Spring Time is Here

So the first month of the year has come to a close and Vancouver has seen consistent temperatures of at least 3 C above average. While the rest of Canada is freezing and buried in snow, we are still enjoying unseasonably warm highs of 11 C with overnight lows of 6 C . However, this hasn't been good news for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Olympics as they've been struggling to keep what's left of the little snow on Cypress Mountain, the venue for hosting the winter games. They're working overtime transferring snow from higher elevations and using tarps to protect from melting. This is the ONLY time I agree to pray for snow, as long as it stays up there!
Many times I've been out in the garden and enjoy seeing my day lilies come up, not to mention my palms still pumping out new spears....everything sure has a head start to spring!

The Pineapple Express

"Welcome aboard the Pineapple Express" is something you'll often hear when you live on the coast of Vancouver. It stems from the warm weather systems from the Hawaiian tropics (gee aren't we lucky). We haven't had any snow since the beginning of December and the weather has been more than just the typical downpours of rain we always put up with at this time. The temperatures have been 5 degrees above the norm which is about 6 C. Having to step outside in balmy 11 degrees for weeks on end has been such a blessing, even if rain comes with it I don't mind one bit! The palm trees obviously love it and I even noticed the neighbor's garden is budding new green foliage already. I've still been on top of the palm tree protection, despite the overnight 8 degree temperatures, we're expecting this warmth to come to a halt by next week. If the center spear of the palm has been wet, it will risk dying if the temps ever go to freezing overnight again. SOOOO...I've had the tree tops covered with plastic clear bags to keep them dry. I can't wait until February to uncover and open them back up and let them take in the new spring air.

Happy New Year

Recovering from the Christmas chaos has taken a little longer than I expected, hence the delay in my New Year post. The day after Wayne's cousins left, Sam and I took "YaYa" to Sam's favorite indoor play gym. The next night Sam and I were up in the night taking turns getting sick in the bathroom. We figured we caught a stomach bug from Jungle Jacs. New Year's Eve found Sam and I laid out, while Wayne and Mom C ordered in Chinese food. Two days later Wayne came down with it. Luckily Mom was in the clear...until she went home a week later when she phoned me and said, "now guess who's sick!"
Christmas decorations came down right away and I did a pretty good job at getting the house back in order so quickly. Physically I still felt pretty run down from it all, plus from the flu on top of it.
Sam's glad to be back to preschool seeing her friends again. These past couple of days I've been amazed at her reading progress. She's sounding words out so well in her books and wanting to write them out. Last night she read the word 'adventure'. From there she and I screamed and giggled in excitement as she kept sounding out other words, she could barely read them out loud she was so proud of herself, laughing so much!
Kindergarten registration is coming up the second week of February. Apparently I have to be in line at 4am to 'camp out' with everyone else in order to secure a spot for Sam in September. Since this is one of the two or three (if that) all-year-round schools, everyone comes from all over just to get in. It's going to be insane and I hope I can get her in. I cannot see myself out in line in the cold at that time of morning! Seriously though, if that's what it takes....I'm not going to chance it.