My Mom

Jo-Ann Cecilia Hale
Born 1950, second of 5 children. Her siblings are(in order of appearance- i think): Paulette, (Jo-Anne), James, Alby and Lewis.

She is an amazing teacher

bettered only by also being an amazing mom. I love my mom. I could go on for hours about her. I am so proud to to have grown up under her eyes.

She teaches children with learning disabilities and behaviour disorders. She works with a very ethnic group of kids, a wide range of physical and mental challenges that keeps her planning up

to 9 separate lesson plans that she pulls from her huge and ever growing library to cater to these children. She loves teaching. It's the B.S and P.R. that drains her.

She is a great person to learn from, taking me and my brothers to the museums, parks and natural conservation centers when we were growing up. I really could go on for hours. ;-)

So mom is an artist too. Surprise. She majored in Fine Art. Is great in charcoal and acrylic, pencil and oil painting.

Sewing!

I had a life size (5 yr. old) Raggedy Ann doll that was awesome. So awesome I never let her finish the hair. That was the coolest doll.

You should know that my mom is a great sport. She has a good sense of humor and likes to dance, talk and laugh. She is however, a bit quiet on the surface. I love you mom. Don't disown me.

She took ballet for 8 years.

She is a petite woman.

Her father was half French.

She makes lace by hand, canes chairs, weaves baskets, spins her own wool and has too little time for herself.

She loves her children.

I can't wait to see you mom. XOXOXO

Loves

The Church. Take two.

One Sunday, recently, (well, more like, November 17th) we drove up to Silkeborg to visit Søren's mom Dorthe and his best friends Helle and Muhammad who have connections to, seemingly, the entire town and to run a few errands.

This time we got into the church! We were so hungry for photos we went twice. I had to get some inspiring video of the interior as I wanted to share it with y'all that can't be in Denmark for that day.

It was perfect timing that we stepped into the church as the organ player was warming up for a confirmation class. It was early in the day so the light was very balanced- both warm from electric light and brightened from the natural light coming in through the small windows. It was so lovely and personal. It took me by surprise though that the "runway" is an L shape rather than a straight shot. A shorter walk for sure. Dum dum da dum -*hang a ralf!

I could tell that Deege was getting excited (maybe it was anxiety I detected- hard to tell in this situation). He pointed his camera at just about everything in there and when he was satisfied with what he got, he walked up to the spot we would be standing in the not so distant future and turned back to me with a nervous smile. He waited there until I understood he wanted me to join him on The Spot. We stood side by side with our arm around each other and peered over our shoulder at the invisible crowd. It didn't seem so bad. Though I'm sure it will be different on the day when we can see everyone's faces, up close and personal.

It was an enjoyable visit. I think it was the calmest part of our day being in there. See how it looked on that grey day in November. Imagine how beautiful it will be in the beginning of summer!

Hugs and Love from Denmark XOXOXO

*"Hang a Ralf" means to take a right turn. "Hang a Louie" means take a left turn.