New School Year in Canada

After the first week of school, I've all ready prepared 25 lunches. Our littlest is now a first grader. She wore her Mexican kindergarten sweater to school for the first two days; I guess it was a bit of familiarity for her. Two big sisters go to the same school with her and we are figuring out the bussing system here. You don't pay or even register your child, just show up for one of the three morning buses that goes by! All three little girls have new school friends and are loving their new teachers.
The two older girls are both in high school. They had a harder time making friends this week but after some smaller group projects, they have met some girls their age who weren't afraid to talk to the "new girls". In both schools, the girls have met girls who speak Spanish and are from Columbia.
Marcel preached for the first time this past Sunday and it went very well. He's done hospital visits all ready, I've gone to a bridal and a baby shower, and the church's fall programs will begin this next week (Awana, youth group, etc.). Marcel's off to the farm today to move the old truck so we can get at our coffee tables and dressers that are stored in the seacan behind the truck. We've had some things break after being frozen and thawed over three years while in storage: decorative tiles, plastic containers of motor oil, and some Rubbermaid totes.
Our latest adventure has been dental care. All the work we had done in Mexico needs to be replaced and then some (for the cavities that the Mexican dentist hadn't noticed). Our discount through work benefits at our new church won't apply for some time and we can't wait with broken temporary fillings that were put in in Mexico. It costs extra but we hope to have sedation to get a bunch of work done in one visit, first for the two little ones, then for our tin grin teenager, and finally the other two girls and mom and dad. After so many visits to the dentist in Mexico, the girls are getting good at being patients.
We're adjusting to a few other changes that come with living in the semi-desert area of our province: different weeds, snakes, ants, and spiders. Our year in Texas was good preparation for dealing with ants. I'm happy to report that when Marcel went looking for snakes, he only found bunny rabbits! Yesterday he went on a bike ride and was five feet away from a yearling deer, its mother, and her newborn fawn. Medicine Hat has a lot of deer right in town and we've been enjoying watching them.
Our continued thanks for all of your prayers for our family.