Today we had our thanksgiving dinner, since my mom worked during the day I was in charge of Thanksgiving dinner. I made my first turkey, complete with stuffing(from scratch), mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, and asparagus. For dessert, I had made a Chocolate mousse pie, and my mom made a couple pumpkin pies yesterday. We had a lot of food for just the five of us (Josh, myself, my Mom, Step dad, and Brother). But its OK though since Josh eats every hour on the hour! While I was slaving over a hot stove, Josh went with Steve to take pictures of wildlife just outside of town near Elbow Falls.
On Thursday we went to Josh's meeting with his counsellor. We found out that he is at a very low level in math, but his writing and reading comprehension are at a really good level. So in total due to math, he will need to do 28 months of schooling, so with 3 semesters a year he's looking at just over 2 years. The soonest Josh would be able to start is in January. The downside is that for at least the first 2 semesters until I am able to sponsor Josh, it will cost $3000 per semester. Then when he is sponsored and a permanent resident he will be able to apply for full funding. My mom has offered to spot us the money, and pay her back in monthly payments. We are still undecided on it, one because it is a lot of money, but due to the amount of courses he has to take it would be beneficial for him to start right away and there is a high chance that he will also be able to work part-time while doing school.
We haven't really done much else this week, mostly because I have been sick with a cough and cold, that started sometime on Friday. I've been taking a cold medicine called Buckley's, which is the nastiest stuff ever but works very well, I gag every time I take it and even makes my stomach a little upset for the next 15 minutes.
Thats all for now.
Hugs and Kisses
Shannon and Josh
Monday, October 8, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Ch-Ch-Changes
S: Hey everyone, Shannon here, Josh has been lacking with posts lately because he feels there is nothing to talk about. I on the other hand think there is lots of things to talk about. So now both of us will be posting updates about our life here in Canada. Oh, and don't you like the new look, I just had to add my female touch to it, if I was going to post on here too.
Just to start out, we miss you all immensely and can't wait to visit. If you hadn't yet heard through the grapevine, last Tuesday Josh called Grammy and Papa to let them know that we will be coming to San Diego for thanksgiving. Arriving the day before on the Wednesday and leaving the following Tuesday. Josh can't wait to have lots of turkey and Toni's broccoli casserole and of course cheesecake. I hope he doesn't get sick of turkey because we are also having turkey this coming Monday for the Canadian Thanksgiving, and we also do turkey for Christmas.
As we are now in the second week of Autumn it is slowly growing colder here, with threats of freezing rain and snow on some nights. Josh had a very Canadian experience last week, we were leaving to go to work/school, it was a little cold outside about
-2C(28F)and when we reach the car it is covered in a thin layer of frost. I ran back into the house to grab a snow brush/scraper from the garage and have to show Josh how to scrape the frost off the windows and side mirrors. Since that day Josh feels the need to start the car 10min before we have to leave, so the car is warm when he gets in. I told him it wasn't necessary till we are actually wearing winter jackets and there is at least snow or ice on the car.
Also, as you can see in the picture above taken by my step dad Steve, when he and Josh went down to Fish Creek Park which runs behind our house, that with Autumn the leaves start to change color to orange, yellow, red and brown. The leaves have changed even more since that day just 3 days ago. I forgot how pretty it can actually be here. Probably by the end of the month there will be large piles of leaves everywhere that crunch under your feet.
On Thursday josh has an appointment with a school counsellor that has been assigned to him. He has the same counsellor that was assigned to myself. During the meeting they will discuss what courses Josh should take based on the assessment test he took a few weeks ago. Josh felt he did pretty good on the test except for when it came to math section, which is pretty hard in itself because you can't use a calculator. Hopefully he will only be required to do some math and sciences courses so he will be able to do them quickly and get his application into SAIT for the radiology program he wants to take.
As for me, I'm doing fairly well in school my marks are in the high 80's. I've completed 3 out the 4 units in my Bio 20 course so far, and it's not even mid term yet. this last unit it is very long thou and all about human systems, one specifically being the digestive system, and how a piece of food is broken down and pushed down through the stomach and intestines, and then of course how it exits. I did a lab today about the circulatory system and had to look at a slide of blood and determine the type of white blood cells that I could see, and I also had to determine the blood type of different samples by how they reacted to different antibodies.
Work is going great as well, I work about 40 hours a week and my shifts are all over the place as far as what time I start at, whether it is first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon, it kind of throws my internal clock off. Its been super crazy too because of the holiday coming, everyone is buying their turkeys. My arms are getting quite a workout, those turkeys are extremely heavy frozen! Tomorrow should be a zoo as well because it is 10% Tuesday where you either get 10% off your groceries or 10X the air miles(points you get for money you spend at certain stores, or certain items that you buy, so that you can fly for free, we hope to have enough by next year to come for another visit).
Well I think that is everything for now. I can't believe Josh said there was nothing to talk about!
Love you & miss you!
J&S
Just to start out, we miss you all immensely and can't wait to visit. If you hadn't yet heard through the grapevine, last Tuesday Josh called Grammy and Papa to let them know that we will be coming to San Diego for thanksgiving. Arriving the day before on the Wednesday and leaving the following Tuesday. Josh can't wait to have lots of turkey and Toni's broccoli casserole and of course cheesecake. I hope he doesn't get sick of turkey because we are also having turkey this coming Monday for the Canadian Thanksgiving, and we also do turkey for Christmas.
As we are now in the second week of Autumn it is slowly growing colder here, with threats of freezing rain and snow on some nights. Josh had a very Canadian experience last week, we were leaving to go to work/school, it was a little cold outside about
-2C(28F)and when we reach the car it is covered in a thin layer of frost. I ran back into the house to grab a snow brush/scraper from the garage and have to show Josh how to scrape the frost off the windows and side mirrors. Since that day Josh feels the need to start the car 10min before we have to leave, so the car is warm when he gets in. I told him it wasn't necessary till we are actually wearing winter jackets and there is at least snow or ice on the car.
Also, as you can see in the picture above taken by my step dad Steve, when he and Josh went down to Fish Creek Park which runs behind our house, that with Autumn the leaves start to change color to orange, yellow, red and brown. The leaves have changed even more since that day just 3 days ago. I forgot how pretty it can actually be here. Probably by the end of the month there will be large piles of leaves everywhere that crunch under your feet.
On Thursday josh has an appointment with a school counsellor that has been assigned to him. He has the same counsellor that was assigned to myself. During the meeting they will discuss what courses Josh should take based on the assessment test he took a few weeks ago. Josh felt he did pretty good on the test except for when it came to math section, which is pretty hard in itself because you can't use a calculator. Hopefully he will only be required to do some math and sciences courses so he will be able to do them quickly and get his application into SAIT for the radiology program he wants to take.
As for me, I'm doing fairly well in school my marks are in the high 80's. I've completed 3 out the 4 units in my Bio 20 course so far, and it's not even mid term yet. this last unit it is very long thou and all about human systems, one specifically being the digestive system, and how a piece of food is broken down and pushed down through the stomach and intestines, and then of course how it exits. I did a lab today about the circulatory system and had to look at a slide of blood and determine the type of white blood cells that I could see, and I also had to determine the blood type of different samples by how they reacted to different antibodies.
Work is going great as well, I work about 40 hours a week and my shifts are all over the place as far as what time I start at, whether it is first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon, it kind of throws my internal clock off. Its been super crazy too because of the holiday coming, everyone is buying their turkeys. My arms are getting quite a workout, those turkeys are extremely heavy frozen! Tomorrow should be a zoo as well because it is 10% Tuesday where you either get 10% off your groceries or 10X the air miles(points you get for money you spend at certain stores, or certain items that you buy, so that you can fly for free, we hope to have enough by next year to come for another visit).
Well I think that is everything for now. I can't believe Josh said there was nothing to talk about!
Love you & miss you!
J&S
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