Bits of Randomness

ummm.... ok, so that little rant on Thursday night was a tad extreme. I wasn't planning on ranting when I said "stay tuned" either. A combo of the day I had had an the frustration of the class, and YIKERS. Raging Hillary.

I'm not a rager, really! I promise!

Aaaanyway... as I was driving to work yesterday, I heard a sad little story on the radio. Some famous person or other had been getting a bad rap (wrap?) for giving their dog Paxil a while back. But it's got people thinking (not terribly intelligent thoughts, but thinking nonetheless), and apparently they're now coming out with a brand of Paxil for dogs. So many dogs apparently are having this separation anxiety, or whatever it is when dogs freak out because they're left alone too much, that they want to develop a sort of Paxil for Pooches to calm them down.

Really? Are we really such a self-centered society (duh, yes) that we have to develop doggy drugs for people who want the perks of having a dog, but aren't willing to actually care for it properly? "Hey! Look at my cute little puppsy wupsy! ... walk her? spend time with her? Nooo, I don't have time for that. But it's ok! I just pop her Puppy Paxil. See how calm she is?" Sad, I tell you. Very very sad. If you want a pet, take CARE of it, for heavens sake.

On the brighter side... as I was driving to the theatre last night for Improv (hilarious!), I was following the most curious vehicle. It intrigued me and made me laugh and captured my attention for the good five minutes or so that I was behind it. I don't know why, particularly, but it totally brightened my day.

It was a little Vespa or something scooter-like. The driver was a girl, judging by the long skinny blonde braids coming out from beneath her helmet. She had striped blue and teal and white and turquoise and purple legwarmers on, and a large backpack strapped to her back. Strapped to the backpack and nearly twice the height of her head was a longboard, brightly coloured wheels spinning with the wind. She had one of those Canucks flags* flapping off the back of the seat, and a Rainbow Brite sticker on the fender. Just over that was one of those Jesus fish bumper thingies, but the one that says " 'N Chips" on the inside. I swear I would have noticed more had I not had to turn off. It was hilarious.

Welcome to Vancouver.

And finally, as I do every morning, I check my For Better or For Worse comic feed. Here's today's. All I can say is.... yep. You bet.


* Go Canucks Go! Aw, I'm such a bandwagonner. I only follow hockey in the playoffs IF the Canucks are in, but after that ridiculous 4 period OT game in the first round and the spectacular game 7 win last week, I'm in! Pretty much it's a fun excuse to drive around and honk your horn obnoxiously after a winning game. Heh. Down with the Ducks!!!!

RRRAAAUUUUURRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Nearly every. single. minute. of today made we want to bang my head against a wall.

Car frustrations. School frustrations. Student frustrations (oh my goodness, I nearly LOST it today). Time crunch frustrations. Mess frustrations. Professional practice frustrations (as in, what the heck am I doing???). Parental frustrations (the kid's parents, not mine!). Food frustrations. Technological frustrations. Weather frustrations.

And then there was my photography class.

Ho-lee crapoli.

I keep hoping it's gonna get better. And it gets worse. This guy CAN. NOT. TEACH. He is the worst instructor in.... well, ANYTHING that I have ever had. Ever. He is all over the map. He is totally unclear. He gives NO background knowledge about what is actually going on in the camera, he just gives us whacked out scenarios (like taking a picture of the sun and making it look like a star. Making daylight look like night. Why? For what purpose? Or taking pictures of the TV screen. "Cause what if you don't have a picture of that good looking guy or girl on the screen?" Seriously? Huh?) and settings to make them work. But he doesn't explain WHAT the camera is actually doing.

This is supposed to be a beginners class (as evidenced by the fact that he has told us ALL THREE WEEKS that to take pictures we need film in the camera. Yeah. Ya think?) And yet he hasn't even TOLD us what aperture actually IS. Luckily I know a little bit from a few mini lessons from a friend a while back, so I can KIND of piece together what he's attempting to tell us. But tonight he totally lost me. Something about hypermode? And how it relates to depth of field? I think if I had a digital SLR it would be at least a little better cause I could take pictures and try stuff out in class to try and figure out what the hang he's talking about. But oh man.

And don't try to ask the guy questions. Oh, he gladly takes them. But there's just one teensy little thing. HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY ANSWER THEM. Last week he did not answer ONE single question I had. He just yabbered on about whatever he thought was kinda sorta maybe related. I was persistent to the point of near b!tchiness in trying to get an answer. I kept it polite and turned it around on me ("I'm sorry, maybe my question isn't very clear...") but WOWZA that took some effort.

I would just stop going, but there's JUST enough info I can pinch out from this otherwise colossal waste of time - perhaps 15-20 minues of the two hours is productive - that I'll stick with it, agonizing as it may be. And it's not just me. Everyone else is equally baffled at how this guy can continue to run this course. Oh man. It is B-R-U-T-A-L.

What if he finds my blog, you ask? Well, he makes absolutely ZERO effort to even TRY to learn our names, so he wouldn't know it was me anyway. I was asked for my surname on the first night so he could check the list, and now I'm "the little AE-1* girl." Yippee. [*AE-1 is my camera model]

OK. Now I feel bad. He's a jolly fellow, and really friendly. As a person, he's great. Kinda like a jovial older uncle. And he knows his stuff. But as an instructor? He's-a makin' me cray-zay.


Aaaand... nowI feel the great burning need now to take out some positives from my day. There has to have been something... hmm....

Oh yes. My kids totally cracked me up today in PE. We were playing skittle ball, which is kinda a combination between bowling with bean bags and dodge ball. They were flinging bean bags across the gym right left and center, and trying to knock down the wooden skittles (kinda like bowling pins) and trying equally hard to hit their opponents feet to get them out. They were SO INTO it, and it totally made me laugh. I had to get in there and play, too. Most of my time was spent running like a flailing fool back and forth along the front lines making "nah na-na nah boo boo" faces at the other team, trying to either distract them or make them try to hit me with the bean bags. At one point I was laughing so hard I couldn't even stand up straight. I'm sure they all thought I was insane.

Good.

Like I always tell them, "Hey! You'll aaalllways remember the crazy ones!"

Funky CLICK!

Yeah, that title sucked. So sue me.

I can't believe I haven't talked about my two new classes yet! I think I mentioned I was taking them, but I'm three weeks in already! Yikers!

First of all, my west coast swing obsession has spilled over into a new area, and I signed up for a new funk dance class offered by the same studio. Funk is basically a mix between hip hop and street jazz - veeeery different than West Coast Swing, for sure. And what a workout! Each week we learn a new routine, which is usually fine, but those suckers get LONG and apparently I have some kind of memory issue and either the latter part of the routine just doesn't stick with everything that's in my head already, or the beginning gets blasted out of my brain as new moves come along. I apparently have about a 16-24 beat memory. Kinda too bad when the routines are 32. It makes for not-so-funky me. But still totally fun. Hopefully by the end oft he class I'll have a modicum of the funk attitude. Right now I'm just awkward white girl.

OH! And I ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT made a totally and complete FOOL of myself in front of my kids last week. I was intro-ing our dance unit - I'm passing my obsession on! - and so I told them that I'd show them a bit of the routine I had learned in my last funk lesson. I TOLD them that I was just learning this dance, and that I wasn't very good, and that I'd probably have to stop in the middle to remember what came next. Buuuut, for some reason I still thought it would be a good idea to show them. So I did the first 8 beats or so, which included a lot of jumping down and up and a body wave and shoulder jabs and all kinds of things. Two beats into it they were laughing. Cracking up. IN HYSTERICS. They couldn't stop laughing. Which made me laugh. And feel a wee tad stupid. But is WAS pretty funny. But seriously. They couldn't. stop. laughing, even long after I ceased humiliating myself in front of 27 11-year-olds.

Until I reminded them that, "Hey, this is what YOU are going to be doing!" That shut 'em up pretty quick. Muah ha haaa! It was pretty amusing!

Then there's my intro to photography class. I have borrowed a friend's SLR camera and I have been really wanting to learn to actually USE it, so I signed up for a class. I have it tonight, so as I need to leave for work now and I'm sure I'll have better fodder for continuing this post after I get home, I'm gonna stop now.

Stay tuned....

By golly, so THAT'S how we can fix this climate conundrum!

With apologies to the great (and very intelligent!) bloggers who live in Arkansas...


Click for a larger view. If you dare. Thanks Brad, for sharing.

Fun Times in Grade 5

I haven't blogged too much about school/work lately, but we've been doing some really fun stuff! (At least, *I* think it's fun!) But here's a warning. If you're weak of stomach, you may want to skip this post!

A few weeks ago in Health and Personal Planning, we finished a nutrition unit where the kids logged everything they ate or drank for a week (supposedly), the compared that to the Canada Food Guide. We learned about nutrients, food groups, serving sizes, and how very, very bad fast food is for you. I showed the movie Super Size Me. I didn't have time to preview it, though 3 or 4 teachers assured me that, other than one or two "S-words" and him puking out the window of the car, it was totally fine. (I would really rather not have had the swearing, but the message of the movie was too good to not show it cause of that.)

Well.

They neglected to mention the part where his girlfriend is recounting the effect Morgan's all-Mickey-D's diet was having on their sex life. In rather graphic detail. Unfortunately we didn't have time to complete the entire video that day, so had to cut it short. Right after that part. Soooo, the kids went home with, "Yeah, he has a really hard time getting it up... I mean, the sex is still good, but it's not what it was... He's just too tired... I have to be on top all the time..." being the last thing they remember from the movie. Yes, I DID make a mad dash from the pack fo the class to hit the stop button, but it was too little too late. Whoops.

Morgan had just been talking about how he was tired and was having a hard time doing other tasks before this, so I desperately tried to emphasize that part of things instead: "See? He's not getting enough NUTRIENTS and he's TIRED all the time, and has no ENERGY to do WORK and EXERCISE. That's what happens when you don't have enough NUTRIENTS! Think of the NUTRIENTS! The NUUUUUTRIENTS!"

I cringe at what the dinner table conversations would be that night. "So, Johnny, what did you learn in school today?"

"Gee, mom, I learned that if I eat McDonalds I won't be able to get it up."

Soooper.

Hopefully the next thing we did in the nutrition unit redeemed me... swiping the idea from another teacher who had done this a few years ago, I decided to show the kids what was really in a Big Mac Meal. It was thoroughly disgusting. They loved it.

Step One: Buy Big Mac, large fries, and a coke.

Step Two: Bring to school, making kids all drool, beg for a fry, ask me why I'm torturing them, etc. Set up meal on cart in front of class. Ask them to predict how much fat will be in the meal. (Yeah, kiddoes, it's NOT gonna be 95%. Sorry.)

Step Three: Dramatically tear up burger and place in blender with saucy bun, wilted lettuce bits, and congealed "meat" in plain view. Add fries for effect, and some coke to juice it up. Don't forget to squeeze out a few pack of ketchup into the mix. Try not to laugh as cries of "Eeeew!" and "That's disGUSTing!" and "Yum! Can I try some?" (there's one in every class!) erupt from students.

Step Four: Read blender settings. "Hmmm... which setting should I use? Blend? Chop? Puree? Whip? ... LIQUEFY!!!" Students will burst out chanting "Li-que-fy! Li-que-fy!" You will be amazed at how quickly burger liquefies. Try not to puke. Add remaining fries for visual effect and blend fully.

Step Five: Pass around blender for students to see and smell. When met with cries of disgust, simply say, "What? That's what it looks like in your stomach?" Laugh when student comments, "Yeah, but we don't have to SEE it when it's in our stomach!!!"

Step Six: Pour into pot and send students down to staff room to stir concoction until it is boiling. This process will separate the fat from the rest of the putrid brown goo.

Step Seven: Pour goo back into blender and let congeal at the back of the class for the rest of the day. Put in fridge overnight. The next day, examine mass quantities of fat globules that have formed throughout.

Step Eight: Never eat another Big Mac ever again. I tell you, the stench of that thing still lingers.
N-A-S-T-Y.

Who says learning can't be fun? .... er... and revolting?

Procrastination

Oh no they di-in't!!!

There are very few things that flip my b!tch switch. I do not normally go on a random rampage when things tick me off. Few things really tick me off that much - I like to think I'm fairly laid back. Hopefully those of you who know me aren't laughing your collective butts off right now. I'd like to think that's fairly accurate.

But, there have been a few shining moments when somebody has done something really stupid or really wrong, and something in me just screams to let them know about it.

Like when I chased down and told off a driver who ran a red light, nearly mowing me down as I crossed the crosswalk - ironically enough carrying the two bags full of the contents of my very recently totalled Beastmobile. Totalled, I might add, by someone who ran a red light.

Or the time I was driving home from work after a sucky, stressful, kids-making-me-want-to-wring-their-necks kind of day, and some punks were walking along the street pelting rocks at cars. One hit the side of mine. The new one. The glorious replacement for the Beastmobile. I was in a pissy mood already, and that was the last straw. I wheeled the car over to the side of the road, unbeknownced (sp???) to the punks, as they were walking the opposite way and were nearly a block away by then. I once again chased them down, and, upon seeing the head punk launch another projectile at the oncoming traffic, screamed, "HEY! Yeah, YOU! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING???" He grunted something about it just being chocolate. What the? "I don't care! You're gonna cause damage to someone's car! You just hit mine!" sputter, sputter, lame excuse, lame excuse... "Come on!" I carried on. "GET SOME RESPONSIBILITY!"

Seriously? Get some responsibiltiy? Did that really come out of my mouth? That just may have been my most school-marm-ish moment ever.

But I mean, come on.

So today I got home from work and checked my messages. THIS is what I heard:

Ok, first off, it's pretty hilarious. The drawl on that guy is spectacular. But still... advertising? On my voice mail? The message had been playing through my whole greeting, and it wasn't even done when my answering machine (bless it's soul) cut it off. SHEESH!

They're not the first ones to do it. I've had random companies leave ads on my voice mail before. And it's not right! Ads on magazines, fine. Ads on TV, fine. Radio? Sure. Billboards? Whatever. Flyers in the mail. Kinda annoying, but I suppose accepted. But on my voice mail? Not that that's sacred or anything, but still... there really isn't ANYwhere where one can escape stupid spam. Come to think of it, I suppose it's more spam than advertising.

Whatever it was, it really annoyed me, so I made a phone call. I told the customer support dude (while making it clear I wasn't mad at him, and thanked him very much for his help at the end of the call) in no uncertian terms that I did NOT appreciate advertising on my answering machine, and take my number OFF whatever list it was on, and that that is NOT a marketing ploy that is ok with me.

On the other hand, "Ah coould wee-ehn thahyat!" Maybe I should go play a hand or two!

Yaaaaarg!

Fitful

Really, now. This has GOT to stop.

Lately I've been having kinda strange dreams. Most of them I can kinda see where they come from, because they are at least in very small part related to something that's happening in my life - minor things that take a bizzarre twist in the dream.

Like doing laundry for example. I had a load in the dryer when I went to sleep last night.

Then all of a sudden I am flying to Amsterdam for the wedding of somebody I don't even know and my plane leaves in an hour and a half and I'm not even packed and I have wet clothes in the washing machine of a high school laundromat. I'm trying to figure out what to wear and am asking advice from the friend who I'm going with while her friend is telling us that we should just go naked, cause that's what they do in Belgium. Belgium? I thought we were going to Amsterdam. For some reason I don't even have anything to wear to the wedding, and ALL my clothes are still wet in the washer. I go back to put them in the dryer, but it's lunch hour at the high school and all the dryers are taken up by pimply faced kids who are drying the afghan blankets their great grannies have knitted - and two of the dryers are fiulled with mac and cheese - and WHAT THE HECK AM I GOING TO DO MY PLANE LEAVES IN ONE HOUR. It is CRITICAL that I get on this flight. Oh, AND, I've made dinner at my parents house and have to get all the dishes washed before I go, and figure out what to do with the knee high tweety socks my cousin stuffed in the closet so they didn't stink up the whole room when she was sleeping over the night before.

Yeeeeah....

Or how about this one? Yesterday I drove past the little parking lot of the scuzzy little neighbourhood pub that's just around the corner, and I recall thinking that since the video store moved out of that complex, I haven't been in there. (The lot, not the pub!)

Suddenly I'm IN that lot, standing beside the open door of my car, which isn't parked, just sitting idling in the lot. I don't know how I got there or why my dad is there, either, but there we are. We were having some discussion about something when he started singing/chanting "tilly tilly tilly" or "toobie toobie toobie" or something like that over and over. He was just being silly... playful banter or something, but I was trying to talk to him, and he wouldn't stop. I even pulled out the, "OK, I'm really serious! Stop it!" but to no avail. So I start screaming at him. "Pleeease stop! ... Stop it ... stop it ... STOP IT!!!" Still he continued. I ran away screaming and crying in frustration, taking off around the building, bawling and raging and so entirely frustrated. I was heaving, I was so upset. I ducked into the pub for a few minutes to calm down. But I was so upset that when someone asked me what was wrong (it might have been my mom...) I just burst into tears. By the time I went back out, my dad had parked the car and was sitting inside like nothing had happened.

Right-o.

These last two dreams were both from last night, but there have been others in the last few weeks. I don't remember what was happening in those ones, but I remember tehy were other highly, highly stressful, frustrating, and/or emotional situations.

The problem with these dreams is that they are so real that I WAKE UP still feeling stressed out from the dream. Each time, I wake up with a raging headache and I'm all tense and my tummy feels funny. As if I don't battle being stressed out enough, my dreams are adding to it. ARG! How do I stop this?

Off I go to take an advil or two. I have to recover from my sleep before I start my day.

New!

Sah-WEET! It's done - a brand new shiny blog template (hit refresh if you can't see it)!!!

I've been wanting to change my blog for quite some time. Yes, perhaps I've been a little obsessed with "new" these days. New hair, new seasons, new classes, new outlook. But hey, it's spring - why not, right?

And now, may I point out (just cause I'm tickled that it all came out ok! Humour me in this "Look, ma, I did it!" style announcement :P )...

- New header. Hopefully it's not too huge anymore. And it shouldn't overlap with anything important. Let me know? Thanks to Brad and Paul for teaching me about transparent backgrounds and for tweaking the image.
- New sidebar. Yup, it's officially an orchid theme. My landlords gave me the flowers, and I used them as inspiration! And it's all flipped around and everything! Hee hee! Plus, the sidebar is waaaaay less cluttered now. Check out the photos, the links, the blogroll - they're all up to date
- New drop down menus. Just click the boxes and they'll expand. Faaancy! Thanks to Jenn, from whom I yoinked the code.
- New footer. Scroll down. Waaaay down. It's even pretty way down at the bottom! hehe

Here's the old template and the old sidebar (ew!), just for kicks and giggles. OK, OK, I'll stop now. Thanks for putting up with me! :D

Loadin' up

First term was crazy. I was brand spankin' new to having my own class, and it was pretty overwhelming. It still is, but I've at least slipped into an "oh my gosh, I'm going to DIE" routine, and I'm getting kinda used to that feeling now. Heh. But first term, I was also trying to do quite a bit - involved with a few things at my church, taking my west coast swing dancing class, and spending quite a bit of time with one particular person... It was all good, but it was too much, so for term two I decided that I would cut out all extra cirricular activites (not people!). Except the swing, cause we all know by now that I'm pretty much addicted!

So term two, I had no classes, no involvement at church, just time for a breather and time to focus on school. Except that that almost killed me, too. I am learning that I need to have at least something going on. Swing didn't seem to quite do it, as it's on Sundays, leaving my weeknights free still. I was really not a happy camper with nothing to do. Like, really not at all.

Soooo.... near the end of term two (early March?) a few things changed - including the boy situation, which flat out got decided FOR me - I decided that I need to pick up a new activity.

Ah, but what to choose? Helping with Alpha at church again? Italian classes? Funk dance? An intro to acting class? Photography? What to pick? What to pick?

I got it all narrowed down to two, but still couldn't choose, so I picked 'em both! AAAHHH!!! I'm really excited about it (but I hope that this doesn't swing the pendulum back into the crazy zone again!).

As of this week, I am now enrolled in something I never thought I would do - funk dance - and one I've always wanted to - photography. And of course, swing continues, too. It feels pretty good. I love doing new things, and I get a chance to do something with my body (wow, is that funk class a WORKOUT!) and with my mind, both of which are rather creative. Whodathunkit?

All I have to say is, BRING IT!

Your input, please! *updated*

Well as you have seen, I've been changing up my blog template lately. I wanted something more springy... My landlords gave me those orchids you see up at the top there yesterday (from their surprise wedding on the weekend! How cool is that???), so I contorted myself in all manner of directions and took a few photos - you should have seen it: I was standing on my counter, one leg bracing a light balanced on the chair, one hand on the camera, one hand on the ceiling so I didn't fall... a studio photographer I am not! hehe! I kinda like the banner, but there's definitely too much white in the template. Springy green as a background? I'd like that, but it looks funny with the orchids. I could keep the banner background white, but a big white box on green looks kinda funny. I could jsut get rid of the borders for the sidebar and the content and have it all white... or something totally different! Suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

*Yep, that header is H-U-G-E, particularly on lower resolution screens. I'll change it, but probably not till the weekend. Till then, um, happy scrolling?

Things that make me happy

My rule for this weekend was that I was only going to do things that make me happy. And boy, when you decide to do that, moments just pile up on top of each other and overwhelm you! It was really such great weekend!!

The first thing that made me happy was getting my reports in on Thursday after school. YAAAY! I was officially free to enjoy the weekend. (I'm just going to pretend that little stack of marking isn't staring back at my from the basket on my 'dining room' floor - where I tried to hide it!) Sleeping over 12 hours on Thursday night also made me happy!

Friday morning I went to my church's Good Friday service and was really struck again by Jesus' sacrifice, and by what it meant for where I'm at in my life right now. It was nearly audible (nearly! I wasn't hearing voices or anything!), him saying, "Hillary, I died so you wouldn't have to carry all this. Lay it down. Let me take it." How freeing it was to just give it up. I'd been trying to carry way too much, and I don't need to. God is SO good.

A bunch of people went out for brunch afterwards, walking through the neighbourhood of old heritage homes - beautiful gigantic homes along tree lined streets, the warm breeze and cherry blossoms filling the air. I had a good conversation with my friend Lloyd on the way there, which really built me up and encouraged me. He is one of those people who is just generous in every way, and every time you come away from talking with him, you feel good.

Brunch was great, and after that, I went home and began shoveling out the masses of paper that had seemed to breed and were threatening to take over my desk! There's nothing better than the windows and doors open, the sweet smell of the jasmine flowers outside my door wafting in, and doing a good, hearty clean-up. It felt sooo good to be able to see my desk again! hehe! I might post before and after pictures, but then you'll know how bad it really was!!! EEK!

Oh who am I kidding? Here ya go, before and after...


Afterwards, I headed out to another friend's house for a big Easter dinner (the one that would have been way less fun that hanging out with charm-boy) and guess what? It was SO much fun! Lloyd cooked a HUGE dinner for about 10 people - turkey AND ham! - and we ate, drank, and made merry. I learned that I'm still not very good at holding my liquor. A glass of wine, a chocolatini (mental note: buy chocolate liqueur!!!) and a daiquiri, even over two hours or so and a with a large dinner, and I was NOT ready to go home for a few hours! I suppose that would definitely fall into the category of "things that make me happy," albeit in a slightly different way! Ha!

Saturday was more of the same - brunch with my grandparents, more house shovelling - you know, taking care of all those little corners that you don't usually get to but that stress you out when you see them? Ah, it felt good. Then my friend Brad called and informed me that I was going to his house for dinner with him and another friend. :D I was treated to another yummy dinner (thanks, Brad! It was scrumptious!), and then Brad and Ian came back to my house to watch a movie while I cooked and prepared Easter dinner/lunch for the next day.

With no extended family Easter dinners this year, and my mom having hurt her back a few weeks ago, I offered to have my immediate family over to MY house for something to eat after church on Sunday. I made it very clear that I was not doing EASTER DINNER, but that I would make "something to eat after church." The EASTER DINNER label was a little more than I wanted to take on at this point in time. But Sunday turned out to be great, too! My parents came to my church (which was their church when they were growing up, and all the way till I was in grade 4), and shock of all shocks, my brother and sister came too! (If you're reading this, K & B, I'm really glad you came, it was nice to have everybody there!)

Church was AWESOME - I love the way my church tries to incorporate the diversity within our congregation. The readings, the art, the decorations, the music, the sermon, the testimonies - all were triumphant declarations that Christ is risen! AND? We even sung the song that I posted yesterday morning! Yay!

Lunch went well (no-one got poisoned! ;) heehee!) and we had a nice afternoon just goofing around and talking. It was neat to have the whole fam to MY house! My mom says this officially makes me a grown-up. I say, "Noooooo! I don't WANNA!"

And then? Sunday evening? What better happy-maker than to go for a walk on the beach with a friend? I called my Vanessa up and asked her if she wanted to head out with me.

"Uhh... it's kinda rainy here."

"Eh, it's ok. It's not raining here, we should be ok."

Except.

This is Vancouver, and rain hurtles in pretty quick in these parts! By the time we got to the beach it was POURING! Well hey, that's ok! It was easy to find parking!

Vanessa and I ran around at the beach in the POURING rain, laughing at the ducks and taking goofy pictures of ourselves. In a "Oh, what the heck? I'm supposed to be doing things that make me happy, right?" moment, I took a flying leap off a grassy knoll - and then anything else I could find - and landed with both feet into a colossal, sandy, muddy, and rather deep PUDDLE!


(click any image to make it bigger:you can read the rock and see the splash of my insane puddle jumping shenanigans!)
Let me just say this: PUDDLE JUMPING MAKES ME VERY VERY HAPPY! I repeated the act a number of times, creating little sandy lakes inside my shoes and making my jeans so wet I had to cinch up my belt another notch so my pants wouldn't fall off with the weight! Vanessa was content to watch the craziness unfold, so she was the official photographer. AH! It was glorious!

Especially when it was finished off with hot chocolate, whipped cream - dry pants!! - and Amelie, the most happy-making movie ever! - back at my house afterwards.

Today I allowed myself to sleep in and just wake up when I woke up (8am! grr... I'll have to work on that!), and I'm headed off to Home Depot's garden center to buy some baby flowers to plant in all my pots on my patio. I didn't do anything with my patio last year, and I missed it. I'm going to go make a little garden. Inch by inch, and row by row, I'm gonna make my garden grow...

And those? Those are all things that make me happy. Have a great Monday!

In Christ Alone

I was going to add my thoughts in and around the lyrics of this song, but it really speaks for itself. It is one of my absolute favourites; it makes me cry almost every time I sing it. It is the whole arc of the gospel in a single song, and I love it.

No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand. Till he returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ, I'll stand...


In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save

‘Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost it’s grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, or scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
‘Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand


Happy Easter!

How NOT to ask a girl out

He’s already asked me a few times to go out for drinks with him. I’ve been busy with report cards, so haven’t been able to go. This was the latest:

I.: whats happening with you tonight?
Hillary: heading to a friend's place for dinner
I.: and later tonight?
Hillary: not sure, I imagine it'll be the whole evening at my friend’s place
I.: well i'm heading out to an irish club/pub in cloverdale [a suburb about 45 mins away]
I.: u interested in going after? u can bring ur girl too
Hillary: ?
Hillary: oh, the friend... it's about 10 people, my friend Lloyd is cooking an easter dinner for a big gang of people
I.: oh wow
I.: ur not going to leave early then
Hillary: no, heading out to cloverdale probably won't work
I.: ur not wanting to come out with me?
Hillary: what?
I.: u should come out tonight is what i'm saying
Hillary: no, I think this'll be the whole evening, and I don't want to head all the way out to cloverdale later on in the evening.
Hillary: simple answer: sorry, but I already have plans
Hillary: there, that was way less complicated! :P
I.: or way less fun
I.: one or the other
I.: :(
Hillary: you sayin' my friends are boring?!? :-O
I.: naah
I.: i'm saying u should come out to enjoy my company
I.: that's all

OK... #1 – it’s over MSN. You at least CALL a girl if you want to take her on a date. Duh.
#2 – he’s asking just a few hours from when he wants to go out. Nuh-uh. You want a date? You give me notice. Read the Rules.
#3 – he tells me my plans are going to be less fun than heading out with him. Um, HELLO??
#4 – apparently his company is so desirsble that I really should cancel my plans and be amazed by his stellar charm. Not, “I’d really like to get to know you better.” Not “I’m looking forward to spending some time with you.” But “u should come out to enjoy my company.”

Yeah, I don’t think so, buddy.

NEXT!

How Deep The Father's Love For Us

How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure
That he should give his only son, to make a wretch his treasure
How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turned his face away
As wounds which mar the chosen one, bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life; I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything: no gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ; his death and resurrection
Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart, his wounds have paid my ransom

~ Stuart Townend

It's half FULL, dangit, half FULL!

I'm getting kinda sick of seeing that video up on top of my blog, but I really can't think of much to say. What? Hillary speechless?

How about this... stay tuned for pictures of pretty much the best science experiment ever. Um, well, there's nothing exactly scientific about it, but it will be good for teaching my kidlets a lesson. And it will be gross. Even better.

Speaking of those kidlets... while writing my reports (still ongoing...) I came accross a few kids for whom I just have nothing to say. Yeah, that's right. I said "for whom." Point is, every time I go to try to write the little personal comment at the beginning of their report, my brain comes up blank. "So and so is a cheerful... nope... friendly... um, not particulary... polite... umm... hard working... heck no.... ah ha! 'energetic.' That's one of those words that is good-but-kinda-not-really-but-still-is-ok. Yay! That'll work.... oh crap! That's what I said last term!"

I feel terrible that I can't think of something positive/personal to say about some of these kids. It's only one or two, and it's really not that there's nothing good to say about them. I just can't seem to put it into words. Arg!

Which kinda leads me to my next thought, I suppose, which is that I feel like I've been a little miss grumpy-puss lately and it's starting to affect how I see things. I need to start whistling that little Monty Python diddy again: "Always look on the briiiight side of life! Doo doot, do-doot do-doot do-doot!"

So... starting right now, here are three things that made me smile today:

1. I noticed for the first time this year that glorious strip of cherry blossom trees that stand up against the backdrop of the North Shore Mountains on my way to work. In the mroning, the sun is on them, and it's bee-oot-i-ful!

2. I got a lovely email this evening from Pam, one of the other grade 5 teachers in my school. She astounds me with the amount of kindness and caring and generosity she showers on people every single day. I am SO grateful to have a co-worker like that. She is incredible. (and no, she won't see this)

3. One of my kids totally made me giggle today when he gave me a box full of Easter chocolate as a little gift. "Full" of course, being a bit of an overstatement. What it actually was was a leftover box from some chocolate easter creatures that he got and promptly ate, then tossed 4 or 5 little chocolate eggs - you know the ones, all wrapped in foil? - inside to rattle around on the bottom. He gave it to me, then said, "Uh, yeah, sorry, I ate the real ones.... but those eggs are good, too." Ha! He cracked me up!

Welcome to all you Spring searchers!

Hello to all of you finding my blog via a search for "First Day of Spring." Scroll down to see the flower button (not made by me, but by James at Points of Light). Click here to go to the homepage and browse my blog, or here to browse my "best of" posts.

Happy first day of spring! :)

WICKED!

Oh this makes me so happy! Perhaps I'm a little obsessed since seeing the show, fine. But it's soooo good! Go see it if you can!

BUUULLLEEETTTSSS!!!!!

Wow. Those banshee-screaming post titles feel good! :-)

Quiet lil' me here. (Ha!) It's been a while, or so it seems. I've been being a very indecisive blogger. Post something, take it down, lots of ideas, but none of them really coming together into a post, or none of them that I want to talk about here, or something. I think I'm starting to care less about that last one. What the hey. It's my blog. We'll see.

See? Even that isn't terribly coherent. Oh well.

So my apparent lack of with-it-ness this morning means you get bullets. BULLETS! Oh the joy! Oh the glee! Oh the... oh who cares, here goes.

• Iowa. It was SO great to get to see Rachelle and Nathan and their two boys (cutest kids in the whole wide world!). We hung out, played with the kids, ran errands, made meals... well, Rachelle made meals. She wouldn't let me help! She totally pampered me - thanks, chickiepoo! Also, it took me a full 24 hours after leaving to stop swaying when I stood. I kept going, "Oh! Right! I'm not holding a baby anymore. Awww, shoot, I'm not holding a baby anymore!" I want babieeees! Whoah, nelly. Hold your horses there, folks. Not NOW. But definitely one day. Yeah, I can't wait to have kids. As crazy-inducing as they can be, I want a whole minivan full of 'em! Heh. Pictures to come once I can sort through the hundreds that I took. Yes, hundreds.



• Chicago. Yep, I've already talked about it. I'm gonna talk about it some more. First of all, I love that city! I didn't even really see that much of it, but it just left a really good impression. I might try to go back in August. Maybe. And then, of course, there are the one, two, three reasons I went to Chicago in the first place! It's funny, since I've been back at work, everybody's been asking me how the trip went - many with kind of a cautious tone: "So, how did it go with your friends from the internet???" As if, because I met these gals via the web, something MUST have gone wrong or something. No, not everyone asks in that way, but it's amusing when they do. I answer each with a Hillary-enthusiasm-filled, "AWESOME!" or "FANTASTIC!" or "AMAZING!" I think mostly it was just really neat to get the full picture (as full as you can get in a day and a half, anyway) of these ladies. It's one thing to read a stranger's words on the internet, but when you don't know them, you don't know the back stories behind some things (we got a few of those on the weekend!), you can't imagine their tone of voice or their mannerisms (folks who know me often will comment that they can 'hear' me saying the things I'm typing!), and, while sometimes you can get a pretty good guess at what they're like, you really don't know till you meet them. I read these girls' posts slightly differently now that we've spent some time hanging out. And that comment on the pictures from Iowa? Ditto goes here.



• Apparently my wordiness is back. I'm stickin' with the bullets anyway.



• Reunion. What have I gotten myself into? There have been a few rumblings of a grad reunion over the last few months, and two or three people have begun a bit of planning, as far as looking into venues, I think, but I'm not sure if there's been that much that's been done. I wanna go to a reunion, so apparently I took it upon myself to make a facebook group and add as many high school friends as I could to my friends list so we can start to collect contact info for our grad class. The problem is, I do NOT want to organize it. I'll help with contacts, but I'm worried that starting this group, I'll get stuck with a bunch of planning. Eeeep. It's pretty fun to see what people are up to now, though. There's that whole crew of guys from high school who are all still buddies and have all their pics of raging parties and laughing at all the noise violations and cop encounters they've been having .... it's like a time warp! But it's really fun to see who's married, who has kids, who's off doing totally interesting things - a massage therapist in the British Virgin Islands, a mountain guide in the Himalayas, etc. Makes me seem kinda boring. "Well... I went to university. Now I'm a teacher." Maybe I need to put a hiatus on that plan and do some gallivanting of my own! The reunion will be really interesting, I'm looking forward to it (I think!).



• Speaking of teaching... my report cards are due on Monday. Bet ya didn't even know! Last term was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E! It was the first time I'd done them, and wow, it sent me into a tizzy. First of all, figuring out just what to SAY, and then realizing what I'd done all term was gonna make it really hard to write the reports, and the guesswork and second-guessing myself... it really really brought me down. This term (so far - I still have a long way to go) is like night and day. TOUCH WOOD! I know the kids better, have developed a different system for evaluating, and it just seems easier. Erm, they're still gonna be late, but that's ok. They are not gonna kill me. Yaaay!



• What might kill me, though? These dang lyrics that I can NOT get out of my head. Those are what I've been posting, taking down, posting, taking down. If you read me via a feed reader or caught my site when they were up, well, you saw them. If not, too bad. OK, first of all, music always really impacts me. I love lyrics because of the stories they tell and the emotions they bring up in me. That's probably one of the reasons I like country music, because there's just so many stories and ranges of emotion there (not that there's not in other music, let's not get into an off-topic debate here!). So yeah, music really affects me. And I also remember lyrics fairly well and get songs stuck - and I do mean STUCK - in my head. So I nearly had a fit when I first heard the song last weekend, cause I thought, wow, that totally applies to me. But then, of course, I realized, ok, no song can totally be 100% applicable. There are similarities, or parts of the song that fit, but there's always parts that are like, "Ok, yeah, no, those don't apply." So I looked up the lyrics to calm my crazy-brain. And they ONE HUNDRED PERCENT APPLY. Every single word. And it's depressing. I hate that it brings me down so much.

Heh. And on THAT cheery note, I need to get back to work (ok, ok, I need to GET to work). These reports haven't killed me yet, and I don't intend to let them this time. So that's my little brain dump for the day.

Happy Saturday!

My Visual DNA

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Realization dawns

So THIS is what I've been doing wrong all this time!

Is it over already????

"There she is!!!"

Those were the words that started off my bloggy (yet surprisingly non-bloggy) weekend in Chicago. I was sitting at a table in Union Station waiting for Anne and Jean to arrive when I heard them call out their greeting. There were hugs all round, then we motored over to the L (Chicago's elevated train network) to head to the apartment where Sarah was waiting for us.

From there it was a whirlwind of talking, laughing, walking, more talking, shopping, eating, sighteeing, more talking, pampering, more eating*, and pretty much total and complete awesomeness all weekend long.

* Ladies - did we SERIOUSLY eat that meal at Giordano's? My arteries hurt just thinking about it. But mmmmmmm, was it GOOOOD! At least we didn't have the monkey's meal!

For those of you not in the loop about the crazy monkey, we went to Lincoln Park Zoo and in one of the habitats, there was this one psycho ape who was scraping around at the wall. He walked over to the window eventually and Sarah was like, "Oh! He has a screw! ... Oh, monkey! Don't eat that... screw... OH MY GOSH! HE TOTALLY ATE THAT SCREW!!!!!!" Then the screwball primate - get it? Screwball? haaaa! - proceeded back to the wall, dug up another one, and ATE IT, TOO! Whaaa???

Annnywaaay... it really felt like I've known these gals for so long, even though we only just met. It was such a neat experience! I wasn't really surprised by anyone - each girl was pretty much as I imagined they'd be. Though Anne is kookier and more outgoing than I thought she'd be (which is great!!).

We saw Wicked, I bought some very fun bright green (perhaps inspired by Elphaba?) pointy toed shoes - yeah-HA! - on the Magnificent Mile, and got PEDICURES! In fancy red heated massaging chairs! We had some famous Chicago deep-dish stuffed pizza, had a cab ride that nearly made us pee ourselves - poor Jean, she had the front seat and actually saw everything as it was coming, as well as having the added 'benefit' of hearing all the comments the crazy cabbie made - and I enjoyed (?) being the novel Canadian in the group. Hee hee. It was pretty funny, actually.

There will be more to come from all of us, I'm sure, but for now, here are the posts about the weekend so far...

* Sarah's * Anne's * Jean's * Anne's 2nd post

And by the way? Sarah's baked oatmeal is pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. YUH-MEEEE!!!!

(and, by the way number two, I just messaged my friend Brad to say that this trip was "so freaking awesome!!!!" and he goes, "one, two, three, four exclamation points. Sarah's rubbing off on you." HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!)

It was SUCH a fabuloso weekend. There are sooo many pictures that will be flying back and forth. I'll let you know when they're all up, but for now, here's just one! (left to right is Anne, Sarah, me, and Jean)

Ladies, "because I know you, I have been changed for good."

Ok, and I can't resist posting this one, too. Mostly cause Sarah's expression CRACKS! ME! UP!

(click either pic to embiggen)

Pre-impressions

RIGHT! I have homework! Good thing my train is now five and a half hours late, I have some extra time. Grrr....

Before meeting up with my three awesome blog friends in Chicago IN LESS THAN 12 HOURS!!!!! we all said that we should post our impressions of one another on our blogs. Yikes. Have it down in writing? Hmm..... oh man, I am SO bad at this kind of thing. OK. Here goes.

Jean - I know her the least, but in my emails back and forth with her and from reading her blog, I would say that she is a really compassionate and empathetic woman. She has a heart to serve others, and has a great sense of adventure (Jean, didn't you do that crazy bike + more race last summer, was it? I was sooo impressed!). Her love for her family comes through loud and clear - they're lucky to have her!

Anne - she's creative, and also an extremely kind and compassionate person. She's got all kinds of great stories - ask her about her froggie friends! - and has a fun sense of humour. She likes to read - her booklist for this year is unbelievable! - but also likes to get out and enjoy the outdoors. She also has a killer sunhat. I'm betting that her and her hubby have some pretty silly times together.

Sarah - probably the most enthusiastic person I have ever... uh... not met. Yet. Her colleagues at work must be worried about her for all the times she falls out of her chair from laughing so hard. ;-) She has a hugely sensitive heart, and is quick to lavish love on other people, whether her friends, her family, her little sister, or even total internet strangers... like me! She's a true girly girl, and I love it! She inspires me, in more ways than one.

Actually, all these ladies inspire me. It's amazing how much I've learned from them and how their encouragement and grace has blessed me. The fact that we are all Christians gives us all something in common and like Anne said, I'm looking forward to getting to know these ladies more in the next two days than I have in the last year and a bit from reading their blogs.

In the words of Sarah, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY CHICAGO!"

Click the photo to get your own flower.
Happy first day of spring!

Tanning in the Iowan Sun (now with translations, see bottom!)

Before I left, I told my students that I was going to be going to Iowa to visit my very best friend in the whole wide world a waaay down in Iowa. One student piped up with giddy enthusiasm, "OH, Ms Hillary, you're gonna come back soooo dark, trust me!"

Right-o kiddo.

The sun has been out (except for a crazy wind and hail storm that, combined with me being half asleep, reading a book based on the Wizard of Oz, and having crazy dreams, had me convinced I would have to go running for the basement to escape the imminent tornado), but not so much for tanning.

Instead, I've been learning to decipher two-year old speak and helping change explod-o diapers.
Let me give an example (of two-year-old speak, not exploding diapers. This ain't a mommy blog yet! ;) ). See how you do in deciphering them.

"dubuh-ded cackah"
"paypah dah"
"bibud wed dahg"

Mattias has a spray bottle that he likes to go around spritzing everything with. Apparently he likes spritzing himslef in the face, too!

And Keiran is just like a little elf! A cutsie wootsie cuddle pie if ever there was one.

Mattias is extremely fortunate to have such talented entertainers at his every whim. Just look at that chicken dance! We are sooooo HAWT!

A good time is being had by all....
______________
"dubuh-ded cackah" = Farmer Jed's Tractor
"paypah dah" = Paper draw
"bibud wed dahg" = Clifford Red Dog

and I forgot one... "buh-guk sooz"= firetruck shoes (his runners have fire trucks that light up on them). He says lots of other words, too, but these are the fun ones! And he loooooves 'cakahs' and 'buh-guks,' so we hear those a lot! :-)

Happy St Patty's Day!

So I learned today that St Patrick's Day in Chicago is a BIG! DEAL! There's a parade, vendors selling all manner of green everything, lots and lots and lots of Irish pubs, and they dye the river green! Not forest green. Not even emerald green. Bright, near-glowing, radioactive green. Apparently it stays like that for days. I had the morning in the Windy City (and yes, it was wiiiinnndddyyy) for exploring, and I met up with a girl in my hostel who hung ot with me for the morning. We did a walking tour with a guide from the hostel, who we decided to ditch (sorry, but it's St Patty's Day, and you were talking about the how many freight containers come into the city by rail. Borrr-ring.). We battled the hordes of green-clad revellers to see the radioactive river then caught the tail end of the parade before I had to bob and weave my way throught the crowd to make sure I caught my trian.

I was near giddy walking around this morning, cause I'm finally ON HOLIDAYS!!! That, and I really really love arriving in a city and jsut figuring it out. Transit, what to see, where things are. It was grand.

Even more grand is that I'm here in Iowa now with Rachelle and Nathan and two of the cutest little boys in the whole wide world!

So, I'll leave you with warm wishes for a Happy St Patricks Day. I hope you remember at least some of it! ;-)

Uh, really???

In 24 hours I will be in Chicago. What??? ToMORROW??? Really??? I take the train to Iowa on Saturday. But really? Have 24 hours? I. AM. GOING. TO. DIE. I have sooooo much to do. It's 6:42. I'm still at school. Marking, planning for the Monday we get back, filing, cleaning. I go home, and there's packing. And laundry. And dishes.

The biggest thing is that I'm STILL sooo behind on my marking, and reports are D-U-E one week after I get back. GAH! I have to take marking with me. I am so ticked off. I guess that's what the planes, trains, and automobiles are for. ERG.

I'm so excited. But so stressed out. GAAAAH (I'm only here cause I need a quick brain break. I'm back at 'er very soon)

In funnier news, we had the first of two puberty talks at school yesterday. Ah ha ha hahahahaaa! Oh the kids were soooo squeamish. And laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed every time the words pen!s and v@gin@ were mentionned (pardon the weird characters, I don't need any icky searches landing at my blog!). Oh, it was funny.

And of course, we did the anonymous question thing - everybody got a slip of paper and they had to write something, even if it was, "Hello, how are you?" then they all turned them in. Some of the questions were so great...

Why do girls have to have a egg in the you know what?

What if you're going through puebrty and you want to tell youre friend but youre scared of what they might think?

Why do people think about s3x? Why do people do s3x?

How do you know you have pewbertey? [cause it's a disease...]

When do I start to date? [said by the girl who is inseperable with a certain boy in our class!]

I's the movi rated R? [a big part of the presentation was a video. This question was written with intentional bad spelling and fake handwriting]

muhahahahaha [yes, that was actually a comment. Complete with pointy-toothed smiley/frowny faces]

Right. Try to teach long division after the 'puberty talk.' Heh.


OK! Back to work for me! Who needs sleep, right?

I'm half cracked, as you can see

You know something's gotta give when your over-enthusiasm for an elementary school pyjama day - my pj pants, t-shirt, fuzzy pink slippers, and cozy cozy bathrobe are packed and ready to take to school - is sooo much not about doing it 'for the kids' but more about the fact that this may very well be the only way I'll get through today!

Bring on the snugglies!

Everywhere you go, there you are

You know, sometimes I just wish that that wasn't true. Do you ever just get sick of yourself? Sick of the way you do things, sick of hearing your voice. That's a big one this week. All day long, I wish I could just. shut. up. and NOT hear my own voice for once. Sheesh. If I'm sick of it, I'm sure the kids are, too.

Two days left... two days left... two days left...

Who SAYS you can't buy happiness???

"Purse and Boots"(clever photo title thanks to Shelli)

Chop chop!

It was definitely time. I only posted my crazy hair chart, what, two months ago? Well, I finally got gutsy and got a real change - Shorter! Flippier! Lighter! - and, I have to say, I LOVE it!!! It's been a looong time since I've said that about a new haircut! Yay!

Of course, the new bag and boots help, too! (Oh, it was SUCH a big step to get a red bag. I'm a brown or black bag girl. Or rather, I WAS a brown and black bag girl. Now I'm all about the 'pop!')

Hehe, it's a whole new me!

See the 'before' pic

My Bible study don't. want. none. unless you got BOOK, hun

I posted this a long time ago, but it resurfaced over at the Queen of Spain's blog, and it is so classic I had to show it again. I don't know whether to cringe or to laugh...

Oh the goodness of it all

I was in grade 5 when the scandal broke. I was devestated. Gotta blame it on somethin'...



And multiculoured vests with no shirt? Oh the hotness!!!
(hahahahaha!!!)

Oh, and how 'bout this, while I'm at it? It's old skool musical goodness. The special effects blow my MIND.



This song will forever be related in my mind to driving along the winding highway through the rockies on a greyhound bus - one in a convoy of five - full of high school students on their way home from a youth conference in Regina. We played bus bowling, had crazy relays, racing back and forth along the length of the bus, diving over and under the seats (safe, eh?), and played the dating game over the bus's radios. I was bachelorette #2, and I got picked! I'm positive that it was because, when asked what kind of kitchen appliance I'd be, I said I'd be a pepper grinder cause I'm spic-ay! That was most definitely THE coolest answer ever. Heh.

The youth leaders set up a 'date' at the McDonalds in Moose Jaw, complete with a boquet of flowers made from multiple straws in a Mickey-D's cup and shredded napkins for petals. It was lovely, and especially romantic when my date posed for our photo together with chewed up cheeseburger in his opened-wide mouth. Wonder why that relationship never worked out???

But the song. Oh, the song. We were obsessed with it for some reason the whole way home. I doubt we listened to it less than 100 times. We had the best bus driver EVER, cause every time the "BAUM! BAUM!" came on, he'd blast that ol' bus horn in sync with the music. Booyeah.

I was hungry, so I tried to bite her

We did an in-class writing assesment today with my grade 5's . The things they come up with, I tell you. Hilarious. Some of it is downright weird, some brilliant, some boring as all getout. This one cracked me right up, so I thought I'd share (grammar preserved, spelling corrected, it's too much work to spell wrong on purpose!)...

Topic: Imagine you are walking down the hall at your school, and you hear a strange noise coming from your classroom. When you go inside, you discover that the strange noise is coming from a funny-looking animal sitting at your desk. Whrite a story about what happens next.

The weird creature

I walked to the teacher and asked her, "Why is there a creature at my desk?" She talked back to me, but I didn't understand anything. She said, "lablasetolava tqxyzvw!" I was so confused so I went to ask my best friend Sue. I heard over bogvwyzvla then I was so mad. I screamed "OH MY GOD! Quit talk bliberish!" I was so mad I just took a chair and sat down. It shocked me so I took another chair it shocked me. I walked down to the office and I asked for a telephone. [Principal] have me a banana. What do I do with a banana?? I ripped it up and was about to bite it, but I saw wires. So it was a telephone? My bad I put it down and ran. I went home and my mom looked like a hamburger with a elephants trunk. I was hungry so I tried to bite her. She started to yell at I saw by the face. I heard was you little you trying. You said english. Trying lasay falasvetale. NO NOT AGAIN!!! My mom slapped me I woke up it was a daydream. I was so happy it was just a dream.

Spring can't come soon enough

I tell ya, I'm just hanging on by a thread till spring. Something about the newness of it - new starts, new life - I really really need right now. This winter there's been lots of good stuff, yes, but man, there's been a lot that's come at me. I have felt SO weighted down this winter. I don't feel like myself this year at all, and I'm really tired of it. I want 'me' back. I just want this season of suckage to end. Come oooon, spring!

Dancing, dancing, and MORE DANCING!

Oh no, the obsession has not cooled off. Not one bit! Some weekends I go out dancing TWICE - Saturday AND Sunday! It's glorious (though my feet hurt for three days afterwards!). We only have one more class in level three left and then it's on to the next session! Er, which is another level three... Basically, once you get to level three, you stay there. Each session they teach you new things, so it's always new. There is a level four, but that's for super duper serious dancers, or jsut those who are really good and want to learn much fancier stuff - moves, styling, etc. I may think about that at some point, but I'll do level three for a while yet.

But! BUT!! BUT!!!

I think I might start a new dance class, too! We had a mini funk lesson tonight after the swing lesson, and it was SO FUN! Before, I would never have had the... I dunno, the confidence, I guess, to do that. There's so much attitude involved in that, and I really would have felt that it's just not "me" and been really self concious. But that has been changing with doing West Coast Swing, and I've really been enjoying it. I think I may like to funk it up for a bit... get the 'tude going, heh heh! PLUS, it would be so easy to take some of those moves and teach them to my grade 5's. West Coast Swing would be too hard, but funk? Now THAT they can do! Plus the fact that it's called "funk." They'd be all over that.

But now, I must take my tired and aching legs to BED! If they don't give out on me first!

Spring Break!!!

Oh my goodness, I have been BUSTING to talk about this for nearly the entire two weeks I have been away....

I have finally nailed down my spring break plans, and I could not be more exited!!! No tropical vacation or trip to back to Paris for me (which I was looking in to until I remembered that I don't have a MONEY TREE in my backyard!!! I really need to rectify that.) Nope, I'm going to small town Iowa! Ah-WOO-HOO!

My very-bestest-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world (hi Rachelle!) and her hubby live there with their two boys, one who I have yet to meet! He'll be 5 months old when I go down to see him. I am SO looking forward to seeing them! I definitely miss seeing them all the time since they moved down there nearly two years ago... NO! Wait... THREE years ago. Wow. They used to live 8 blocks away from me. I miss them!!!

BUT, that's not all!!! I have met lots of very neat-o people through blogging. Three of those neat-o people are Sarah Cool, Anne, and Jean. Sarah lives in Cincinnati, and Anne and Jean live in Michigan (Ann Arbor? Grand Rapids? Somewhere in that area...) They are each such neat women, and I really enjoy reading their blogs and corresponding with them over email. I've chatted with Anne a bit on messenger, and Sarah and I talk on the phone sometimes, too. They have truly become friends, not just people whose blogs I read.

So, I figured it's about time I meet them!

After spending a few days in Iowa with Rachelle and Nathan, I'm taking the train up to Chicago and meeting up with Jean and Anne and Sarah for a total girl's weekend!!! We're booking a hotel, going to go see a show, and taking in the sights in Chicago!

I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!

I've been telling friends that it's simultaneously the nerdiest yet coolest thing ever! It amazes me how small the world is getting!

So here I sit doing a little excited dance in my chair! I fly out in 18 days!!!

Here's Anne!_____Here's Jean!_____Here's Sarah!

Two weeks

Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. Thank you all for your comments, emails, phone calls, and visits. They have been such an encouragement to me. It always amazes me the care that comes out of the woodwork here in the blogosphere (and even more so in real life!). Thank you for those of you who have been praying for me.

I won't really get into a lot of what was going on with me (and still is, though things are getting better), but suffice it to say that I have been feeling more than a little overwhelmed with work and with a whole bunch of stuff coming at me in my personal life all at once, too. That, paired with just the blah-ness and monotony of February, it got a little much.

I've been up to not a whole lot of exciting stuff the last two weeks*... getting priorities re-established, learning a lot about myself, and trying to develop better habits. I've also learned that I have better friends than I even thought I had (and I already knew they were great!). Thanks especially to Trudy, Bex, Sarah, Brad, and Brian for your extra doses of listening, care, and prayers these past few weeks. A gal couldn't ask for better friends!

So I still have more work than I could possibly do, I'm still working on getting (and keeping!) my priorities straight, working on some character stuff, and I'm still trying to figure out what the heck to do about this lil' ol' heart of mine (in the metaphorical sense... my ACTUAL heart is healthy, as far as I know!).

Blogging will probably be fairly sparse for a while yet, but just thought I'd pop on and say hello. Yes, I'm still here!


* Well, that's not entirely true. I was away last weekend with 6 other friends. We rented a "cabin" (it was gigantic!) right on the water in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island and chilled out there for the weekend. It was glorious. Time spent with good friends, falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the waves, spectacular views, lots of good food and good wine, a few good soaks in the hot tub, long walks on the beach, a crazy dance party, and lots of laughs... I hadn't been that relaxed for a very very long time.

Sometimes you've got to just walk away

So that's what I'm doing.

I hit the breaking point today. I'm not ok.

But I will be. Hopefully sooner than later.

I'm taking some time to make sure I get back on track.
I don't know when I'll be back. Not for at least two weeks.

In the meantime, go snoop in my blogroll - see who I read, head over, enjoy!

This is me, over and out.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emphasis mine

OK, OK, OK!!!

Wow. That little 'men's cologne' post sure generated a lot of interest in the comments! Also, when I got home, I had THREE messenger windows open with people asking about it, AND one voicemail. Hokey dinah.

I was going to leave it as an enigma, but I'm afraid of what some of you might do to me if I don't explain myself! haha!

So. Friday after school, I had to call one of my student's parents to just explain a comment I made to her in class about her assignment. Messages have been crossed before, so anytime this same issue comes up, I call the parents to explain the same thing to THEM so that we're clear. I believe it's called covering my a$$. I made my phone call and went back up to my classroom.

So where does the cologne come in, you ask? I noticed it while I was on the phone, but didn't really think anything of it, other than thinking, "Phew! That's STRONG!" But an HOUR later, up in my room and an entire floor and opposite end of the building later, I was still catching whiffs of the cologne on me. From using the telephone.

There's a teacher at my school who kinda bathes in it... though it's never overwhelming when you're talking to him, so I don't know what's up with that. But he's also always on the phone (during non-teaching times), and the phone in the nurse's room and the phone right outside his classroom pretty much permanently smells like his cologne.

So much so that *I* smelled like it an hour after using the same phone.

So there's the story. Sorry it's not juicy! hehe. Or is this just a cover-up...?
(HA! Yeah right)

A breath of fresh air

I went down to Stanley Park today to get down to the beach, to walk, to enjoy the sunshine, to take some pictures, to clear my head a bit. I realized I needed to allow myself the time to just relax and do something I enjoy doing. I need to do way less of what I usually do, which is fret about the work I have to do, and not really do the work and not really relax, either. More work. More play. Less fret. It's a recipe for a happier Hillary. I need to spend more time doing things that make me happy.


"Is it something that makes your life better?"

That's a question a friend asked me a while back, and it's become a really good measure by which to judge whether what I'm doing is worthwhile (not that I remember to use it, but hey, it's a process!).

So let's take a look at today, shall we? It was a beautiful day. Sunny and clear after many days of grey. And, sorry to all you socked-in-by-snow-and-freezing-your-tushies-off folks out there, but it was warm. (I even saw a few folks out in shorts, one guy in sandals! Crazy!) Despite all the downed trees, the park was still, well, Stanley Park. There's a reason it's called the jewel of Vancouver.

It was BUSY today, too. But with the business comes the kids, comes the families, comes the "Give me another underduck, daddy!" and the "Look mommy! A jellyfish!" and the run-skip-and-jumping and the kisses on the tops of toussled-haired heads.

I love watching families playing together.

I love being by the ocean.

I love taking out my camera and just shooting whatever.

I love looking at the incredible, glorious place that I live.

I love hearing God saying, "I love you."

Was it something that made my life better? Absolutely!

Strange but true

I smell like men's cologne.

That is all.