a day on the playground

after that week of my blog being down, i thought i could handle anything. but now, i can't upload my pictures. WHAT??? i'm having a breakdown here. but this is what i wrote before i knew i wasn't going to be able to upload the corresponding pics (beside the ellen pic):

at school, each teacher takes their turn on supervision just as in many schools. however...at this little school, we each have about 5 supervisions a week (as opposed to kara and james' once a week lax schedule!). i have gotten better at not having to plan during my recesses and lunches for the next block of the day so i'm not as stressed about having to go outside to supervise. haha.

now there's two sides to the playground. the school is in the middle. there's a playground with equipment and swings and such on one side of the school. then on the other side, there's a big huge field with goals for soccer plus a fenced in cement court for basketball or hockey. the latest thing there is to play four square in this painted circle on the ground. it's broken into quadrants and four people stand in their own section. the "server" throws the ball in and you can't let it bounce in your section more than once. you keep it up with your foot or legs but no hands allowed. great soccer skills. when one person gets out, they go to the back of the line and everyone moves over one quadrant and the person at the front of the line gets into the circle. pretty much the entire grades 5 - 7 kids including a smattering of grades 2 - 4 kids are in this area during recess and lunch.

why am i explaining this to you, you ask? WELL...because when i'm on supervision, that's where i am. there's this big line of kids to get into the circle and you wait and wait and then FINALLY you get in and bang. you're out. well...that's what happens to me. the other day i was out there on lunch duty and in 15 min i only got into the circle twice only to get "out" by the server throwing the ball into my quadrant and me miss it. lame.

but anyways, thought you all should know this little tidbit of playground life. perhaps you're thinking, "why isn't she walking around supervising?"

in other news...quote of the day from ellen degeneres:
"it is better to have danced and gotten whiplash then to have never danced before."

i'd like to dedicate this quote to my mom as it turns out she hates ellen dancing so much that she changes the channel at that part of the show if she's watching it. that makes me laugh.

it's back...

wow. no blogging for over a week. it seemed like forever, right? haha. i guess there's some blogger bug that has been doing this and they're "working on it". but i got help and apparently we're back in business.

here's the re-cap:

spring break day one: hurt myself skiing

spring break week one: edmonton - this included alyssa, rachel, shopping, my aunt bonnie and cousin joel, and the walk-in clinic a couple times for my oozing sore.

spring break week two: just ladies fitness, just ladies fitness, just ladies fitness. i officially belong there. my new favourite thing? watchin what not to wear while on the elliptical. i don't get that channel at home!

back to school days 1 - 3: great. i'm am so refreshed. i'm actually suprised. i feel like the past three days have been the best days of my teaching career thus far and it's not like anything special has happened. just the same old same old but the kids are great - they make me laugh and i'm not worn out at the end of the day. it's been a good three days. i think this may be the first week that wednesday ended and i didn't think to myself, "only two more days of the week. i can make it." although...it seems like spring break was forever ago.

i feel like my blog has been picture-less for too long. i can't even add any old pics though because tim's brother shaun recently revamped our computer and wiped everything off it. it's saved somewhere...just not here. please don't stop reading my blog - it'll get better. haha.

you eat to live, not live to eat

this is what the ever revered jack mann loved to tell me when i was growing up. i have been mulling it over today as i drove around town. yesterday i officially started counting calories and making a list of everything i eat. it turns out -- you learn a lot about your eating habits when you count calories. apparently, as i have learned, i like to be eating when i have nothing to do. i've also learned that rarely do i need to be hungry to want a snack. shoot. i guess those are good things to learn about yourself, right? this is hard for the girl who used to eat A LOT. i mean, in university i won a mcdonald's pie eating contest -- 10 pies in one sitting. and yes, i still enjoy mcdonald's pies. of course, this is why i'm watching what i eat now. haha. here's a list of my new favourite snacks:

1. 1/2 cup of frozen peas. when they're frozen, they're like candy. 55 cal.
2. mini bag of smart pop popcorn. popcorn makes you think you're eating a lot. 120 cal.
3. silhouette yogurt smoothies. 80 cal. (but they cost about $1 per bottle)
4. low fat creamsicles. 20 cal each!
5. nutribar "holy cow" bars (chocolate chip). they actually taste great. 100 cal.

of course there's always fruits and veggies blah blah blah. i'm just trying to give you some new ideas if snacking is also your favourite thing to do.

umm...i've been tagged?

yeah...jessica (from angs blog) tagged me. haha. i figure -- i like these things and will not be saddened by the lack of comments that i get.

THINGS I WANT TO DO/SEE BEFORE I DIE
1. go to europe (then i can start first in the train game)
2. ski a black diamond run
3. wear a size 6
4. go on a hiking trip with tim
5. have a kid
6. experience a "spa day" (complete with massage, facial, mani-pedi-cures, mud wrap etc.)
7. be the teacher that a child remembers as inspirational

THINGS I CAN NOT DO
1. more than one push up
2. touch my nose with my tongue
3. wear a bikini
4. not google peoples' names
5. take off my sweatpants
6. figure out elapsed time then teach it to my graded 5s
7. drive a new car (i wish i could but i can't)

THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO BOYS (or husbands)
1. wit
2. hottie-ness
3. loyal to his friends and family
4. slow to anger
5. thinks i'm cute even when i'm being a baby
6. likes swiss chalet sauce
7. name must be tim shulba

BOOKS AND MOVIES I LOVE
1. kensuke's kingdom by michael morpurgo
2. undomestic goddess by sophie kinsella
3. almost famous
4. garden state
5. wild hearts can't be broken
6. back to the future (1)
7. at home in the world by uhh...can't remember

THINGS I SAY MOST OFTEN
1. great
2. so anyways...
3. don't you like me anymore (i mostly say this to matt)
4. huh...(after the second "thing you should know about me" below)
5. random
6. I KNOW! (imagine monica)
7. my o-hos (spanish for eyes) are tired

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ME
1. i procrastinate by blogging
2. i will sometimes look at you blankly like i think you're retarded but really i'm just thinking (see #4 above)
3. if i'm with you and i'm not in sweatpants, i'd rather be in sweatpants
4. i secretly make fun of bad spellers (sorry if you are one of them)
5. i don't know how to put on make-up hence, i don't wear it
6. i'm not totally sure how to use a semi-colon
7. i dislike inside jokes if i'm not apart of them

PEOPLE I'M TAGGING TO DO THIS
1. whoever wants to...i don't even know 7 bloggers

edmonton...it's cold here

i took a great ice picture yet to be uploaded...coming soon. something to look forward to as this particular post is not exactly what you would call "comment-worthy".

actually, i walked to where alyssa works yesterday. it was about a 20min walk and it was brisk. but i wore my longjohns under my pants and a couple layers of shirts and then just my puffy vest and i was fine. so if you're just wearing a puffy vest -- i guess that's not THAT cold, right? so no complaints here.

we're off to the classic edmonton destination tonight: West Edmonton Mall. of course i've been there a number of times and i really don't need to go shopping (good thing tim doesn't ever read my blog - haha) but i feel like it's the thing to do here. plus when it's a cold thursday night...you don't really feel like walking down white ave. right? off to west ed we go.

so living with alyssa means learning about weather -- she does BC weather which is funny since she lives in edmonton. but here's an interesting fact about vancouver island's weather today straight from environment canada: there was a water spout off the coast of nanimo today -- that's a small tornado over water. crazy! and there was also lightning all over the island too.

ANYWAYS...

an airport observation

so...in my airport travels yesterday...abbotford, calgary, and edmonton, here's only one of the many random thoughts that went through my head as i was watching people. when the airline person lets everyone know what they will be starting the PRE boarding -- people with kids, older people etc etc -- there is a large amount of people that stand up and move closer. no, they're not pre-boarding...they're just making everyone nervous. so by the time pre-boarding is over, there's this massive semi-circle of people staring at the airline person, daring them to start the regular boarding. and they do. well now, there's a mad rush as the semi-circle discintigrates towards the door and everyone who was resisting standing up at pre-borading is now racing to get in line. there is now, a long long line up of people.

why do i explain this to you? because i have nothing of interest to write about yet today? maybe so. BUT, the observation i will leave you with is this (read it slowly as though i am saying it to you): you all have tickets to get on the plane. there's no rush to stand in line holding your carryons when you could just wait in your comfy airport seat unti the line is gone. why are we rushing?

peace.

cross country skiing's not for wimps

oh man. today tim and i went to cypress to do a little cross country skiing. for those of you who don't know, we borrow tim's parents stuff so that XC skiing is pretty darn cheap. and a great work-out. so we haven't gone all year since we bought our downhill stuff.

it was another GORGEOUS day. (see pics from last post for an idea) here we are skiing along and we think we're pretty good so we're doing the black diamonds (yes -- they have black diamonds in XC skiing) which are a really steep climb up so you're SWEATING and then a steep hill down which is totally insane on XC skis. they're just so different than regular ones. anyways...i'm sure i am foreshadowing here right?

i fell. i hate falling. but it wasn't just any fall. the very last run of the day, coming down the hill towards the parking lot. i must have been going 100 miles an hour (haha) on ice when i fell. i hit the ice but obviously am not stopping anytime soon. my fleece rides up and my side scrapes along the ice for a good 50m. ow. i'm saving you from seeing pics of this by not taking any. (if i had a pic it would surely be posted because i look really tough) huge bright red bloody mass of grossness above my hip. yuck. but i didn't cry. not until i was in the truck driving back down the mountain anyways.

so now i'm sitting typing this waiting for tim so we can start a movie and i have to have my shirt rolled up so that it's not touching my sore (which is like the size of my fist). yuck.

anyways...i'm going to edmonton TOMORROW! hi alyssa. hi rachel. rachel? i don't there are many options of "things to do in calgary" so no, i have no requests. on that note, i'd be pleasantly suprised if you proved me wrong. :)

i take it back...

the "it's not really spring" comments from a couple posts ago. it was most definitely spring today. tim was wearing shorts and i was in capris. we went to stanley park and walked around the seawall. we drove down by WR beach to see the sunset before coming to my parent's for pizza night. beautiful beautiful day.

in other news...two more days until i'm in EDMONTON! no way! hi alyssa.

thoughts on calorie counting...

here's a sad reality my brother informed me of last night: tim hortons french vanilla has 240cal and 7g of saturated fat. the cranberry blueberry bran muffin that i eat to be healthy? 340cal and 2g of saturated fat. shoot.

SPRING BREAK!

yes. it is here. however, the weather isn't exactly convincing us that it's spring. yesterday morning, it was sunny in abbotsford and i left my house with only a puffy vest because it was so mild out. around recess, it started to snow. the flakes were HUGE. when the kids went outside at lunch time, there was enough snow on the ground for snowball fights and snowmen. WHAT? two hours and 40 minutes later when they left school, the only sign that there had been snow earlier was two large snowman-pieces left in the field. it was sunny and by the time i got home, the roads were dry. then, this morning i got up to go to work and there was snow on the ground in abbotsford. i put on a long sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, a fleece, a jacket and went to school. by recess supervision, i was so hot that i wanted to take off my sweatshirt but the long-sleeved shirt that i was wearing underneath was one of those "only underneath" shirts so i couldn't. i've been so warm all day! i don't know...i'm a little confused about this whole spring thing. SO...i'm off to edmonton to aquaint myself with actual cold weather. ha. (the below picture is recess)

in my classroom, the kids have jobs, right? (thanks to james bisschop -- the supplier of all my "town" ideas) you remember the comment about the police officers giving me tickets for my messy desk? (see the poet tree post) well there's a mayor, city councillors, sanitation, recycling, parks and rec, unemployed, librarians, transportation, etc etc. the jobs switch every week and every friday is payday. we have paper money. the mayor is paid the most down to unemployed who get EI. at the end of the term we have an auction. today's auction was just so funny. last auction i got a bunch of things from the dollar store. this time i got a few things but kids had to bring an item to donate to the auction and then i also made a few coupons that they could buy. these coupons included "trade desks with mrs. shulba for one morning", "wear your hat in class for one day", "chew gum in class for one day", etc. well these were HOT ticket items. all items start at $2 and go up from there. some kids wait and wait for the item they want and then yell out their max. price. others bid on everything. the best was the "trade desks" coupon. i start the bidding at $2 and instantly, a kid yells out, "one hundred and fifty eight dollars!". no one tried to top that. haha. it was great. i can't wait until the next auction. i think i might do a silent auction. haha. yeah right.

here's some pics of me doing chapel the other day. i was pretending to do a card trick. i really had everyone going that my card trick was "failing" when really...i don't know any card tricks. the object lesson was that i'd read the beginning and the end of the card trick instructions but didn't read the complicated middle stuff. you have to do the hard work to get good results. i know...i know...very enlightening.

three more days til spring break...

our TA was taking lots of photos today around the school. i hadn't noticed him walk into my classroom. this was the shot he captured. yes, that look is how i'm feeling. haha. this is me handing out papers in science class. man, i'm zoned out -- like, i don't even see the boy in the striped shirt. honestly, i have more pep than this. i swear.

report cards were finished as of this morning when i printed them off and handed them to my principal. ahhh! what a great feeling. i am two thirds of the way through my first year teaching. unbelievable!

The Poet-tree on Display

This tree has been up in my class since day one, changing with the seasons. First it was green leaves, then orange and yellow leaves. For winter we made raindrops instead of snowflakes (haha) and today we added blossoms. Each new shape is a different type of poetry. Today's blossoms were haikus. The kids did a great job counting their syllables. We talked about how haikus are usually about nature then brainstormed things in nature they could write about. We wrote a whole class haiku about flowers which meant that most of the younger kids chose to do their own haikus about flowers too. haha. Probably every other poem has the word beautiful in it but hey! They're all haikus! Here are some samples:

Listen to the breeze
Swooshing through the autumn trees
Followed by the leaves
-- grade 5 boy

The Morning
Wake up to the birds
See the sunsine in the blue sky
I feel so sleepy
-- another grade 5 boy

The Flower Field
It is beautiful
While the wind breezes it blows
It's like a kingdom
-- grade 3 boy

aren't these great? i love the poet-tree! (and i'd like to add that i made this term up myself so no mean comments about it please. ha)

in other news, i'm still working on report cards today. hopefully i will get them finished. this is what my desk looks like at school. it's a procrastinator's dream -- always something to tidy and organize. haha. look at the stacks of paper on the counter behind my desk even. in this pic you can't even see my filing cabinet which also has a stack of paper and books on it. in my class we have "jobs" and the police officers write tickets to students with messy desks or who are caught "speeding" in the halls. the police officers consistently write me tickets for messy desk. I tell them that i'm above the law. that must be what happened on friday. ha.

a pleasure to have in my class

this is me (pre-haircut) at my computer as i am right now.

yes, i am mid-report cards at the moment. i often underestimate how much time an activity will take me. this is a long standing problem i have had. BUT the good news is that i only have 10 more to go. no problem. i can do it. i thought i should take a little break here and post something. ha - what a reward for myself.

so remember the egg muffins? see a few posts back if not. well, i left the muffin pan caked with crusty egg remnants sitting in the sink "soaking" for a few days. i tried to ignore it but things with egg on them tend to make themselves known by smelling. i finally succumbed and tried to clean this pan. it was so much work and i finally took a metal scrubber thing and decided i didn't care about scratching the no-stick coating because it obviously doesn't work. i scrubbed and scrubbed and then put it in the dishwasher for good measure. it's still not totally egg free but i will NEVER make egg muffins again. what a pain. i wonder if they work in a cupcake paper?

the other night i ran out of popcorn and i decided that i had to have some. i usually get SmartPop by Orville at Walmart but Walmart is just not a "quick stop" so i went to Save On. having not recently bought popcorn at save on, i figured it would be in the "snacks" aisle with the chips and such. after wandering up that aisle in vain, i though, maybe the next aisle over with the pop. no. well maybe it was the next aisle over in the other direction. but it wasn't. i went up four aisles with no luck in finding any popcorn. it didn't make any sense. finally i found someone and asked them which aisle popcorn was in. "oh! it's in aisle 9 - right there" he says pointing to the "paper products, salad dressing, and cooking oils". riiiight...that makes sense.

i recently watched a few movies. on friday night with my sister in law Christine and her friend Amy i watched Just Like Heaven and In Her Shoes. Then yesterday i watched Proof with tim and today we watched Weather Man.

In Her Shoes: starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Colette as totally opposite sisters. very slow. good part for Diaz -- she did a pretty good job. interesting character development. it was okay.

Proof: starring Gwenyth as the daughter of a crazy genius mathmatician (Anothony Hopkins). also a slow movie. lots of gwenyth's flashbacks. i can see that taking care of someone who is mentally ill (especially a parent) would make you a little paranoid that you were too. lots of gwenyth screaming at people. that jake gyllenhal(sp?) is everywhere hey? it was decent but i wouldn't watch it again. disappointing ending.

Weatherman: Nick Cage. he plays depressing well. i wonder what he's like in real life. tim and i actually aren't finished this one yet. so far...it's slow and depressing. the kid from about a boy plays his son FYI. maybe the ending will be the redeeming factor because so far, i'm not recommending it.

So, i'm really only giving a thumbs up to Just Like Heaven because i laughed outloud at a few parts and it's very light and fluffy. i also like reese. it's not that i don't like slow movies or anything -- about schmidt is one of my favs. these ones just weren't worth the slowness. like, in her shoes was over TWO hours long. it's just two long for what the movie was about.

i'm always up for recommendations in the movie department...

what cops will do...

to give a ticket. apparently they'll go from one side of the highway over the grassy ditch and pull a u-turn to give a ticket. not the greatest end of a day -- that's for sure. i thought to myself, i'll wait and tell tim tomorrow but after 15 min. at home, i couldn't wait because i was feeling guilty. thankfully 15 min. was long enough to get the pizza ordered before i broke the news. after i told him he said, "man, we wouldn't have ordered pizza and saved that $20 for this ticket." but that's why i waited! heehee. i know...it's not a laughing matter. i cannot believe i got a ticket. but no -- i didn't cry. that must be why i have it.

in other news, here's my sharelle quote of the week:

"To teach is to create a space in which the community of truth is practiced."

--Parker Palmer

here's my rebecca quote of the week:

"Do you have anything diet? I'm 99.9% parched and I sure could use a cola."

-- Just Like Heaven

Look for more [your name here] quotes of weeks to come...a new segment on this blog.

5 more work days until spring break...

the count down is on! tomorrow is a Pro-D day and usually we have a staff breakfast together at 8:00am then begin pro-d at 9:00am. well i finally convinced everyone that we should be sleeping in and getting to school at 9am not 8am. so no waffles for me tomorrow but at least i get an extra hour! NICE. here are some of us in the staffroom (giving you a picture to imagine us at pro d tomorrow)

from L to R: Melanie (kindergarten) John (principal) Geraldine (librarian) Me Bonnie (6/7)

it's been report card week this week and they are due to our principal on Monday morning. last reporting week i did all my report cards the weekend before they were due and man that was an awful weekend. so i'm pleased to say that i've been trying to do a little on them each day this week. even though "a little" means that i only have comments on 7 kids totally finished out of 21...well...at least that's better than having nothing. PLUS i have afterschool today (that's right now...i should be doing that instead of this) and after pro-d tomorrow. that's LOTS of time.

anyways, today was the Christian Schools Science Fair hosted by us and attended by only one other school. but hey, things have to start small sometimes, right? so anyways, 3 kids from each grade from each school. if you go back a little in my blog, you can see the beaver project? he won 1st for grade 4s. i was very excited for him as he's not the most academic kid. his mom was so stunned -- it was great. so that was the highlight for me today. but having this science fair PLUS so many sick kids made for an interesting day of uhh...not much work. in computer class (with my five 3/4s) it was games day so we're all playing solitaire including me (there aren't many options!) and the chairman of the board walks in to check something in the lab. i'm like, "uhh...this is our solitaire class." haha. i can just imagine at the next board meeting that my computer skills will come up. "why did we hire this girl as the computer teacher again?"

yeah. that's all for today. now i feel like i'm not living up to jack mann's expectations.