Sea to Sky pics!

Click any picture to enlarge it. See the full set here.

The first night saw lots of dancing and lots of goofing around. I'm dancing here with Chris, Jason, and JR, respectively.
Competition time! I particularly like the shot of me appearing to sniff my armpit right in front of Jordan Frisbee, the best WCS dancer there IS (and not a bad looking one at that! D'oh!)
Lots of open dancing. I love the photo of the girl spinning!
Nooooo, we're not having fun at ALL!
Watching the pros blew my mind! Here's Myles and Tessa, performing their 2007 routine. I've linked to that video a few times before. Seeing it in person was phenomenal! The next one is Tessa and Kyle Redd. How I captured that moment I have no idea, but I'm sure glad I did! :)
Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollman - the top westies in the world.Kyle Redd and Sarah VannDrake - my favourite workshop presenters for sure. I really love their style, too! And they're so gosh darn SWEET!
Jessica Cox and Myles MunroeMore spinning from Jordan and Tatiana (Tatiana is known for her awesome spins)
We stayed out till 4am on Saturday night. Wacky things go on at 4am. Like dance fighting. Wade and Ken had a smackdown. Michael's already nearly asleep, Ruth is just very, very, happy, and Chris has already asked me about 16 times if we could stop taking pictures and GO ALREADY! so I'm very grateful he's smiling in this picture!
Three thirty am. We then kept dancing for another half an hour. If you can call it that...
Lots of eating out, lots of workshops!
As if the weekend wasn't enough, Jason, Ruth, Michael, and I each did a private lesson with Kyle Redd (center) on Monday. We went out for dessert afterwards, and just had to keep dancing. So we did. In the restaurant. The bartenders clapped for us! :D

Ian, Stephanie, Jason, Ruth, Chris, Ken, Wade, Yvonne, and more!

Dance nerd

... and proud of it!

One great thing about going to Sea to Sky - the dance convention I attended a few weeks ago - was that I got to know a bunch of people that I see at dances around town a lot better. In particular I got to know some of the girls, which I haven't had as much of a chance to do because, well, I don't dance with the girls!

The weekend - my oh my, I haven't posted pictures, have I? - had large groups of us out for lunch or dinner discussing the various workshops and things we had learned. I think my favourite point was our dinner on the last day. There were maybe eight of us, all ridiculously exhausted and buzzing like crazy (buzzING, not buzzED! :P ) after such an intense, awesome weekend. We were sitting around the table at the Cactus Club and enjoying the groove of the music, all with only half an ear on the conversation because we were all counting "one, two, three and four, five and six" in our heads. Almost simultaneously, we all started raising our hands, pulsing them to the beat, mapping out the phrases of the music as we had done in one of our musicology workshops. When we got to the top of the phrase and dropped our hands to start again, we all kinda realized what we were doing, and probably how we looked to everybody else around us. Everybody busted out laughing, realizing we had spent the whole meal making ridiculous dance jokes and waving our hands around in the air in unison.

FAN-tastic!

Friday night I had another "dance nerd" moment. One of my friends just had knee surgery about two and a half weeks ago, so she's at home on the couch day in and day out feeling pretty bored. (Hi, Ruth!) I went over with a big bag-o-fun stuff to do - movies, games, ice cream - and it ended up being three of us as our friend Chris came over to hang out, too. We spent a good chunk of the evening talking about the pros and their style, discussing footwork variations and the totally gutsy move Chris tried on Tessa (the best westie dancer there IS in Canada), and watching west coast swing videos on YouTube.

It was the ultimate in dance nerdiness, and I loved it!

I'll post some pics of Sea To Sky later this week. Gotta spread out the posts, don'tcha know! ;)

I am part of the body of Christ

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and although all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ... Now [all of] you are part of the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27

This whole passage talks about how each part of the body has its own role, it's own job, each important to the functionning of the body. I can't help but wonder sometimes what my role is. As I was thinking of this, the following song came to mind, taken directly from Micah 6:8.

He has shown thee, O [wo]man
What is good and what the Lord requires of thee:
But to do justly
and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with thy God.

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

I am the salt and light of the world

You are the salt of the Earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer useful for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, nobody lights a lamp and hides it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to the whole house. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
~ Matthew 5:13-17

Christian or not, I dare you to watch this and NOT be grinning from ear to ear by the end! :D

Opinions of others

I like to think that I really don't care what other people think. But that's a lie, plain and simple. That's something that's become even more apparent over the last six days as I've started this "I am" series.

I've wondered if I should post it. I've considered setting up a separate blog for it. I've wondered if people will stay away from my blog becuase it's "just a bunch of religious crap" all of a sudden (to quote someone talking about a different blog they were reading).

I care what people will think. I know I shouldn't, but I do. I know there are many of you who read my blog who don't share my beliefs - friends, co-workers, fellow bloggers... I keep thinking that you must think I'm crazy. But why? (Both why would you think that, and why would I think that you think that... I think I think too much, you think? :P )

A big reason that I am doing this series (see how I feel the need to justify?) is not to toot my own horn cause "look at me, aren't I great!" Honestly, it's because I am sick and tired of not acting like the person I want to be, the person I was created to be. I've forgotten who I am. Reminding myself of how God sees me helps me act more consistently with that identity. Not to mention that posting every day keeps me on track, helps me to be sure that I do it. (So if I miss a day, give me heck!!!) Cause I'm just THAT disciplined! Heh. *groan*

It's funny that today's "I am" statement is "I am a witness.*" I guess that's some pretty good confirmation that I should keep doing these posts, hey? :)

But also, it's got me thinking. It's really easy to write up a verse, type out a few lines of a song. Letting my life speak is a whole other ball game. Having a clear view of who I am, of who I want to be, will help.

_____________________________
* I get the statements and the scripture from a list a friend gave me. There always seems to be a song that pops into my head as I'm thinking and praying about the verse, so I post that, too. Just in case you were wondering! :P

I am a witness for Christ

But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. ~ Acts 1:8

I will shout to the North and the South
Sing to the East and the West
Jesus is Saviour to all
Lord of heaven and earth

I am a saint

This makes me guffaw out loud. Stick with me here...

To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ... ~Ephesians 1:1
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints... ~Romans 1:7
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy/called to be saints... ~1 Corinthians 1:2

I've gotta say, I have trouble with this one. Saint? Holy? Even knowing that it means "set apart for God," still I can't get away from the notion of some perfect, sinless being with a halo over her head, fluttering around on a cloud. But over and over in the Bible, not just in the openings of letters like I've quoted here, people who have put their faith in God are referred to as saints, are referred to as holy.

I struggle with it, too, because of how self-righteous it sounds to call myself a saint. I feel that I am quite the opposite. But it's a different definition of saint. Being a saint is to be set apart for God's purpose. It's giving up what I want for my life, knowing that God's plan has so much more, is so much more reflective of who I really am.

I guess that's the beauty of learning who I am according to God. To call ME a saint? Yeah right. But He names me far before I am worthy of the name. He calls me out to be the person I was created to be, and won't give up until I truly AM that person. Wow. That's grace for you.

... be confident of this, the He who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 1:6

Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire Is to be holy
Set apart for You, Lord.
I long to be holy,
Set apart for You my master,
Ready to do Your will.

Eureka!

Getting into these kids heads is always an adventure, but I made a discovery today.

Most times when we do any writing, we brainstorm first and we write the kids ideas or keywords on the chart paper for them to refer to. The rule is that they have to be able to read what they write, so they're not supposed to choose something if they can't read it. Well one of my grade ones is ALWAYS choosing to write things she can't read. I've been trying to figure it out - can she not read ANYthing? That's not it. Does she forget the rule? Nope, she can tell it back to me.

Today I was looking at her writing and decided to look on the chart to see what she had copied. That's when I made my discovery. Everything she had written was written in red on the chart paper. Red is her favourite colour, so she's been copying everything in that colour.

D'OH!

I'll be running interference starting tomorrow. Heeheehee!

I am bought with a price

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honour God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

King of all days, oh, so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came to the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor...

I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that crossI'll never know how much it costTo see my sin upon that cross.

~ Chris Tomlin

It's just like Christmas!!!

Oh Scholastic Book Clubs, how I love thee!

Anyone else know what I'm talking about? There is a publishing company here in Canada (are they in the States, too?) that publishes all kinds of kids books, teacher resources, classroom supplies, and so on and so forth. Every month they send out fliers to participating teachers to send home with their students. The kids look through the fliers and, should they so desire, order books. Filling out the forms, collecting the money, and ordering is kind of a pain - just one more thing I've got to fiddle with - BUT! With every order I get free picks depending on how much the total is. I get to pick a book or two for free! Who doesn't love free stuff???

But the even bigger jackpot are the bonus coupons. Again, depending on the size of the order and how many orders have been placed in the school year, I get bonus coupons when the books arrive. The coupons are good for anything that scholastic puts out - furniture, posters, fancy pencils, software, and BOOKS! Books galore!

Last year I did Scholastic for both my class and another class, so I ended up getting a lot of coupons. I wanted to save them up and do a big order closer the end of the year, but by that time, I didn't know what grade I would be teaching. No point in ordering a bunch of intermediate English books if I was going to be teaching primary French Immersion.

So I held off. Till now. I just received my just-over FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR order of books.

I! AM! SO! EXCITED!!!!!!!

I have nearly 100 books and CDs to go along with 20 of them for listening centers - picture books, non-fiction books, counting books, alphabet books, Caldecott Medal books, Robert Munsch books. Twenty-five books in a series called "The Best Me I Can Be" books - all with titles like "I am a good friend," or "I make good choices," or "I am respectful," or "I am creative." (heh, sound familiar?) I'm SO excited to teach social responsibility through these books! I have a 16 book series on holidays and special days, with posters to go with them. Halloween, Ramadan, Diwali, Easter, Earth Day, 100 Day, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year...

Books! Books! Beautiful books! Oh how I can't wait to dive into them!

Now if only I could find a place in my classroom to KEEP them all!

I am one in spirit with the Lord

But [she] who unites [her]self with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:17

One in spirit. What exactly does that mean? I will love the things God loves, weep over the things he weeps over, be angered as he is over injustice, then be moved to action. I will love the people around me no matter who they are, show mercy, be generous. I will be quick to forgive, for heaven only knows I am forgiven for failing at all of these.

I am Christ's Friend

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his father's business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15

Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate
I feel I'm moving to the rhythm of Your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating in the secret place
Cause Your love is extravagant

Spread wide in the arms of Christ
is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known;
You considered me a friend

Capture my heart again

~ Casting Crowns

A question of identity

Life is insane. It rattles along at breakneck speeds, and is so unforgiving in a lot of ways. There's no way to go back, no pause button, no end to the messages it throws at us. There's no end to the messages I create about myself, either. Fact or fiction, I tell myself who I am every second of every day.

Accomplished a goal? I feel great. "I am successful."
I say something I regret? I am ashamed. "I am cruel."
Somebody thanks me for something I did? "I am making a difference."
I lay on the couch for 'just one more show' when I know I should get up and move my body? "I am undisciplined."
Do something I never thought I could? "I am strong."
See someone who's got it all together (or seems to!)? "I am never going to measure up."

And on and on it goes... "I am not good enough. I am good at what I do. I am better than her. I am lazy. I am trying my best."

And I am told who I am countless times in a day, too. Sometimes it builds me up, sometimes it tears me down. But the voices - from inside or out - are loud. Deafening, almost. And they drown out the one voice who tells me who I really am - God's.

I'm constantly looking for comfort, looking for identity, looking for validation in all kinds of places. It's a very human thing to do. But I've been neglecting to go back to the One who tells me who I was created to be - my creator Himself.

So I've decided to take this month (and a bit) to remember who God says I am. To hear His voice over all the others. I'll be doing some journaling on my own, but each day I'll post the statement and the scripture I'm looking at, and maybe a thought or two, a song, or anything else that might be relevant. (And yes, that's above the NaBloPoMo challenge! Gee, I sure know how to over commit myself, hey? :P )

Join me, won't you? Because after all, God created you to be all these things, too.

I am a child of God

"Yet to those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12

With every breath,
with every thought
From what is seen,
to the deepest part
I offer all that I've come to be
to know Your love fathering me

Father You're all I need
my soul's sufficiency
My strength when I am weak
the love that carries me

Your arms enfold me,
till I am only
a child of God

~Kathryn Scott

Oh sweet happy day of joyfulness!

Ok, losing things really sucks. Especially when you KNOW that they are around somewhere, but you just can't seem to find them ANYWHERE. Especially when they are kinda rather important things, like, oh, I don't know, your KEYS. Or things that you just can't get back, like the memory card full of super crazy awesome pictures of the Emerson Drive concert you went to in the summer, pics of your friends from Australia attempting to ride a tandem bike around the seawall in Stanley Park, or of your new classroom all set up and ready to go before the kids came in and destroyed began using it.

The keys have been lost for about a week and a half, and I've been using my spare set, hoping and praying that my original set is in the house somewhere (and not in the hands of some ne'er do well who is waiting for just the right time to come on in and ROB ME BLIND). I've looked through all the pockets in my jackets, all over my table and desk, and all manner of other weird places where my keys might possibly be. I've gone through my purse at least a dozen times.

And the memory card? I've looked in every camera case pocket, both cameras, all over my desk and shelf, and among all the stuff on my kitchen table. It's been missing for at least six weeks. I've even gone and bought a replacement card.

You're probably getting the idea right now that my house is not exactly perfectly tidy and clutter-free, and that if I kept it neater, gee, maybe I wouldn't lose things so often. Well, normally I DON'T lose things, and, well... SHADDUP!!! :P

Anyhoo.

Last night as I was digging around in my purse for my spare set of car keys, I grabbed a key and pulled it out. Lo and behold, THERE WERE MY ORIGINAL SET OF KEYS! What the??? SCORE! How I managed to miss them the 55 billion times I looked through my purse is beyond me.

My theory? They went on a secret vacation to Mexico and only just got back. They didn't want to get in trouble for running away without so much as a note, so they slipped back stealthily into my purse when I wasn't looking. Yep. That's DEFINITELY what happened.

And then, just now, as I was checking email, a wee little corner of blue plastic caught my eye on my desk. Could it be? I lifted off the papers it was hiding underneath, and VOILA! My memory card! Apparently the paper monsters on my desk decided to eat it, but were unable to digest it, so kindly spat it back up for me, pictures intact and everything.

Woohoo! I'm doing a wee little dance of joy!

Now, as all things happen in threes... I'm gonna start looking for that million dollars I'm SURE I lost around here SOMEWHERE!


~ This post has been brought to you by the EXCESSIVE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS.

Welcome to Melissa!

She's been commenting on my blog for a while now - often with wise words, encouragement, or humour, always with kindness. She's emailed me about some posts, and I've enjoyed talking with ehr back and forth that way, too. You've never seen her blog, though, because she didn't have one.

Apparently a few people have been harassing - er, I mean encouraging - her to start up her own blog, but she's been holding out on us...

Until now!

The newest blogger on the block has taken up the NaBloPoMo challenge to begin her new blogging career, and not only is she trying to post once a day, noooo. That would be too simple. She's aiming for TWICE! She's posting about something she's thankful for in the morning (FABULOUS idea, no?), then posting something else in the evening.

So there will be no shortage of things to read on her blog, let me tell you! And? This girl can write, and is FUNNY!

Go check out her blog, and be sure to leave a comment for her - comments make us happy!

Melissa's Place: Part of Everything. Go say hello!

(and I was totally gonna post about this BEFORE she wrote that awesome post, really! (even if she DOES call me freakish! ;) Hee hee hee! Just teasin, Melissa!)

Colour for a dreary day

Remember this day? When I drove all the way down to Stanley Park to take pictures, only to discover that my camera wasn't actually in my camera case? Well, I decided to go back and get it after all, and I had a very relaxing afternoon playing around with my camera, capturing some of fall's splendor. These are a few samples; click here to see the rest of the set or click any image to see a larger version.

How to have an awesome day

Step one: Go to a professional development conference that is totally inspiring and get some renewed enthusiasm and refreshed sense of purpose, and be delighted with a musical group that pretty much solidifies the desire to go to Africa. Soon.

Step two: Go back to work and put on the new CD of said musical group and clean the heck out of your classroom. Clean and uncluttered (ok, LESS cluttered) is SUCH a good feeling.

Step three: Take not one, but TWO hours of dance classes. (Rhonda! I missed you there!)

Step four: Head out with some friends to a coffee house to see two friends play a gig. Tap your foot, laugh, and enjoy the casual atmosphere.

Step five: Join said friends and other various cool people at a dessert house and have Belgian chocolate tea. Chocolate tea!

Step six: Arrive home to a warm, cozy house, do a wee bit 'o bloggin, and fall asleep.

Oh yes. This is livin'!

Well maybe if you slapped a bikini on it...

Monday morning was the pumpkin patch day at school. Every year, the parent advisory committee brings in 800 pumkins and scatters them all over our back field. The kids all then go out and pick their pumpkin, to be used to all manner of activities in the classroom.

In our room, we wrote about our pumpkins, we measured our pumpkins, we weighed our pumpkins, we drew our pumpkins, and we drew ON our pumpkins. No carving. Nooooo carving. Twenty 6 and 7 year olds with knives? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen. We did, however, have a carving demonstration hosted my moi with our class pumpkin. SO FUN! I got to totally gross the kids out with 'pumkin brains.' Heeheehee!

So one lesson, we were brainstorming describing words to complete the sentence "My pumpkin is..." and the kids were coming up qll kinds of creative words. We then completed the sentece "My pumkin is not..." and one kid said "alive."

"Well, that's true. Our pumpkins aren't alive anymore."
"They were alive before?"
"Well yes..." at which point I launched into a teachable moment about where pumkins come from, that they are a plant, and that all plants are alive until you pick them. "Just like flowers."

So of course, you can tell the wheels are turning and one boy looks up with wide eyes and asks, "So we killed our pumkins?!?"

Uhhh...

"Well, yes, but that's what they're for!" Killing. Pumpkins are for killing. Good one, Hillary.

You can bet that every kid wrote, "My pumpkin is DEAD." in their descriptions. My pumpkin is big, orange, and DEAD." Well, ok, not EVERY kid. There was that one grade two girl who put her hand up to ask, "Miss Hillary, how do you spell 'sexy?' "

Whaaa?!?!

"Sweetie, your pumpkin isn't sexy. Choose a different word."

Happy Halloween!

Any guesses as to what the heck I am???

UPDATED: Katrina totally guessed it! I'm C12 H22 O11!!! A sucrose molecule. Duh!

Ok, ok, so I'm not as smart (or as funny!) as Katrina, whose guess that was. Yeppers, it's a gumball machine! C12 H22 O11 woould have been SO much better. Next year.

NaBloPoMo

It's coming! National Blog Posting Month! Where all kinda of crazies - ummm... I mean bloggers - take up the challenge to post every day for the whole month of November. Seriously, I keep worrying I'm gonna forget to post on the very first day and then be "out." Somebody remind me or something! hehe!

Also!

I'd love to know which of you are doing it (all of you! you should ALL do it!). I already know about Anne and Jenn, but what of the rest of you? So if you've signed up already, please let me know via the comments and we can give eachother moral support (aka comments! Those are really what kept me going last year!). And if you haven't... what are you still here for? Go sign up!

Leftovers, anyone?

Well I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is, I don't have any funny stories to tell about exploding turkeys or gravy all over the ceiling. The good news is that that's cause I totally pulled off a full blown turkey dinner! Sah WEET! heehee!

Turkey, stuffing, I roasted some garlic for the mashed potaoes, gravy and cranberry sauce from scratch, steamed veggies... and homemade pumpkin pie for dessert! (ok, so I cheated with a tenderflake crust, but whatever.)

I have buckets of leftovers, enough to last me through the week and also to freeze. Yippee!

Now's the time to learn!

I've gotten a few comments and emails about all my dancing posts and videos, so I thought I'd send an open invite to all you blogosphere folks who live in the Vancouver area...

There's a new West Coast Swing class starting this Thursday, if anyone wants to learn! It's taught by Myles and Tessa (whose videos I'm always linking to!). They teach in sessions - a new one begins every 4 weeks. If you're interested, check out this link - it's got some more info. (If it's too small, hold your muose over the image and click the orange "expand" box on the bottom right corner).

I'm doing the beginner class to fill in the holes in my basics (of which there are many!) So who wants to come dance with me?!?!? :)

(and no, I get no perks for referring people! I just think it's fun, and think you'll think so too! :) Heehee!)

Little Miss Grumpy Pants

And after yesterday's post... now I'm sick. Full blown, can't-talk, sore-throat, achy-body, heavy-head s-i-c-k. And cause I left without prepping for the day yesterday, I have to go in. Go me.

This is me, flapping my hands, stomping my feet: I DON'T WANNA!!!

I can't wait for tonight - hot tea, warm blanket, fluff movie watched from in bed, asleep by 8 if I'm lucky.

Wow, I'm such a whiner!

Wit's end

This week has been one of those weeks. You know: THOSE weeks. Where you're completely pooped by recess and you've exhausted any and all manner of strategies to get certain kids in your class to just. listen. please!

I've had it. H-A-D, had it.

I am enjoying this level, but I have got myself a challenging little class here. They are cuties, and there are the moments that I cling to that remind me of why I'm enjoying teaching this level, and I'm excited to try out a new independent working structure I learned at a workshop last Friday... all those things are good. But it's the nagging, the reminding, the disciplining, the always trying to match correction with positive feedback, the constant reigning in of the feeling that I would just like to blow my top at times with a few of them that is utterly and completely exhausting. It's being SO frustrated, but still staying even keel, staying fair, staying calm. I swear, teachers should get oscars for all the acting they do!

[rant removed, but if you missed it, it was a doozy] At least the vice principal is supportive and works with some of the more challenging kids every chance she gets. She is AMAZING. Goldstar for her! I SO appreciate her support. Because seriously. I'm going insane here.

Blah.

I'm blogging this because hopefully it'll bring my stress level down and I can actually get some work done around here. Cause I've been talking and wandering and staring at my computer screen aimlessly and haven't been able to wrap my brain around any form of work for the two hours since school ended.

All's I can say is, thank goodness it's Friday tomorrow. We're done at noon (yippee for a modified week!), and then a relaxing weekend, including some dancing - of course! - and ending with me attempting to cook my very first turkey.

Heh. That may just be some good blog fodder right there!

You know what? THIS turkey is outta here. My desk and teacher table are a mess, and I'm only marginally prepared for tomorrow, but my brain is zonked. I'll deal with it in the morning. Right now I'm getting out to enjoy a walk in the sunshine.

Zippity doo dah!

Oh my poor feeties....

From 4pm Friday to 4pm Sunday, I spent 29 hours in dance workshops, watching competitions, and dancing. That's not counting lunch, that's not counting the 45 min nap I had to tak at 6:30 Saturday evening so that I wouldn't collapse, that's not counting sleep, what little there was of it. Twenty-nine hours of dance in fourty-eight hours.

My feet hurt. But I am on such a high right now! And it's not even over, because Kyle Redd, one of the pros, had so many requests for private lessons that he changed his flight to Wednesday morning and is doing lessons all of today and tomorrow, too. So I jumped on the "me too!" train and have a lesson with him this evening.

Squeeeee!


...... Aaaand, update to this, even before I published the post... my friend Jason needs a follower for HIS lesson tonight, so I'm going along to his lesson, too, immediately after mine. It's Jason's lesson, he just needs a body. So instead, I get TWO hours of lessons for the price of one.

Double squeeeeee!

Best Weekend of Awesomeness EVER

I am SO ridiculously excited about this weekend you can't even believe it.

I haven't written about dance for a while now. That doesn't mean I haven't been going, though! I haven't done my Sunday night classes since the end of July, partly cause of being away a lot in August, and then come the fall, I really wanted to work on brushing up on my technique and breaking any bad habits I'd developed before I continued to learn some new moves. I've been going dancing at LEAST once a week, and now I've signed up for something a little more intense...

So remember when I got all star-struck about dancing with Tessa a few weeks ago? Well I heard that her and Myles were having a special on a series of six private lessons, so I went in with a friend and splurged. I've had two lessons with Tessa so far, and they have been BRUTAL (in a good way, but totally intense! Isn't that clear?!). Nothing like having the Canadian champion of west coast swing (WCS) telling you to go ahead and dance with your partner, knowing that she is standing there looking on, taking mental notes about every little thing you do. Eekers!

Turns out she had a lot to critique. Uhm, yeah. It turns out I didn't even know how to put my FEET down on the FLOOR properly, and I apparently dance like Priscilla Pelvis. *snort* More on that one later, and on my homework from the first two lessons: 1) Dance with your fridge and 2) Stick a ruler down your pants. Suffice it to say that there's a whole lot of basics I need to work on.

So what does all that have to do with this weekend, you ask? Well. Let me tell you.

I'm going to my first ever dance convention. Kinda like dance camp. Except awesome-er.

It's an entire weekend of dancing, workshops, competitions and demos. As if that's not cool enough, the thing that's so exciting about it is that the best WCS dancers in the WORLD are coming. The top four couples, and many many other well known names - both from here and elsewhere - will be competing and giving workshops. If you search on YouTube for "west coast swing," you will see the names Jordan and Tatiana, Kyle and Sarah, Parker and Jessica, and Myles and Tessa come up over and over. They are ALL going to be there! Squeeee!!! And yes, I've gotten over my star-struck phase! ... mostly, anyway! ;) I'm excited to get to learn from these dancers and see them compete. They are absolutely amazing. (Their names link to a video of each, for some context. If anything, check out Myles and Tessa's. The first link is to a choreographed routine (they won!) and the second is to an improvised one.)

From 3pm Friday till the wee hours of the morning (I think they shut the dance down at 5am), then from 9am Saturday into the wee hours again, and then again from about 10am on Sunday till 6pm, I'll be dancing, learning, dancing, watching competitions, and dancing again. SO! FUN! (Then at 7:30 Sunday night, I'm going to see Rodney Atkins, Taylor Swift, and Brad Paisley from freakin' ROW 25 on the FLOOR!!!!!! Not really about dancing, but also part of the Best Weekend of Awesomeness EVER, so it totally counts!)

But even MORE fun (and excruciatingly terrifying)??? I'm going to enter my first ever dance competition on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!! Holy SHNEIKE!!! I'm entering the novice level Jack and Jill competition, which is where dancers sign up as either a leader or a follower, and then draw a random partner to compete with. Dancers are judged as individuals in the preliminaries, then as a couple in the finals. I'm not expecting to get into the finals, but still the experience will be totally worth it! I'm gonna dance with a number on my butt, baby!

Man, if you told high school me - whose only dancing experience was grudgingly doing the mandatory square dance unit in PE - that I'd be COMPETING in a DANCE contest? Wow, that would have been the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard in my entire life.

But that's me! Totally ridiculous. And TOTALLY PUMPED for this weekend.

WAAAAHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

UPDATE: Here's a video, cause I know you probably didn't click on those links! :) This is Myles and Tessa last month. The dance is totally improvised.



Update to the update: And just cause I can't stop... this one (NOT in the links above) is them doing Lindy Hop for the first two mins, then West Coast Swing. THIS is a fun video. It makes me grin every time. How she moves her body like that is beyond me.

Training

When you don't train, and then you run a marathon, you're gonna hurt. Or even a half marathon. I have a friend who's stubborn as anything - I love him for it - and he signed up for a half marathon that happened two weeks ago. He didn't end up training for it at all, really. Now me? I would have just bailed. (So good to know I hold to my commitments, eh?) But not him. He took a plane over to Victoria and ran the dang thing anyway. Under his goal time. And beat every one of his friends who did the race.

And then couldn't walk for nearly a week afterwards.

So I'm gonna use him for inspiration. But not for a half marathon. Heck no, that's crazy talk. Seriously. I would die. Colapsed-on-the-pavement-never-to-be-seen-again kinda die. Instead I'm talking about something much nerdier. And I'm ok with that.

It's NaBloPoMo time again, folks. National Blog Posting Month. For the month of November, I will post every single day. Why? Well I ask you, why not? I did it last year, and while it made me go slightly insane, I did finished! Whether doing it now and acutally KNOWING what I'm getting myself into is crazier than just signing up blind is yet to be seen.

But I'm stubborn like that.

Who else is with me? Click the badge for more information and sign yerself all up now, ya hear?

Swifty I'm not

I seem to be on a roll here...

Today after church I planned on driving down to Stanley Park to go for a walk and to take some pictures of the fall leaves... just a lazy afternoon in the park enjoying the sunshine. I had grabbed my camera bag, a jacket, and a pair of runners before I left for church, and I was all ready to go. I drove from church across the city towards the park.

As I neared Stanley Park, driving along English Bay, there were people walking, biking, and rollerblading along the seawall, countless sailboats out in the water, golden leaves drifting down in the breeze. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I love this time of year.

I rounded the corner, and a large red and white sail caught my eye. There was a viking ship out in the water!! You know - brown boat, curled up at the front and back, with a tall sail in the middle, vertical bands of red and white billowing out as the wind caught it... And people in the boat rowing! Definitely a photo opportunity.

As I was stopped at a red light, I dug around in the backseat for my camera bag, thinking that if I couldn't find parking right away, I could snap on my zoom lens and take a shot or two at the next light. So I hauled my bag into the front seat and unzipped it... only to find my camera was not there.

I was using it last night, and neglected to think that, "Uh, you have to put it back in the BAG if you want to actually take any pictures, Hillary!"

So now I'm home, back across the city again - albeit with a free and healthier lunch than I would have had otherwise - and debating if I really want to drive all the way down there again, to capture the natural beauty that I'm destroying by gallivanting all over creation in my car.

Erg.

Surely google's got some good pictures that'll do me? Bah! Sooo not the point.

Graceful like an ox

I got to the dance a little late tonight, but as soon as I got there I saw a group of friends from my church who had come along to try out some west coast swing. Two had done it before, but the rest of them had never done it, so they came early for the lesson. Which, whoops, wasn't west coast swing, but rather nightclub two step, a very graceful, dance, done to slower music. Step-step gllliiiide, step-step gllliiiide. (The description not doin' it for you? Try this. And don't be scared by the cowboy hats - it's not a country dance!) I've picked up the basic step and a few moves jsut from dancing it when they throw them in there in the west coast swing rotation, and I really like it.

Friends: Yeah, it wasn't even a swing lesson, it was night clup two step.
Me: Oh no! But oooh, I love that dance, it's so elegant, so smooth!
Friends: yeah, it looks really pretty.
Me: It is!
Now, you have to know me - I very frequently act out what I say. So I begin to do the basic step as I talk: Step-step gllliiide, step-step.... CRASH!

As I smoothly, gracefully, elegantly glliiiiided backwards, I TOTALLY body checked some poor woman walking to her seat.

Good thing I have reflexes like a cat! I was able to grab her arm to steady her and keep her from falling.

Though in doing that, I miiiight have then stepped on her foot.

Ah'm aaall messed up!

BOYS ARE CONFUUUUSING!!!!!!

That is all.

The GRRRR factor

It's a good thing it's been a few hours since I thought about writing this post, or there may have been some obscenities involved.

RAGA!!!!

Back in February, I got a parking ticket downtown after dance one Sunday night. It was a STUPID parking ticket, cause the signs were TOTALLY not clear and it looked like it was free to park after 6 on weekends. I am not the only one who interpreted the sign this way. There were at least 6 others who scrutinized the sign with me at various times and agreed that, yes, indeed, parking was free after six.

So great was my assurance that I was right that I went down and took photos of the sign, sent them to the parking company, and told them that I was disputing my ticket. Of course, after sending the signs away, I saw that, yes, actually I DID have to pay after six. BUT IT WAS STILL UNCLEAR! And I hold to that to this day. They have since changed the signs. And upped the rates. D'oh.

Anyway.

The ticket was for something like 45 bucks, and $65 if I didn't pay it within a week or something. Well, I was contesting the ticket, so they told me that it wouldn't go up.

But then I got no answer from them about my email. One week went by, then two, then three. Four. Five. Then I got a letter from the parking company stating that I now owed $75 - the higher ticket price, plus interest and fees for who-knows-what.

So I emailed back, stating rather bluntly that, uh, no, I had contested, and hadn't heard from them in five weeks. So they emailed me back on April 12, complete with no less than 4 condescending paragraphs about private property, right to collect revenue, legal blahbitty blah, I had infringed, yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, whatever buddy. Shaddup. At the end of the email (and it was LONG!) they said they'd accept payment for $26.75 so long as I paid it within 7 days.

So I did. Fine. Got an email, thanks for paying, here's your confirmation number, done. Finito. Or so I thought.

Around mid May I began getting calls from a collection agency (which, as the recorded voice never actually said what it was about - "a very important business matter" - I had no idea and just hung up on them every time, so didn't actually know it was a collection agency till maybe July sometime.). They called every. single. day. I got letters. The amount was now up to ninety-something.

I called in July and they told me the details of my ticket, which wasn't even with the right parking company. Clearly they were on crack, so I decided to ignore them. And still they called.

Around September I got fed up with the calls and called them back to tell them to get lost, I'd paid eons ago. Of course, by this time, I was getting more threatening calls from a DIFFERENT collection agency saying that my credit rating was affected, I'd be taken to court, and all that blahbitty blah blah.

So I called the original collections agency again. I was not rude, but I was not polite, either. I've paid this flippin' thing, I have email confirmations to prove the mount we settled on, and that I'd paid, where do I send it off to?

I got the fax number, prepared the documents, and faxed it off with a cover letter saying in no uncertain terms that they were to stop calling me immediately, and repair any damage to my credit rating, and inform me in writing via email when this had happened.

That was about a month ago. No email, but really, I wasn't expecting one anyway. But no more phone calls, either.

Until last week. More threatening phone calls. Now the amount is $125. Usually they're on my machine, but the robot got me home tonight. I called. I left a message (which ticked me off, too, as their stupid rigmarole voicemail thing took me almost TEN minutes before it rang through to an agent, and by that time they were closed. They weren't closed when I called in the first place). I left an aaaangry message.

Honestly, WHAT do I have to do to get these ........ [words you don't want to hear] off my back?????

ARG! I'm SOOO angry! Just leave me the heck alone!

Blah. Somehow barfing all that up on my blog makes things feel better. But seriously. If they call me back again....


In other, happier news, one of my kidlets totally cracked me up today - and a real live crack up, not just one of those "over enthusiastic for the sake of the kid" kind of laughs.

In their writing books (journals) today, I told them that they were to imagine that they were a turkey, and that the farmer was looking forward to a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. They, as the turkey, had to tell the farmer why he shouldn't eat them, or maybe who or what to eat instead. So complete with ESL grammar and kid spelling (which I don't have here to replicate, I'm just going with the gist of the grammar), here's what one grade two boy wrote:

"I'm a turkey. If the farmer want to eat me, I tell him you don't want to eat me, I'm too skinny. You should go eat Mr Chicken. If he say no, then go ask Mrs Cow. If he say no, then go ask Mr Pig. If he say no, you can go eat rice."

Laughing, I asked, "Really? Rice!"

To which he replied, "Yeah. Rice can't talk back."

Ideas and Odes

So I know I haven't been doing much but posting videos and such lately. My head seems to be so full of thoughts lately - I get an idea for a blog post once every 3.2 seconds, I swear! - that it's overwhelming to write it all down! That and I've been busy like a madwoman lately.

Here's some snippets of what's going on in my mind lately. These thoughts are sooo underdeveloped. I wish I had time to chew on them,, write about them, mull them over. For now, they're snippets...

- Mexico. Yeah, yeah, I still haven't written anything about that. It's apalling, really. I find that the farther away in time of the actual event, the more it is impacting me. It certainly gives a new frame of reference for what we have and what we take for granted. And it's made me think a lot about Missions. Doing them, issues surrounding missions, how to continue to contribute in my daily life...

- Rich. Connected to Mexico, I guess, are a whole bunch of thoughts about wealth. We talked about it at Resonate (the young adults meeting at my church) tonight, too. Some thoughts that stick in my mind: We have to be careful not the think that OUR world here in North America reflects THE world. And all those bumper stickers that say "God bless America?" (which could very well say "God bless Canada") We already ARE blessed. Beyond measure. We are blessed so that we can pass that on. How exactly am I doing that in my life? (answer: I'm not - not nearly enough).

- Thanksgiving. For us Canadians, it's coming up this weekend. I spent an hour after school today writing out Thanksgiving songs and poems to work on this week. Thank you for this, thank you for that... and you know, it struck me: just who are we asking these kids to thank? It makes me think of that little poem we used to say at school camp:

Oh the Lord is good to me,
And so I thank the Lord,
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the appleseed
The Lord is good to me
Johnny Appleseed
Amen.

Who knows when, but they changed it to "Oh the earth is good to me..." It makes me sad. Be thankful, be thankful... Oh how I wish I could point to the Giver of every good gift.

- The voice of Jesus. I went to a seminar given by Gordon T. Smith this weekend on learing to listen to the voice of Jesus. That probably sounds all freaky-deaky to some of you, but it was really down to earth. He talked about basically four ways that God speaks to us. First, he tells us he loves us. Everything hinges on his deep, unconditional love. "Even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Second, he calls us to turn - away from sin, to confess, to live by who we were created to be. Third, he calls us to truth - to know truth, to speak truth, to teach truth. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Finally, he calls us to listen in times of choice. How do you know what God is calling you to do? How do you know it's God?

Man, that is such a pathetic summary for a Friday and Saturday workshop that left me feeling like I was trying to drink from a fire hose. Sooo much stuff there. Overwhelming. I'd highly, highly recommend two of his books (I've heard him speak on both topics and own both books. I'll be reading them shortly) - The Voice of Jesus and Courage and Calling.

- Professional development. Speaking of drinking from a firehose... Part of being new to a grade and a whole program (primary) is that I tend to overload myself with workshops and professinal development. It's good, becuse at this stage of the game, even workshops that seasoned pros go to and are like, "meh, I know all this" I drink up. I'm enrolled in an eight session after-school literacy workshop that meets once a month, and am also one of four staff who will be spending three full days at seminars dealing with "Understanding by Design" and "Differentiated Instruction." Basically it's about how to plan for teaching so that students actually UNDERSTAND what you are teaching, instead of just following some crazy set of rules that they've memorized. Good stuff, but sooo intense. In one sense, I love the learning curve, but in another, it's utterly exhausing. Oh well, at least for that last one I get to go spend one day every few months at a fancy-shmancy golf course with super-nummy catered food.

BLAM!

Sorry. Just trying to wake you up. I got all boring and rambly for a minute there.

Ok, now for the fun stuff which was the actual point of this post, but apparently I needed a brain dump tonight.

This here is an ode to all the mommies out there. You have amazing, amazing jobs, and you also have the incredible capacity to laugh at yourselves. Perhaps through tears at times, but laughing all the same. Hope you enjoy these.




(watch it right to the end credits!!)

Thanks to Jean and Vodkarella for posting these!

Get Back! Get Back, Jonathan!

And this, folks is why I love Facebook. Ah, just checking my homepage, oh look, a bunch of friends have posted new profile pics. Then I see that Jonathan, a friend of mine from church, has a new profile picture. It's of him... and... WHAT? REALLY? No WAY!

When... how... really?!?!??!

I do some more stalking looking around in his profile and find this. OH. MY. WORD. I am laughing my BUTT off. Especially cause he makes Bob Barker run away in fear. Check out this clip. Yes, Sarah, even you! ;)

Fruit Flies!

AAUUURRGGHHHH!

Is it just me, or is there an over-abundance of fruit flies this year? Seriously! They are EV-ERY-WHERE. I'm blaming this ding dang dong Vancouver garbage strike that's now in, what, the eighth week? The little suckers have lots to feed on, what with there being no garbage pickup and all.

I've tried bowls of vinegar and funnels into a bottle with a little bit of red wine at the bottom. I've tried that bug paper that they supposedly stick to. I've tried temper tantrums. I've tried reasoning with them. Heck, I've even tried cleaning up my kitchen! Nothing seems to work.

Until now. You see, my house is very quickly nearing "fruit fly free" status. And lucky you, I'm going to share my secret!

Don't go calling PETI (people for the ethical treatment of insects!) on me, cause come on, letting them drown in alcohol or acid or letting them get stuck to a big gooey sheet of paper till they flap themselves to death is just as bad.

Follow these simple steps to fruit fly freedom.

1. Be sure you have rid your kitchen counters and sink of anything fruit flies might like to munch on.

2. Get out a cookie tray and cover it with tin foil.

3. Lay out all kinds of fruit fly treats. I find bananas and/or a bowl of vinegar and fruit juice are especially good.

4. Put the tray in your oven in the morning before you go to work, leaving the oven door slightly ajar.

5. Let the little buggers find their feast while you work away gleefully, knowing that your little visitors are on their way to fruit fly heaven.

6. When you get home from work, promptly go to your oven and WHOUMP the door shut. Be quick about it. They can sense you from a mile away and if you disturb them before you get the door closed, they WILL all swarm your face and try to take! you! down! by flying up your nose and making you swat madly in a flailing arm dance that really, no human should ever be seen doing.

Uh, not that I know this from experience. I'm just sayin'.

7. Turn on your oven. 350, 400, it doesn't really matter. When your house begins to smell like banana cream pie, or when the little light goes off to say it's hot, go turn your oven off. The toasted little critters will be no longer.

8. Repeat as necessary.

9. Do that dance of joy, and for the love of all things holy, COVER UP YOUR FRUIT!

NB: If you use a bowl of vinegar and fruit juice, be sure it's oven safe! And don't forget to thoroughly sweep out your oven afterwards, unless you're lookin' for that little bit of extra protein in your chocolate chip cookies!

Sing it, Amen, Hallelujah!

Well, I've joined the church choir. I love singing, and really miss being a part of a music-making ensemble (I played the clarinet and alto sax for years). So I'm slightly intimidated, especially as I had to AUDITION!! (how great would I feel if I got CUT from the church choir???) and as I felt rather over my head the first rehearsal, but I think it's gonna be fun. Lots of choral numbers, and lots of good ol' gospel... I'm looking forward to it! Here's one of the songs we started working on. It's not us, nd I'm not sure how we're doing the solo part, but it'll give you a bit of an idea...

It makes me wanna sway and clap already! hehe!

Three weeks in

I can't believe I'm saying this, but this year's back to school season has been I think the least stressful one yet. And trust me, that's not the way I thought it was going to be.

I spent the whole week before school started in my classroom getting set up. Or rather, going through all the mass quantities of stuff that the previous teacher had left for me to use. She left our school to take a non-enrolling job in another district (which means she doesn't have her own class) and since she wouldn't need it and knew I was new to teaching primary - and mostly cause she's a fantabulously terrifical person - she left me pretty much EVERYTHING she had to use. Posters on the walls. Resources in the teacher cabinet. Art supplies in the cupboards. Toys and mass quantities of manipulatives on the shelves. She even left me her personal collection of illustrated, laminated poems written out on chart paper in perfect primary printing. (Yes, Tammi, I'm taking good care of them!) My room is STOCKED. All I really had to do was go through everything so that I just knew what was there. I can not TELL you how grateful I am for that, and how much stress it has relieved.

And then there are my teaching partners, Vicky and Sharon. One teaches grade one, one teaches grade two, and they are both amazingly helpful. They always have time for me and my myriads of questions. They have given me copies of whatever they are doing and encourage me along SO much. They have helped shape my attitude towards my job this year for SURE. Sharon is constantly telling me, "You know, I think you're going to like this more than you think."

And she's right.

Shhh! Don't tell anybody, but I think I just might be a primary teacher at heart!

I can't get over how blessed I feel. I am SO grateful for the support and encouragement. (and I don't think these three teachers read my blog, so if they do, I'll be slightly embarrassed. But hello! And thank you!)

From a strict "job" perspective, yes, there's a lot of prep, but it's all fun and low-stress prep. I enjoy the crafty little projects and have fun with finding poems and writing cutsie little rhymes out on sentence strips. I mean come on, my last Friday night consisted of gluing paper pencil labels on writing books, cutting out brightly coloured cardstock stars, and writing out a few poems, all done in front of a movie with a friend and a margarita in hand.

What? School work... relaxing???

And of course, the marking is easy peasy lemon squeezy.

But what I really love are the kids! (as I should!) My class is SO cute! Yes, there are a few behaviour challenges (oy VEY) but still... they are CUTIES! For example...

- Lenny.* He's a very serious little fellow in grade two. He tries his best in his work, is neat and tidy, and is very prim and proper. And obsessed with germs. In PE the other day, another boy asked if Lenny would be his partner. Lenny gave him the cocked-head, one-squinty-eye look with his index finger pointed at the other boy and asked, "Do you wash your hands all the time?" Ha! The partners weren't even going to have to touch each other. And Kiddo, that ball you're holding? WAAAY more germs on that sucker than on your partner, I guaranTEE it.

- Krissie. She's in grade one, and smart as a whip. She usually wears her hair in pigtails, which adds to the cuteness. Her birthday is on October third. I know this because ANY time we talk about birthdays, or October, or the number three (and the number three comes up a lot: One two three, look at me. Three chances. Three reading groups. And you know... counting!) she tells me in her little squeaky voice, "MY birthday is on October third! I'm gonna be SIX!" I tell her the same thing every time. "Wooow! It sounds like you're getting excited!!" I love it!

- Dylan. He's in grade one and has next to no impulse control, but is super SUPER cute. For example, that kid cannot WALK anywhere. He runs. All the time. A little shuffling-foot flailing-arm run. The other day when he was picked up for LAC, he and his thundering feet TORE across the classroom to the door, then realized something. Putting his finger to his pursed lips, he said (or rather yelled, cause just like this kid has one speed - full steam ahead - he has one volume: blaring), "OUP! Ah fuggot tah wuk!" (I forgot to walk.) Instead of the teacher saying, "Go back and walk, please," he promptly turned himSELF around, ran halfway back across the classroom, and then walked to the door for LAC. I just about peed myself laughing.

Dylan aslo has a rather heartwarming habit. Every time I read the class a story, he's sitting "criss-cross-applesauce" on the carpet, and he sits waaay up high, puffs his little chest out, purses his lips into a cutie kid smile, and applauds! Stiff and quick claps a-way up in front of his face. He's the only one, and he does it every. single. time. How can you not love that??? (I've tried bowing slightly and saying, "Oh, thaaank you!" and leaving a pause for the other kids to join in. Anyone? Anyone? Clearly we have some training to do! Teeheehee!)

- Raymond. On Thursday, I was in a rush leaving the house in the morning, and I didn't have time to blow dry my hair. I had to resort to the 'aim the heat vents at my face and comb my hair out with my fingers all the way to work' technique. More effective than you would think, actually. But what it does is leave my hair a little more poofy than I have it usually. Well, usually, it's pulled back. Now when the bell rings, the kids come in and put their stuff away then come to the carpet for reading time. I was talking to another student when little grade one Raymond came up to me while I was talking to another student. "Miss Hillary, Miss Hillary, Miss Hillary, Miss Hillary, Miss Hill - " "Just a minute please, Raymond, I'm talking to someone right now." (ah yes. I AM in primary now, aren't I?) So Raymond just stood there waiting quietly, his little hands clasped in front of him. When I was done, I turned to him with a smile. "Yes Raymond? Thank you for waiting."

Eyes big, he looked up at me. "Miss Hillary, you buuutiful."

AH hahaha! Melt. My. Heart.

"Oooh, thaank you, Raymond, What a kind thing to say!" At which point Dylan, hearing the praise Raymond was getting and not wanting to miss out, piped up. "Yeah! You bootiful!" Laughing, I thanked Dylan, too. And then, for the rest of Thursday and all of Friday, too, Dylan piped up with "You bootiful!" at random times throughout the day. Like just when I've finally gotten everyone quiet in the lineup, or listening at the carpet. I've had to stop saying thank you cause now it's just becoming a distraction. But seriously. I'll take that distraction any time! hehe! Raymond's initial one was the best, though. Adorable.

Oh there are so many more. These kids are awesome!

______________________
* All student's names changed

Happy Fall!

Thanks to James at Points of Light. Click the image to get your own.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! Aaaaar!

Yep! I'm still alive! :D

My class!

It's bright and shiny new, but not for long! It would soon be invaded by kids!!! It'll never look this way again!

The dancing! It's back! I'm happy!

Before last night, I have been dancing exactly ONCE in the last six weeks. It's scandalous, I tell you, SCANDALOUS! I've been taking West Coast Swing lessons for a year now, and am a total addict. So last night, I was really excited to get back into it.

Of course, six weeks with no dancing and that means I'm tripping all over my feet, but hey, what are you gonna do? It was fun to see all the 'regulars' last night, many of whom gave me "hey welcome back, I haven't seen you in a long time" kind of greetings. Cool!

Maybe my second or third dance, J asked me to dance. Now, J is SUPER fun to dance with, even if he sometimes turns on the smarm a bit too much. But he's a smokin' dancer and easy to follow, so I always get a kick out of dancing with him. So he asked me to dance and I prefaced it with, "Ok, but I haven't danced in a month and a half, so BE NICE!"

Well.

That was pretty much an invitation for CrazyGoNuts. It was all I could do to keep up with him, and once he spun me SIX TIMES! SIX! How I didn't fall over is beyond me! And it wasn't West Coast that we were doing. I had no idea what dance we were doing (I thought maybe lindy?), I was just trying not to die. BUT, he dipped me and I didn't nearly knock him over like I did last time he tried that. Yay me! Turns out it was East Coast Swing.

"Thanks, that was fun! ... but what WAS that?"
"That was east coast!"
"Aaaah."
"Yep. You kept trying to do West Coast, but I wouldn't letcha."

Schooled!

But that was NOT the biggest schooling of the night. That one was just funny.

About halfway through the night, Myles and Tessa showed up. Who the heck are Myles and Tessa, you ask? They're the Canadian West Coast Swing Champions. Baaaasically the swing gods of Canada. And regular freakin' people, but apparently I am not good with celebrity. Heaven help us all if I ever end up talking to someone famous.

OhMyGoodnessILikeTotallyKnowYouAndOhMyGoshICan'tBelieveYou'reActuallyTalkingToMe
AndOhWaitMyChanceToSaySomethingIntelligentIsNowLoooongGone.

The following words actually came out of my mouth last night: "Wooow! This is so exciting! I've only ever seen them on YouTube!" (here and here, for example)

WHAT KIND OF A NERDBALL AM I??? Hehehe

So they are PHENOMENAL. But they are also not stuck up in the LEAST and go out and dance with everybody, of all skill levels.

People like me.

Tessa asked me to dance (she leads, too). It was totally fun - she's hilarious! - but TOTALLY intimidating. Woah. She asked me how long I'd been dancing. I told her a year, but really really wished I'd said about half that, cause 'member what I said up there about tripping over my feet cause I'm rusty? And about not being good with celebrity? Well put those together and 1+1 equals, oh, I don't know, about 3782 on the scale of awkwardness.

She lead me in a little run-and-slide move thing, but I slid too early. Ever the student (shut up and dance, Hillary!) I was all, "Oh, now, see, I slid too early there!"

And that, folks, is when I got schooled by Tessa Cunningham:

"Yep! That's because you don't wait for your lead!" *hangs head in shame* hehehe

Aaaand, so it's official. I am now signing up for their lesson series. I've been told it's really good for people who have been dancing a while to not just learn new moves but also to correct any bad habits. Like not waiting for the lead.

At least it wasn't just me who finds it intimidating to dance with her. She danced with a friend of mine right after me, and after that he walked towards me and we both gave each other the "Holy Crap! was that ever intimidating!" look and proceeded to talk about our respective foibles.

Sheesh. ONE day hopefully I'll be cool enough for this NOT to be a big deal. *arms flapping, spoken in a squeaky teeny bopper voice:* I danced with Tessa! I danced with Tessa!" I'm rolling my eyes at mySELF here, don't worry. hehehe!

Ah, but was was SO nice to be back dancing again. My big toes full of blisters beg to differ, but I'll beat them back into submission soon enough.

Starting tonight! More lessons! More dance! Bring it on!

Too much! TOO MUCH!

Too much to post! Mexico... first day/week of school... pictures of my classroom... I'm behind and overwhelmed by my hobby. Not cool. For once I'm NOT overwhelmed by my job. (Yet?)

So instead I'll send you here for some hilarious Love Poetry. Haikus and limericks and free verse, oh my! Be sure to read the comments, too. They're almost funnier than the actual post.

And WHATEVER YOU DO, do NOT click THIS.

At least I'm known for something

Recently googled, resulting a hit on my site:

mouth * bigger than anyone

BIG NEWS!

I've been eagerly awaiting the brochure and the ads for the next episode of Survivor - even more so than the other seasons. Why's that? Oh my goodness, it's the biggest secret EVER, and it's been SO hard to keep...

I'M ON IT!!!!!!!!

Man, it was SUCH an experience! The challenges... the people... You know, I really enjoyed spending time with my tribe. I'm not allowed to tell you when I was booted, but I made it WAY longer than I thought I would!

The brochure and the ads are finally out. There they are - pictures of ME! Even some of the photos are mine - credited to me right there on the brochure! Man, such memories. Looking at the photos, I REMEMBER those people. Her... her... him... MAN what an experience.

I was thinking this morning how COOL it will be to finally be able to announce it to the blogosphere! Hehe, you can all see me in live action! WAHOOO. It'll be on the season after this one! SAH-WEEEET!

...

So I'm fully awake now, but it took quite a long time of groggy figuring to realize that, no, Hillary. No, you weren't actually on Survivor. But all the memories were there! Not of the camera crews, but of the people, of playing games, of getting voted off. But not at tribal council. I even remember the CLOTHES I was wearing - one of the photos in the brochure was of me in an old green shirt I have, and my maple leaf baseball cap.

But come on, when would I have done it, anyway? Well, remember? I took a year off after university, that's when I applied and went.... noooo, that's when I moved up north to the land of ice and snow! :P Aaaaand, that was six years ago. But really. It took a loooong time to realize that I had just had a crazy, whacked out dream. You know what was the final dose of reality?

I was fully clothed in the pictures!

hehehe!