The Summer's {ALMOST} Out of Reach

OK....I've been busy. [It takes a lot of time to sleep until 10am everyday then lay around the house...just sayin'] Really, besides laying around and sleeping until 10am, I have been doing other things like...umm...let's see....let me get back to you on that one ok?

Actually, Craig and I had the privilege to visit Calgary on a mission trip for the second year in a row. We flew up there [our arms sure were tired *du dump ching*] two Saturdays ago and spent the entire week partnering with Southwinds Church and Tim and Andrea Whitesides, along with a team from Wyoming, to help with Upward basketball camp, kids fun days, and block parties. Calgary is a beautiful city and the outskirts are even more beautiful. The weather was perfect [and we picked a good week considering it was hotter than 50 barrells of H-E-double hockey sticks here] and as always, God was alive and present. This year, for the first time, basketball camp was held indoors! We didn't have to put up and tear down every single day, there was plenty of room, and no cleaning up the court. When God closes one door he opens up a better door if we only listen to the knocking.

Craig had an AMAZING encounter with one of our players [Yes, Craig and I coached together. Can you believe I survived? Can you believe he put up with me?] and there is no doubt that bother were put together for a reason. She has Downs syndrome and was, to put it mildly, very headstrong [See, he's had tons of practice living with me all these years so it was no sweat] and sure of her abilities. She LOVED Craig to death [he does have good qualities every now and then that supercede his turd-like qualities] and he loved her as well. She told him on the first day, as our team went through the

stations, that she didn't need to learn all this because she knew how to play :) She loved dribbling the ball and shooting, no matter if it was her turn or not. It was so great watching him work with her and seeing how much fun both were having together. At the end of the week, she and her family to the last fun day of the year and she told Craig she loved him...and he loves her. There are no accidental or chance meetings - God's got it all figured out if we just listen.

Our week was filled with other fun adventures and blessings. We were able to, once again, see the beauty of God's handiwork at Moraine Lake and in the stunning Canadian Rockies. We visited Banff [which is a very cool little town] and went inside the Banff Springs Hotel. All I can say is WOW! This place is gorgeous, swanky, and a little creepy. In fact, I told Eddie that it reminded me of the hotel from The Shining [all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I actually looked for little girls on tricycles and axes while we were inside]. When I say swanky, I do mean SWANKY. You could tell the folks that were stayin' there were not from our tribe.

Our biggest animal sighting was that of a grizzery bear. [I know, it is grizzly, but there is a story here so stay with me.] Riding along the highway into Banff National Forest it is very likely you will spot an animal that one might not see normally. In fact, so many animals rome the roads that there are fences and animal crosswalks over the highway. [The local squirrels, skunks, and deer could really take a lesson here and stop running out in front of us.] We pulled over when Craig spotted a grizzly bear near the fence...and several more cars pulled over too. Craig overheard this conversation from an Asian family:

Dad: Uh...is it a grizzery bear or a bracka bear?

Son [obviously embarassed by his dad's lack of bear knowledge]: It's a griZZLY bear Dad!

Now some of you will not find the humor in that at all but imagine this little, tiny Asian man saying this with his Asian accent. We thought it was funny.

Back to the bear, it was so cute. [Cute in a thank-goodness-there-is-distance-and-a-fence-between-me-and-you kinda way.] He [I am assuming it was a he but I failed to ask] sort of posed for us, standing on his back legs, then wandered off into the woods like we were boring him. It was really neat so the rest of the trip we stayed glued to the windows to see if we could spot other wildlife but this was are only big find. We had fun just the same.

Each night was had the opportunity to Skype with the kids instead of calling them. [Last year's trip put us in the hole about $250 because, even with the Canada plan, the calls were incredibly overpriced.] The first two nights Emma just cried [as she said she would before we left] and Gabe was more interested in watching himself in the small screen on his computer. Cooper [acting every bit of his 12 years old] would either dance in the background or stealthily insert his head so that the webcam would pick him up. The only ones with any sense were Molly and Lacey. [Not a shocker I know.] Gabe even did the robot for us one night. His only conversation topics were if we were bringing him something and to tell us some random bits about his day. We certainly enjoyed getting to see them every night [and the budget Nazi rested easy knowing we were not breaking the bank to speak to our children].

I cannot believe that the summer is almost gone. [Some of you are eye-rolling right now and mumbling something about teachers having summers off and stop complaining and blah, blah, blah. Shut it.] Hence my reference to the Boys of Summer song from Don Henley [for those of you that did pick up on that]. I have so much to do to prepare for school like finishing painting my room, putting up all my crap, figuring out how I am going to get there on time [since I live the closest of ANYONE in the building], and all that other nonsense that comes along with going back to work. I am hoping the painting goes by quickly so I can focus on actually doing the school stuff. We will see...hopefully if I feed them they will come and paint :)

Football practice has started. I love football season. I love football. [Yes, I am cool like that.] I especially love college football. Notre Dame is coming to Winston-Salem this year to play Wake Forest and I think we are going to take the kiddos. College football is the best because they are playing for the pure excitement of playing and not for money [not that we know of anyway]. Yeah for football season!

I promise not to wait so long between posts this time [of course, that will cut into my sleeping and laying around the house all day] and I will find some more pics of Canada to share. As always, life is amazingly awesome :)