american dreamz sucks

wow. what a horrific waste of time and money. and to think that "the creators of about a boy and in good company made this terrible film? oh man.

but doesn't this guy from the movie kind of look like my cousin dan? it was weird. what do you think nikkels since you are the experts...

calvin and who?

today in art i'd planned on overlaying small comic drawings with a grid in order to draw them at a bigger size with a bigger grid. not a great explanation -- didn't you do this is school? anyways, not the point of the post...

the point is that i was using all calvin and hobbes pictures and i said to the kids, "who know calvin and hobbes?" and guess how mnay kids raised their hands?!?! ONE!!! w-h-a-t??? matt and i loved calvin and hobbes as kids. i guess we were a bit older but i was just so amazed. anyways. that's the end of the story. sorry if you were expecting more.

gymnastics finale

yes, the gymnastics routine is over now that grandparent's day is finished with. the performance was well recieved. the top pic is the three-four routine finale and then the second pic is the fives. no, she's not falling. it's the "coffee grinder".

sweet.

fyi...as of tomorrow there will be exactly 14 days until may 12 - rachel's wedding day. how you feeling rachel? can't wait!

a toe slash garden update

news on the garden:

my teeny tiny dahlias that i planted in the centre of the garden? they'll grow to be 2 ft. tall and now need to be replanted at the back of the garden. shoot.

news on the toenail:

had the regular wednesday night shulba dinner tonight and when jerry and shaun caught wind of this toenail, they took action. jerry, the denturist, went to his office and got some kind of glue stuff and shaun sterilized the tools and went to work at digging out my toenail, packing floss under the nail to raise it up and then jerry put this special glue on the sore where the nail had been ingrown so now it won't get infected and the nail can't grow back into it. it was quite the ordeal but very nice not to have to deal with this nail bymyself. it's hard to get a good look at your toenail when you're really not that flexible...

feeling much better already. who would have prescribed floss and glue for an ingrown toenail hey? ha.

are ingrown toenails contagious?

so there's this girl in my class who recently was ailed with an ingrown toenail. she's prayed about it everyday during morning devotions. she's been in sandals and even been on medication of some kind. during the whole ordeal i admit that i have been thinking, "is it really that bad?" eyebrows raised

and then i caught it.

i have an ingrown toenail. i thought i'd had one of these things before...apparently i haven't because this one hurts so badly that i couldn't put on shoes this morning. thankfully it was a hot day today so it was alright to be in flipflops but MAN it's sore. and i don't know what to do about it. augh.

but seriously, what are the chances that i have not heard or talked about ingrown toenails for years and then when she gets one, i get one only days later? i know can be a bit of a hypochondriac (sp?) but this ailment is for real.

any tips or sympathy ingrown toenail stories of your own, please let me know.

our gardening endeavours

BEFORE

AFTER WEEDING

AFTER PLANTING (i'm hoping that these flowers grow bigger because they're looking a little pitiful)

Yes, I was attempting a tan in my tube top.

Tim at work.











In the past two days, i have done more gardening than i have ever done in my entire life collectively. it's interesting to learn that gardening is not just something that you know how to do. i have no idea if there's any specific guidlines to topsoil...how much do you add? how do you know if you need to add? do you mix it in with the other dirt after you've added it? what about the flowers? will they expand and grow width wise or are there going to be 9 little plants far away from each other that grow into 9 larger plants far away from each other? i just want the garden to look like it did when we moved in last summer. i learned this weekend that it's not as easy as it sounds to do that. but hey. at least there are not more weeds. haha.

where o where has my little blog gone?

yes, it seems to have been awhile. what have i been up to? not that much. but here it is in short:

easter weekend friday, we had greek food with tim's family -- apparently this may be the new shulba tradition on easter weekend. very festive.

saturday we went snowshoeing with james and kara which was awesome. it was actually snowing while we were up there. very winter wonderland...in april.

sunday, church and pizza night.

monday, dinner with my family: turkey and the whole shebang. man, i love turkey. and i've decided that even though one may think that mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes...there are none like my mom's.

tuesday through friday: school school school. it was a slow week despite being only four days long. although, to update you on the gymnastics routines. we ended up doing a 3/4 routine and a 5 routine instead of everyone together. it was just too messy and at one gym class, i sent everyone back to the classroom and told them it was cancelled. no routine. however, i ended up separating the grades and they were much more serious about it after having almost having it cancelled so it turned out to be awesome. the grade 5s took it upon themselves to plan their whole routine almost all themselves and they put it to music. it is so great. we had our first performace on thursday night for student led conferences. the real performance is for grandparents day next thursday. it is so funny. i wish i could tape it and put it on here. also, tim was really sick from wed to fri so made for slow week nights as well. he's feeling better today.

last night we had our first people come to look at our basement suite (which is up for rent fyi as of june 1st). it's hard to tell what they thought. it's a smallish suite -- one bedroom. probably best for a single but cheap for a couple. if you know anyone wanting to live in abbotsford which fantastic landlords, it's $625 for a couple and we're willing to lower it to $575 for a single. what a steal. it has a gas fireplace and gets quite a lot of light for a basement suite. very cute.

and then today. it's gorgeous outside but i went to the gym anyways. tim's out mountain biking in north van (he must not be too sick anymore) so he should be home soon and then we'll go out and enjoy the sun together. i think we're supposed to garden. i've been puttin it off like mad because i am just not a gardener (wait a sec...i'm not a cook, a kitchen or bathroom cleaner, a laundry-doer...hmmm) but our garden is a little out of control.

anyways...probably enough posting for now.

gymnastics? what?

so i'm planning a gymnastics routine for my entire class to perform on grandparents day and student led conferences day. oh man. this is going to be hilarious. we have been doing stations around the gym for the past couple gym classes where kids go from mat to mat and there are "moves" for them to try. these are things like forward rolls and cartwheels. we don't do anything remotely dangerous except for the backwards roll. though i did have a crier on the forward roll one day when they hit their head too hard on the mat. anyways...whole routine. i'm going to try an choreograph this routine to a song so that will make that much better. but guess what song i'm thinking of..."in the light" - dc talk. when was the last time you heard THAT song? heehee. i haven't put the routine and the song together yet so we'll see if it's going to work. it may be best sans music. stay tuned for updates.

in other news, my own dance routine competition date is arriving quickly. May 2nd to be exact. 8:50pm. Abby Arts Centre. i'm putting this info out there so if anyone wants to come see me dance like a 7 year old in a horribly tight outfit, feel free. i don't think you have to pay for this one. the next time we'll perform is at the dance studio's recital which will cost big bucks and you'll have to watch hundreds of other kids dance as well. when i get my outfit together...maybe i'll post a picture. haha. yeah right. there are no other "beginner adult stage dance" classes competeing which made me think that we'll be shoo-ins to win. however, i come to find out that we won't necessarily win if we don't get enough "points"? so that would be embarrasing. haha. anyways...good times ahead.

a new week

ahh...weekends are just not long enough. i don't have much to say lately. i'm glad it's a short week. :)

"to teach is to learn twice." --some who's been there

folk dancing it up

despite all my "i go to dance classes every week" i don't know if i could teach much to my students for PE as dance is one of the requirements. SO, i had my class join up with the 6/7s today for PE and john taught everyone folk dacing. it was awesome. it's hilarious how horrified kids are of holding hands or linking arms. the older ones get over it quicker than the younger ones. strange but true. another funny concept is that kids do not understand keeping time with the music. there was this one dance where we really just walk around in a circle holding hands. left slide left slide left slide left slide stop stomp right slide right slide right slide right slide stop stomp. this was insanity. no sliding. just running until everyone crashes into me or john when we stop. then turn around and run the other direction. oh man. a couple of my grade threes never did catch on. link right arms and turn? what? i think the "rights" and lefts" took too much thinking for them. haha.

anyways. had to be there i guess.

my sharelle quote of the day:
"Good teaching can not be reduced to technique; it comes from the heart and the integrity of the teacher." --Parker Palmer

it's movie time

this weekend, while tim watched a hockey game, i went out and rented a movei for afterwards. much to his shagrin, i rented a movie called "Enduring Love". have any of you seen this moive? i don't think i read the back very well but all i really read was something about "psychological thriller" so i got it. it starts out with this couple having a picnic in a wide open field when all of a sudden a hot air balloon comes down, an old man jumps out and is trying to hold the balloon down because his grandson is still in it. the man of the couple goes running to help, a farmer comes running, a car stops on the road and the driver comes running and then there's also a random guy who shows up too. they all grab on and bring it to a halt. then all of a sudden a gust of wind somes up and the balloon rises up into the air (kid still in the basket) with all 5 men hanging on. they go higher and higher and the man of the picnic couple lets go then the next lets go etc etc until only the car driver is left and he goes flying up into the air with the balloon. after he's so high he lets go and falls to his death. WHAT A CRAZY OPENING SCENE! i was still interested. but it gets a little weird but so slowly that i fell asleep and had no desire to finish it the next day. the picnic-couple man has the random guy following him and tim said he was gay but i missed that part since i was asleep. anyways. CAUTION: read the back thouroughly before renting. (and i personally don't recommend it even though i didn't see the whole thing.)

a lake where?

no, i didn't take this picture but this is Mill Lake in Abbotsford and tim and i were there yesterday. what amazes me about this lake is that it is smack in the middle of town! it's actually right behind the mall on a busy street. one block over there's this picturesque lake with lots of playgrounds around it and a cement walking path. it's so great. there were a ton of people there yesterday because it was such a nice day but it was great nonetheless. so if you're ever in abbotsford at 7 oaks mall, turn right on bourquin and then take your next right and you'll hit mill lake. and hey, if you're in abbotsford going to the lake, why haven't you called me? haha.

playground pics

Here are the photos I had wanted to post with my playground post. the bottom photo is the four square where i..."supervise" (although those are not the grade 5- 7s as you may have guessed). something to note: i made it to the second square today. i must be getting better. ha.