entertainment what?

so if you or someone you know have an entertainment book, get using those coupons because they expire on November 1. tim's parents have one and we were over there the other day and joy told me to rip out any coupons i wanted. here's what i have:

vancouver aquarium - BOGO admission
hell's gate air tram - BOGO admission
pacific theatre - BOGO admission up to $32
the falls golf and country club - BOGO green fee
vancouver theatresports - BOGO admission
science world - BOGO admission
baskin robbins - sundae
seaside scoops - frozen yogurt
nandos - half chicken
taco del mar - burrito and med. drink
flying wedge - pizza slice
DQ - box of dilly bars
saras ice cream - one ice cream
tacotime - soft taco
little caesars - large pleaser pizza
after thoughts gourmet dessert - $7 worth of dessert
mountain mocha - a beverage
save on video - dvd rental
carlton cards - 25% off
mcgavins bread basket - 50% off

so here's my proposition to tim for today's events:

we to taco del mar here in abbotsford for a burrito for lunch. then we stop by DQ for two boxes of dilly bars, eat one then drop it off at the house. we grab a coffee to go at mountain mocha the head to vancouver stanley park. drive around there then go into the aquarium for a few hours. after that, we drive over to science world and see that bodies with no skin exhibit that everyone's talking about. then we go to nandos on W 41st for our half chicken meals. on our way to granville island for theatre sports, we stop at sara's ice cream on Davie for a cone. after theatre sports, it's only 9:00 so we head home and make to after thoughts gourmet desserts before they close to finish the day with a gourmet dessert.

that's nine coupons down. i'll let you know how it goes.

what i've figured out is that you need to spend a lot of money to make your coupons worth it.

next week: hell's gate air tram, a little golf then flying wedge and ice cream in white rock.

what's with my calves?

so after the hike, sunday morning i almost fell over when i got out of bed because my calves were so tight and sore. here i am monday night with equally as tight calves. why is this not going away? i've been stretching. i played soccer in PE today. i went to my hiphop class. i stretched some more. what's the deal? i almost tripped going down the stairs about my house tonight because when i stepped down, the pain shot through my body at an alarming rate.

tim gets home tomorrow. thank goodness. i love being married and living with my husband. i do not love living alone.

i have an assignment for anyone reading this. no. do not look away now - you've already seen it. here it is: "God gave us authority over the environment. read Genesis 1:26-28 and write what you feel is an appropriate Christian response to this verse. Give practical application of what we can or should do." this is my assignment due friday. any thoughts?

i survived

my first hike. it went ok. met at TWU at 8am this morning. didn't get home until 6:45pm. now that's a long day. carrying the pack gave me a wicked headache for the second half of the day until now. i'm sunburned. i ache. but other than that...

it was a beautiful hike. and beautiful day for a hike. not only are you in heather meadows, you have baker on one side and mt. shuksun on the other. it's pretty amazing.

it's also amazing what you can find on the internet. here are some pics of the hike though not ones that i took.

this is the view of baker from where we were hiking.


this is the mountain on the other side of us - mt. shuksun. according to our instructor, it's the most photographed mountain in the world...hmm...


this is what the scenery looked like. mostly alpine meadows covered in heather and wild blueberries. the blueberries were the best i've ever tasted. and yes, the sky was this blue today.


the mountain on the right is tabletop mountain. that's what we hiked around today. we climbed up in between these two peaks in this picture.

the sarcastic edge

i've gotta say that by friday, teaching grade 2s and 3s begins to get to me. most of their jokes just aren't funny. and they ask these horribly obvious questions thinking that they're funny. now don't get me wrong...i'm thouroughly enjoying teaching the younger grades the past three weeks but today...things got a little sarcastic and i just couldn't help myself. i kept telling myself, "you're the teacher. grow up."

situation: i write on board at the end of everyday things that should be written in their planners. they write them in and i initial them.
question: "do we have to write that in our planner?"
my answer: "no. i just wrote it here for myself to look at."

situation: i draw a 6 circle colour wheel on the board that matches the paper i just handed out to them.
question: "wow. did you draw that?" (and no...that's not sarcasm in gr.3)
my answer: "no. it just appeared here. what do you think?"

oops.

this particular kid however does ask the obvious day in and day out. as you can tell, art and planners are the last things of the day. i really am a nice teacher. i just don't write a post about all the nice things i say all day. haha.

my brother bought me this little calendar where you pull of the page each day and it's for teachers. there's quotes and stats and trivia etc. my favourite category is "if you teach school...". here's todays:

If you teach school...you possess a lot more patience than the average person.

this makes me feel better on a bit of a sarcastic friday. haha.

hiking? what?

so i'm taking hiking 101 at TWU this fall. yes, it's a class...worth one credit. one credit is what i was short graduating with my BA in 2004. no. i do not have a BA. I'm a fully accredited teacher by the province of British Columbia but I am one credit short of a BA.

i'm hiking to graduate.

i know, it's totally insane. faulty grad audit missed that i'd be short a credit and i guess all my counting and recounting proves my inability to do math. i've begged and pleaded and no one will waive this measly credit hence a hiking class that takes place on four saturdays this semester, a hiking journal, and a "personal library" assignment. i can do that while working, right?

so i go to the first thursday night "class" which is the only lecture class there will be. yes, lecture on hiking. i also was suprised. however, i learned the following:

> dress in layers.
> come prepared with water, extra clothes, extra food, and a whistle. "we need to be prepared to spend the night."
> if lightning storm starts, "there's no good place to be". the best option is to stand on your backpack in order to remove yourself from the ground.
> if a bear attacks you, you "don't swing first". after the bear takes it's first swing, fight back with all your might. aim for the nose. you're fighting with all your might because "it's going to take a couple swipes and finish you".

yes...he really did say all these things and the things in quotations were word for word what i wrote down on my paper. it's sounding a little bleak.

sharelle is RANDOMLY in my class...how great is that? however, her first hike was last weekend and i'm going this saturday. he gives you six dates and you need to be there for four of them. if you miss ONE of the four, you fail the class. augh...the pressure!

anyways...i figure with all the complaining that i do when hiking with tim, this will be a good opportunity for me to learn how to hike without complaining. plus i never ever carry a backpack because i'm so pathetically weak and now i don't have a backpack carrier for me so this will be a whole a new hiking experience.

i'll be hiking somewhere around mt. baker this saturday. stay tuned...

what not to wear

if what not to wear had been filming their secret footage of me today, they would have found me buying sushi to go in tan cords, old tan shoes, and a terry fox run 2006 t-shirt. then later they would have found me buying orange juice and neo citran at save-on in old sweats, a big sweatshirt, and those same old tan shoes. when you're not feeling good, it doesn't matter that what not to wear might be following you. and even though i was feeling sick i was actually buying diet coke and popcorn not oj and nc. when i got home though, i came to my senses and made orage juice with my popcorn though. the third week of school has hit me hard with a sore throat and runny nose that seriously will not stop, a super sore neck and shoulders, and headache that won't go away. i blame the first two ailments on little kid germs and the latter two on my new hiphop class yesterday. i drank some neo citran as well as took a tylenol sinus thing but i feel like they should have kicked in by now.

well i just wanted to complain and tim's away for the night in merritt doing a highschool visit. sorry that this is my first post in awhile and i complain.

i'd like to say that if my last post convinced anyone to watch corner gas season premiere last night, i apologize. there's just something about watching it on dvd without commercials that made it better than last night's episode.

in better news: tim and i tried a different church this past sunday - heritage alliance church in abbotsford. only about 250-300 people and we were there on their ministry fair day so we got to talk to people in the youngcouples/families ministry and sign up for stuff and then we stayed for the bbq and talked to some more people. it was a very good first sunday. we have found our abbotsford church. it feels good.

and my one last complaint: my ears are plugged from blowing my nose so much.

keep checkin the blog -- i promise to have more interesting read-worthy things sooner than 7 days. you know...things like the little caesar's sign holder. ha.

no pictures

i have to admit that i'm liking the new cooler weather today. even though the darkness at 8pm is throwing me off more than it does other years, i'm ready for fall climate. i wore socks and shoes today. i'm wearing sweatpants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt tonight. i'm a fan of fall.

unrelated...i'm sick of having no photos to post. i hate not having a camera. it still has not shown up and it's very sad for me. and maybe for you since you have nothing to look at except typing. it's keeping me from posting more often.

new favourite tv show has been corner gas these days. i rented the 1st season from the library this summer and tim and i are just finishing up the 2nd season this week...just in time for the 3rd season premiere. now i know you've all been watching tv one evening and flipped by a channel playing corner gas but when you stop for a minute, it doesn't seem worth staying on that channel. i haven't posted about liking this show until now because i know that there are some preconcieved ideas about the worthiness of canadian television but i'm finally standing up for this show. it's good. it's dry and there's no laugh track to encourage you to laugh (i love no laugh track) so sometimes you're not sure if it's funny but i really like the humour. plus it really is so canadian about things that you didn't really think about being canadian until you hear someone else say/do them. you'd know if you saw. after saying all this though, i'd recommend watching them on dvd where there's no commercials to distract your attention...

seven oaks?

well, tim and i have finally decided to find a church in abbotsford after a year of commuting to PPAC. last week and today we went to seven oaks alliance...sticking with my alliance roots. it's a big church. we filled out a "i'm new" type card and put it in the offering and got a call from a pastor so that was nice. but after this morning, it's weird to not have one familiar face when you go to church. yes, yes...it's only day two. but they were talking about the kick-off sunday bbq taking place on the 24th and i was thinking, "i know that we should go to that to try and meet people but i don't want to go." augh. the pastor who'd called (he left a message) said to call him if we have any questions. maybe i'll call this week and ask about their young adults/young marrieds stuff going on. the website says that there's a young married equipping class on sunday mornings but i hadn't seen any info like that in the bulletin. if you know anyone who goes to seven oaks and would like to welcome someone new, let me know. ;)

oh dear...too much to say

man, when i wait this long to post, especially on a week like this past one, you know that this post is just going to be way too long. but let's get to the important things first.

little caesar's has these people (usually kids) who stand on the corner with the $5 hot and ready pepperoni pizza signs, right? you've seen them. well i'd like to invite you to take the #1 Hwy to the Sumas exit and drive up the hill (away from the border) to see the kid on the corner of Sumas Way and Marshall. it seems to be a different kid every time i drive by but he is always shaking it like there's no tomorrow. full fledged dancing. by himself. on the corner. no headphones. the past week driving by him every evening on my way home? i just can't look away...but when i do look away at the drivers in other cars? we're all watching. he's the greatest. you'd think you'd get tired. maybe he steps it up a little during rush-hour. either way, it's the highlight of my drive home.

now that we got that out of the way...yes, i started school this year. and i was caught saying, quote "this was the least stressed week of my life" today. the secretary didn't believe me and now that i see that in writing...well...it's obviously not true, however, it was the least stressed week of my teaching career for sure. i think i was just super prepared each day, a slept really well, i ate breakfast every morning, i was happy to go to work each morning...it was great. they say that the second year is easier but it turns out it's true to a certain extent. i put a lot of work into this week but it was relaxing to know so many parents and to know what the school day was going to look like. that there was going to be chapel on tuesday morning and that it would be ok if i forgot to send the attendance to the office (which is pretty much everyday).

so...having younger kids. they're just so eager to do everything. best moments of the week:

> nearing the end of tuesday, a student says, "it's almost time to go home? today has flown by! maybe our classroom is in a different time zone than our old one!"
> counting down from five to get everyone's attention and everyone silent at 3.
> handing out the grade 3 math textbooks - they were so excited to have a textbook because they didn't have them in gr.1/2.
> teaching how to handwrite "a" and "c" and hearing kids say, "i can't believe i'm really handwriting!" (is that not a sylvan commercial?)
> having every single planner brought to class and signed everyday. (that's a record for sure!)
> teaching rotation and revolution today by having the kids draw planet orbits in chalk on the cement and then pretending they're planets by walking around the sun in their orbit while spinning. there were some seriously dizzy kids but they're all clear on those two vocab words.

yes, those are just a few. there were some frustrations too but definitely outweighed. now, i know it's just the first week but today i stayed at work until 5pm ( yes, i was all alone in the school) and have almost my entire week planned for next week. written in my daybook. i love seeing it all filled up. don't be afraid, i'm still the same rebecca. you should see my desk. i lost my grade 2 math sheets that they were supposed to do today. haha. ahh...things to work on.

so tim had told me that if we didn't buy a new car (new to us) by the time school started, that i could drive the truck to and from work. well that day has come and gone and i've been driving the truck. i'm thinking we may never get a new to us car because he's not seeming to mind the car and he's making me look like a whiny baby. haha. as much as i miss the good radio reception in the car, i've been loving singing my heart out to alanis and jann arden this week. (yeah, jann arden. i was cleaning out my cds and found it and thought - i loved this cd...why not dust it off?) although by today my throat was a little sore from all my singing so i put in city and color since i don't know it very well. it's been nice.

tim's away camping overnight tonight. i've had a homebody evening watching tv and eating pizza by myself. i cut out a ton of word wall words. i feel like i should go get a movie or something but that would mean leaving the house and taking this headband off. hmm...

what does my dad do again?

i go almost a week with nothing to say and then this piece of blog-worthy news comes along:



yes, this was published in the province today (for you ontario-ites...that's one of two main vancouver newspapers). a picture with jmac himself front and center with the prime minister at the US/CAN border. what was he doing there? you never can be too sure. the south surrey MP asked him to be there and his version of this featured moment with the PM is, quote, "i said, 'thanks for coming.' and he asked, 'well what's your name?'." jamie introduced himself and good old Steve thanked him for being there. my mother in law discovered this picture before us or my dad and cut it out for us.

what a great expression dad!