Thanks to my family for telling to keep blogging - I am glad to know this thing, after a whole year, still gets read! I suppose all of these blogs will now be forever etched in internet history and will be like a virtual diary for my future kids to laugh at when they get old enough!

Well I've settled into my new job fairly seamlessly. It's a whole other world at this school... I think back to the experiences I had during my first year teaching. Chasing children across a field trying to bring them back to class, being bitten, being ignored, being appalled by behaviour... all of these things are just a figment of my imagination now (yet burned in my memory...) Of course the children I teach now have their own special issues, the biggest problem being that they are loved and spoiled TOO much which make some of them detestable. However, I could think of much worse things to deal with on daily basis.

We've been looking for a new flat. My friend from Teacher's College is moving here on Tuesday and he, Barret, and I have decided to find a flat to accommodate the three of us. We've got one nearly secured - just still waiting on references and other sorts of things to come through. It's actually been really stressful. I really hope we get it though, because I am absolutely SICK of living where I live. It gets scarier every day... I wont get into too much detail so that you all can sleep at night - but it's just not good. The new place we've (nearly) got is even closer to my work (awe-some!) and is in a young, hip part of the south west called Clapham. Much safer, more fun, and way closer to everything we enjoy. If we do get the flat and everything works out move in date is Nov 2nd (yay...great birthday plans...moving!). Will let you know how things pan out!

Even though we have just settled in from our trip to Canada this summer, we have another adventure coming up at the end of October. Barret has been an absolute gem and worked tirelessly to plan us a 6 day trip to the Canary Islands. These islands belong to Spain but are off the west coast of Africa. We are going to the popular island of Tenerife and during our time there it will be about 28 degrees. Ahh... I can't wait to enjoy it in our private POOL!!! (Yeah, Barret pulled out all the stops this time!) So excited!

Barret and I have been thinking about different things to do around London to keep ourselves active, learning, and making the most out of our potential final year here. Today we bought a joint membership that allows us unlimited access to the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Kew Palace, Kensington Palace, and the Banqueting House in central London. All of these palaces hold so much history and the membership was unbelievable value! We went off today to Hampton court where we got to see King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine Parr - his 6th and final wife. Today we decided just to go for a few hours, since now we have unlimited access to the palace and don't have to get sick of it all in one go! We also checked out the most famous maze in history - the Hampton Palace Maze. It was pretty cool, but not really that hard... It was a good day!

Anyway, just a quick update - will let you know about the new flat!

Love and miss you all

amy

Back to the grind!

First off, this has definitely been my longest hiatus from blogging... but since I'm back to a regular routine I'll hopefully get back into this as well... I am however, toying with the idea of facebook...after 4 years I may cave...any thoughts? I wont have both though!

What an amazing, whirlwind summer I've had! Barret and I had an amazing trip home together - filled with traveling, meeting new people, and just getting to know each other that much better. We started off in Toronto for a visit with Hannah (I miss my best friend so much - but I do not miss that city!) and then headed up to the Sault with Aunt Eunice. My parents spoiled us and we got to spend time with Ali, (Brandon), Erin (Jason, Gabe, and FINALLY little Dani!) and whole plethora of relatives, including cousins from Australia, and my friends Erin and Mallory, plus half their relatives... I tell you, since Barret survived meeting that lot people practically all at once, and didn't high tail it outta there, he passes the test :) Well Done B. We only spent about 8 days home in the Sault, but during that time spent a good chunk visiting Erin and her brood. It was fantastic to see Dani - she is really a funny baby! She laughs and smiles a lot, and gives you disapproving looks when she thinks you're being an idiot. It was really quite comical! Gabe has grown so much since the last time I saw him and he's really turned into a little boy. I brought him a team England mini football (soccerball) from London and I think I may have won him over with it! All I know is that when baby #3 comes along my sister is going to be one busy lady!

I have to apologize to those people who I didn't get to see while I was home - Aunt Lynne and company - wish we could have worked it out, but the time just seemed to disappear under my nose! I hope you've had a lovely summer nonetheless. Anyone else I missed who is reading this, Mrs. Fitton perhaps, thanks for offer to come out to Goulais, just couldn't squeeze it in! Next time we are home we will come out and climb the bluffs! Anyone else I missed, my profuse apologies. But, thanks to everyone who made an effort to come visit and meet Barret - it was great to see you all and if anyone is headed across the pond - please let me know! Thanks to my mom and granparents as well for helping us get back to Toronto in time for the Jays vs Red Sox game the day we left! I know the goodbye was rushed, but thank you for all your efforts! We love you all.

So, after we spent a nice week and a bit at home, it was back to Toronto to watch Boston play Toronto at the Roger's Centre. my mom and granparents were headed up north to Kapuskasing so drove us half way to Sudbury, where we rushed to get on the bus in the nick of time! After a quiet bus ride to Toronto, Aunt Eunice collected us from the station and brought us to Hannah's. Thanks again for that Aunt Eun - it's so nice to be able to count on you! Hannah, Hannah's boyfriend Ben, Ben's dad, Barret, and I had a pizza dinner together and then all went downtown to watch the ball game. I was so thankful everything played out like it did and we made it to that game. Barret has always wanted to watch his favourite team play (Boston!) and it meant a lot to both us that we made it, despite complications getting to Toronto. It was a good game and for the majority of the time I was cheering for the Jays...sitting in the Red sox section. Whoops.

The next day we got a ride to the airport from Hannah and were off to Fredericton, New Brunswick! This was my first time out east and as we decended into the capital of the province all I saw were trees. New Brunswick is ALL FOREST! Fredericton is quite a small city, but it is quite charming with many old beautiful homes and gorgeous university campus. At the airport we were met by many members of Barret's family which was so nice to see! The time we spent in NB we stayed mostly with Sherry, Kenny and Owen, Barret's older sister, her husband and their son. We had a lot of really great dinners and fun times there with them. Poor Sherry though - the poor girl was near 9 months pregnant and ready to burst the whole time we were there! In fact, just on Saturday, she finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Jorja! It's too bad we couldn't have stayed just a little longer.

During our trip out east we spent 4 days camping on PEI. What a cool island! Barret took me to see Anne of Green Gables the musical - before you all groan, it was amazing! It was so funny! We also ate Cow's Ice Cream to our heart's content. I ate a lobster dinner (darn near took me two hours, but I did it!) and got to see the red cliffs of the island, which were so amazing! Not only did we visit PEI, but we went to Magic Mountain Waterpark and Magnetic Hill in Moncton, St. Andrew's by the Sea, the Bay of Fundy, AAAAAAAAAAAND Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia!! I have always wanted to go to Peggy's Cove. It was absolutely amazing. In fact, everything we did was amazing! We spent 3 hours up in the trees doing this adventure zip line tree climb thing called "treego" just outside Fredericton, it was awesome! Barret's mom did it and I was so proud of her! It's definitely not easy.

Meeting Barret's family was awesome. They spoiled us and I just felt so at home with them. His mom, sisters Brittany and Sherry, plus Kenny and Owen, great Aunt Bessie and Uncle Vaughn, his nana, his cousin Andrea, his dad, and his old boss Bart, all made me feel so welcome in their homes. I am so excited to see them all again! It was really good to see where Barret grew up and went to school - to imagine that he lived in such a small, isolated pocket in Atlantic Canada and we met in one of the busiest cities in the whole world... the irony! It was a fantastic summer and I feel so lucky to be who I am, where I am, and who I am with!

Anyway - back on England soil now for just over a week. I've started my new job and am SO happy in it! The people I work with are amazing and the kids are generally really well behaved and an absolute pleasure to teach. I have a ton of freedom with my curriculum and am able to do what I please with the work, following a very broad outline. I am also doing an after school art club with the younger ones which I start this week - so that will also be fun! I love being so close to work as well...the fact that it takes me about 15 min door to door I do NOT take for granted!I will keep you posted on my work as things progress, but so far, so good!

I hope that gets you all up to speed on my summer and where I'm at now!

Lots of love,
amy