November has been an eventful month. We saw snow start falling at the end of October, and well it hasn’t really stopped. Our usual pattern of weather has some ups and downs this time of year, with a few warm days that melt away anything that has lingered on the ground, but not this year. We are in it now and won’t see the ground until April or May I suspect.
Jeff and Mary are playing hooky today and joining the throngs who have arrived in town to take in opening day at Mt. Fernie. I have been told it is “epic” and they are having a blast. Lizzie and Margaret are at school with the other unlucky kids who didn’t blow off the day for skiing. Lizzie, because she misses too many days for volleyball, and Margaret because she has had quite a few sick days of late and needs to catch up a bit.
On the indoor side of things, Lizzie’s volleyball team extended their winning streak to include the top spot in the East Kootenays and then keeping that momentum by taking the gold medal at the Junior Provincial Championships in Surrey. They lost their first game to a tough team from Salmon Arm, but then rallied to go undefeated for the rest of the tournament. They earned themselves the championship and the team sportsmanship award that is decided by votes from the other participating teams. A fantastic result for the season…now onto club volleyball! Tryouts are this weekend for both Mary and Lizzie. Fingers crossed they both make their Fernie-based teams. Lizzie, made quite an impression last year in Cranbrook and has been invited by her coach to play again there – a nice ego bump for her and a good opportunity to train and play with another great group of girls if Fernie doesn’t work out. Our first choice is playing close to home and reducing our travel, but she’d love to play on either team.
Last year I joined the Fernie Volleyball Club Board of Directors, just as a member at large, but it was a good opportunity to give back to an organization that does a ton for youth in the area, and introduced Lizzie to a sport she instantly fell in love with. This year, I am sitting as president and hopefully will do the role justice. There were some rolled eyes in the house when that was announced, if only because I seem to be constantly lacking for time. There’s a good group on the board though, and all willing doers. They’re also a lot of fun and don’t take things too seriously so meetings tend to be enjoyable and the work is rewarding.
Mary has also earned a spot on the Bantam basketball team for Fernie and her season will overlap a bit with volleyball. January and February are shaping up to be pretty busy around our house! At least December will be a bit of a break!
While we were in Surrey chasing volleyballs, I gratefully camped at Mike and Chrissy’s house and might have been the first to stay in their newly minted guest room. Very comfortable accommodations and they were lovely allowing me to come and go at all hours while I trying to manage Lizzie through her tournament while eking out a few hours of work at the same time. I also managed to get a couple of visits in with some old friends. Waaay back, when Margaret was a baby, I went to a new mom’s drop-in East Van. I met an incredible group of women who have stayed together all these years. We are all now looking at our babies graduating high school! A long overdue dinner out, loads of laughs and reminiscing. Wish I still lived close enough to join every night out. And a great thanks to Lizzie, who graciously told me to go see my friends when it was clear I would miss their gold medal match. I didn’t miss it in the end, thanks to the live-streaming I got to watch it as I walked home from dinner. I just missed giving her a hug and congratulations in the moment.
With the snow flying early this year and hot on the heels of an unusually wet patch, we didn’t quite get to moving all that dirt around. We still have half a hill behind the house, and a giant one at the back. Silver lining (or white lining?), we have inadvertently created our own sledding hill and the girls are already making good use of it.
Never a dull moment, we had a bit of unexpected trouble with the Armada when the ice and snow arrived. Definitely not a good way to start the winter! A month or so ago, I had Nissan check out the air suspension because we figured it was starting to fail. They reset the airbags, avoiding a costly repair on top of the costly repair I was in for (the armada is showing its age and the abuse it endured last year) and no sooner had we got it home, but they deflated again. I was sitting pretty squat at the back and looking something like one of those Mexican lowrider cars where the front end bounces down the highway. It made driving a bit squirrelly and it also made me think my new snow tires from last year were already done. We feared the worst, but Jeff, looking for a less complicated and inexpensive fix to replacing the rear suspension and/or tires, did some research and ordered a $100 level sensor that looked easy enough to replace and could be the culprit. Not exactly an easy fix in the end, but it did the trick and my back end no longer droops…on the truck that is. I am also not swerving wildly on the ice. Also not me. Bonus.
I amongst volleyball and snowy adventures, we kicked off the season with some Christmas Baking and that much awaited screening of White Christmas! As is tradition, we made Ringham Christmas cakes, made some cookies to have something sweet to eat and make the house smell yummy, and settled in for our movie. During the last scene they reveal the snow falling behind the set, and as if on queue, we looked out our own window to see giant fluffy flakes flying again. Cheesy and wonderful, just how we like it!
