OUT OF ORDER

The Posts you are about to see are out of order - but You'll catch on...

It should go - Botanical, Spiritual Retreat, Momma Mia - What I saw today...

I just uploaded the pictures in the other order and then finished the posts and they decided to publish in the order that the pictures were downloaded instead of the order I published them in... Oh for the love of technology!

ENJOY anyway :) I have just made it easier for you to leave a comment so feel free to do so on any or all of these new posts!

Love You all!

Spiritual Retreat day...

This is me on my spiritual retreat day... It was my very first day in 14 weeks that I ventured out in a car alone (other than to dorm). I had meetings till almost 11 with my dorm team and then I borrowed Aunt Nellies car and went out to the Farthest Coffee Bean I had been to and thought I could navigate alone and spent the day there. I got a fun drink and if you look out the window you can see I am just a stones throw from the water. It was a nice view - airconditioned - had a great drink - only 2 people actually came in the whole day and both bought and left - I pretty much had the place to myself! The wireless was down which was good - no possibility of distraction!

As I prayed about what to 'do' on my spiritual retreat day - i felt God just asking me to spend time with Him. To rest and to just enjoy a day away from my life and in His presence.
What a joy
The Creator of all things, the King of Kings and LORD of Lords,
He wanted to just spend time with me.
Overwhelmed
I was intentional in inviting Him into that time. I prayed, journalled, read the first 6 chapters in "THE Shack" - a book I have wanted to read but just have't found the time and I even dozed a bit here and there. It was entirely peaceful and I loved getting away with Jesus.

When was the last time You set aside a day to commune with your Saviour?

I am blessed that our bosses see such value in this and put our spiritual health as a priority in meeting with us each week and also in making time for us to have 2 spiritual retreat days a semester. What a good investment...

Botanical Gardens and the Monkeys I saw!!!

ON Thursday my 4 middle schoolers in Jackson dorm had no school because of parent teacher interviews so I had them home with me. It was a great chance to spend time with them in a small group and just have more of those moments to feel special than they would get in a group of 16. It was a pretty incredible day together. We started off with them all getting up the same time as the rest of the dorm for breakfast - now I saw no logic in that but evidently the boys had been waiting all week for my special eggs and couldn't wait to get up!

The girls both have an older sister who had to go to school and though they tried they couldn't sleep through that.

I definately slept in if I could on days off even when I was in gr. 7 and 8.

A flower floating down the river on the water.

There were beautiful flowers and trees everywhere in the Botanical Gardens. It was very rainforest'ish and Brandi and Kyra were with us... or we were with them! Brandi texted me to say they were going and asked if I wanted to come.

I said "SURE! if I can bring my 4 kids along".

We had the best time with these four...

This is a Frangapanni. They are very common here and often have pink in them also. This was one that had fallen from the tree it was on. My kids were having so much fun running all over the grassed hills and hanging out. We had a frisbee and football and they just were enjoying being out and free. I told them to stay together and within Whistle shot... :) Brandi was amazed at how much like real brothers and sisters they were. That is the cool thing about our family style dorms. They have boys and girls of all ages in each dorm to encourage the family atmosphere and it works marvelously (most of the time!) .

The Botanical gardens are quite famous for the 'wreched monkeys' - lots of people carry a stick which discourages them from approaching. You shouldn't bring food and its a big no no to feed them though we saw a guy doing it and thus I captured a few good close-ups.
They look cute but will scratch you for food.

There are a lot of kinds of monkeys in the park too - we saw ones much bigger than these but they were a long ways off. Overall - is crazy to me to walk in jungle rainforest areas and see wild monkeys wandering about.
I always say to myself "Dorthy, you are not in Kansas anymore!"


And these are the real monkeys! There was a waterfall that ran down into a river that was as deep as past the knees in places - well - being a responsible adult, I suggested that we all get in! I am sure that will not come as a big surprise to most of you!
I took pictures and so I wasn't in on the waterfights... next time!
Brandi and Kyra, myself and the kids played in the water for a long time.

The girls and their Aunt Lana!

These are some of the beautiful kids that I get to love on every week!
Where else in the world would I be spending time with an American (who grew up in Africa and Cambodia), a Tanzanian, A Korean and a Cambodian student in one day. This is a picture of my life at Dalat and there is no where I'd have picked to be rather than with these 4 that day.

After we finished we stopped for Slurpees on Aunt Lana!

What a great joy my job is - If you are jealous right now - you should be!

Momma MIA!!!

A woman who teaches part time at our school is the PARTY Queen. She love throwing parties and has a great space to do it in. She invited a whole wack of ladies over to watch "Momma Mia". We didn't have to bring anything - and the spread was all greek food and AMAZING - BUT we did have to 'dress-up' as a traveller or as someone from the 70's (as the movie was set in the 70's and is all based around ABBA songs).

Me and My friend Brandi!

Here's Bron, Me, Jas and Tracey posin for the camera!

Me and Vi and Sharla (she has the same name as my SISTER!)

Well, about this point in the evening my camera died! But so many good memories are better left on other cameras or etched into our brains... SO many funny moments were had and I was glad I was able to go! I am usually working till 12 on Friday nights and miss out on so many of these fun times so it was such a blessing to have my

spiritual retreat day followed by such rich fellowship!

What I saw today...

I spent the morning on the beach with Brandi and her 3 incredible and Beautiful daughters and then went over to the resort next door to swim with the girls for a bit before they went home for lunch - When they went I stayed and swam and read and swam and read and finished my afternoon with a nap on a lounger under these palm trees. When I woke up - this is exactly what I saw... I love my life... Come Visit anytime...

OUCH!

This is the more artistic account of my wound (that is now much better)

WELL

Some people get a new tattoo

or pierce their ears

They do something to mark a time or place

THIS is my latest 'marking'

I assure you - it was every bit as painful and gross as it looks. Bronwyn's cat got scared *blow dryer* and my foot got in his escape path and by no fault of 'Owen's" I got marked up real good. It was a deep cut - it has healed up nicely but bruised up awful because it was so deep that his nail cut down to the bone and left a mess and lots of pain.

I now have a permanent souvenir of Malaysia!

TRIPE??? A Bulgarian Standard... hated by Canadians around the world.

Shauna and I were the very first customers EVER at the new Bulgarian Restaurant at Hilltop.

Well, as I noted in a previous post - we ordered off the fixed menu and got Tripe soup.

I clearly didn't know what tripe was.

It wasn't the worst thing I have ever tasted or anything like that but it was not good either.

I had about 5 spoonfuls and decided 'tripe' soup was not my favorite.

SO we asked them what it was and were informed that 'tripe' is the stomach lining of PIGS.

No wonder it tasted like raw chicken or caterpillars when I chewed it... I am sure they had it on "Fear Factor" more than once as one of those foods they have to eat or they don't win.

We got our picture taken with the owner as first customers and they gave us a free meal (that I let Shauna keep to take out Tim as she paid for the lunch -

they can have a date and tripe whenever they want now).
We were given HUGE spoon by the staff who were all new and it made us laugh A LOT.

Made me think of Crocodile Dundee "That's not a (spoon) THis is a SPOON!"

Now when we think something is gross or bad - we just call it tripe.

Building an international vocabulary is hard.

All in all - learn to ask what something is before getting it and avoid Trip unless you like raw chicken skin or caterpillars in soup that takes like smelly feet. You've been warned.