Guatemala Sunday

The Sunday on which our mission trip team offers a presentation of their trip to the congregation. This year is Guatemala Sunday. They went to Guatemala. Last year was West Virginia Sunday. They went to West Virginia. You get the idea!
Guatemala was Nick's third mission trip. According to him, it was the best yet, and the most fulfilling. Our mission trip leader Elise laughs about this, as she has returned from each trip declaring it to be the best. South Dakota, Costa Rica, Vermont, Alaska, with Guatemala now topping the list.
The mission trip is usually late June or July, and the team comes together in September to share their adventures with our church. A special service with shared photos and recollections, followed by a coffee hour. I've always made a point of try to attend these mission trip Sundays. I remember how moving it was to hear the kids talk about their time with the children of the Rose Bud Indian reservation in South Dakota. Beautiful photos to go along with their life changing stories. Every year I marveled at this amazing opportunity offered by our church and looked forward to the day when my children could participate.
This year, when Elise was organizing the presentation, Nick offered to be an usher, and play guitar. No mention of speaking. She always asks that 3 or 4 of the kids offer their reflections on the trip. He didn't offer. And then, a couple of weeks before Guatemala Sunday, Nick told me that Mrs. S (Elise) had asked him if he could be one of those 3 or 4 kids, and he agreed.
The next surprise came when Elise was asking the kids to forward their intended reflections, so that she could make sure there would be no repetition. Nick advised me that he had nothing written, nor was he planning to. He was just going to get up and speak. From the heart. Noteless. Wow.
And wow us he did! Twice. Nick spoke at both the 8:00 and 10:30 services. Equally composed, thoughtful and hilarious both times.

The team, both students and adult leaders, donned their Guatemala t-shirts. Some wore jackets they had picked up in Antigua, where the group spent their last day before returning home.

Nick spoke. 

He played guitar.

And he made them smile. And laugh! Take a look at the others in the picture. All smiles!

He was funny, thoughtful, eloquent and composed. As someone who is not fond of public speaking, I marvelled at the ease at which he relayed his thoughts and feelings about Guatemala. He compared one week of Guatemala to six weeks in France, which is how his summer played out. How he enjoyed Guatemala so much more, for that one short week. The hard work, and very humble meals and housing more appealing than being a tourist, eating rich French food, showering daily and sleeping in a comfy bed. How much more welcomed he felt by the Guatemalans, as opposed to the French.

Nick might stand out in a crowd because of his choice of hairstyle. It's longer than most at his school, our neighborhood and our church. While I can't speak for what he's like at school, around here, he's pretty quiet. He surprised and impressed a lot of people last Sunday. In addition to the many accolades he received, a lot of people were surprised and impressed by his wit and sense of humour. Me, I was proud. Very proud. Way to go Nick!

Art Journaling for April & May

Traveled to Canada last week, armed with, among other things, a flash drive with these two photos. I had every intention of writing this post while I was there, using my parents' computer. However, the usb port on their computer was loose and wiggly, so those photos came back home the way they went, and never saw the light of day!

Here's what I did the last week of April:

No gesso on these pages. Just watercoloured a background, tried my hand at a face, painted some circles, stamped some elephants (and the word lucky, which was part of the set) and journaled with my FC markers. I have since watched one of Julie's many AJ video clips where she created a face, and I must try her techniques. Many more layers of colour before she added the features. Mine is flat and boring, but it's my first attempt at freehanding with paint, so I'll keep it!

The first week of May:

Two weeks in a row with no gesso?! I'm happy to report that the pages are sturdy enough to stand up to this treatment. This is a Moleskine sketchbook, so I suppose that's why.

I watercoloured the pages blue, cut the pennant shapes from a small BG paper pack, included a photo of the birthday boy with his cookie cake, and the rest is FC markers.  Oh, and the frame stamp around the photo is Autumn Leaves.

The Birthday Boy

Nick and Gaby's birthdays always start with them opening their family gifts when they get up. If it's not on a weekend, they do that before school. And since Nick started high school, that's pretty early. He's out the door by 6:40. So we were up with him, around six, to watch him open his gifties!

Truthfully, I think Nick would just as soon sleep in a bit and do this after school. But right now, I'm sure Gaby wouldn't hear of it. I think she was up before Nick was!

He doesn't look too awake here, does he?!

A Team Canada jersey from Dad.

A Claude Giroux jersey from Gaby. Sensing a theme here?

Big Flyers fan, our boy. And I can tell you for a fact that this is his favourite gift. Giroux is his favourite player. Gaby, knowing that, informed me months ago that she wanted to use her own money to get Nick this jersey. Locally, they're really expensive. But thanks to the wonders of the internet, we were able to find something more affordable, more within Gaby's budget. And Nick loved it!

The birthday boy had his choice of meal and cake. He requested a cookie cake, and home made pizza for supper. 

If you look closely, you'll see that Nick is holding a thermometer in his left hand. While the reading isn't legible in the photo, he was showing us his temperature of over 101 F. Not the way you want to spend your 16th birthday, poor guy! Jess, Nick's girlfriend, left right after dinner, and Nick had a long hot bath and watched the Flyers lose their game 3. Calls from Manon, Nathan and Pier were the highlight of the evening -- fantastic hearing from all of them!

And don't you know, the day after Nick's birthday, I found the files that I was looking for, with the baby and toddler photos that I had wanted to use in my last post.  Couldn't resist -- one more of my sweetie pie!

Too cute!

Last Day of School (10 days ago)

It's my blog, and I can post any way I want to. Forwards, backwards, sideways. Right now, I'm going backwards!

I would love to be like some of my favourite bloggers, who post regularly, some daily, with photos and everything! In my ideal world, that's what I would do.

Things aren't always ideal, and posts aren't created on the day they occur. In my world.

I want to write about the last day of school. Here it is!

Our district always has the kids attend for almost 2 hours on the last day. The elementary students receive their report cards that day and do little else. The older students all receive theirs in the mail anyway. This year, Nick's first year of high school, he didn't attend the last two days on the calendar. They had exams the last week, with the last couple of days for rewrites. He wrote two exams on the Monday, and one each on Tuesday and Wednesday Those days, he was home before 10, and was able to sleep in on Thursday and Friday. So the last day of high school doesn't come with the drama that an elementary school's last day holds.

I've always tried to pick up Nick and Gaby at school on their last day and snap one last photo of them with their outgoing teacher. Some years are easier than others, depending on what else is going on at the school. If the fifth grade promotion ceremony has been rained out/delayed til that last day, there's people everyone and no one minds another parent drifting in.

But this year, the halls were pretty quiet. One of the math teachers gave me the OK to proceed to Gab's classroom. Talk about taking me back to my childhood. Those wide grins I was walking against on my way to find Gaby put an equally wide grin on my face. They were ecstatic and I recalled that same feeling of spilling out of the school one last time, all papers and books in hand, not returning for 2 months. That's 2 months, not 10 weeks. In Canada, we always went to the very end of June.

But we were lucky enough to leave with our teacher assignment for the next year, and supply list, in hand. I so wish they did that at Jarr, but in all the years that I've had kids there, it's never happened. Letters are sent out within two weeks of school starting up in September, indicating the teacher for the coming year. At least, in the past few years, the teaching teams have come up with a combined generic supply list to get us started. For people like me, who like to hit Target as soon as they're clearing out the red, white and blue of the 4th, this is great. The prices offered in July are 25% of what you'd pay any other time of year, especially if you shop the sales through the summer. Markers that are $4 any other time, can be had for less than $1 on sale.

Getting back on track and off of my little nostalgic stroll, I caught Gaby and her favourite teacher of all time, Mrs. F. I agree with Gaby, Mrs. F is one heckuva teacher. Nick didn't have her, but she's been in that school as long as he was. And she has a son Nick's age, so we'll always be parents of Class of 2019 students. I'm glad for that, because not only is she an amazing teacher, she's an all around great person too.

Got my picture!

Another last day of school tradition has been lunch at the place of their, Nick and Gab's, choice. There were a few years of McD's when Nick was in elementary school, a BK in there somewhere, and a couple of Olive Gardens I think. They also opted for Coldstone one year -- straight to dessert! This year, though Nick chose Oliver Garden, Gaby convinced him that KFC was a better choice. Well, not really. He just decided to be a nice guy and go with her choice.

Nick couldn't wait til we got home to eat his snackers.

Finger lickin' good.

It was our turn to host Gaby's book club meeting, and we ended up holding it that afternoon. The girls munched and nibbled, played outside, running through the sprinkler, blew some bubbles, and did have a brief discussion about the selection, Matilda, by Roald Dahl. They also watched a bit, but not all, of the movie version. Just ran out of time.

Wrapped up the day with smores outside.

We cheated and used the smore maker. Just light the little sterno, adjust the flame, and instant fire for roasting those marshmallows. It's great for year round smores, but we've come to use anytime we're at home and a craving for smores hits. Faster than building a fire and waiting for those coals to burn down.

Nick takes his time and slow roasts his marshmallows to warm and gooey perfection, inside and out. Gaby just plunges in and lets them flame up and char. I prefer method number one, or at least I did in the days when I would roast and eat a marshmallow.

And lastly, a few sparklers to further celebrate the beginning of summer break!

Off to West VA

Nick left this morning for our church's annual youth mission trip. This year's destination is West VA.  While the kids aren't excited about leaving behind their electronics -- mp3 players and cell phones -- they're looking forward to wrapping up the week with a white water rafting trip.

The whole group, kids and adult leaders. The Jacobys once again created fabulous shirts for the team.

Just the kids.

The adult leaders/chaperones. THEY'RE allowed to carry their cell phones!

Pastor Hy offered a send off blessing.

Some of the boys.

Final farewell at the airport. Can you spot Nick waving?

We got our phone chain call early this evening that they had arrived safe and sound. Four full days of mission work, a day of fun and a day to get home. God bless them all and keep them safe.

Now, if Nick were home, he'd probably be in his room. I don't see much of him when he is around, but that doesn't stop me from missing him! Can't WAIT for his return.

RUSH

Last weekend, Nick performed in the Rush show at the School of Rock. The students are divided into 5 groups, and each group is assigned to a particular show. This season, they did The Clash vs The Sex Pistols, Rush, Women That Rock, King Diamond and David Bowie. If Nick couldn't get King Diamond, Rush was his second choice, so he was happy. They rehearse for for almost 3 months and each show is performed twice over its own weekend. Last Friday and Saturday was Rush. And the kids were great!

When I think of Rush, there're probably only a handful of songs that come to mind. To fill an evening with 25 or so songs, I knew there would be many that weren't familiar to me. Didn't matter. They were all fabulous!

I marvel at these shows. They're so professionally presented. The musicians are amazing and they have amazing poise and confidence. On stage, they're all business. You forget they're the same kid who at home has to be reminded three times to clean up his room.

I asked Nick on the way to the show on Friday night if he was nervous at all. He said no. Just excited to finally be performing. He was confident and he was ready. And it showed.

A Message to Nick

Nick, you're a teenager, and as such, like to spend time with your friends. Or in your room. Playing guitar. Playing music. Doing homework. You prefer your space to our space. I get it. That's why I like times like Monday nights when House is on, so we can share that time in front of the TV. Now, with your weekly allergy shots, I get that time with you too. Not your first choice, I know. Not mine either. But it's an hour and some that I can count on.

I also love when you join me to drive Gaby somewhere, or come along to kill time while she's at a practice. Hanging out at Barnes and Noble with you is fun.

But these moments with you don't add up to as much time as I spend with Gaby. That's just the nature of your ages. And so, I don't post as many photos of you here. Or stories. I don't share as many moments or stories with you now as I did when you were nine. You grow older and more independent. It's what you're supposed to do.

I need you to know this, for the times that you visit here. I don't want you thinking I love her more! She's my favourite daughter, and you're my favourite son. Always have been and always will be. That's the way it is.

(photo April 2009 -- we really do have to get more photos together!)