Leanne and Eric

10 Months

2011-06-13T18:18:00.001-07:00

Zander finally has 4 teeth. He got his two on the bottom at 6 months and the top 2 have now come in. It seemed like it took a long time but they finally made their appearance. Thankfully they haven't bothered him too much and came in without causing him too much pain. The bottom 2 pictures are of Zander visiting Eric while he went rock climbing with the grade 10's from his school. Zander has been to so many different sporting events over this year. I just said to someone the other day most people take their baby to children's programs or things for babies but I take my baby to watch different sports. He has seen a lot of basketball over the year, but he has also gone to badminton tournaments, tennis, baseball and soccer games. Many students from King's know Zander well now and it's awesome seeing how excited they get when Zander is around. Another great month with our sweet little man.

9 months

2011-04-24T18:26:00.001-07:00

Zander is on the move. He started to crawl this month and it is so much fun. He isn't up on his hands and knees but instead is doing the army crawl and gets where ever he wants to go. I honestly wasn't looking forward to Zander starting to crawl because I thought it would mean he would get into everything and that I would always have to be watching him but it has been so much fun watching him develop this skill and watching him go where he wants to go. He now can visit me in the kitchen or go after a ball that has rolled away from him. Zander seems so happy that he can get where he wants. Another thing that Zander learned this month is how to wave. He now will wave to you to say hello or good bye or just to get your attention. I have even had it that when I put him down for his nap and he waved to me as I was leaving the room. It is very sweet. Zander is also becoming more independent in eating. He now feeds himself pieces of food like avocado, banana or cheerios which he loves. Every month I find it so amazing to watch Zander develop more and more and show us more of the person that God created him to be.

Indonesia

2011-04-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Over March Break Eric and 2 other teachers from King's (where Eric teaches) took 15 students on a Mission/Cultural trip to Indonesia. We have friends that moved there in the summer and one of them used to teach at King's as well and they helped make this trip possible for the group. When we found out about the trip I was pregnant with Zander and had no idea what it was going to be like to have a baby or what our baby was going to be like but Eric signed both of us up for the trip and I am glad he did. I was a little nervous at times about taking Zander on a trip like this, that required 23 hours of travel, 2 flights, one being 16 hours long and a 12 hour time difference but it all worked out great. I was so thankful that I got to go along on this trip and was able to see our friends and experience a different culture again. We have missed traveling and it was nice to be able to travel again but this time be able to experience it all with Zander. Zander will never remember this trip but we will always remember taking him on this trip.

8 Month Update

2011-04-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Zander at his first Raptors game this month.

This past month has been a lot of fun as we have seen more of Zander's personality shine through. He is such a social baby that loves to be around people and do different things. There are times still when only Mommy and Daddy are good enough but if he can be around others while being with Mommy or Daddy he is a happy boy. He likes to make us laugh. Zander makes this cute face where he squints his eyes and smiles and we always laugh at him. (He is making it in the picture of him in his exersaucer) When he discovered that it made us laugh he started to do it all the time. He went for days where he did it constantly so we had to stop laughing at him so that he wouldn't do it so much. Zander also loves to clap and also does this all the time. Whenever he gets excited Zander claps and if you want to cheer him up, clap and he will join you and start smiling (most of the time :) ) He has mastered sitting on this own this past month and although he hasn't started to crawl yet he get around by rolling and spinning quite well. It has been so fun watching him grow and change this month and I'm sure it will continue to just get better.

7 months

2011-02-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

I guess because Zander had such an exciting month last month he decided to keep things low key this month. He hasn't really done anything new this month but has just gotten better at all the things he does. He laughs more, rolls more, eats more and is just a happy guy. I think that he will be crawling before we know it because Zander will roll across a room and just likes to check things out so I think crawling will come soon, but who knows. When we went to the doctor last week and we discovered that Zander is up to 20lbs 6ozs. We always knew he was a big boy and this month our doctor told us that he is in the 95 percentile of height and weight. Like the doctor said though look at his genes, what do you expect. The doctor also said Zander is a healthy boy who is well portioned for the size and length that he is so we are happy to hear that. One first for this month was Zander getting sick for the first time. It is so hard watching your little baby get sick and not really be able to do anything for him but love him. I think it will always be hard watching him get sick no matter what age he is. Hopefully he won't get sick again anytime soon.

6 months

2011-02-12T05:29:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that my baby is 1/2 a year already. Time is going way too quickly and he is growing so fast. This past month was a big month for Zander. He started off the month with surprising us on Christmas day and he showed us that he knew how to roll over both from his back to his tummy and tummy to his back. He had been close for a while but then all of a sudden he got it. We also started Zander on solids and although he wasn't so sure about the whole food experience at first after 2 weeks he got the hang of it and likes everything I put in front of him. I was very happy to discover that Zander loves fruit. Finally I have someone to share a banana with :) Zander ended off this month with getting 2 teeth at the bottom. I was a little surprised to see teeth already but they are there and didn't cause him too much of a problem. This month has been a great month and it feels like Zander finally figured a bunch of things out. He is sleeping during the day and night better now, he is eating great and discovering new things all the time. It has been such a great month together.

Trying out the high chair

Not so sure

I don't have to swallow this stuff do I :)

More interested in the bib then the cereal

Our First Trip

2011-02-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas break Eric took his boys basketball team to Florida for a tournament at Disney. It was a great tournament and the boys did well in their bracket coming home with 2 wins and 1 loss. Eric was very proud of how his team did at such a big tournament. Lucky for Zander and I we got to go along with Eric and his team. Although the weather was not great as they reached record breaking lows, we still had a great time and were glad we got to go along. Eric's team was very sweet to Zander and he had lots of fun with the boys too. This was our first trip together and we weren't sure how Zander was going to handle everything but he did fantastic. He had no problems with the flight and was still a happy little boy even though his schedule got all messed up and he missed naps. I was really impressed with how he did. Even though Zander won't remember this trip we definitely will and I'm glad with could go along with Eric and experience this together.

Our First Christmas

2011-01-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and having Zander be apart of it made it so special. It was such a joy watching him enjoy the Christmas season. Although he isn't old enough to understand what is really going on, it was still so much fun watching him wonder at lights, pull and chew at wrapping paper and spend time with family.

5 Month Update

2011-01-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

This 5 month update is a little late but I am going to try to only include things that Zander did until he turned 5 months. There are a number of things that he has done since turning 5 months but I'll save those things for next month :) Last month I wrote about Zander's sleeping habits and I am happy to say that he is doing so much better now. Just after he turned 4 months he started sleeping through the night which has been nice for all of us. His naps continue to get better too and I think the best part of it all for me is that I am not stressing about it anymore. Zander is such a happy baby, there is no reason for me to stress about it. Zander also discovered his laugh on a new level this month. He laughs a lot more now and sometimes we just have to look at him and he will laugh. He has discovered he feet and loves grabbing them and rolling to his side while holding on to them. He also moves a lot while on his back. While he is on his activity mat he can spin himself around 360 degrees. He also has discovered how to push on the arms of the activity mat and has made it fold over on him as you can see in the picture above. Zander is such a blessing to us and I am so thankful that he is a part of our lives. As Eric and I say to each other, "He's pretty awesome."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2010-12-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! May the wonder of that first Christmas,
the joy of God's abundant blessings, and the peace of Jesus' presence be with you always. Love Eric, Leanne and Zander

Four Months

2010-11-25T20:26:00.001-08:00

Wow! Four Months, a 1/3 of a year. Time is flying. I know people always say that the first year goes so fast but it is just so true. I can still remember walking out of the hospital with Zander like it was yesterday yet I can barely remember how small he was then. I am so thankfully for this time that I get to spend with Zander at home and am sad at how quickly it is going. This month Zander has started to laugh which has been so much fun. It has been fun trying to figure out what makes this little guy laugh and what to do to get the best laugh. He also has discovered his hands on a new level and loves trying to fit his whole fist in his mouth. He also has been putting other things in his mouth too like his blankets or toys and so the journey begins of everything always going in the mouth. Zander has been enjoying his new toy- the exersaucer and loves discovering this new object. This month has been challenging from time to time because Zander's sleeping habits changed a bit and it was hard figuring out what happened to this baby that used to sleep 7 hrs stretches every night and then started lasting only 4 or 5 hrs. We have started to get to the root of the problems and hopefully by next month we will have figured this out. I tend to get a little stressed about Zander's sleep as I know that it is so important for babies but Eric keeps reminding me that Zander is a great baby and is really doing so well and that I need to focus on that and the sleep will come. Zander is a really good baby and brings so much joy into our lives so I am so thankful that.

Our Third Month Together

2010-11-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

I have already posted a picture showing how much Zander has grown but he continues to change in so many ways. I have enjoyed all of the talking that he now does. It is so much fun to "talk" with him and have mini conversations with him. I also love watching him mimick us, like sticking out his tongue after we have done it. Zander has also become much more stable. He now has been enjoying time in his Bumbo chair and although he does still lean from time to time he continues to get stronger all the time. He has gotten over his fear of the bath. I don't know what made him change his mind about bath time but no more crying. Although he doesn't love tummy time he continues to make progress here too and is able to lift his head and chest up quite high now. It has been a lot of fun interacting with him this month and continuing to watch him grow. I look follow to what this next month with hold.

It's Amazing What 3 Months Can Do

2010-10-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

When Zander was only a few days old when we took the bottom picture comparing how big he was to Eric's size 13 basketball shoes. Now that he is 3 months old I thought it would be interesting to take the picture again to see how much he has changed. It's amazing how big he is already and how much he changed in just 3 months.

Fall Photo Shoots

2010-10-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

We have had fun taking pictures over a couple of weekends. We first took a bunch of pictures at Thanksgiving and then we took a bunch more last weekend in between the ceremony and reception of Eric's cousin's wedding. Here are a few of our favourites.

2 Months Already

2010-09-24T08:44:00.001-07:00

At first when I thought about this past month with Zander I didn't really think that much had happened. He's not at the exciting stages yet where he starts crawling or talking but then I realized that Zander has changed so much and life is quite different now than it was 1 month ago. Over this past month Zander and I have gotten used to it just being the 2 of us during the day and although it was hard at the beginning things are getting much better now. Zander has started to smile. He honestly melts my heart whenever he flashes me that beautiful smile. Zander loves his activity mat. He kicks his legs, hits the hanging objects and just smiles when he is in it. He also has discovered that he hates the bath. The picture at the bottom shows him content in the bath but that was taken at the beginning of the month and now he screams at the top of his lungs. I always wonder what our neighbours must think. He has learned to focus so much more and loves reading books. We now put Zander to bed around 8 and it is so nice to establish a bedtime routine with him where we read a book, say a prayer and he goes to sleep. He isn't sleeping through the night yet but he's getting close. I feed him around 10:30 and then usually around 5 and then he's up at 7 and ready to start his day. The greatest highlight from this past month was when Zander was baptized and we are reminded the gift that he is from God. Having Zander baptized, watching him experience God's promise to wash away his sins and always be by his side, was so powerful. We felt so blessed by family and friends sharing in this special blessing with our little family.

Monitor Mayhem

2010-09-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

Do not under estimate the abilities of a baby monitor. We are convinced that ours can call 911. The first night that we decided to move Zander to his own room we set up the monitor to make sure that we would be able to hear him through out the night. We had everything set up and he had fallen asleep in his crib with no difficulty so we went to bed as well.

We all were fast asleep but then Eric and I were woken up by our phone ringing at 1:45 am. Eric answered the phone half asleep and the response was, "Hello, 911 what's your emergency." Eric was of course very confused ...... why was 911 calling us? They said that they had received a call from us and were calling back. She told us to check all of the phones in the house and we did and everything seemed fine so Eric hung up and we went back to sleep. It took a little while to fall back to sleep as we were a little confused by the call but we eventually did fall back to sleep only to be woken up by a loud bang on our front door. We both jumped out of bed and then clued in and figured out that it was probably the police. Sure enough the police had come to check to make sure everything was ok. Two police officers came and they wanted to talk to everyone in the house. One officer took me into one room and the other officer talked to Eric at the front door. They asked us small talk questions like when's your birthday and how old is your son but the officer that was talking to me did ask at the end if there was any domestic issues, I reassured her that there were not. It is great to know that the police will come to your place to check things out when 911 is called but it is a real pain at 2:30 in the morning and you didn't actually call them. After all of that I didn't feel good about having Zander in his room so we brought him back to our room and we all went back to sleep.

The next day we called Bell to come and check out our phone lines but the weren't able to come for 2 days. In the mean time we had started to think the maybe it had something to do with the monitor so we decided that we would just keep Zander in our room again until Bell came and checked out our lines. That night I was feeding Zander in the middle of the night and noticed that the monitor in his room was still on. We had turned the other one off but not the one in his room so I turned it off. Within 5 mins the phone rang. Eric picked up the phone again to, "Hello, 911 what's your emergency." Eric explained to her the situation and after talking to me as well she seemed satisfied with our response.

Bell came the next day and spent an hour looking for a problem with our lines but found nothing so that left us convinced that our monitor was the problem. So I returned the monitor and bought a new one. Zander is now sleeping in his own room every night and we have not had any other phone calls from 911. Hopefully it will stay that way :)

Smiley Zander

2010-09-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

Zander has been smiling for a few weeks now and he brightens up my day every time he shares it. He is a happy baby and is sharing his beautiful smile more and more now. Today I went shopping with my mom and he was just sitting in his car seat very happily, smiling at his spider that hangs from the handle. I am so glad he is such a happy boy.

1 Month Today

2010-08-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

A month ago today our little man entered this world and changed our lives. We have been blessed with a wonderful month together filled with smiles, laughs and smooth transitions. Zander is a great baby! He eats well and now is sleeping well too. It took Zander about 2 weeks to get the whole sleeping at night thing figured out and has decided that being fussy from 2-5 in the morning doesn't work so well. He now goes anywhere from 3-6 hours stretches at night making life a lot easier during the day. He has grown so much already too and although we go to the doctor's tomorrow to find out exactly how much we has gained we think he must weigh around 10 pounds (Birth weight was 7.6) He's a health boy :) based on our weigh scale at home. Here are a few pictures of our first month together.

Zander's Arrival!

2010-07-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

Zander is already 12 days old and I can't believe how he is growing already and doing so well. We are so thankful that he is doing well and is healthy. I thought that I would also share with you Zander's exciting arrival story if you haven't heard it yet.

So, Eric's parents were offered the use of a friend's cottage just north of Peterbourgh (2 1/2 hours from our place) from Tuesday til Saturday and Eric's parents invited us to go with them. We had been to this cottage before and had always found it so relaxing and really enjoyed being there so we wanted to join them. My doctor had given us the go ahead and so we decided that it would be a great way to force us to relax before the baby came. We headed up to the cottage on Tuesday after a doctor's appointment in the morning and went very prepared with car seat, hospital bag and maps on how to get to different hospitals along the way. We thought that if I did happen to go into labour we would just hop in the car and drive straight home. Besides, this is our first baby, apparently first babies usually come late and they say labour averages 16 hours, right?

Before heading up to the cottage we knew that Eric had a basketball game on Thursday night and decided before that I would go back and forth with him if I wasn't feeling good. Thursday came around and we started the day with an enjoyable boat ride just Eric and I and a relaxing afternoon. Eric had to leave at 5 for his game and we decided that I would just stay at the cottage and that Eric would come back right after his game. Sitting in a car for 2 hours to the game then sitting on bleachers and then 2 hours back up to the cottage didn't sound like a lot of fun to me being that pregnant, so I stayed at the cottage with Eric's parents.

Around 7:30 I started to feel some cramping, not knowing exactly what was going on. I decided to just go lay down and watch a movie and hoped that I would feel better. The cramps continued to come and go and I decided that maybe I should start timing these "cramps." At that point my contractions were irregular ranging from 6-12 minutes apart. Around 8:00 I got up to go to the washroom and Eric's mom saw me. She asked me if I was okay and I told her how I was feeling. I told her about the contractions and she watched me go through one and we decided that we better pack up and started driving home.

By 8:30 we, Eric's dad was driving, Eric's mom was in the passenger seat and I was in the back, were driving back to Burlington hoping to hear from Eric. I had called him a number of times but he was in the middle of his game and wasn't checking his phone. Around 9:30 Eric finally called a little freaked out because he saw all of the missed calls from me. I started talking to him and told him I was in labour and then had to pass the phone onto his mom because I was having a contraction. Eric's mom told him to go home and we would meet him there and then Eric and I could decide what to do. Up until that point I tried to keep track of my contractions but didn't do a very good job because I was just trying to deal with the pain. Eric's mom asked how far apart they were and I didn't really know. So, she started keeping track for me and realized that my contractions were about 4 mins apart. She called Eric back and told him that he better start heading towards us because she didn't think that we were going to make it back to Burlington. We were about 1 1/2 hours away from home at this point. My labour continued to proceed quickly and we continued to drive towards home and until my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. At that point Eric's mom call 911 to get directions to the nearest hospital. They started giving us directions but also kept track of my contractions too. When they realized how close they were they told us to pull over and they sent an ambulance to us.

I didn't find this out until a couple of days later but Eric's mom was told to get a shoe lace and get ready to deliver the baby (glad that didn't happen :) )

The ambulance arrived quickly and took me with Eric's mom to the Oshawa Hospital which was only 5 minutes away. They wheeled me straight into the delivery room and discovered that I was fully dilated.

At this point it was around 10:30 and Eric was still on his way. Eric drove breaking a few speed limits and praying that he would make it in time. When he was about 15km from the hospital he hit traffic and the highway was merged from 3 lanes down to 1. He finally made it through the traffic and arrived at the hospital only to discover that the fire alarm was set off at the hospital and all doors were locked and he couldn't get in. Eric's dad saw him and directed him to one door that he had found that was open.

During this time I couldn't wait any longer. I didn't want to have this baby without Eric but I had to push. The first time I pushed my water exploded all over the Doctor and the wall behind him. The doctor's responses was, "Well, that was a first." I thought that they had experienced it all and to not worry about what happens during labour but I guess not. I continued to push a few more times.

Eric got in and the hospital that was completely abandoned because of the fire but Eric saw one person in the birthing area and she pointed him to the right room. Eric finally arrived at 11:30 just after I had began pushing. I was so relieved to finally see him walk through that door. I then felt like I could do this and he gave me the motivation that I needed then. Eric was a great coach and Zander arrived at 12:24 on July 23. Praise the Lord that everything worked out and that we have a beautiful healthy baby boy!!!

Zander Arend Peter Bulthuis!!!

2010-07-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

Eric and I would like to share that we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy, Zander Arend Peter Bulthuis! He came into the world on Friday, July 23 at 12:24am, weighing 7lbs 6ozs and is doing well after a surprised early arrival and exciting and quick delivery. We are truly blessed!

4 Weeks to Go!

2010-07-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

So the count down is definitely on. 4 more weeks and hopefully this baby will be here. I continue to feel good which I am very thankful for. Since school has finished we have been totally in baby mode getting everything for this baby to come. We now have boxes of diapers ready to go, washed outfits for the baby and Eric is painting the baby's room today with a friend. After that we are pretty much ready. We are excited to meet our little one but are just trying to savor the moments of being pregnant and the amount of sleep we are getting. Very shortly things will be much different in the Bulthuis' household- good different.

These pictures are from a week ago at 35 weeks.

Thank you 5/6!

2010-07-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, school is finished and now it is time to focus on the arrival of our little bundle of joy. I am thankful to have been able to finish off the year strong with my class and be able to walk through this journey with them. I loved spending my days with my class this year and they added so much joy and excitement to my life as we watched this baby grow inside of me. They asked so many questions, showered me with support and offered hundreds of name suggestions, one that even stuck as a nick name that the class used all the time when talking about the baby, "Fred." I emphasized that Eric and I had decided that that was not the name we had chosen for the baby but that didn't matter they still called the baby, Fred and I even called the baby, Fred while at school. Thank you 5/6 for being a great class and for blessing me this year.

28 Weeks-12 Weeks Left

2010-05-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am in my final trimester now and instead of counting the weeks up I have now started to count down the weeks until our little one arrives. Not exactly sure when that will be as I have received 4 different due dates ranging from July 29 - Aug 10 but this baby will come when its ready. We now have a crib and bedding, which Eric surprised me with and had all set up for Mother's Day and we are feeling like we are at least a little bit prepared for the baby. I continue to feel the baby moving more and more and can feel that the baby is getting much bigger as the baby can now kick me in the ribs. We continue to pray for a healthy baby and are thankful that things have been going smoothly and I am feel good.

Hall of Fame

2010-04-15T15:31:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a big day for Eric as he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the university that he attended for all of his basketball achievements that he accomplished while he played their. It was an honour for Eric to be recognized for all of his hard work that he put into basketball during that time. (I also thought I would included a picture of myself from that night so that you could see that latest size of my growing belly. I am 23 weeks in this picture.)

20 Weeks

2010-03-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

16 weeks & 19 weeks

I am now 20 weeks pregnant and thought it was high time that I put something on our blog. I hope by now all of you have heard that Eric and I are expecting but in case you haven't, SURPRISE! We are due August 6 and now that we have hit the halfway mark it has made us think about spending a little more time looking into getting things ready for the baby. Although we haven't bought anything yet we have decided on the baby's room, have looked for bedding and have narrowed down our option for names. The baby's arrival will be here before we know it and my growing belly and the movements that I now feel are also a lovely reminder of that. We are so excited that we have been blessed in this way and can't wait to meet our little one.

Kitchen Reno

2010-01-10T21:07:00.000-08:00

Before

During

After

Although we were lucky to find a house that didn't need much work and actually fit our taste, we are still making a few changes to add our personal touch. The biggest change that we have made so far is adding tiles to the back splash in our kitchen. We took the first couple of days of our Christmas break to tackle this project ourselves. Now, we have a beautiful kitchen that we love and can feel proud of because we completed it all by ourselves.

Canadian Landmark: Dundurn Castle

2009-12-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

In Social Studies I have been teaching my students about Canadian Landmarks and one of the landmarks that we talked about was Dundurn Castle. A castle located in Hamilton which is about 20 mins from our school. This 18,000-square-foot "castle" or mansion took three years to build, and was completed in 1835. At the end of the unit I decided to take my class there for a class trip and I caught myself laughing at times as my students walked around the castle and were so impressed with how old the building was. 1835 is pretty old for a building in Canada however I compared this "castle" with ones that I have seen in Europe and 1835 is nothing. I am glad that my students were impressed with this Canadian Landmark, it is a beautiful, historical home, it was just hard for me to appreciate it in the same way as them.

Good Luck Girls!

2009-11-24T18:19:00.000-08:00

I think that basketball will always be a big part of Eric's life. Right now he spends a lot of time coaching basketball at his high school. Since September he has been coaching the Senior and Junior Girls basketball teams. He has had a great group of girls to work with and they have worked hard and it has paid off. Tomorrow Eric leaves with his Senior Girls team for Provincial Championship in Cornwall, near Ottawa. They will be there the rest of the week and compete against other team from around Ontario. I wish them luck as they play their best and hopefully do well. Good Luck Girls!!! (and Coach)

This is a picture of Eric's Senior Girls Team with another team that they played against and they all wore pink socks in support of Breast Cancer awareness. Eric's team are the girls wearing the basketball jerseys.

We Love Our Neices and Nephew

2009-11-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of being home is being able to spend more time with our family. We have two nieces, Nola and Hailey, one of Eric's side of the family and one on mine and since August we have a nephew, Blake as well. We have had to much fun being apart of their lives and are so thankful for the time that we get to spend with them.

Home Sweet Home

2009-09-28T16:17:00.001-07:00

After a busy week and a half of moving, unpacking and cleaning we are beginning to feel settled in our new home. We still have boxes to unpack and some cleaning that should be done but it now seems that things have a spot and our house is beginning to feel like "our home" instead of just a place that someone else owned and now we live in. At first when we moved in we were both excited to have our own space again and not have to live out of suitcases anymore but the more time we spend in our house we discovered that we really love the house as well. It feels good to be in our house and makes settling back in Canada a lot easier. This picture is from the night we got the keys. I worked all day then went to our school BBQ and then came home to do a little carpet cleaning before we moved everything in on the weekend.

Back to School

2009-09-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

We have been back to school for 3 days now and it feels like we have been teaching for weeks already. Eric is busy with his new job as Athletic Director, getting programs set up and becoming familiar with things. He has begun coaching junior and senior girl's basketball so he is keeping himself busy. I have loved being back at my old school and it has been great seeing staff, students and parents from before. I have a great class and have really enjoyed getting to know them over the last couple of days. It has been a challenge teaching a split but so far it has been going pretty good. Teaching grade 5 and 6 has definitely been a change from teaching Nursery but it has been fun teaching an older age group. I miss my cuties from last year though :)

Our House

2009-08-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

We are so excited that we found a house! On Friday after looking at about 25-30 different houses we finally found one that we will call our home. It is located very close to the school that I will be teaching at and only 10-15 minutes away from Eric's school. It is a 3 bedroom, end unit town house with updated kitchen, bathrooms, hardwood floors and finished basement. Our closing date is September 16 so we don't have to wait too long to move in.

Back in Canada

2009-08-08T16:59:00.001-07:00

Eric and I have been back in Canada for over a week and are enjoying our time at home. Before leaving Prague a good friend told me that we should keep our blog going for the people in Prague to be able to continue to see what is going on in our life. So, I decided at that time that I would put more of an effort into updating this blog more regularly so that whoever is interested can take a look at our blog and get a picture of what is going on in our life.

Coming HOME!!!

2009-01-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

Eric and I have been doing a lot of praying to try to figure out where God wants us next year. We love Prague and Riverside (our school) and really enjoy our life here, however we feel that God has other plans for us for next year so we have decided to come home. We really feel at peace with this decision and are excited about coming home. We don't know what God has planned for us as we move back home but are confident that God will open doors for us and that everything will work out.

Portugal and Spain

2008-12-03T07:16:00.001-08:00

Over our half term break in October I went on a trip with a good friend, Jen. We traveled around Portugal and Spain enjoyed the beautiful weather, the relaxed atmosphere and different culture. We started off in Lisbon, Portugal where we had so much fun just wondering through the friendly city, then went down to Lagos, Portugal and discovered the lovely beaches there along with the 27 degree weather that we had to enjoy them. Then we headed to Spain and took a long bus ride to Seville, where we saw the Plaza de Espana which was my favourite building of our trip. After that we went to Granada and wondered around the Alhambra and then to Malaga to be impressed by the Alcazaba, the 8th century fortess. To end off the trip we flew to Barcelona where we met up with Eric for a couple of days and discovered a modern city and the Gaudi architecture.

Germany, Switzerland and Austria

2008-11-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it is November and I am finally posting our last trip of the summer. Sorry for the delay but here it is....

Leanne's parents came to visit us in August and while they were here we went on a trip with them to Germany, Switzerland and Austria. We got to see some new places in these countries but also got to return to some great places that we have been to before. Our favourite place to see on this trip was Grindelwald, Switzerland. While we were they Eric and I went for a 9 hour hike up a mountain and then back down again. It was unbelievable. Extremely difficult at times but definitely worth the hike. It was great to be able to discover these place with our parents.

The Netherlands and Belgium

2008-10-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

This summer our friends Ron and Nadine Masengi came to visit us this and while we spent half of their time with us in Prague we also went to the Netherlands and Belgium. We were amazed by how much Holland felt like home. It was so nice to hear Dutch being spoken (as opposed to Czech for a change)and to be able to eat some Dutch treats like raisin buns :) We commented a number of times as well that we finally were in a country where people looked like us. We took the opportunity to walk around Amsterdam, and find the town where Eric's opa grew up. We also were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed exploring Belgium. Brussels is a beautiful city as is Bruges, in both places we took time to sample the local cuisine and partake in the variety of cold drinks they had to offer.
While we were traveling in Holland we celebrated our 3 year anniversary and reflected on our last 3 years together. We are amazed by where and how God has lead us over this years and are thankful for his goodness to us.

Croatia

2008-09-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

For 12 days Eric, myself, our friend Jen and my cousin Tim explored Croatia. We started in the middle by flying to Zadar and traveled the whole country from top to bottom. We went to Pula, on the northern coast line of Croatia where we spend one day exploring the ancient city and the ruins and Colosseum. We went to Plitvicka Lakes Provincial Park. This park had lakes and waterfalls connecting them all. I have never since so many waterfalls. It was so beautiful!!! We explored Dubrovnik, the beautiful, historic city and saw many other places in between. It was an amazing country with exquisite coastlines and lovely mountains running beside them. We loved Croatia and would definitely go back there someday.

Kentucky and England

2008-09-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Eric got the opportunity to go to Kentucky this summer for his good friend, Vic's wedding. While he went to the states one of my friends here invited me to go home with her to England. I right away jumped at the chance. First, to see another place and do some traveling and secondly because I didn't want to stay at home by myself all week while Eric was gone. I had a great time adventuring to Brighton, Sussex and checking out London. It was also nice to be able to listening to people and actually understand what they were saying and being able to go to Walmart (or their version of it) and be able to get somethings that we can find to the Czech Republic. It was a great trip but Eric and I were both happy to go home and see each other again after it.

Goodbye Summer, Hello School

2008-08-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

This summer has flown by. We have taken advantage of living in Europe and did lots of traveling. (Maybe too much :) ) We did not spend very much time in Prague instead we went to 7 different countries over the summer and were able to see a lot. Since we were exploring so much I have not been able to post anything on our blog yet, except our trip to Tunisia. I hope to get some of our trips posted soon though. Today was our first day back to work and that marks the end of a great summer. Now it's time to change gears and prepare for a new and exciting school year and put our summer craziness behind us.

Tunisia - Africa Here We Come

2008-07-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

We had heard from a lot of people that we could get some good deals on all inclusive vacation if you wait last minute here. So, we decided to give it a try as well. We went to the travel agency on Friday and on Saturday we left for a week in Tunisia. We had a great week truly relaxing in the sun on the beach and by the pool and unwinding from a busy year. It was an interesting experience being in, first of all, an African country. And secondly being in a largely Muslim culture. We were exposed to a great deal that we had not seen before. The way of life there is much different than many of the European countries we have been to. The Arabic language was also something that we were fascinated by. It was an interesting experience going to a country where mainly Europeans go to vacation, we felt even more like minorities here as many of the people who worked there knew little or no English and had rarely interacted with English speakers let alone North Americans. For the most part though we had fantastic weather and just enjoyed sleeping in and not having to do a thing. It was a great start to our summer.

Football Game

2008-06-01T11:50:00.001-07:00

On Friday, we went with a group of fellow teachers to a football (soccer) match. There are a number of teachers that we teach with that are from Scotland and when Scotland came to play against the Czech Republic team on Friday, we all became honourary Scots and supported their team with them. Football is a huge sport in Europe so Eric has already become a fan and has seen a few roudy football games here, however this was Leanne's first football game. Kilts were seen all over the place and beer was consumed at an even high rate. The heat was in full force but it was an exciting experience all around.

Copenhagen, Denmark-The Beginning of a Fabulous Trip

2008-05-25T04:16:00.000-07:00

We started our Scandinavian trip in Copenhagen. It was a refreshing change from the Czech Republic because the people here were so friendly and outgoing. We loved checking out the Nyhavn canal, the old stock exchange, the art gallery and city hall just to name a few. Walking along Hans Christian Anderson's way gave us a great sense of the grip that the great writer still has on the beautiful city. (H.C.A. of course is the author of the much acclaimed "Little Mermaid" among other literary masterpieces.) It was a great place to start an fantastic trip. We were blessed with beautiful weather on our whole trip, which I am sure helped us to enjoy our trip even more. We also went on this trip with just the two of us, which was so nice for a change.

Stockholm, Sweden

2008-05-25T03:16:00.000-07:00

Eric has now found his new favourite city (besides Prague of course :)). We have traveled to quite a number of European cities since being in Prague, however after going to Stockholm Eric decided that it was his favourite. I agreed that it is an incredible city with beautiful architecture and all the islands leaving you surrounded by water, although I tend to fall in love with the smaller, quaint cities. The city of Stockholm was stunning but the country side of Sweden was as well. Eric and I loved driving from Denmark through Sweden to Stockholm because it gave us the chance to enjoy other parts of Sweden as well. Surrounded by brilliant yellow fields of rapeseed made the surroundings beautiful both to our eyes as well as to our noses. As we were driving the rough terrain, forests and Moose crossing signs reminded us of driving up north in Ontario to go camping and to be honest it made me a little homesick. It was great to discover a country in Europe that reminded us of Canada. (Interesting to note that as we traveled up to Stockholm we made our way up to the same latitude as the most northern tip of Quebec in Canada.)

Oslo, Norway

2008-05-25T02:59:00.000-07:00

Even though we didn't plan to visit Oslo when we left on this trip we decided to go on the last day of our trip. We figured that if we didn't go now we probably wouldn't get a chance to go and check out a piece of Norway. So we got up early and drove 5 hours to see what Oslo had to offer. When we arrived we discovered that Oslo was different then Stockholm and Copenhagen but beautiful none the less. Oslo is the oldest of the Scandinavian capitals but much of the heart of the city was made up of 19th- and early 20th-century buildings making it feel modern in many ways. We walked through the city centre and saw the Royal Palace, National Theatre, City Hall and the 13th century Akershus Castle. We decided after exploring for a while it was worth the drive.
Walking through the town also gave us a feel for the history of the place, origin of many Viking raids early in the last century.
We didn't quite make it to all of the Scandinavian countries but 3 out of 4 isn't bad.

Scandinavian Adventures

2008-05-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

On our way back from Oslo we stopped at a fortress - turned castle - turned museum. Seeing just off the highway we swerved across two lanes of traffic and made our way to the fortress. Upon arriving there we quickly learned that this fortress was the only Scandinavian keep to have never been defeated. This 13th century fort located on the border of Sweden and Norway has seen a great deal of history and we enjoyed walking around the walls of this lovely historical footprint.

Finally just before driving back to our destination we tried to capture the magnificence of the bridge/tunnel that has connected Denmark to Sweden for the last 8 years. The Oresund connection begins from Denmark as a tunnel, then surfaces in the middle of the water onto a man made island and then continues to Sweden over a bridge. The conclusion of our trip allowed us to appreciate not only the wonders of history but also the amazing advances that technology has brought us in more recent years.

We were blessed with a great trip and thank God for keeping us safe over the 1853 kilometres we traveled.

Basketball Champions

2008-05-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

As we write this, Eric is preparing for his last game of the season. He has had the opportunity this year to play for Sparta Prague, a team in the second division of the Czech league. Historically the Sparta Prague team has been one of the most respected teams in Europe until financial trouble hit them about 5 years ago. Since then the team has been working its way up through the divisions in hopes of making it back to its rightful place, the leader in Czech basketball. The team had an incredibly successful season going 21-4 on the year and ending up in first place heading into the playoffs. After winning the first two games of the playoffs they secured the first place spot for the season. As most European leagues go, the team that wins first place moves up to the next division and so Eric is moving up with his team to that position. He has been asked to play for that team next season in the first division. A great opportunity for Eric to continue to follow his dream of playing basketball at a professional level.

Easter Break

2008-04-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

For Easter break instead of traveling to another European country we decided that it was a great chance for me (Leanne) to go home and see family and meet my niece. We had a two week break so I went home for a week and a half and spent lots of time with Hailey and family, caught up with friends and just enjoyed living life as a Canadian again. It was great to be home and I had so much fun being an aunt. I am so thankful for the time that I got to spend with Hailey and being apart of her life even if it was only for a short period of time.

Spring in Prague

2008-04-17T12:56:00.001-07:00

While some of you may still be enjoying winter weather, we have been enjoying spring in Prague. The trees are blossoming, the grass is green and we are reaching two digit numbers in temperatures regularly. It has been so nice to see the sun more often and put our winter jackets aside. The picture of the tree was taken from our living room window.

First Visitors

2008-04-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

During Canadian March Break Eric's parent came to visit us. Due to Easter and March Break falling so closely together this year their school had a two week break giving them the opportunity to visit us for a week and a half. We had a great time visiting some of our favourite places in Prague and traveling to some new destinations as well.

Terezin

2008-03-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

One of the new places that we went to was Terezin. It is a 19th century fortress transformed into a WWII concentration camp located only an hour outside of Prague. It was mainly a transport camp from which many prisoners were transferred from to various other camps. But while there, the prisoners were treated poorly and many died during their stay. It was also the "show camp" that the Germans used to show the Red Cross during the inspections of these "internment camps". They would show the Red cross certain areas of the camp that were well maintained and where the prisoners were coerced into behaving a certain way so they would pass the inspections.
We went here for the day and experienced the eerie and horrifying place where such a butal history occurred. We were able to walk around in the sleeping quarters of the prisoners and felt the cramped spaces of the cells that many of the prisoners were held in. Walking through this place was another example of the ever present footprint of history we get to experience during our time in Europe.

Our Trip to Switzerland

2008-03-02T06:28:00.000-08:00

I finally got all of the postings done about our trip to Switzerland a couple of weeks ago. It is an amazing country; one that you go to and know how great God is by looking at what he has created. Even if you have seen the first posting already please scroll down, there is a lot more to check out.

Switzerland- First Stop Geneva

2008-03-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

We are officially half way through our first school year at Riverside and to celebrate that we had another week off and decided to go to Switzerland. We went with our good friend, Jen, and enjoyed a range of scenery and experiences. We flew into Geneva and stayed there for a day. As we explored Geneva we discovered Jet d'Eau, the emblem of Geneva and Europe's tallest fountain. We also went to Palais des Nations, the world's largest conference centre for international peace and security. Eric even stood with the four leaders of the Reformation. To end off our stay in Geneva we enjoyed a cheese fondue, a traditional and well known meal in Switzerland.

Bern

2008-03-02T06:14:00.000-08:00

After enjoying the sun in Geneva we headed to Bern and arrived at around 10:30pm. As we drove around looking for our hotel, we discovered that we were getting a little more at Bern then we expected. There was a carnival going on, something that we learned occurs often in Switzerland, and our hotel was located very close to the commotion. It felt like Halloween as everyone was dressed up in a variety of different costumes. Needless to say we land up getting little sleep that night due to the noise and excitement and woke up the next morning to a totally different place then we first experienced in Bern. Although Bern is the Swiss capital, the next day we realized that the atmosphere of Bern is of a small town. This picturesque town is surrounded by a winding river and the cobbled streets were lined with many fountains, including one of Moses pointing to the second commandment, reminding the town people not to commit idolatry. Bern turned out to be a very quiet town the next day.

Basel

2008-03-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

Basel was a very small town in the Northern part of Switzerland that we only spent a couple of hours at. Because of Basel being located so close to the border of Switzerland and France this area is strongly influenced by the French. Switzerland has three languages that are spoken and depending on which country the city or town is closest to that is the language that is spoken. We stayed in Basel long enough to check out the Martplatz and the Rathaus or town halll located in the square as well as the Munster, which is the medieval cathedral that was built in the 12th century.

Luzern

2008-03-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

We travel next to Luzern where we first really saw the mountains in Switzerland. The town was a beautiful, quaint town that we unfortunately did not get to spent too much time in. When we arrive there it was later in the day so we walked around and explored same parts of it but decided that we would return the next day as it was very cold when the sun went down. The next day however was poor weather so we drove on to our next location where the sun was shining.

Interlaken

2008-03-02T06:02:00.000-08:00

Interlaken was a beautiful little town located in the centre of Switerland. We stopped here for a couple of hours on our way to Gstaad. Interlaken appeared to be very quite because we were there during lunch hours and most stores close up during that time. It was great to walk around here and enjoy the sun.

Driving in Switerland

2008-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

After Interlaken we drove on a route called the three passes. This is a circular route over the Uri Alps that has spectular high Alpine scenery. It was incredible driving through the mountains. It was here that we decided renting a car was a wise choice for this trip. As we were driving though the road all of a sudden stopped. In the last picture you can see me walking on the snow where the road should have been. So, we didn't get too far on the route and had to turn around.

Gstaad

2008-03-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

The final town that we visited was a small ski village, Gstaad. Jen has a friend that lives here that said we could stay with them so we decided to stay here for a couple of days. When we arrived we had to walked through a cow pasture in order to get to the friend's house that were completely surrounded by mountains, so we really felt like we were in Switzerland. Eric went skiing in the Swiss alps for the day while I went sledging down the same mountain with Jen and her friend. We both decided that our days in the mountains were definitely a highlight of the trip. It was so amazing to see mountains every where and be surrounded by such beauty!

Robbie Burns Night

2008-02-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Although it has been a number of weeks since we celebrated Robbie Burns night I think that the pictures are still worth sharing. The night was filled with many Scottish specialties to remember the Scottish poet, Robbie Burns. We enjoyed a traditional meal including haggis (sheep's stomach), poetry readings and Scottish dancing. Eric decided to really get into the spirit of the night and even wore a kilt on loan from a good Scottish friend, Joe.

Vysehrad- The Castle on the Heights

2008-01-28T11:44:00.001-08:00

On Saturday we visited the first castle that was built in Prague in the 10th century. The castle is situated on hills just south of central Prague giving us a different perspective of our beautiful city. The mighty walls of the castle gives a magnificent view of the river and the town, contains sculptures of Czech legendary heros and surrounds the church of St. Peter and Paul. Although it ended up being a colder day then we expected we enjoyed exploring another part of the city.

Proud Aunt

2008-01-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

I have received some new pictures of my neice, Hailey over the weekend and being the proud aunt that I am I would like to show her off, so here she is......

Welcome to the World- Hailey Anne Fennema

2008-01-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

Leanne's brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Lindsay were blessed with the birth of a healthy baby girl, Hailey Anne! She arrived Monday, January 7th at 9:05am (or 3:05pm in Prague:)) She weighed 8lbs and 8ozs and is doing well. Lindsay is also well, however tired and sore from 55 hours of labour and an unexpected C-section. Although we missed seeing our new niece by a couple of days we look forward to seeing lots of pictures and hearing all about her. Praise the Lord for Hailey!!!

Time flies

2008-01-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

It is hard believe that our 3 weeks at home have already come and gone. We have been looking forward to going back to Canada for so long and now we are already back in Prague again. It's amazing how fast the 3 weeks went but it also unbelieveable that we have been living in Prague almost half a year. It was great to see so many of you and we wish you all the best in 2008. Enjoy every minute God has given you because we all know how fast they go.

Back in Canada

2007-12-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

We arrived back in Canada on Sunday and we are happy to be home. Due to the snowstorm we had a 3 hour delay in Montreal but we were just happy that our flight was just delayed and not canceled as many flights were. We have been enjoying the last couple of days in Barrie with Eric's parents and mountains of snow. On Wednesday we will be heading down to Grimsby to be spending some time with my family and friends in the area. We will be there until the 26th and then we will go back to Barrie to celebrate New Year's with Eric' family. We will return to Grimsby on the 2nd for a couple more days (hopefully spending time with my new niece or nephew) and then we will fly back to Prague on the 4th. We hope and pray that everyone will have a Merry Christmas and hopefully we will get to see many of you during our time in Canada.

First Games

2007-11-29T13:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Eric played in his first semi-professional basketball games. After years of waiting for an opportunity like this the day finally arrived. With excitement and nerves he entered the court and created a moment he will never forget. He played one game on Saturday and another on Sunday starting off his career with two wins. What a great way to start. To see pictures of Eric playing ball copy and paste the following link into the address bar. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=72129&l=80744&id=504610253

The Countdown is On

2007-11-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

In four weeks we will be flying back to Canada. The next four weeks are going to be busy with report cards and Christmas programs but we see the light at the end of the tunnel now. We are really looking forward to seeing our families and friends again and being able to communicate with them in person instead of over the internet or on the phone. So the countdown is on, four weeks left, 20 working days :), that's it and we will be home.

Italy- Cinque Terre

2007-11-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

The school year here is divided into 3 terms for both the high school and grade school and half way through each term we get a week off from school. This time we decided to spend that week in Italy traveling to various places and checking out new and exciting things. The first place that we went to was Cinque Terre, which is an area containing five coastal villages spread out, each with their own charm. We stayed in the fourth village, Vernazza, and hiked on the trail along the coast to the other villages during the day to check them out. We stayed here until from Saturday to Tuesday. This area is best known for Pesto, it was invented here and all of the restaurants have a great deal of Pesto dishes on the menu. Since we have arrived back home we have began to put pesto on everything. (try pesto on hamburgers it may in fact change your life)
Tuesday morning Eric had to return to Prague to fulfill his basketball responsibilities for the rest of the week and I continued on the trip through Italy with a good friend, Jen. Jen is a fellow Canadian who lives in the same building as us and arrived in Prague and at Riverside the same time.

Pisa and Lucca

2007-11-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

Jen and Leanne took the train to Lucca, a little town on the way to Florence. As we traveled to Lucca, we stopped in Pisa to check out the Leaning Tower as well as the Duomo and Baptistry. We found that the city was not worth spending much time in so we headed straight to the tower and were very impressed with what we saw. It was a fascinating revelation to read that the tower started to lean after the building of the third level but they kept on building it....why not? After this we hopped back on the train and adventured to Lucca. Lucca is a cute little traditional Italy town that we spent one night in. It was nice to walk around but one night there was enough time to check it out. Like I said it was little :)

Florence

2007-11-04T02:56:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Florence, with the rain still persisting we decided to look for a place to stay and relax for a little while. Later on that night we walked around the many markets that sold leather goods and other materials typical to that area. As we were walking we stumbled upon the Duomo (Church) in Florence. The next day we continued to walk around this pristine little town and were surprised to find a duplicate of the statue "David" and the final resting place for Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Leonardo Bruni. We quickly found that while this is a very small town it is of great historical importance. This town is also home to possibly the best Gelato (ice cream) on the planet.

Milan

2007-11-04T02:43:00.001-08:00

From Florence we took a train back to Milan for our flight back to Prague. Before we caught our flight we took time to walk around the city a little. Eric had been to the city days earlier and sent us a text as he was sitting on the steps of the Duomo Milano eating a Canoli so we did the same thing and took a picture so it was sort of like we were together at that point. We continued to walk around the city and enjoyed some of the shops, sculptures, fountains and culture that Milan had to offer. We managed to escape the city unharmed by the thousands of crazy moped drivers and back to the beautiful city of Prague. What a great trip, next trip...Canada!

Eric is a Pro Basketball Player

2007-10-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

After going to only two practices Eric was offered a position on the Prague Sparta Basketball Team. They had told Eric that he had to come for a 10 day try out, but after just his first practice they informed him that they would let him know by the end of the week. Now Eric is just finalizing his paperwork with the Canadian Basketball Association to make it legal for him to play and he will be playing in his first pro basketball game. After spending his life working hard at being the best that he could be at basketball this is a very rewarding experience for him. I am so proud of him!

Prayer for Andrea

2007-10-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

We requested prayer for a young girl named Andrea on our blog about a month ago and we are asking everyone to remember her in your prayers once again. Andrea has been admitted into the hospital to begin her radioactive iodine treatment for her thyroid cancer. Today was the first day of her treatments and we are all praying that the treatment will be successful and that the Lord will heal this amazing girl. Over the last six weeks as she recovered from her surgery to have her thyroid removed, she has been very determined to live life as normal as possible and return to school and do all of the things that she loves to do. This has given Eric and myself the opportunity to get to know her as we both teach her. She is such an inspiration to all of the people around her with how positive she has remained and how this valley has revealed to others her deep love for the Lord. We also pray that the Lord will use her to teach other about him. Lord please heal Andrea!

Best Hot Chocolate EVER!!!

2007-10-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we discovered the best hot chocolate ever. We had heard about this thick, creamy hot chocolate that you could get at a cafe downtown that we just had to try. After trying it we discovered why everyone raved about. It was AMAZING!!! Definitely a place to check out if you ever come to Prague.

Real Life

2007-10-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

After writing the last post I realized that we are probably giving you some what of an unrealistic view of our lives here in Prague. We do enjoy exploring the country and traveling to other cities but that is not the only reason why we are here. We have been teaching for 1 month here and really that is what we spend most of our time doing. We both have enjoyed teaching at Riverside and we continue to learn many things about teaching in a different country and an international school. The community at Riverside is a very close knit one that encourages families and staff to support each other and make everyone feel at home. Here are a few pictures of some of my Nursery students and the high school. You can go to www.riversideschool.cz to see and check out more about the school.

Karlstejn Castle

2007-10-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday brought with it bright and beautiful Czech day. We went to Karlstejn castle, a 14th century castle nestled away in the Czech countryside. A Burcak wine festival was taking place at the castle and was a great attraction for Czechs and tourists alike. Burcak wine is a young, sweet Moravian wine, produced at the start of every harvest season. Along with a medieval festival, of which Czechs are very fond, it made for a great day. Walking through up to castle brought with it a fantastic journey through history as we walked beside a 20th century German bunker and up to the 14th century castle it made us realize how alive the history and the sense of history is in Central Europe.

Weekend in Berlin

2007-10-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Friday was a public holiday in the Czech Republic so we had the day off from school and decided to make the best of the day. We left early Friday morning with a car load of Scots and went to the storied city of Berlin. Historically alive we went there with high expectations all of which were meet. The epic rain did not deter our adventures around the city; walking back and forth from east to west Germany, over and around the Berlin Wall was a brisk reminder of the short time since the fall of Communism. Striding under the Brandenburg Gates and standing in awe of Kaiser-Wilhelm bombed out Cathedral were a few of the sites which made us forget about our damp circumstances.

Beautiful day to watch a battle

2007-09-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of September we have not seen the sun very much at all. We have been having cold, rainy weather with little to no sun at all. We have been hearing about it being so nice in Canada and how the weather is usually really nice in Prague in September but we have not been experiencing that until this weekend. On Friday the sun came out and the temperature raised into the high teens again and then today the temperature managed to make it into the twenties. With the sun out we knew that we had to get out and enjoy the weather so we went to a Battle Reenactment of Bila Hora. This battle took place in 1620 at the beginning of the Thirty Years War, a war that was fought between European Catholics and Protestants. A great reenactment, fought at the same location with the same strategies exactly as they were some 387 years ago (minus the deaths or course).

Time in the City

2007-09-11T12:53:00.002-07:00

After a month of being in Prague we finally were able to spend a day in the city not having to run errands. We took this opportunity to explore a part of the city that we have not seen before. We walked up Petrin Hill which is the highest point in Prague major. We also discovered a beautiful garden, located very close to St. Vitus's Cathedral, home to fountains and sculptures dedicated to prominent Czech figures. The weather was not as nice as we have heard it has been back home in Canada but the rain stayed away and we had a great day!

Please pray for Andrea

2007-09-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

In the school that we are teaching at the Principal of the High School's daughter, Andrea (11 years old) had been diagnosed with cancer a week before school began. This new was taken hard by everyone. The tests that Andrea went through revealed that the cancer was in her thyroid gland, which at the time seemed to be very treatable. Since the news she has gone through surgery to have the lump in her gland removed. Unfortunately when the surgery was done they discovered that the lump was much bigger and deeper then they expected. During the surgery the doctor had to cut into a vocal nerve to remove the lump and had to reconstruct the nerve at the time. This has left Andrea with a change in her voice and the uncertainty of if the cancer has spread. Since the surgery she has made great progress and the doctors were very impress with how quickly she was recovering. Today, Al and Connie (her parents) and Andrea went to the doctors to have the stitches removed and they received news that the results are showing that the cancer is much more aggressive then they had thought. Unfortunately that is all the news that the doctor was able to tell them today as they are still waiting the result from all of the tests. On Monday they should receive the rest of the result. Please pray for Andrea and her family as they wait for these results and pray that the Lord will grant healing to her body. They are an amazing family that have been able to stay positive and focus on God's plan through all of the news so far and I just pray that whatever lies ahead they will continue to feel God's hand in their lives.

School Has Begun

2007-09-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

We have finished our first day of school and we had a great first day. It was a rainy day so that made it easier for the staff and students to be working inside instead of enjoying the outdoors. Eric is getting use to teaching the younger age groups (grade 6 is considered to be high school) and Leanne is getting used to balancing her two jobs of being a nursery teacher and an art teacher. We feel so blessed to be placed in a school where the staff is so welcoming and helpful.

Settling in Prague

2007-08-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

We have been in our apartment now for a little over a week and we are feeling more and more settled each day. We have most of our furniture now and have even been able to decorate a little and hang a few pictures which has helped to make this place feel more like home. We live in the same apartment building as a number of teachers from the school that we will be teaching at so we feel like we have a little community here. I finally had some extra time today so I have posted pictures from our trip. Hope that you enjoy them. One last thing, I changed the setting so that anyone can post comments, you don't have to be a member of blogspot anymore. Sorry, I didn't realize that it was set this way before. Take care!!!

Salzburg, Austria

2007-08-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

We first went to Salzburg, Austria. We spent two nights here and were very impressed by this little city where the Sound of Music was filmed. We also stayed in our first hostel here and were not so impressed, but that's a whole other story. We were able to buy a Salzburg Card when we arrived in the city which allowed us to use public transportation and visit many different sights at no additional cost. As a result we visited the Castle, Catacombs, Mozart's Residences, Salzburg Zoo, take a cruise up the river that runs through the city and the highlight of our stay in Salzburg; take a cable car up a mountain and then we were able to climb up to the peak.

Hallstatt, Austria

2007-08-26T04:36:00.001-07:00

Hallstatt was the second stop on our Trip. We discovered this place as we were looking through travel books before we left on our trip and knew we had to go there. We took a train from Salzburg to Hallstatt and then we had to take a ferry across the lake to get to the town. The town was built along the edge of a lake and the lake was surrounded by mountains. It was amazing. We took a boat out on the lake and did a huge hike up a mountain on the second day that we were there.

Vienna, Austria

2007-08-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

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Vienna was the next destination on our trip. This city was filled with so many amazing buildings; the Hofburg Palace, Stephansdom, Town Hall, Parliament, and various Museums just to name a few. The architecture here definitely made this city. Unfortunately it rained the first day that we were in Vienna ss we only had one full day to tour Vienna. We woke up early that day and walked for about 14 hours and were able to check out most of the sights in Vienna both during the day and at night.

Budapest, Hungary

2007-08-26T03:54:00.001-07:00

From Vienna we went to Budapest, Hungary. As we traveled in the train we quickly noticed the difference in landscape and maintence from Austria to Hungary. You could tell that Hungary is a much poorer country and we observed that as we walked around in the city as well. While in Budapest. We first checked out the Buda side and explored the castle and a few churches. Then we cross the walking bridge and visited the Pest side and saw the Parliament building, other churches, the Opera House and a Bath.

Eger, Hungary

2007-08-26T03:38:00.000-07:00

The last place that we traveled to was Eger, Hungary. The main reason why we went there was because this town was in the major wine region in Hungary. The town where we stayed is one of the travel destination for people in Hungary and a popular tourist spot as well. While we were there we walked through the street, toured the castle and checked out the wine region. From Eger we had to travel back to Budapest to catch a train that took us back to Prague.

Back in Prague

2007-08-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

We are back in Prague after traveling AUSTRIA and HUNGARY. (not Australia and Hungry like I wrote in the last post) We had a great time and saw quite a variety of landscapes and cities. A few highlights were taking a cable car up a 2000m high mountain, checking out a variety of different castles and churches and staying in a beautiful little town called Hallstatt. Today we get our apartment so we will be busy making trips to IKEA and trying to make Prauge our home. We will be posting pictures of our trip soon!

Safe in Prague

2007-08-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

We have arrived safe in Prague. We are tired but happy that everything went smoothly.

Leaving Today

2007-08-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

The day is here, we are leaving in a couple of hours to begin a new adventure. We will arrive in Prague on Friday morning. We are unable to move into our apartment until August 15 so we will be taking a little trip to Australia and Hungry. We will be sure to post our pictures when we get back.