The last two weeks...

I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but this is mainly because it's been a very challenging two weeks for me. I have been struggling with some sickness that just will not go away. For the first 5 or 6 days I was completely useless, and that is a hard feeling for me to get over. I really did not like having to sit around not able to do ANYTHING! The last few days I have been gaining energy, but my symptoms have changed and now I have a lingering cough and snotty nose. ahhhh! I'm ready for it to all go away! Good news though- my energy level is up and my blogging should continue! :)

Der Schnee ist hier

Apparently, "It does NOT snow before Christmas...not usually that is..." or so I was told! The snow is here. It has been for a few days now. And with the snow, came the loss of heat in our house. We are told that it must be the pilot light or something, but unfortunately we are on the third day with no heaters and no hot water. Last night I resorted to taking a boil-water bath. I was in desperate need of bathing and washing my hair and so I boiled 4 pots of water and 3 kettles. Add that with the ice cold water from the tap, it made a semi-comfortable mixture. It got the job done at least.
Again, our new friends are coming to our rescue. We have gotten multiple space heaters from people, many wonderful offers to stay at houses, and tonight my friend Abby brought over hot water bottles and extra blankets. I'm finding it really amazing how wonderful people are.
For instance, this past Sunday we were invited to go to a Thanksgiving meal made by someone we had never met. Hospitality was shown to us just because it was known that holidays are hard away from families and Americans love Thanksgiving and need a lot of excuses to keep eating! I don't know if people realize the impact that they have on us, whether it is a simple ride or teaching us to knit, it's people showing God's love.

I'm so very thankful for...

This Thanksgiving was one of my favorites. Obviously it was not because I wasn't with my family, but because my new make-shift "family" was here. Leigh, Bethany and I decided that we wanted to have a HUGE Thanksgiving not only to celebrate the American holiday, but also to show how thankful we are to all of our new friends here in Bradford. After preparing for several days we had a feast to feed 20 people. Our turkey itself was over 13 kgs! We also served: mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, creamed corn, cooked broccoli, stuffing, cranberry sauce, vegetable platter, and bread.
My favorite part of the evening was before the meal when we went around the table and had everyone say what they are thankful for. It was really special to see people there from many different parts of out lives here. We had people from the Great Horton Methodist congregation, the St. Wilfrid's congregation, some teachers from Leigh and my school and some teachers from Bethany's school. It really was a great mix and everyone that came has a special place in all of our hearts.
After our "gorgeous" meal we had everyone come back to our little place and eat "pudding" (desserts).
We had 4 pies and a couple of cakes. After a long problematic search for pumpkin with no luck, one of the teachers at my school was able to find us some orange coloured squash and we made squash pie with the hope that it would be very similar. We still called it pumpkin pie though! HA! Later we found out that the American teacher at school had cans of pumpkin shipped in and she was willing to share. Oh well!
It really was a special day and afterwards we all were so excited that we pulled it off and it was a success! All the hard work paid off!

Hoopin' for children in need...

Shaunna hoopin' with ease...

This past Friday was a day of hula-hoopin' fun at school. The kids could wear their "spots" instead of their uniforms. The goal of course was to raise money for the non-profit British organization, "Children in Need". The kids even brought money to help. Each grade level had time in the hall to first practice their hula-hooping and then to compete. The select kids made it to the end where they then competed in front of the whole school in an assembly. No one from my class was the overall winner, but many of them were REALLY good. As the classes changed, some of us teacher had a go...and I must tell you....I am terrible. I always have been. As a child I really excelled at most sports, but I'll tell you what...hula hooping was NOT one of them.

Afshan and Ateeqa showing their spots

I'm sorry!....so sorry!

So, if any of you actually read my blog a lot, you may have noticed that I haven't written anything for a long time. This is because our internet wasn't working for a while and now I am not able to sign into my blog at my computer at home. Sad faces. I'll try really hard to keep it up to date by getting on at school...

A little extra...for remembrance day

My flatmate Leigh summed it up quite well. Please read for a wonderful peace perspective! :)

http://leighsradjourney.blogspot.com/2010/11/remember-peace.html

Miss? Miss? Fancy dress day...

Shammas, Ayub, Aeysha, Ammar, Nieco, Uzair, Omar, Nafisah, Shaunna, Hafsah, Fayzah, Aquib, Liam, Zakee, Fahaad, Aisha, Nezreen, Haseeb, Amaan, Mohamed, Kamran, Tazneem, Afshan, Ateeqa, Usaid, Shumrez, Maryam, Anees, Samia, Zishaan, Miss Shultz, Miss Mitchell, Miss Wilkensen

Sue Wilkenson, Linda Mitchell, Me

One of my projects this past week was organizing a "fancy" dress day for 4M. Over the past week the whole school was suppose to be using the film/book "Alice in Wonderland" to incorporate with their maths. Our students did things like counting and measuring their heights in comparison to Alice in the movie. On Friday they had a "fancy dress" day and because most dress up days a lot of the kids don't participate, Miss Mitchell decided to do a class costume. That ended up in me setting it up for the kids to complete and me making the ones for the teachers. All I had to do was make some stencils and draw the back design for the card. I also drew the jokers for the teachers and made me the Ace of Spades.