Kids, Travels, and a Dog?

So this time I'm under two weeks apart! I'm going to try to make Monday my official update day from now on. We'll see.

The Wednesday night 6th form group I was hoping to start something with failed. Miserably. No one came at all. But hey, the cookies were yummy. Cookie Club is also failing. On an average Thursday there are only 4 kids coming, where there used to be numbers regularly in the 20s. Sheila isn't sure about continuing on with it if they can't get numbers up. I have become much closer with a family from cookie club-- a Year 2 and a Year 6 girl-- Mia and Amber. I went home with them for a bit on Thursday, then had dinner with them on Friday. I'm also going along to Mia's birthday party on Saturday, to help Their mom, Debbie, deal with 13 7 year old girls.

But--all of the kids who were in Cookie Club and no longer come are now in the older kids' group that meets every other Friday! Soon we will have a name and it'll be a lot easier to talk about. We had 19 kids (4 boys!) show up for the American Diner last Friday. Sheila tried to make Philly Cheesesteaks, to no avail. It tasted good-- but it was NOT a cheesesteak. But her Apple Blueberry Pie was awesome. They will ALL (even plus some!) be in my cottage this Friday for a movie night...let's hope everyone fits.

I've gotten to explore some more of the area in recent days. On Saturday one of the guys who works with CC took me to breakfast with his parents- at a small restaurant run in one of their friends' houses! It was wonderful. Andrea and I then rode the old fashioned steam train through the North Yorkshire Moors. It was so pretty--and the station that they use as the Hogwarts station is on the rail. Which was one of the more exciting facts of the day. We also went and looked at an old church with Medieval frescoes still preserved on the inside walls. They were amazing-- pictures of many of my favorites will be up on FB soon. Today I went and walked around Whitby for awhile-- another coastal town up here.

On a less happy note, I'm still struggling a lot with feeling alone and kind of trapped in Stokesley. With no busses after 6, its impossible to get around regularly. I do have a roommate, but she's decided to move to Germany at the end of the week to be an au pair. So who knows if we'll be able to find someone else to move in. Stokesley is really really out of the way for pretty much everything. But that means I am very seriously considering the possibility of adopting a dog. My only real concern with it is money. I only actually work 20 hours a week, so I most definitely have time to put in. But paying all of a dog's bills along with my own will be a challenge on my salary. But perhaps worth it to not be alone constantly.