Congrats, Ty!

As I've posted before, Tyler finished up his last year of homeschooling in June. He's been homeschooled for 8 years (most of them in Ontario). Since graduating from grade 12 last June, he's been doing a couple of University courses as well as working at Swiss Chalet.

Monday, he wrote his first University Exam (actually, being homeschooled, it was his first exam ever). Today, he got his mark back.

........ 80% (Entrepreneurship)

Way to go, Ty! Congrats!

Shaking Things Up...

A while ago, I wrote about Jake's spectacular encounter and the next installment of the story.


He hasn't been challenged enough by our current reading curriculum, so we've decided to shake things up a bit. What better book for him to read, than the one written by Ron Joyce (Ron Joyce being the person who took a single-location Tim Hortons and turned it into the empire it is today).




Being an autographed, personalized copy...just added to the excitement. Notice Mr. Joyce writes to Jake "Don't compete too tough on Tim Horton" (I think he is very nervous ;) *grin* )



A two page note by Mr. Zarboni, the man who sent Jake his cookie stand, the book as well as had the book personalized for Jake (more about that in the above link "Spectacular Encounter"







Jake has come alive reading this book. He's learned new words "humanitarian", "vigor" to name only two. Both of these resulted in lengthy discussions.

It talked about Mr. Joyce's resort in Nova Scotia. That added a personal touch because that's where we met Mr. Zarboni...in a Tim Hortons in Nova Scotia. He was on his way to that very resort and it was there he told Mr. Joyce about Jake.

It talked about Tim Hortons surviving economic downturns. That, of course, sparked questions by Jake... "What is an economic downturn???" More discussions about economics and downturns and what they mean for people and the country.

He didn't want to put the book away. Hmmm...I'm thinking this reading 'program' will be much easier to get through...as well as make more sense to Jake. Not to mention, cover many other areas.

Snow!

We woke up to lots and lots of snow this morning. Considering we haven't had much up until now, and were virtually snow-free until January 23rd, I guess one could say we were past due.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

From our front window...


The driveway and car (well...the parts that didn't covered)



Larry on his way back down the driveway.....


Action shot! LOL ...





Making another run up the driveway...


Our neighbour's house



Again.....



And again....



Trees beside our house....


Still at it!



Shed at the back...


From the back our house (and yes...there is an ocean there, just beyond the trees)



How long 'til Spring???

Advancing Technology

Jake wanted (and received) a disposable camera for Christmas. He's now taken all of the pictures and it's ready for developing. He popped into the photography centre, only to return to the car quite disgusted. He went on to say, he'd take it elsewhere and that he wasn't going to put up with that.

Hmmm...

Now, knowing there had to be more to the story, I tried to get to the bottom of it all. He was obviously disgusted and something must have gone on in the store, to make him so. I asked him to repeat what had happened. I listened as he repeated the conversation, but it just wasn't making sense to me. It all sounded very normal and polite to me.

Things like:

"She said it would take SEVEN to TEN days!!"

"They have to send it away"

"She said it will cost money"


As I mulled it over, trying to read between the lines and make sense of it all, it suddenly occurred to me.

This is the age of all things digital. We take pictures with the camera and transfer them to the computer. Instantly. We take pictures with the phone .... and transfer them to Facebook. Instantly. Jake has never had to send in a film for developing. Who ever heard of doing that?? Not Jake...and he was certain she was trying to pull a fast one on him. LOL.

I explained the process to him. At first, I wasn't sure if he was going to believe me. But he did, eventually.

This reminds me of the time he first saw my rotary phone (a decorative one). After studying it for a bit, he asked me "how do you get the number in there....say there is a 9 in the phone number...how would you put that into the phone?" When I showed him, he asked "how would you know 9 actually got put in and not some other number."

Hmm...I'm suddenly starting to feel very old!

Ahhh.....Newfoundland and Labrador

These sum up life in Newfoundland and Labrador very well....

Half Hour (Newfoundland and Labrador has it's very own time zone)




500 Years (for those who prefer City Life...we have that too)

Interesting few days

for those who have been following Newfoundland Politics!

Jake with Mr. Brad Cabana



As I've discussed here before, Jake has always had a real interest in politics.

What an excellent learning opportunity this has been for a first-hand look at our political system and how it (democracy) works (or should that be...how democracy is supposed to work?). It has been a real eye opener for sure! We've covered so many topics in these past few days (because it has touched on so many things), as well as watching history in the making. Not something we could ever learn from a text book.

New Year's Eve, 2010

Hard to believe another year has passed by already!

It's become a bit of a tradition for us to head into 'town' (not sure I'll ever get used of calling St. John's 'town') and spend New Year's Eve at a local hotel. We've spent the last couple of years at one particular hotel and were always happy with it, but this time....not so much.

I guess we were a bit later booking this year and had to take a 'suite'. The suite was disappointing (very small compared to other hotel suites we've stayed in). Also, the room was short on pillows and towels .... not even enough for us to each have one. Tyler ended up using the couch cushion as his pillow and the towels...well....we won't go there. The front desk said they were out of both. Hmmm....

Then, a sign on the front desk indicated they participated in a local savings program (of which we are a part). However, when we tried to show our card...we were informed they accept it every day except NYE. Hmmm...that's not what the sign said. We've always recommended this hotel, but not so sure we will anymore.

Despite that...we had a fantastic New Year's Eve. The kids and Larry enjoyed the pool for the afternoon (I was feeling a bit crashed from our busy week, so I opted to stay in the room and rest). Later in the evening, friends of ours dropped by the hotel room for a bit. We ended up back at their house though, where there were lots of games (pool, ping pong, video games, darts, chess etc.). There was lots to eat and no shortage of noise lol.

At midnight....there was the usual countdown ..... complete with noise horns (which all the kids seemed to know how to use!)

Oh my....

After the count down, we headed outside to see if there were any fireworks. They continued on with the noise horns and the noise.

Oh my.....

We saw a few local fireworks but eventually headed back inside...where the kids wanted to continue on with the games (and the music and the noise horns lol).

The 'old people' though decided after one more game of pool, it was time to wind the party down. We took one of the party goers home...and it was no problem getting him there....but getting out was another story. Now, these people didn't live too far from the hotel....but somehow we ended up downtown St. John's .... George Street and Water Street of all places....on New Year's Eve!!! not where we wanted to be. Larry claims we must have taken a wrong turn....but I maintain he just wanted to be able to say he was downtown on NYE (*wink*) lol.

Eventually, we found our way back to the hotel.

A few pics...none of the adults made it into the pics (well...except for Larry...but as you'll see...he was acting like one of the kids lol)









Happy New Year!!!