Texas...part 3

Experiences on a trip are not just the stuff you do. I mean it was awesome to go on a Dolphin boat tour, go to South Padre Island and go to Mexico but it's also the people you talk to. The lifestyles between the prairies in Canada and the life down in Brownsville is extremely different. So talking with people there about some of those differences are great! I would say the 2 things  that come up the most are weather and the colour of our money. You say the word snow and most people will say they have never seen snow. My conversions from Celsius to fahrenheit  are not good, all I know is 0 C here is 32 F down there, that even freaks them out.

 And when it comes to the actual dollar bill differences most people down there have also never seen our money. I was purchasing something in Kohls and when the girl gave me the total I had to hunt through all the US money I had to find the right one, theirs is all green.  I just kind said under my breath ," they all look the same". She asked why I said that, I told her I was Canadian and that we have colourful money, each is different.  Her eyes grew big and asked if I had any Canadian money on me, could she see it. I happen to have a $20 and a $10 on me. She grabbed it out of my hands and examined it like it was gold. She asked what each was worth and I pointed out the numbers on each bill. I think she was almost gonna sniff it at one point and then realized what she had done and handed it back to me. She said if she had her wallet on her she would like to trade her $10 for my $10 ( I would jump at that deal, their money is worth more than ours right now). Then I amazed her even more by telling her that our money is slowly going to made with polymer ( I believe that's what it is called) and that that it would be almost like plastic. All she said was, you Canadians are smart. We chatted a little more about our lives ( there was no line up at all). She had never been anywhere except to Houston, her whole life was spent in Brownsville. At that moment I found myself very blessed that I have had the opportunity to have gone all the places in my life. I have been across Canada, I have been to overseas. We plan on taking our kids on a plane trip in February, they already will have seen more than this girl had and they are only 7 and 8 (she was about 25).
I am thankful everyday for what we have, I realize just how blessed we are both in material things and relationships.  But with it being Thanksgiving down there last week,  I found myself being reflective, and in a different way than I had back in October. I actually was thankful for snow, it signals Christmas is coming, it gets me excited about the amazing season that is coming upon us. I was thankful for healthy kids and an awesome husband who willingly stepped in when I left, who happens to be a very amazing daddy. I was very thankful for all the friends who came up to my mom down in Texas and hugged her and surrounded her and told her that if she needs ANYTHING she better ask.  It was hard driving  away to go to the airport and seeing my mom standing there watching me leave till I was out of sight. But I know she is in good hands. This was a trip that I will never forget. It was a Mother-Daughter trip that normally would have never happened.