Merry Christmas

I am savouring my fleeting holiday, and learning to appreciate the fresh wet reality of B.C Christmas's. Snow and ice are in short supply, which means noone wastes time thinking about pond hockey, but squash courts are easy to come by, and James and his bro's spent the morning playing squash and having male bonding time. James' mom (whom I will now be referring to as just plain "mom" ) and I had our bonding time while knocking off all the items on our lists at the nearest mall. It was fun.

Today has been the first sunny day, and on our way to pick up Ali from the airport, I fell in love again with the beauty of snow capped mountains, which had been obscured by cloud and rain up until now. The boys' capitalized on the weather, and the recent dump of powder on Mount Baker, and are currently spending the day skiing/snowboarding, and I'll venture to say carrying on their male bonding time. The girls (Leah, mom, Ali, and I) took a drive to Steveson (?) to take in the sites of a bustling harbour/fishing town, and to grab some fish and chips at the Blue Canoe. A very cute restaurant overlooking the water.
I've come to the realization that you simply cannot go wrong with fish and chips.

Although Christmas day is officially over, I feel like the party is just getting started over here. I consider Christmas more of a season anyways, which, fortunately, will not be over until I step back into my job on Monday morning. Until then, I am entitled (and expected) to eat frequently, play a lot of games, watch episodes of MadMen, and deliciously curl up at any time of the day to just read. It's a beautiful thing.
Tonight is family Christmas with the immediate Harskamp clan, which is going to be a lot of fun. Apparently there are some home videos of the fam worth watching, and I have to say, I'm excited to see what my husband was like at 5 years old. Something tells me not so very different. I say this from the experience of my own home videos, where a mini Ree at the age of 5 is incredibly telling of the person I am today. I find this very amusing. How is it that education and conditioning and being 20 years older still can't iron out my 5 year old mood swings?! I'm no emotional roller coaster or anything, but I'm still the Ree I was at 5. That's a fact.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the next few days, one of which will be spent having a family photo shoot downtown Vancouver and going to Science World. That's right. I married a scientist, and this is the price I have to pay :) But I am really looking forward to it.

And now, I am looking forward to my book.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Bowmanville slumber party

Niagara Falls--free B & B!

Bears!

James in hockey equipment. Hot.

I am close to the end.

Two days until I am deprived of my "2 job" status and lumped in with normal people who work one job full time.

A moment to reflect:

Columbia International College was awesome.

Things that were awesome:

Teaching students from Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Senegal, China, Vietnam, Russia, and Korea.

Learning how to say "hello, how are you?" in every one of those languages.

Having my eyes opened to my student's realities, and what life is like for a foreign student

Reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time

Hearing my students heatedly debate the rules of war

Student papers :) (broken English cracks me up)

Getting a good taste of this career

Tomorrow is a study day, and Thursday they write their final exam. Then they move on to Grade 11 English and I never see them again. I don't get to see if they ever change their minds about the importance of money. I don't know if they ever go back home again, or if they end up settling here in Canada. Which ones will make it into their top universities? I have my guesses, but I'll really never know.

Strange to be so involved in a kids life every morning for 9 straight weeks, and then they drop off the face of the earth. I know it's just a part of life, and not really all that unique to teaching, but I think that because the volume of people that come and go through a classroom is higher than most other places, it seems like a bigger deal.

Oh well.

Good luck to them all!

Only two weeks until Christmas holidays!!

Christmas Ramblings

The Christmas decorations are UP! Stockings, lights, candles, garland, eggnog, and Christmas music= one lovable apartment.

Things still to be desired--a live Christmas tree, presents under said tree, pointsettias, and Christmas baked goods. And Christmas day. But for that, I will be patient. The rest we'll get next week or something.

Anyways, I'm just glad I was up for the home makeover after a morning of stomach flu, sporadic vomiting, and 5 wasted hours of daylight due to napping. I don't nap. But I'm over the flu :)

Other exciting things that have happened this week. Savannah Joy Dykstra. My beautiful, healthy, chubby new niece. I love her. So do her brothers. Speaking of the nephews, James and I thought we'd take them off my sister's hands for the day so that she could just relax and we could just have fun with the boys. We took them to grandmas and made crafts, Christmas chocolate molds, and spent a good chunk of the afternoon outside running around. A lot of fun, but I am definitely glad that the way you start a family is with ONE, immobile, possibly quieter infant. Baby steps.

I'm onside with that.

Alright. The flu put me off my game, and I have a pile of essays just itching to be marked. Here I go.

A Good Feeling

Well, it's official. Our baby has all it's limbs, organs, and attitude.. and it was squirming and karate kicking my bladder during the whole ultrasound.

So, it's most likely going to take after me.

We are pretty pumped that the baby seems healthy, spunky, and REAL. Pictures can work wonders :)

So, I'm getting my "baby bump" and to avoid embarrassing "fat" questions from my students, I let the cat out of the bag and put them into shock. Now everyone that I come into contact with on a daily basis has been informed, and I will have to resign myself to the fact that people first look at my stomach before they meet my eyes.

Anyways, school is awesome. I love it. High school is definitely for me, and I am going to soak up the joys of it until I move on to phase 2 of the joy train. That means when teaching is replaced with baby love and diapers.

I'm already becoming that person who talks too much about babies. I'm referring to those moms who can only talk about their kids, like they themselves don't actually do anything. I'm hyper aware of this condition, however, and so I am promising myself to avoid it as much as possible. I'll start with my next blog and "other" happenings in my life.

Deal.

A familiar feeling

I'm antsy for things that I can't put my finger on. Like I want to go do something or be somewhere, and somehow I am still sitting here. Typing. The time is ticking before our little time bomb goes off in April, and then my world will change forever. I'm under no allusions here. Motherhood is going to be very different from "wifehood", which was very different from "singlehood". If these aren't words, they should be. I had this anstsy"ness" before I got married, because the "time bomb" was going off which meant a life change was about to happen, and so I had to do something crazy in the time I had left. Yes, "had left". If you gasp here, and think " what a horrible way to think of it.. time left'" then I think less of you.

Of course the start of something new means the end of something old. It's accurate.

Right now, I am thinking the "new" will involve great things, but in and among the great will be the reality of a dependent child. A tiny, little infant, who poops, and cries, and demands that I care for it (he/she) constantly. An awesome, scary, real responsibility.

And before I buckle down and get serious about being a mom, I am just letting you know that I am feeling antsy. I have four months left.

The feeling is not a new one for me. I know that. I'm a restless person, and so I learn to cope when I'm in these moods. Time to review my inventory of past coping strategies, so I can take my pick for the night.

1) Puddle jump

2) Run--fast.

3) Play a game of "21 up"

4) Go to South Africa

5) Go to England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy

6) Come home

7) Pull out my list of "dreams" and add to it

8) Get lost in a good book

9) Go to Petland

10) Climb a tree

11) Build a fort

12) Tackle James

13) Yell and make noises

14) Go outside

15) Drink a pint.

Ok, so there's a few on the least that aren't all that feasible. I think I'll just go grab my book.

After an afternoon downtown with my ESL class, and braving the city bus to get there and back on a time schedule (totally against my nature:), and then an afternoon/evening driving to and from Stratford with my grade 11 class, I'd say I'm just about ready to have my husband home, and a good relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.

That is all.

And either the baby is growing, or I'm eating too much. Pants are starting to wonder what's up.