ahh...halloween costumes

well the light's out at our house. 7pm and we're already out of candy. i guess i shouldn't have been handing out two at a time at the beginning of the night. the house across from ours is crazy decked out -- headstones, a huge grim reaper, cobwebs, and some kind of smoke..i'm not sure where that's coming from. i saw some cute constumes though. little batmans and snow whites. cute.

discussing our past halloween costumes is something that comes up year round when we want a good laugh. halloween wasn't the biggest deal for our family and i don't ever remember coming up with costume ideas too far in advance. hence some of the costumes that we put together. matt really had the best ones that will long go down in our halloween history.

This was my first halloween that i can remember - i was three. my dad took me to Kmart to pick out a mask and i picked this one. i remember him asking me, "are you sure you don't want a lady's face mask?" and i knew that this was the one i wanted. i just handed out the candy at our door. the carebear jumpsuit didn't exactly work. notice the celery in my hand and my sad pumpkin. i'm thinking this phoot was taken awhile after halloween when i was eating my celery and my mom said, "hey rebecca, put on your mask and i'll take your picture."




oh, the pumpkin. we just kept stuffing that orange garbage bag full of newspaper and it kept piling up at matt's feet. he actually had difficulty walking and i was way ahead of him. apparently we weren't expecting much candy withh those bags with our names on them.











i have another picture but blogger is being weird and i can't upload it but imagine matt with pantyhose on his face. haha. happy halloween...

what to post...what to post...

on a daily basis i can think of numerous random things to post about...like the movie highschool musical and how my hair bugs me and what i think on my commute to and from work but apparently these are not the things that get people commenting. as my cousin rachel explained to me in my early blogging days, she says i am supposed to "earn" my comments. so all week i've thought long and hard about something substantial that i could say and earn some comments and here is the problem: i don't have anything. sure, i could discuss reading disabilities at length or the beauty of the buntzen lake trail (where i hiked today) and how hiking there made me contemplate life or "post-modernism vs. christianity" (that's for you sharelle) but you know...i'm still more interested in less important things when it comes to blogging. maybe i'll write a quote at the end of the post or something to make up for it.

this week i ref-ed two soccer games in the rain. i don't really know the rules for soccer. like when the ball goes out by the green team in the end-zone of the green team, the blue team gets a corner kick, not a throw in. these are things you learn quickly. at one point in the game i started talking to a parent, only to look up and see the kids all looking at me because the ball had gone out and i hadn't called it yet. haha. this wednesday we have a tournament with chehalis, harrison, and seabird which is all day so that will be fun. i only have to ref one game and i think i've got the rules under control now.

also this week we began our coreography for our hiphop class. mary (my instructor), has picked an old usher and old mase song for it and let me tell you, if you don't like a song that you're learning a dance to at the beginning? after you listen to it a hundred times per class, you will hate it with a passion by the end! but when i checked mary's site for our music and coreography, i saw she has pics of the dance blast class that she teaches that i go to on wednesday nights (remember alyssa?). here are two pics...i always stand at the front on her right...just out of this picture. the person in the right corner of the pic is my sister in law. i stand next to her. in the stretching ones, i'm the person in the lower left corner. i have been super awful about going regularly since summmer. augh. just looking at these pics makes me feel guilty.



in more exciting news, my hiking class is almost over! all i have left is this ridiculous test on wednesday and it's done! i completed my last hike today. buntzen lake trail. fairly easy in comparison to our three other hikes but it wasn't all flat or anything. :) being keen enough to post this moments after getting home from the hike, there are no pics yet to post from the class photo site (since you know i wasn't taking any with my non-existent camera). at the end of the hike when we get on the bus, daryl, our instructor tells us that we're going to go for ice cream. on him. we're all amazed that he's going to buy ice cream for all 50 of us...very exciting. then we stop at not mcdonalds where ice cream cones are a dollar but at DQ where they're $2.25. what? how great! THEN he says that we can have whatever we want...even blizzards! wha..?? my husband won't buy me blizzards!(jk tim) so we go in and they're slightly overwhelmed by us and i order a dipped cone. my friends (term used loosely except for sharelle) all order small blizzards. but then we're sitting there eating and watching other students walk by us with their purchases: large blizzards. whole combo meals. who do these people think they are? we're stunned. but then we come to find out that our travel budget still had $200 in it and if we didn't use it up it just goes back to T-dub. well...this travel budget isn't just twu's money...it's our extra fees that we had to pay for this class! i paid $87 extra to hike so really...the DQ wasn't on daryl...it was on us. haha. enjoyed my cone until i started wishing i had fries but i enjoyed my cone.

“Deep is the well of truth and long does it take to know what has fallen into its depths” -Friedrich Nietzsche

a haiku for fall

i was out hiking again this weekend and my legs were reminding my this morning. here's an ode to fall, haiku style.

leaves rustle in the wind

colours floating to the ground

now i rake them up

things on the commute that make you say, "are you kidding me?"

> people who merge onto the highway going 45km/hr

> when the radio plays the same songs TO work as when you LEAVE work

> when you're behind someone in the fast lane who is going slow and then someone behind you speeds by in the slow lane and you just want to yell, "it's not my fault!"

> when the Z-effect jackpot is at $65,000 and someone calls in and guesses "a bottle cap being removed from a bottle" when that's only been guessed maybe 45 times.

> signs along the highway that use quotation marks badly advertising...
"homecooked" meals.

yes, this was my commute today. haha.

ahh...hair dilemas.

now if you're looking for a surfacey, self invovled, unimportant dilema post, you've got it right here. my hair drives me crazy. i'm at the point right now where i should go and get a haircut because it's in that middle stage but i feel like growing it out. it's so dumb to grow it out because it just does not look good pulled back all the time but then i see pictures like the following and think, no, it could look good. here are my thoughts with photos...

look at the possibilities - i really liked this hair on these two days alone. this was my courtney cox attempt. but i never wore it down -- too much work and i didn't have a straightener at the time.



so it looked like this. pulled back, gross bang strands, making my face look fat. this is what i would not want if i grew out my hair again.



so i cut it all off (this one being the most recent major cut)

but then it grows out. sometimes growing out can look nice like at this wedding.
but most of the time, this is my problem: (see previous post with caedmon for more evidence)

although now that i have looked through all these pictures analysing them, maybe i don't want long hair again because it makes me look younger..? i'm trying to look like a teacher. a grown-up one. maybe i should just stop wearing hoodies and pumas to school everyday and quit worrying about my hair. haha.

yes, these are the thoughts that go through my head each morning when i'm trying to make myself look presentable. now you know more than you ever wanted to. but that's why you read my blog.

caedmon kovacs

yes, i got to meet him tonight. liz and darian are looking good for the amount of sleep i imagine they're getting. the little guy was awake the whole time i was there which was fun for me but disconcerting for liz and darian as he had never been awake that amount of time yet in his short little life. he's so sweet. darian is updating their site often so keep checking it out at caedmonkovacs.com

in other news, it turns out that there is a whole world of movies that we have never seen which i would label as disney no names. they'd be in the category with marykate and ashley's movies except that those aren't no names. the one we watched last night (which was borrowed from owen dickie) was called highschool musical. okay, i've typed 5 sentences here and then backspaced because i just can't put into words the cheesy greatness of this movie. it's a musical so you're watching and then all of a sudden the whole basketball begins singing and dancing about getting their heads into the game. and for sure the most amazing scene was when the entire cafeteria broke out into song and dance -- it was fantastic. i imagine myself adoring it as a ten year old. if you're ten, i recommend it.

are you my brother?

well i got the link to TWU hiking photos and made it into a couple. proof that i hiked mt. baker (although it really could be anywhere from these photos)
eating lunch - me in the centre
that's me second from the left in black

in regards to my post title today, last night my brother called me to see if i wanted to come to WR for dinner. my parents are away in oregon and tim had already left for his trip. i was up for a dinner cooked by someone other than myself so i drove out to WR. if only i'd had a camera to take a picture of what he made.

sun-dried tomato pesto lingune with chicken
baked asparagus
mixed greens salad with red pepper, strawberries,and avocado with a balsamic vinegar and oil dressing

and to this i ask, "are you my brother?"

but yes, it was him. he's quite the healthy guy making faces at mac&cheese and eating at wendy's. he explained that the previous night he'd made some kind of fancy tuna steak which he pan seared in a special coating of crushed sea salt kettle chips and garlic. he said it was fantastic. he says that he would cook this way if he was living on his own. well well well. there are just no words to describe my amazement being his sister who sometimes cooks mac&cheese as a dinner for her husband. i could learn a few things. (but i'm going to wendy's tonight for dinner...i'll start learning tomorrow...)

the secret is out...

i've avoided blogging for the past week for one reason. the scrapbook. for those of you who had not heard, it was my mom's 50th this past thursday and i've been working on making this scrapbook for her with letters and pictures from lots of people from her past and present. but every night that's what i'd been working on and i just couldn't say anything about it on my blog. i was out of things to say. but it's out! the scrapbook has been given. happy birthday judy! she loved the book. it was all a success.

in other news, tim and i began our first family tradition: picking pumpkins on thanksgiving weekend. reminicent of pumpkin picking in cloverdale those days before the wedding. that was fun. imagine this is picture of tim and i. ha. (man, i miss my camera)

speaking of missing my camera, yesterday was hike number two of my hiking class. also to be noted: my first hike with sharelle - good times. we went to greendrop lake. so the hike started off with some wicked incline. we had good intentions to stay near the middle of the pack but we were quickly passed by basically the rest of the class. so it was sharelle, me and another girl on our own looking for orange tape marking the path and taking breaks when we felt like it. i have to say that one, it's more fun hiking with someone you know than not knowing, and two, it's more fun not having the pressure of people hiking close behind you. so it was going fine. we hit the first lake: lindeman lake. let me say that it is worth the steep hike to get to this first great lake. here are some found photos on the internet from wayne_n's (?) website in 2004 but look exactly like what we saw yesterday.


from this lake to the next laek (greendrop), was just slightly up and down which made it a fairly nice hike. what made it a bit more difficult was the rocks that we were constantly climbing over.

but we made it to the end which not everyone did. we were quite proud of ourselves. on the way back down, everyone left from greendrop at the same time so somehow we got caught up near the front of the pack that apparently never stops for breaks and practically runs down mountain. we got separated and as i was rushed along on the current, i slipped and turned my ankle. but i recovered instantly and kept going. then it happened a seond time. it hurt a little more but still almost instantaeous to the naked eye. and then the third time...i had to stop and let people pass me. augh. made it down the mountain. all good. until i got home and took off my sock only to find that my left ankle where that little bone sticks out? it's indistinguashable because the muscle around it is so swollen. shoot. so i'm hobbling around and annoyed at my foot. oh well -- hopefully it's ready to go by next weekend. hike #3 - elk mountain.

last night tim and i went out to north van and saw tim's friend jay. third from the left. have you ever been driving over the second narrows bridge and seen the sign for the marina grill lit up and pointing down to underneath the bridge? well i had and when jay mentioned going there for dinner, i was excited to see it. it was very nice. i had fish and chips and forced tim to eat his with a fork and not his hands which he was very annoyed at. ha. then we went to see Little Miss Sunshine. wow. great movie. i loved it. there's this part where the horn on the VW van is kind of stuck and it keeps giving this lame honking sound every so often and tim was in tears laughing. that's always funny to see in itself. and the running for the van? oh man.

then, last but most definitely not least: congratulations to liz and darian on the birth of their little baby boy. i've heard that his name is Kademon but i don't know if the spelling is correct or any other details. maybe she'll post a comment with the details? :) i'm sure there will be some photos to come in the near future. so very exciting for them!

tim left this morning for the week as he's off to salmon arm/revelstoke/kelowna/other places for the week for work. i'm not excited to be alone again but i'm sure there will be more regular blogging because of it. haha.

happy october 9th

24 years ago on this day, Angela was being born. Happy Birthday Ang!

2 years ago on this day, Tim and I got married! crazy that it was 2 whole years ago! it wasn't as nice a day as today. all you ontarioites were were in BC for some classic BC weather. what good times.

happy thanksgiving.

it's over

my love affair with the library.

oh i know...i raved about it this summer. renting movies. requesting books. the honeymoon stage.

at one point a lot of things went overdue at the same time and racked up a lot of money but i stayed calm and thought to myself, "it's okay...i just need to do better at getting my stuff back. i can do this." i continued the affair.

but now? i had 47 books overdue today. even when they're only overdue three days...that adds up. then when i pressed, "renew all" on my account, it told me, "too many renewals" and refused to renew some of them. these are books that i'm using in my author study at school. how dare they be overdue without renewal priveleges. i am taking these books back after school next tuesday and will not be returning to the library again.

oh i am serious.

thoughts at random

thought number 1: last night on america's next top model, the quote of the night was (in regards to the tasks they do on the show)..."nothing that we do is pointless." hmm...

thought number 2: i love fall. i love fall so much that i was going to write an ode to it but then thought...ahh...i'll stop at saying i love it.

thought number 3: teachers are of a different breed. i am at the christian teacher convention right as we speak (yes, and i am posting) and it's so funny to be with 1100 teachers at one time. i can't explain.

thought number 4: i bought these expensive runners awhile ago (remember that post?) and last night at dance blast i was dancing away only to realize that a part of the sole is coming off the bottem. what??? am i allowed to take them back without a reciept months later?

last thought: when is tim getting home tonight?

are you making fun of me?

so tim's away for a week so last night on my way home from work i stopped to buy myself some sushi.

i walk in and order a california roll and dynamite roll. as you can see already from my choices, i'm not a very exciting sushi eater. now last time i was here, they had put a sauce on the dynamite roll so i asked if they could not put the soy sauce on. (it's a father and son duo behind the counter) the son looks at me like i'm crazy and says, "it's not soy sauce, it's teryaki sauce." (can you tell i don't ever have soy sauce to think that that was what it was?) i say, "ok, can you not put teriaki sauce on?" he says ok. i sit down to wait and the son says to me, "so do you want a package of soy sauce with it?" i say, "no thanks." a minute later he asks, "well, do you want ginger and wasabi?" and since i never eat those anyway i say, "no, i don't need them." but i smile and make a joke about being a boring sushi eater. he still can't believe that i'm refusing all these things. another minute later he asks, "do you want the _________ (i can't remember the name but it's the little orange fish eggs on top of a roll)?" well i've said no so many times to his disbelief that i say "sure" even though last time, i picked them all off. he replies, "really? that's weird that you would want those and not everything else." i just was like, "uhh, yeah."

but why? why is that so weird? can i not just order what i like and be accepted?

i ate my sushi with no satisfaction last night. they say the first step to recovery is admitting the problem.

"Hi. I'm Rebecca. I eat my sushi plain."