photos.

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Night to Shine 2020

I volunteered at Night to Shine on February 7th. C joined me. I heard about this event a few years ago and wondered if I could get involved. There is a Facebook group for parents whose kids attend our school. The organizer of the local Night to Shine asked for volunteers. The response was overwhelming. I think the largest percentage of volunteers were from CPC.

What is Night to Shine?
Night to Shine was started by Tim Tebow. It is an annual event and takes place all over the world. It is a prom like event for those with special needs who are 14 and older. The first Night to Shine event was in 2014. I looked up where events were held this year and there was one held in Taber, Alberta, where my aunt and uncle used to live. The event we volunteered at was held at City Hill Church in Kenmore.

The reason that C and I are both wearing black is that I was directed to dress in black like a hairdresser/makeup artist and C followed my lead. All of the volunteers dressed up. The guests were attired in formal wear.

C is holding shoe shine tools.

My responsibility was hair. C did shoe shining. There were also makeup stations.

I braided and curled hair for several guests. I worked alongside a lovely young lady who attends the same school as my boys. She is in 12th grade. She wasn't very familiar with Tim Tebow. Funny!

The funniest thing that happened to me was this. A young guest said she wanted her hair up so I did some braiding. She shook it out and said she wanted to do her own hair and put it up (messily) in a scrunchie. I thought that was hilarious. Good thing she didn't have one of the ladies who is professional doing her hair. I wasn't offended or hurt at all. 

There was a lot of sitting around and waiting. I think there were actually too many volunteers!

Here is a rough idea of the itinerary.

Check in
Makeup/Hair/shoe shining for the guests
Popcorn and Italian sodas for the guests
Photo booth
Red Carpet (lots of cheering for the guests)
Rides in the stretch limo
Dinner (donated by a local Italian restaurant)
Dance

Our "shift" was from 4 pm until almost 10 pm. The event ended at 9 but there was clean up as well.

There was a fashion sketch artist doing sketches of the guests and their buddies. Her business is called Drawing Blueberry. Near the end of the event I noticed that she was also doing some sketches for volunteers. I asked her to do one of C and I.

I may volunteer again next year. I think I will pick a different job. I was on my feet for a long time.
One job I could do is be a "buddy." That involved being paired with a guest (in my case it would be a female guest) and staying with them all night. The parents and caregivers get a break for the evening.

One highlight of the night was all the time that I spent with C, just chatting. I don't take those times for granted when he just wants to talk with me.



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Snowshoeing - A First

Note: This account was written by my hubby. 

J, A and C joined Troop 574 for a snowshoeing hike to Skyline Lake at Stephens Pass on January 25th. It required getting up very early to meet up in Monroe at 6:15. If you don't arrive at Stephens' very early on a Saturday you can't find parking! There was a good group gathered at the trailhead by 8am. The hike is short, about 1 mile, but very step. It's 1000 feet of elevation, and it starts immediately. It was our first time on showshoes, which we rented from REI. The hike is mainly on a road which was being ploughed by a snowcat machine even as we were hiking. The going was slow for C and myself, but A was able to stay with the main group.

The weather was just below freezing and snowing, but it was wet snow that mostly acted as rain as it accumulated on our clothes and made us wet and heavier.

We all gathered at a watertower which we were told was "half way", but actually it was closer to 80% of the way there. After the tower, it starts to level off and then you branch off from the road for a bit -- and this is where you really need the snowshoes as we would have gone waist-deep into snow otherwise. Suddenly we were at the lake -- which we couldn't see because of the snow! We stopped there for about 45 minutes. I chose to lay in the snow, which worked great once I put the extra pair of snowpants we brought in our backpack down as insulation.

On the way back, as has always been the case, C became the fast one and A the slow one. We actually took off our snowshoes once we got back to the road and walked in our boots. C went way on ahead. A found his size 8 boots to be too small so I swapped with him which made him a lot happier. Many of the scouts had brought tough garbage bags so they could slide down, which worked better in some places than others.

The man in the front is the Scoutmaster. A and C are on the left. I think there were 20 people in the group. Some scouts aren't in the photo above.


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Check, Please!

Check Please! is the name of the one act play that A performed in on Wednesday morning at school. He is taking Drama at school and he was talked into doing some acting. Check, Please! is a funny play about a whole bunch of bad first dates. Either the man is strange or the woman is strange.

I found a YouTube of some excellent actors doing it.




A played a self-centered man who doesn't really acknowledge his date and in a another section of the play, he wore a burlap sack as if that was a normal thing.

Here is the link to the video that I took of A in the play. Link.

Other students were able to attend the play, including his younger brother. The audience was quite large. There are two other plays being performed this week.

I'm so proud of A for stretching himself to try a new skill. He did great!


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Teen New Year's Eve Party

My youngest son invited his friends over to our house for New Year's Eve. Four boys were able to come. They all slept over. I bought a lot of appetizers to feed them. Mozzarella sticks, potato skins, pizza rolls, and jalapeno poppers. I had planned to do meatballs in the crock pot for them but my shoulder pain flared up and I wasn't feeling up to that. J played "mom" and warmed up the appetizers in the oven. J got them to wear the NYE hats for this photo.

click to enlarge

They came over about 8 pm. They played Monopoly, poker (which C taught them), and watched some movies. I was really miserable with my shoulder pain so I pretty much stayed in bed all evening. I was able to sleep through the noise using ear plugs! They all slept in the living room. We fed them bacon in the morning and their parents picked them up after 9:30 am.Pin It

Best Books I Read in 2019

I read 37 books this past year. In 2018 I read 35 books. I'm happy with the total. If I try to read too many books, I end up reading faster and not remembering what I read. I did notice that there is a lack of meaty books. I suppose I'll aim for more of that genre in 2020. I'd also like to read more classics this coming year. I keep track of my reading at Goodreads.com.

Here are the best books that I read this past year. Unfortunately, it is a small list!

1. How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny and others in the series.

I enjoy a good mystery. Last year I started reading the Inspector Gamache books. They are set in the province of Quebec in Canada, usually in the village of Three Pines (fictional.) The world of Three Pines is pretty enticing. This books are more about human nature than about the actual mystery. I like to listen to Louise Penny books as read by Ralph Cosham.


2. Picadilly Jim and Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets by P.G. Wodehouse.

These books can lift anyone's spirits. Well, maybe anglophiles like me, anyway. Funny situations. Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets is a collection of short stories. In Picadilly Jim, a rich playboy hides his identity behind an alias but ends up impersonating himself.


3. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

I enjoy a thriller once in a while and this one was good. I read it while travelling to Victoria to visit my parents. I finished it on the way back and was then stuck without anything much to do on the Clipper ferry ride!

The simple summary? A recluse spends her time watching movies and watching the neighbours. A new family moves in across from her. She sees something she thinks is a murder. What did she actually see? What is real and what is imagined?

4. The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche by Gary Krist.

This book is about an historical event that happened in Washington state in the now defunct town of Wellington in 1910.

"The never-before-told story of one of the worst rail disasters in U.S. history in which two trains full of people, trapped high in the Cascade Mountains, are hit by a devastating avalanche." 

The book club that I'm in right now read this a few years ago (before I joined the club). It was educational and kept my attention throughout. I listened to this book. I did take the physical book out of the library so that I could see the maps and photos. That is one problem with audio books.


Honourable Mentions:

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

There were some good ideas but I found this book a bit repetitive. It is a long book. It seems like something a teenager should read more than a middle aged woman like me.

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini.

A friend recommended this for listening on our summer road trip. Only my hubby and I really listened to this. We never finished it. I should go back to it. It reminded me of The Scarlet Pimpernel since it is set during the French Revolution. A compelling and funny story which was written in 1921.



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Christmas 2019 Wrap Up

Our Christmas card photo

On December 23rd we went to downtown Seattle as a family. We stood in line for about an hour (maybe more?) to see the gingerbread creations at the Sheraton Hotel. The theme was elves. I was thankful for the boys' good attitudes even though the wait was pretty bad.

Elves and the Shoemaker

Elf the Movie

Tree. 

All of those lights above are inside of candies!

North Pole

Next stop was the Fairmount Hotel with a beautiful tree in the lobby.

Then we went upstairs to the Teddy Bear Suite. This is for me, of course.

They have a life size gingerbread house near the entrance.

We had lunch at Specialtys, another tradition for us. Next we went to Pacific Place mall but were disappointed to find it under renovation. We walked through Nordstrom and saw these lovely trees.

Our last stop was the model train display in the window of Macy's. Macy's is closing its downtown location in 2020 so I wanted to make sure we saw the trains.

I love having family traditions. C really wanted to bring a friend along but no one was available. I got in over 6,000 steps that day!

In the evening, I searched around to several stores for a turkey. It was a challenge finding one the right size. Next year I'll have to look earlier. Jonathan finished his Christmas shopping on Dec 24th. He found that the crowds were light and it was quite peaceful.

We went out for dinner (before church) on Dec 24th to Stanfords. J and I felt like the youngest adults there! We knew that a package was being delivered while we were there so J left briefly to check on it. Porch pirates are a risk this time of year.

Our church met in the gym this year since we outgrew the smaller chapel last year. The service was very well attended. We sang about 6 carols with scripture interspersed. There is a short message and then we sing Silent Night by candlelight. We had our photo taken by the trees that Linda and I decorated.

In the evening, I phoned Mom and Dad. We played Taboo as a family. The game went very well.
On Christmas morning we had bacon and egg strata that I made the day before.

My hubby bought himself a car in early November so he didn't get any big presents under the tree.

C received an electronic drum set which allows him to practice his drumming without a lot of noise.

A received a graphics card for his computer that will help him with video editing. He also got a new computer monitor which is also better for editing. He asked for airpods (which are super popular) and got them. We just hope he doesn't lose them! I did the "box inside a box inside a box" thing for wrapping them.

my gifts

I received a scarf from one of the families of a boy on the robotics team that J coaches. A very thoughtful gift! My larger presents were the Wise Men to add to my Willow Tree nativity set, a perfume sampler, and an attachment for my phone so that I can take macro photos (super close up) and also wide angle shots. Svetlana (J's colleague) takes really cool close up nature photos so I'd like to give that a try. I also got honey from the honeycomb - a unique gift that J and the boys found.

I'm so thankful for my hubby's help in preparing Christmas dinner. I don't know how some people do all the cooking alone. Here is my place setting.

I bought the tablecentre from Costco.

Our table full of food.

The turkey:

Here is a photo of our tree. It isn't real this year. I think it is funny that sometime I think "oh, do I need to water the tree?" Old habits die hard.

remember you can click on it for a larger photo

Our chimney needs cleaning out so we can't have a real fire in our fireplace. There is a wait for a chimney sweep until February! We had to find the firelog channel on TV. We listened to the Queen's message, as per our tradition. Here are the boys wearing their Christmas crowns (after opening Christmas crackers).

Some other Christmas activities that I/we did this year:

- Ladies Cookie Exchange with ladies from my church. I didn't get any cookies made in time to participate. I did enjoy sampling a few cookies and seeing what people brought.

- I did some crafting. I decoupaged some wooden blocks using some Christmas scrapbook paper. Here they are displayed on my little shelf by our front door. The nativity at the top I bought from Dayspring.com

- We went to see the lights at Evergreen church. The weather was super nice that night. They go "all out" there. Free hot cocoa, free cookies, a model train set up, faux snow falling at various times, a light tunnel, and a huge light display which is synchronized to music.

It is sad when the Christmas music is no longer on the radio. I did some shopping today (Boxing Day) and found some good bargains on things I look forward to using next year.


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Mushroom Hunting at Lord Hill Park

Back on October 27th, a Sunday afternoon, J and I went out to Lord Hill Park (near Snohomish) where we met up with a colleague of J's (her name starts with S) who is a mushroom expert and a great photographer. I follow her on Instagram and enjoy all the close up photos she takes of mushrooms. She brought her young son along and he was an expert at spotting mushrooms.

We went way off the official paths and found an amazing amount and variety of mushrooms.
I learned a lot from S and had a lot of fun. I don't know the names of all the mushrooms we spotted. In time, I'll get better at identification.

S took this photo of J and I taking photographs.

These are coral mushrooms. They are actually really small.

These are "boring" mushrooms but boy, did we find a lot of them in one place!

I think this is an oyster mushroom.

These mushrooms were my favourite, due to their colour.

It was pretty dark in the forest so many of the photos I took turned out blurry. S used a macro attachment (clipped onto her phone) to take close up photos. I've asked Santa for one for Christmas.


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September Birthday Visit

Both of my parents have birthdays in September. In 2018 and 2017, I visited to celebrate my mom's birthday. Her 90th was in 2017. This year I went to celebrate my dad's birthday.

It was sunny every day in Victoria and only rained at night.

I took the Clipper. The ride up was pretty exciting. The waves were super high. I enjoyed the ride. I'm thankful that I don't get seasick, at least not on the Clipper. I wish I had taken video of the waves but I didn't have a window seat.

Friday night Dad and I walked to the White Spot for dinner.

On Saturday I rented a car. That was a misadventure. I walked all over downtown Victoria to try to find the rental place. I think I walked over 1,000 steps. I rely on my phone for directions and I don't use the phone in Canada due to the high roaming charges. I'm thankful that the weather was sunny and warm during that time I spent wandering around.

Once I had the car, I did a little shopping. I always like to go to Bolen Books. I got a jigsaw puzzle since that is my current pastime. I do that while J watches TV. I went to Mercedes Lane but didn't find anything I liked enough to buy.

In the late afternoon, I drove my parents along Dallas Road to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains. We had dinner at the Blue Crab to celebrate my dad's 86th birthday. Mom and I had salmon. There is an amazing view from the windows.

We had chocolate cake from Save On Food which was delicious. We watched a Canadian Football League game. On Sunday I took my parents to their church. Their pastor preaches great sermons and I enjoyed the music.

For lunch we had hoped to go to Murchies but many streets nearby were blocked off and we couldn't get close to the restaurant . I found out later it was the annual B.C. Law Enforcement Memorial parade for fallen members.

Our second choice was Swiss Chalet. After lunch I grabbed some donuts to take home for my boys from the Tim Horton's next door. They have a small hockey stick for the door handle. I love it!

I returned my rental car (Toyota Corolla) and got a taxi to take me to the Clipper Terminal.

The boat ride back was very calm. Almost boring! This is the lighthouse at Odgen Point which the boat goes by on the way out of Victoria Harbour.

I'm thankful for my parents and their long lives.


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