Monday, November 30, 2009

Update

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A few weeks ago I mentioned a project that we had become involved in.
A project that allowed us to touch the lives of children that we will probably never meet in a country we will probably never visit.
A group from our Church was headed down to Guatemala to celebrate 50 years of cooperation and support between our Diocese here in Spokane and the Church in some of the remotest parts of Guatemala.
We were lucky enough to be allowed to provide some special gifts for them to give to the local children.
You can read more about the gifts
here.

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Now, I have to add at this point that when we were assembling all the gifts we really didn't expect any feedback. But it was such a nice surprise to get an email today from the lady who presented our gifts to the children. She has just arrived back from Guatemala and wanted to send me a couple of pictures of the children who received the gifts...AND she promised to send me more. How exciting!


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So while the gift is definitely in the giving it is really wonderful to actually see the faces and the smiles of these kids. Totally made our day :-)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

You Call This Fun?

The night before Thanksgiving most people are busy preparing for tomorrow's festivities.
Baking, cleaning, decorating.
Not me.
This is what our family was doing the night before Thanksgiving.


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Yup! We hit the gym.

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Let me explain....I did a spin class yesterday with some friends while the kids swam in the pool at the gym. After the class the kids noticed that there were little iddy biddy kids size stationary bikes and after asking the instructor about kids coming to the classes she assured me that they were very welcome.
So....all day today it has been...
"Can we go to a spin class with you, Mum? Can we? Huh? Can we? Pleeeease Can we? Huh, Mum, Can we go?"
It's not unlike the Chinese water torture...slowly, bit by bit, wearing me down.
So off we go to the gym.

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I was fully expecting the kids to last all of about 5 minutes before they lost interest.
I was waiting for Jack to give me THAT look. You know the "look"...like...
"Is this it?". "Is this ALL you do? Just peddle and peddle and don't go anywhere???" BORING!
But I was pleasantly surprised.
They really stuck at it! I think it had a lot to do with the fact that our friends came with their kids too AND there was a big mirror so they could check themselves out as they cycled.

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I'm really proud of all of them. They stuck at it for 30 minutes straight...and it was a pretty tough class. With 15 minutes left, they decided they would take a dip in the pool to cool off, except for Ciara who was determined to hang on till the end.
The outcome...we all had a great time AND we we can enjoy our turkey today totally guilt free!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Friday, November 13, 2009

First Snow

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Nothing like the first snowfall of the season.
The first sign that Christmas is just around the corner.


It makes me think of drinking hot cocoa in front of a roaring fire...and putting up Christmas lights.

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Hmmm....might have to get onto that this weekend.
Just a light dusting so far, but winter is definitely here.


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