Christmas

This Christmas, we all got stockings. You'll notice 5 stockings hanging from the door frame. That is because there are currently 5 family members: Jon, myself, Nick (jon's brother), Atticus and Fallujah. Now, I know there are some of you who want to puke at the fact that my cats have stockings - but keep your comments to yourselves. I love my cats.


Nick opens his stocking to find large cloves of garlic. Notice the joy on his face.
Jon opens his stocking to find a doorbell -- that he gave to himself.


Jon and I received coupons from Nick that we can redeem at any time to get him out of the house.
Here is Nick opening a present that his mom sent down. I think it is a package of undershirts.


The cats were each given a toy in their stocking to share. The bright blue and pink feathery boa thing was definately the cooler present. The other was a plain brown mouse.


Fallujah going wild over the boa....and then curling up for an afternoon nap...all worn out!

We had a great Christmas. Thank you to Mom and Dad Ippel for the packages full of goodies, and Mom and Dad Stelpstra for the calendars and clothes shopping spree.

We missed you all!

At the big mall

These are the two wonderful teenagers (Brendan and Brianna) I used to spend time with and tutor. I stopped this past fall, and went about 3 months without seeing them. But I called them up the other day to see if they wanted to go to the "big mall" and they were stoked. Actually, Brenden usually doesn't like the mall, but when I mentioned "lunch" he was in. They are funny because they know exactly what stores they want to go to in the exact order they want to go to them - the bookstore, then the toy store, then the candy store, then the Japanese characters store.... We criss-crossed that huge mall so many times, I was worn out at the end of the day! Anyhow, a lot of you have heard stories about this notorious pair, so I thought I'd give you an update. Notice the pink bandanna is STILL an accessory.

HALF MARATHON

So this is us...after we ran our half marathon. It was Jon's and my first race. Nick (in Orange) ran one a few weeks beforehand, and Tim (on the right) has run several. We were all pleased with the results to an extent...but all want to do better next time. The next race for Jon and me is in February in Jacksonville, which is kinda funny because while I was running (at about mile 8), I was thinking "I will NEVER do this again". Ya right. It's a little bit addictive, let me warn you. Anyhow...I encourage any of you and all of you to try one...at least once in your life. It's worth it.

An Ode

Jon was just recently promoted and is now the SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT MANAGER for the City of Orlando. Congratulations Jonny! So, in honor of him and all things green, try to reuse, recycle, and yes...even regift this holiday season!

Unplug those lights at night, folks! Save the wrapping paper. Recycle the cardboard from all the toy boxes. Consider giving canvas grocery bags to your friends. Buy fair trade and sustainable products if you can. The environment thanks you - and I believe the Creator does too!

We are thrilled about Jon's new position - he has been looking forward to this for a while. It will be a great career boost for him, as well as an excellent learning experience. He'll be challenged and busy...but best of all, working on what he is passionate about!

I'm so proud to have such an awesome husband!

ICE

One of the big and fancy hotels here puts on an "ICE" show every winter. People from all over the world come to carve sculptures out of ice. Another teacher and I took some students. It was great fun because some of them have never really been around much ice or snow, and they were definately not used to the chilly 9 degrees F! I didn't take my camera, but my student sent me a couple pictures. Doesn't it look lovely! The last photo is the nativity scene, but she took it from the side so it's kindof hard to see - notice the sheep down in front. Actually, I wonder if that was purposefully, as she is Muslim and just recently celebrated the sacrificing of the sheep. Huh. Anyways, we had a great time. There were also ice slides, which of course we all had to try. This is as close as I'm getting to Winter this year!

Family Photos

We obviously had WAY too much fun with this. Allison has a program on her computer to take these crazy photos. You can see yourself on the screen and then it snaps a shot. There are all different settings. So hilarious. I'm sorry there are so many but I just couldn't leave any out. I hope it gives you a good laugh.

Eating Well

While Allison was here, I made Asian Grilled Salmon with roasted potatoes, asparagus and salad.
We all made calzones in honor of our Tuesday night "date night" -- it's always pizza of some sort while we watch our 2 favorite television shows: NCIS and The Office.

Allison made traditional Honduran food - beans, tortilla, tomatoes, avocado and plaintain.

Kennedy Space Center Air Show

Here are some really lame pictures of a pretty cool air show. Jon's sister Allison was in town for 5 days and this is one of our adventures. I know...not too cool.

Oh Canada

Yes, I am half American. But I am FROM Canada. I sometimes I wonder...is the United States every gonna feel like home? I can honestly say, I always feel a bit different, a bit like an outsider. Jon uses my roots as an excuse for my behaviour sometimes ("don't listen to her...she's Canadian"), in the most loving of ways, of course. I use my roots as an excuse as to why I spell and pronounce things properly ("mitten" has t's folks, and "sorry" needs an O-sound!). But when it comes down to it, I know I'm entirely fortunate to 'belong' to both nations. That is why...

on October 13 I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving,

on October 25 I voted (Fl has early voting) in the US elections,

on November 4 I will eagerly watch as the votes come in,

on November 11 I will wear a red poppy for Canadian Remembrance day,

and on November 27 I will eat turkey again - for American Thanksgiving.

Fall is quite busy if you're a dual citizen!

Smurfs

This picture was taken before blogging days....but I came across it and it made me laugh. Some of you who check this blog from time to time will remember this awesome day..and hopefully it will bring a smile to your face. Love you guys!

Here's to hoping...

Obama and Hillary held a rally here in Orlando on Monday night. Of course we had to go. It was a lot of fun, actually. The crowd was so diverse and so excited.

Isn't that a patriotic picture of my husband? :)

It's hard to see, but this gives you an idea of how many people were crammed into the space. The black box on the bottom left is the stage. So about 75% of the people there couldn't even see him! I wonder if they set it up like this because they weren't expecting many people or what. Oh well. I saw him walk on and off stage, and saw the back of his head a lot! It was cool to hear both Barack and Hillary speak in person.

Atti and Falloo - still so cute

Wheel of Fortune

Many of you know that I am a HUGE Wheel of Fortune fan. Also, I'm good at it. So when I recieved the email update that the wheel-mobile was coming to Orlando, I set aside the Saturday to go try out. Well, everyone who is there (over 500 people) gets to fill out a form and put their name in a box. Names get pulled from the box to see who gets to try to solve the puzzles on stage. From those that made it on stage, a few people are picked to come back for an audition. So if your name doesn't get pulled from the box, you are outta luck. Unfortunately, after 3 hours of waiting, my name did not get called. But my friend's did! And this is after her husband and I persuaded her to put her form in the box! She didn't even WANT to get on the show! Well, she got called for an audition, and made it through that...so now we're all waiting eagerly to see if she gets to play on the real show.

But alas...this was one of the biggest disappointments of my life. I was so hoping to get to play!

Epcot

A few weeks ago I took students to the food and wine festival at Epcot. Here's a picture of me eating baklava, drinking wine, and sitting in front of "Japan". I love my job!



I thought the tour of the hydroponic work that Epcot does was really fascinating.