Good News

The Halifax Municipal Region has used up the funds budgeted for snow removal this winter.  They have decided we can park overnight on the street again.  (The by-law about parking on the street overnight originally said that parking on the street would not be allowed until April 1st.)  That is good news for us because we don't have to arrange with the Hepplers about which car goes in the driveway first - who is leaving the house earliest.  Of course if it snows or if snow is forecast we are still forced to keep our cars off the street at night.

The last couple of days it has been well above freezing here.  Our snow is going.

 This is a picture of our house from the front.

Here is a picture of our back yard taken from our deck.  The snow is mostly gone from the deck now.

The crows must think it is spring.  I hope it is.

Back to Routine

The Temple opened on Wednesday after being closed for cleaning for over two weeks.

Monday was our usual cleaning, laundry and shopping day.  We enjoyed supper and Family Home Evening with Nathan and Tara's family.  Tuesday I didn't go out of the house, but Bob went to a high priest presidency meeting in the afternoon. 

Wednesday we were back at the Temple.  I went for a haircut later in the afternoon and we went Home teaching in the evening.  The lady we home teach wasn't well so we couldn't see her, but we did have a visit with her husband who isn't a member.  He doesn't mind us visiting as long as we don't try to convert him.  He is a great genealogist so we talked genealogy with him.

Thursday and Friday we were back at the Temple.  It rained all day long on Friday and towards evening the wind began to blow.  It was quite nasty out.  Not many people came and they were very short of male workers - only the Temple presidency and the two temple missionaries were there.  Of course most of the ladies turned up.

Overnight on Friday the temperature dropped below freezing and it began to snow instead of rain.  The wind continued howling all night.  It wasn't very busy at the Temple Saturday morning.  The groups from New Brunswick cancelled.  By afternoon the sun was shining and it was beautiful out, although there was still a cool breeze.

At the beginning of the year I substituted in Primary (Liam's class) for 5 weeks.  I was off one week and then I got a call to sub again because the teacher had broken her leg skiing.  She had to have surgery and I don't know how long she will be off.

Keaton's birthday is coming tomorrow, but he had his birthday dinner last night so we went for hot dogs, chili, potato salad and birthday cake.  We played a few games after supper.

Another week has gone by.

 

We Went to Moncton

There wasn't enough snow in Dartmouth, so we went to Moncton.  On Thursday morning Tara, boys and Bob and I drove to Halifax and picked up Nathan from work and we drove to Moncton.  We stopped along the way and had lunch at Subway and Kentucky Fried Chicken ( because we all couldn't agree on one place).  It was a beautiful day with blue sky and above freezing temperatures.  There is a toll road along the way between Nova Scotia and Moncton and it cost us $4 to drive it.

The following two pictures were taken from the doorway of the Delta Hotel in Moncton.  I don't know what it is, but maybe it is a clock in the center of the city square.

After we got settled in the hotel we walked to a mall.  It reminded us of the mall in Lethbridge.  It had a Bay at one end and a lot of empty shops.

The sidewalks were covered with slush and had high snowbanks beside them.

The mall parking lot had been cleared of snow and it was in a big pile at the edge of the lot.

 Keaton and Lochlan  loved the hotel. We had adjoining rooms.

 

In the evening we had planned on going to Nathan's favourite restaurant - the Windjammer, but it was filled and we couldn't get in so we went to "The Keg" and had a good meal.  After supper the boys went swimming and had a great time.  Thursday was a good day.

Thursday was followed by Friday and it wasn't so great.  We woke up and it was snowing and Liam was sick.  We left Liam at the hotel and went to Cora's for breakfast.  The point of going to Moncton was to take the boys to the Crystal Palace which is an amusement park somewhat like the one in West Edmonton Mall.  Liam really wanted to go even though he was sick so we checked out of the Hotel and went to the Crystal Palace for what we thought was 10 a.m. opening.  Would you believe that it didn't open until noon on week-days?  We spent some time next door at Chapters and then walked through the Mall and ended up in the food court for lunch.  Liam was feeling worse than ever and just kept his head down on the table.  We went back to the Crystal Palace and were going to do one ride before leaving for Nova Scotia, but didn't feel like standing in line for tickets so left.

Moncton is a bilingual city.  We heard a lot of French in the malls.

We drove home in the slush and rain.

The Spirit of Scotland

On the 7th Feb. Bob and I took Orson, Liam and one of their friends to the Movie:  On the Day:  The Story of the Spirit of Scotland.  If you are interested in pipe bands :
http://www.onthedaymovie.com/

As Orson said, "the movie was pretty good for a documentary".

It was at the Bayer Lake theatre in Halifax and we only got there with the help of our lady of the GPS.  It was only the second time that we have been to Halifax since we arrived in Dartmouth.  I don't have a clue where in Halifax the theatre is located.

One Seventh

Last night I was quite surprised when Bob mentioned that we were 1/7 of the way through our mission.  I was surprised that the time is passing that quickly and also that Bob is keeping track.

Snow Days and School Holidays

In the past two weeks there were three snow days for the area schools.  Now the schools are closed for two weeks because of the Canada Winter Games.

It is too bad that the figure skating tickets were not sold individually instead of in a block with other events.  I would have liked to see some skating events.

Last week was different from our usual weeks.  We cleaned at the Temple Monday through Friday.  The cleaning went from nine to five each day except on Friday when they shut down at one p.m.  However, the longest I ever stayed was four hours.

Marge and Larry invited the missionaries for supper on Tuesday and we joined them.  We went out for lunch with the Hepplers on Friday.  Friday evening was a ward party - the musical program was excellent.  Saturday evening we had supper with Nathan and Tara.

Today there is no cleaning at the temple, so we can clean and do laundry here and go grocery shopping.

The temperature is above freezing today, even though we had more snow last night.  Maybe spring will come.

Lights of Dartmouth

Here is a view of Dartmouth from the street that we live  on.  We can't see it from our house, but can see it from the street a few houses down.

The temple is closed for two weeks for cleaning and guess who has to help clean.