february

february 19

it’s been a quiet week or 2 which makes a change! zoe had her first visit to the dentist where she was cooperative [i found a fantastic kids dentist here in town], zoe got a haircut, aly got glasses and a haircut [thank goodness – much as i love her volume, she has the tangliest hair in the world].

zoe happily watching dora on the ceiling of the dentist's office

zoe showing off her new haircut

toby’s been playing basketball with his school team which means i’m getting to know kelowna delivering half the team to different schools. zoe has started gymnastics. she wasn't keen on the idea because she thought it was going to be too hard so i was very relieved when she gave it two thumbs up after the first class. since they don't have a circus school where aly can do aerial silk classes, she decided the next best thing was to do gymnastics so, at the age of 12, she's decided to take a beginner class. i'm so impressed - she's so much braver than me!

zoe learning to do a handstand

for myself, i’ve been doing some power yoga which is enjoyably challenging after doing the same beginners class for years. i also went to my first scrapbooking crop in kelowna which was fantastic [especially since i just ordered 900 photos]. interestingly, everyone else was doing digital scrapbooking which i avoid since scrapbooking is one of the few times i’m actually away from a computer.

i’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of different possibilities for my career. the world is my oyster, but that’s all a little daunting. i considered a PhD for a while, a full time job in the tech industry, part time job as an office manager [which is what I had been doing for past 6 years], volunteering at the food bank [which i still might try to do], but in the end a couple of possibilities for web clients came up so i’ve decided to carry on doing that. it should give me the flexibility to see that zoe and toby get settled into new schools in september and would avoid a daycare nightmare over that summer. of course, if someone was to offer me an amazing job, it would be rude to say no!

aly has decided that winter camping is not really for her. she had fun but was not keen on the fact that her toes didn’t defrost for the whole weekend and there was nowhere to go inside. she’s camping again this weekend but lakefront rather than mountain top which should suit her a little better [although you still wouldn’t catch me there at this time of year!]. we’re still surrounded by snow up here on our little mountain but most of kelowna is now clear of snow. there was a dusting of snow again last night, but none of the dustings really seem to stick around any more.

aly ready to unpack from camping

february 1

in continuing my comments on canadians from last month, kelowna seems even more quintessentially canadian than vancouver was. i noticed the last couple of times i've been in coffee shops that the routine is to drop your laptop on a random table and then wander over to the other side of the cafe to order your coffee! the property manager laughed at me last week for locking the front door and i feel a little guilty every time i alarm my car. i feel like the 'honk' it makes alerts everyone to the fact i'm obviously from out of town where people lock cars.

i love that the school playground is full of snow forts!

aly is camping with pathfinders next week. i would have made a terrible pathfinder, let alone a pathfinder in canada. not to worry - they are digging themselves a snowcave and aly informs me that snow is very insulating so that's ok! you should see the packing list. it's a good thing 'toboggan' is on the list for lugging all the gear to the campsite.

snow on the vineyards behind aly's school

a great quote from zoe: "do i have to do everything around here?" i forget what terribly unjust task we were making her do at the time!

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