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!

Neglect and Insanity

Ok, so it's been over two weeks since I posted anything, save a quick paragraph saying basically nothing... I was away for that first week, but since I've gotten back from Mexico, life has been hurtling by at breakneck speeds, and while I've been on the computer a lot, it's all been processing and uploading pictures from the trip. So. Before I get to Mexico, here's a weekly wrap, a la Nello, minus the fancy shiny sparkling title thingy...

* I've been in to school every day this week getting my new classroom ready to go. Moving, cleaning, organizing, planning... and chatting, let's be serious! I think it's finally starting to sink in that I've got 23 six and seven year olds coming at me in four days time. I think I'm getting excited about it. And terrified. The outgoing teacher has left me SO! MUCH! STUFF! There are posters on the walls, cabinets full of art supplies from her own collection, books, centers activities, and about 25 poster sized poems that she has painstakingly written out, illustrated, and laminated. (I'm under strict instructions to guard those with my life.) She has SAVED MY BUTT like you don't even know by leaving me a classroom full of stuff. I am so grateful!

* My friend Cathy is in town from Australia with her boyfriend Grant. I haven't seen her since she stayed with me two years ago, so we've been hanging out as much as possible this past week. Church and lunch with friends, hanging out downtown, renting a tandem bike and riding around the seawall in Stanley Park, playing Scategories... and we're going kayaking this afternoon. Yippee!

* My very bestest friend in the whole wide world, Rachelle, and Nathan and their 2.5 kids were in town this week, too, so I met up with them to go see Emerson Drive at the PNE (fair) on Monday night. Free concert! Sweet! It was a great show, minus the weird slow covers they did in the middle. But that lead singer is STRANGE. He kept going up to the other musicians, bending over, and what looked like nibbling on the neck of the guitar, violin, whatever. Ok, so it wasn't nibbling, but it looked really weird. Now about that fiddle player. H-O-T stuff. I'm referring to his musicianship. Clearly.

* The "twenty somethings" from the Mexico team got together on Thursday night for a bit of a reunion before Emilie went back to school in Ottawa. We had dinner, drinks, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and just general hilarity till the wee hours of the morning. Lesson: if you're up till 3:30am and get up at 7:15, it will be very difficult to function all day long. Just sayin.'

* Summer Wedding #3 - Mike and Laura! On less than four hours of sleep, I finished up in my classroom and went to Mike and Laura's wedding. They've been together for so long, it was really fun to see them tie the knot! She was beautiful, of course, and it was a very classy affair. Between the wedding and the reception, some of us went down to the beach. In all our wedding finery, we stuck out just a wee tad, so were approached by a dude in a clown wig and horrible peachy-plaid shirt. He gave me a rose and asked me to sign his shirt. Gotta love stags. The reception was fun - lots of funny speeches. And Mike's a doctor. So lots of doctor friends. Cute, single doctor friends. And I left half way through the dance. What is WRONG with me? (hehe) I was DYING from only 4 hours of sleep, THAT'S what. I'm so lame! ;)

Pictures from said events to come. Right now I've gotta go get my butt in a kayak!


Aaaand, PS. HOLY COW, it's SEPTEMBER. Already. Woah.

Update

Member how in this post I was talking about my church's isues with City Hall requiring them to stop our meal and shelter programs? Well I wrote that the Friday before I left for Mexico, and while at the airport on Saturday morning I saw this article on the front page of the Vancouver Sun. I cringe at the title a little bit, but it's other than that, it's a really good article! Go check it out!

Home!

Oh wow. I'm home.

What. A. Trip. Tijuana slums. Building a house in three days. Dozens of cute CUTE kids. Issues in short term missions. The beach. Dead Sea Scrolls.... What an amazing, amazing trip. That's about all I have energy for right now. More to come over the next... well... week, probably. Stories! And pictures! It's good to be home, but a little overwhelming.

But for now, I'm going to SLEEP! Buenos Noches!

We can't all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love ~ Mother Theresa

I'm headed off in a few hours for Terazzas, near Tijuana, Mexico. A team from my church is headed down for a week to build a house for one family who is living in total poverty. If people are lucky, they live under propped up garage doors, but most live in less than that. The house we will build is small, but adequate, and I've been told when we actually hand over the keys to the family, there is rarely a dry eye to be found. In addition to building the house we'll visit an orphanage in the 'slums' along the river to play with the kids and pass out gifts that we're taking down with us, and run some children's programs in the afternoons. I really don't know what to expect farther than that, but I know it will make a BIG impact on my life.

It's true, that short term missions trips are often more impacting on the team than they are on the people the team is going to serve, but we ARE going to be making a HUGE difference to one family. Maybe it sounds cliched, but I'm really honoured to be able to be able to be a part of this team. The quote in the title of this post is really the theme of this week. It's not so much about the house, which really is a small thing for us to do, but about doing what we're doing with great love.

I am SO incredibly excited. I'm looking forward to hanging with the kids, getting to know my team, actually building a house from start to finish in four days, and eating some goooood Mexican food. But more than that, I'm looking forward to getting to see God in a new way. That song I posted a few days ago kinda describes the way I am feeling these days, and I'm looking forward to experiencing God afresh this week. I also think that it will be sooo good (and sobering) to get out of this stinking rich place and get some perspective on the way people live in the rest of the world. We are SO privileged here, and we don't even know it.

It's gonna be an amazing, challenging week. I can't wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I've been mulling this all over today, I got an email telling me that my church was in the news again today. It's different, but there is poverty on the home front, too. This may be a little different than my usual posts, but it's important, and it's something that I'm becoming more and more aware of...

So, some background. My church runs two meals a week for homeless and under-privileged people, serving about 200 people per week, and running a once-a-week shelter for about 25 people. Recently, the City of Vancouver has told us that we may not be able to continue these programs, because they don't fit the city's definition of "what a church does." Basically, the city is classifying these programs as "social service" use and not as "church" use, and so may require permits (which mean beurocracy and large fees), or they may be discontinued altogether because of zoning regulations. It's not even a money issue: it's an issue of the city dictating the functions a church is and is not allowed to fulfill. A major function of the Church - not just mine, but in the global sense - is the care for the "orphans and the widows" - those less fortunate than ourselves. But the city isn't seeing things that way.

We've been in the news a bit recently, but there was a segment aired on CTV this morning about this whole issue. Read the brief article here, then click the link on the right of the article for the TV clip, too. Check it out! If you like more in-depth reading, you can try this.

People from many different faith communities, and many who don't adhere to any particular group, are pretty stupified at the fact that a church is potentially being denied the ability to serve to poor, and have developed an organization called "Faith Communities Called to Solidarity with the Poor" that is working to have City Hall expand the definition of what a church does to include things like social outreach programs. Their fundamental belief states that "solidarity with the poor, the practice of compassion and justice, is fundamental to the vocation, identity and mission of the church / faith communities." (taken from here)

If you agree with the above statement, regardless of your belief system, this organization has started a petition you can sign if you so choose. The petition is open for Vancouver City residents only, but if you live in Vancouver and wouldn't mind taking a minute, go here and download the petition form, fill it with signatures, and drop it off at City Hall! Thank you in advance! It would be your small thing done with great love that really will make a difference! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I don't know if we'll have internet access where we're going, so for now, I'll say...

Adios! Hasta luego!

Road Trip 2007: The Final Frontier

Or, you know, the final part. But I like "frontier" better. Anyhoo...

After leaving Grand Rapids (now two weeks ago, oh how behind I get!), I set off to visit SarahCool in Cincinnati. That's spelled with two N's, dont'cha know. ;-)

But. BUT! En route, I planned on making a few different stops. I had heard Ann Arbor was a pretty little town, so I wanted to go through there. But should I go east and south or south and east through Michigan? Well, a quick gander at google maps and I had my answer.

KALAMAZOO?!?!?! Really? There's actually a real live Kalamazoo? Dude, I wanna go THERE!!!!! I was rather excited by this fact. It's a neat little town, too. I dropped by a little festival, grabbed lunch and wandered around a bit. And got lost. In Kalamazoo. Now there's a headline I wouldn't have minded: "Lone tourist plucked from the streets of Kalamazo, cold, dehydrated, but with giant grin on face. Can't seem to stop saying 'KALAMAZOO!!!' "

I decided to had to have a souvenir, so what better to pick up than a KAZOO from KALAMAZOO? Good thing I did, too. It provided absolute minutes of entertainment in the car on my driving days. Apparently it also turned me into a pirate.

After Kalamazoo - KALAMAZOO! Go on, say it, it's fun! - I stopped in Ann Arbor and wandered around downtown for a bit. It's a very cute little town. I took some pictures, wandered the campus of Michigan State, and caved to the sweet pull of the Ben and Jerry's shop. Oh sweet Banana Split ice cream, where have you been all my life? Sheeshers, it's sure a good thing I did boot camp last month. Cause road trip = sit on your touckas and eat junk. Mmmm, banana spilt ice creamy goodness type junk.

I knew I wasn't gonna hit Cincinnati on Thursday, so I drove till I got tired and crashed in a roadside motel - notice I didn't say crashed INTO - then drove the final hour to Cinci the next day.

I had a few hours before I met up with Sarah, so I wandered around downtown a bit and took in the sights. I apparently took in some famous Cicnicnnati chili, too, without knowing it was famous. Mmmm, cheese coney. (I'm sorry, arteries!) I met Sarah at her work, recognizing the building from her blog posts. Now if THAT don't make a gal feel like a stalker....

The weekend was totally full but also really relaxing. I met a bunch of her girlfriends on Friday night, then on Saturday, Sarah took on the role of tour guide and showed me all over the city. She told all kinds of stories about the various places she's lived and worked, and I learned all kinds of neat-o information about the city. Like, for example, it used to be called Porkopolis. hehehe! And once I got the story of Skyline Chili, we went there and had a 4-way - spaghetti topped with chili, red beans, and habanero cheese, served with a side of oyster crackers. Yum! From downtown to Eden Park to Findlay Market to the mushroom house to ... many other places (Sarah, help me out with neighbourhood names!), it was a great tour! Sunday we took in the National Underground Railroad Museum, which was really interesting. As the Ohio river is bsically the border between the North and the South, that whole region played a really important role in the escape of slave from the South on their way to Canada. See? Ya come here and ya just might learn something! :-)

Roll your mouse over the pictures for a caption, or click for a larger view.
Saturday night we headed over to Sarah's aunt and uncle's place for a BBQ, which was SO MUCH FUN! They were funny and hospitable and sweet and welcomed me in right away. Yay!

Highlights would have to include Sarah's haircut:

Sarah: My bangs are crooked! SAM! You should cut them!
Sam (Sarah's 16 year old cousin): I dunno...
Sarah: Yeah! Totally! You just cut your dad's hair! Do it! Do it! Do it!
Sam: ... Ok...
{gets scissors, heads outside}
Sarah: SAM! Be careful!
Sam (who is masterfully pulling out Sarah's bangs and cutting just tiny bits off, doing quite a good job, and had just given his dad a very good haircut 45 mis before): [snip snip]
Sarah: AAAHH!!
Sam: [snip]
Sarah: Oooooooh!
Sam: Well YOU asked me to!...
Sarah: Eeeeeek!
Sam: [snip]
Sarah (fanning her face): OK, I'm hot. Stop! I wanna go inside!
Sam: [snip] There! I'm done.
Sarah: PHEW!

Also, pretty much Sarah's whole family hates her cat, Flora. I was caught in the middle of a Flora fight...

Sarah: Oh Flora! She's so sweeeet!
Sarah's family, eyes glinting, hoping to pull me over to the dark side: So! Do you hate Flora, too?
Hillary: uhhhmm....

Who WOULDN'T love a sweet creature like this?

What you DON'T see in the picture are the lasor beams of hate coming from her eyes. I was clearly in HER territory, and she was mad. BUT, Sarah.... She loves YOU, and that's what's important. And she had kinda sorta almost warmed up to me by the time I left. For example, she let me get close enough to pet her abuot 7 times. Some of those times she even knew it was me.

For the record. I LIKE Flora. She's got definite spunk and she makes her mommy happy. I just won't get too close to her. ;)

So. Cincinnati is cool, and chillin' with Sarah was a blast! It was fun to see a little slice of her world! I really am so grateful for my blog girls: Anne and Jean and Sarah!

Now it's just a matter of plotting to get them HERE for a visit! Muah hah hahaaa!!!!

Monday morning bright and early (5:50am, to be precise!) I started off for Toronto. Nine hours later (!!!) I arrived, took in some of the zoo - lions and tigers and bears, oh my! - and chilled with my friend Ann for the evening before catching an early flight back home.

Windsor, Toronto, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Cincinnati. Nearly 3000km. Lots of pictures. Good times with friends all along the way...

Makes for a very happy Hillary!

Routine

Sometimes a song plays in the background, and you're going about your business, barely aware that it's there. Then suddenly, WHAM! The volume hasn't changed, but the lyrics are screaming at you, touching your heart, bringing tears to your eyes. How many times have I listened to this album and never really heard this song? Truth, conviction, and love, all reaching out and stopping me in my tracks...

Routine
by Sheree Plett

Has it been six days already since you
got your Sunday shoes out,
since you grabbed your untouched
Book of Life?

The same old routine
finds you in the sanctuary;
you say your fake hellos and pretend
all is well.
You bow your head before a Father
that you don't really know...

And the bells ring
and you know it's time for you to pray,
chant your amens and halelujahs.
Glued to your wooden pew,
involved in your unconscious praise,
the cliche stained glassed windows
veil your eyes
to see beyond...

Has it really been that long since you
opened your eyes
to see that you're captivated by
old loves and lies?
How much longer will you submit to your illusions
to narrow your path to a Father
that you don't really know?

And the bells ring
and you know it's time for you to pray.
You chant your amens and halelujahs,
glued to your wooden pew,
involved with your unconcious praise;
the stained glass windows veil your eyes
to see beyond...

And bells ring...

Yipeee!

I FINALLY know where I'll be moving my boxes for the upcoming teaching year!

Though of course, saying this, there will be all kinds of changes the last week of August and first week of September, and I'll probably end up moving again, but for now, at least there is a definite plan. Saying that here probably guarantees that it will change, but hey.

As of right now, I'll be teaching a grade 1/2 split in September.

Ah, summer

Time for sitting out on the patio, sipping cold drinks. Long days, sunshine filled moments, hot weather... or so the story goes...

Some friends and I decided that we were going to go for a hike on Saturday. We decided on heading up to Elfin Lakes just out of Squamish. I had been there before last year, but nobody else had, and I didn't mind doing it again. I mean, with memories of a place like this (picture from last July), who WOULDN'T want to go back?!? The trail was long (22km "A half marathon!") but not too strenuous, and high enough that we would already be hiking in the high alpine (instead of just climbing to it). There are sweeping views of mountain ranges and lakes, and we'd be hiking through meadows filled with red heather and wildflowers. At the top are two pristine little lakes set against a pretty spectacular backdrop. Yippee!

The day was kinda cloudy and unsettled, but we were promised breaks of sun, so we set off, not letting a few little car glitches atop us: Um, why is the temperature needle a-waaaay up past the "I'm about to explode" mark? I just had a coolant leak fixed yesterday! And 2 km into the 16 km gravel road up a mountain into nowhere, Ooooh. Gas. Below the red. Ummm... it's ok, we're on a hill, the gas gauge just LOOKS that empty. Uh huh. {to self: wellll... it's all downhill on the way back, we can just coast to a station if need be. Provided we get UP. PleaseGod pleaseGod pleaseGod} Pshaw. We made it. (ThanksGod ThanksGod Thanks God!) There was a little bit of snow last time we went, but not much, and we WERE pretty high up. I anticipated a little bit more this year, as it's not been a realyl hot summer. No problemo.

Ha! This is SO not gonna help with the stereotype that Canadia is the land of year round ice and snow, but here goes anyway.

We hit the first little patch of snow about 3/4 of the way up. It was just little, no worries. But the last quarter was mostly snow with patches of clear ground. And when we got to the lakes? Well, they say pictures are worth a thousand words, so here's what we saw:


Yeppers. See all that snow? STILL IN THE LAKE??? Ho-LEE!

Last week when I was still in Cincinnati (holy cow, that was only a week ago? That part of the story is still coming...) it was HOT. And HUMID. Like, 35C/ 96F degrees hot. And "my glasses fogged up when I stepped outside" humid. Six days later, I was looking at lakes covered in snow and wandering the wilderness with a wet a$$ from tobogganing down a slushy snowy slope. In August.
Good times. Good times.

Here are some more pictures from our day of hiking. Roll your mouse over them to see the caption, or click on them for a bigger view. Click here to see the whole set.

Road Trip 2007, part trois

Oh man, I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon for a bit here. Been too busy whooping it up and driving all over creation...

My stay in Grand Rapids with Anne and Jean was awesome, of course! The first day I was there, I headed to Jean's house and hung out with her and her kiddies - seriously about the cutest kids you've ever seen. We had lunch, where I was grilled by Jean's 6 year old son, Sam, about what I was going to eat on my sandwich so he could copy it - I'm THAT cool! - and played all kinds of fun things downstairs. Basketball, colouring with Alina, who's three, jumping rope, tickle fights, lots of spinny rides ("Just one more! Pleeease???")... TOTALLY fun!

I of course had my camera out and so decided to show Sam how to take photos. It turned into a photo shoot extraordinaire, with exclamations of, "AWESOOOOME!" and "YOU LOOK LIKE A MOVIE STAR!" after every photo. The random photo of Anne's ear I think is my favourite.

That afternoon, Anne and I went for a pedicure and a wee shopping spree, and can I just say, she is the best shopper EVER. She finds deals on cute stuff like nobody's business. She is my hero! I got a whole load of stuff for SO CHEAP. Sah-weet!

Wednesday was beach day. What a production! It was the most glorious beach day I've had in quite some time, let me tell you. Anne made a PIE for the day, THAT'S how fantastic it was. Well, I kinda helped to make the pie. And kinda screwed it up. Nothing a sieve full of blueberries, flour, and brown sugar can't fix, I tells ya. Heh. Heh. Oh man, I'm such a dork. It still tasted great... a little extra sugar never hurt anyone!

Anne has friends who have access to a private beach on Lake Michigan, so we pretended to be residents and took our beach umbrellas, chairs, cooler full of yummies, and all things beach related down the stairs to claim our very own piece of heaven. White sand, blue water, a lake so big it reminds you of the ocean, yet without any pesky shells or barnacles to cut your feet or salty water to make you all... er... salty. And the water was WARM! (Yes, Anne and Jean, it was WARM! ;-) ) We sunned, we slept, we swam, all afternoon long. Gloriousness, I tell you. Sheer gloriousness.

We grabbed pizza in town at a little diner and headed home for some more serious hanging out. After a lazy morning Thursday, I was off to tootle my way down to Cincinnati...

Discuss

Posts about the rest of my trip will follow (I'm home now), but for now, here's a video I found via the Beatnik Poet. I'd love to hear your thoughts - girls AND guys - c'mon, guys, I know you're out there! I'd love to hear your thoughts/reactions/yays/nays. What do you think?



Cheryl James: We Follow Your Lead

Never has a justification of blogging been so important

Whenever you mention to someone that you have to use the 'facilities,' it's inevitable that somebody slyly tells you, "Whatever you do, don't think of rushing water!!!" Hardy har har.

Well can I just say this? Pretty much the worst place ev-ar to arrive at after a three hour drive and a very, very large tea is NIAGARA FALLS. I was hopping around like a maniac, battling THRONGS of people, wanting to scream at the world, "I hafta pee, I hafta pee, GET OUT OF MY WAAAAY!" But really, they wouldn't have heard me over the gush of millions of tons of water hurtling itself off a horseshoe shaped cliff.

It was a potty eeemerrrrgency.

But don't worry. I survived. My pants were only wet from the spray of the falls, I promise.

So. Err... moving right along...

After returning to normal human status once again, I really enjoyed the falls. I was considering skipping them for the sake of time, but I'm glad I didn't. The falls are spectacular. The surrounding crowds/town/hotels/casinos/rides/lookout towers/attractions/shops/midway/and various other money-munching monsters were a complete gong show, but hey, ya don't have to get pictures of that! *grin* I wanted to do a trip on the Maid of the Mist or the walk under the falls, but time was short, so I just enjoyed them from the top. Still pretty awesome.

After Niagara, I began my 9.5 hour trip to Grand Rapids. Just driving, it really should only have taken 6.5 hours, but I probably made about an hour's worth of stops (including one 15 minute detour when I somehow ended up on the wrong highway and had to backtrack - d'oh!) and T-W-O H-O-U-R-S at the border in Sarnia. Shooot.

There's a bridge to the states (as there are in lots of places, but I've never seen that, so it was kinda novel for me. Yes, I'm easily amused.) that was a toll bridge, so there began the ginormous lineup. An hour and a half of me battling sleep - I was there in my 4-6pm energy dip, and had been driving already pretty much all day - being bored out of my mind, and having no clue how far I still had to go, I FINALLY arrived at the booth, passport out and ready to go. But noooooo. This was just the TOLL booth. There's another lineup on the OTHER side of the bridge for customs.

Craaaaap!

It took two hours to get through altogether. I know that's not a huge deal, but I'd already been on the road since 8:30am, and it was about 7:15 when I finally got through. Raga! It would have gone by slightly faster had I not been the subject of a rather lengthy interrogation at the border:

- Where are you headed today?
Well today I'm going to Grand Rapids, then in a few days I'm headed to Cincinnati, then I come back to Toronto next Monday.
- And what is the purpose of your visit?
I'm visiting friends! :)
-And how do you know these friends
Uhm... well, I know them through my website.

And that, folks, is where things all went wrong.

- Your website? What kind of website?
It's blog.
-What's a blog?
Well, it's kind of an online journal of sorts. I write entries, and people read them, make comments... the people I'm visiting and I have become friends via that...

She continued to drill me... Well what's your common interest? Don't blogs talk about politics?
What kind of entries do you write? Really? You have time for this in your life? And why would they be interested in reading about your life like that? I've never heard of this, explain it again? How did these people find your blog? What would I google to find your blog? And you trust them enough to go to their houses? Etc, etc, etc.

I had to explain about blogging, commenting, and blogrolls, justify once again why I do this, assure her that I HATE writing about politics on my blog, give her to topis of my last three or so posts, tell her what my friends did for jobs ( was sure to mention that they all work or voluneer for CHURCHES), how long I knew them, tell her about my trip to Chicago in March to visit the same friends, exactly what to google to find my site, what it was called, and on and on. It was taking a long time, so a second border guard came into the booth to check in and see if she needed backup. I heard them debriefing as I drove away: "So she's from Canada, and is meeting friends from the inter.... " I'm glad they let me through. She was sooooo skeptical!

Friendly border guard lady, if you're reading this, hello and welcome! Thanks for letting me visit my lovely friends! Feel free to keep reading!

There was still three hours of driving once I got through, which I passed by using my steering wheel for resistance and gave myself a good arm workout as I drove across the state of Michigan. My arms were actually sore the next day! Sweet!

I finally arrived safe and sound at Anne and Andy's, where Jean was also there waiting for me. I knew which house was hers cause I recognized if from photos she'd posted on her blog! So funny! It was like I had been there before.

And so began the Grand Rapids part of my adventure...

Mahwiage is wot bwings us toogevah tooday

I woke up at 6:15am on Thursday, and other than dozing on the plane the whole way to Windsor, I didn't go to bed till about midnight on Friday night. Mental note: sleep is good. Not sleeping is bad. It makes you do all kinds of crazy things. BUT, Red Bull can be your best friend in a pinch. That is all.

Trudy and I arrived in Windsor for Dave and Becca's wedding and were quickly integrated into the pre-wedding insanity (read: fun). The other girls had been there for a few days and had been cooking, organizing, and supporting Becca in all things last-minute related. We were all staying at Becca's parent's house, so in all there were 7 girls who had taken over. We had a blast that night - wine, giggles, foot massages, toasts, fashion shows, and a few other festivities - and getting ready the next day. Hair, makeup, excitement, photos... it was SO fun to be involved in all that, even though I wasn't actually a part of the wedding party. Becca was wonderful at including everyone, even in her formal photos. It was splendiferous, and really was great to be a part of all that fun stuff. That's really what makes wedding so much fun is all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

And the wedding itself, of course, was beautiful. I have TONS of photos (did you really expect anything different?!) which I'll pare down and post when I get home. The wedding was outdoors in a park with a little lake as a backdrop. It was casually elegant - they pulled that seeming oxymoron off wonderfully. The reception was a pot-luck BBQ. Everybody brought a salad or a dessert, and then there were all kinds of skewers grilled on the BBQs. Everyone pitched in, and everyone had a blast. It was a really neat concept for a wedding!

And now Dave and Becca are hitched! Ah-WOO-HOO! I can't wait to see them when they get back from their honeymoon in Turkey! (Lucky!)

After the wedding, Trudy, Jordan, Lloyd (friends from Vancouver) went into downtown Windsor (woohoo!) to party with all the 19 year olds who cross the border from Detroit cause they're still too young to drink in the states. Oh man, they looked like babies! [crying] I'm getting oooolllllldddd!!!

Heh.

We checked out the waterfront then found an Irish Pub with live music and chilled there before going back to Lloyd and Jordan's hosts and having a late night PJ party. We didn't go to bed till about 3:30. Once again with the no sleep. Once again with the Red Bull the next day.

Sunday we blasted back to Toronto and while Lloyd hung out with his old man, Jordan and Trudy and I did some sightseeing. Which consisted of a funky market-style restaurant and the CN Tower. And that was about it. We straggled ourselves down to the waterfront and collapsed on a shady grassy knoll for an ice cream and a wee nap. So pretty much I can say I've seen Toronto now, right?

Ok, so maybe the tower and a small section of boardwalk doesn't quite count. Meh. Whatever. ;)

After meeting up again with Lloyd for dinner with some of his friends from university and chilling back at one of their apartments, we crashed at Lloyd's dad's place and I got up early the next morning to head back south to Grand Rapids...