I just drove home in a blizzard.

no, seriously. there was a blizzard between abbotsford and agassiz. huge flakes. so many, i could barely see out my windshield.

could there BE any more driving issues today?

driving issues.

this morning i got to school 50 minutes after it had started. i missed chapel -- a chapel that i was in charge of. why, you ask? traffic. i now know what all those who commute the OTHER way feel on a more frequent basis.

i wasn't carpooling today so i stopped at starbucks. who should i meet there but my carpooling buddy sally! we had the same idea. she got her coffee and left and i waited another couple minutes for my drink and then left. as i hit chilliwack, it started to snow and the road got slippery and all of a sudden everyone in front of me was coming to a stop. there was an accident. i couldn't see it because there were some semis in front of it but i was pretty close. was it sally? i didn't know. then i saw a silver jetta up ahead of me a ways and thought to myself -- that must be her. she'll call the school on her cel (as i'm not carrying a cel around these days). well, a few minutes turned into 15 minutes, which turned into 30 minutes. i thought to myself, i should go check if that's really sally. so i get out of my car (which at this point, many people are doing) and start walking up the side of the road only to see a man standing beside the jetta. shoot it wasn't sally. now i'm worried again that it's her in the accident. plus it's 8am (school starts at 8:15) and they don't know where i am. i walk up to a mom-looking lady and ask her if she has a cel phone i could use. she lends it to me and i call the school.

sally's there. it's all good. except that i'm stuck in traffic. the people on the radio are saying, "if you're on the #1 by #3 road, get off the highway. they've closed it down and who knows how long this is going to be!" oh man. i did some soduku puzzles. thanks rach. and all of a sudden, things got moving by 8:45!

i made it to school unscathed. my kids were sitting quietly doing silent reading while our part time teacher supervised. i got there in time for bible class. in fact i had many a hug from my students when i arrived.

yep. that's it. you were expecting more excitement? insert seinfeld quote about the pants here.

things that are bad

#1 thing that is bad? shopping.

BUT today i went to winners. now i have stayed away for over a month and today i knew tim was working late and i thought to myself..."maybe i'll just go have a look around..." i bought something. a shirt. but it was only $9.99. how's that for self-control?

#2 thing that is bad? fast food.

BUT i went to wendy's anyways.

#3 thing that is bad? skipping the gym.

this is especially bad on days that there's no good tv, you're husband's working late and there's no reason to stay home. how could you NOT go to the gym? umm...if you stay home and bake the #4 bad thing...

#4 thing that is bad? too many cookies.

i had gotten this jar of ingredients for christmas from one of my students that all that was needed was an egg and some butter. i assembled it today and made the cookies. now, you just can't have that many cookies around because they are TOO tempting. however, when i pulled the first dozen out of the oven, i dropped the tray and splattered cookies all over the floor. so now i only have one dozen. i guess that's a good thing. (but i'm still sad)

so that was my "bad" evening. (however, i'm feeling pretty good...haha)

what's with this hair?

or what's with this smile? ha. with no where to go today, i washed my hair and have been letting it dry with no dryer or straightener. whoa -- weird curl. you know, my hairdresser always wants to make my hair wavy before i leave the shop -- like trying to subtly tell me that i wear it too flat. then i go home and straighten it out. maybe she has a point.

or maybe not. it looks a little wild from behind. haha.

my teaching practices...

i'm mid-evaluation right now at school which means my principal drops into my class every so often and takes notes. eek. one portion of the eval is me choosing someone like parents, kids, other staff to also evaluate me. i chose the kids this time. so the other day when he taught them music, he gave my kids a survey and went through it with them. 8 questions for them to answer "always true", "sometimes true", or "never true" about me. these statements were like, "i understand my teacher's rules" and "My teacher answers my questions", right? the number one statement that almost all the kids said is "always true" about me was...

My teacher wants me to learn a lot.

now that's not so bad, right? i have high expectations! coming in tied at number 2 in the placings?

I learn lots of things in this class &
My teacher helps me with my work when i don't understand something.

it's funny to wonder what was going through their minds when they were filling these out.

Wii

so i tried out a wii for the first time on tuesday night. oh my goodness i want one. have you tried it? it's so easy to use and it's not just a thumb workout. i was running around, swinging for tennis, jumping over hurdles - it was awesome. we were at tim's friend jeff's place for games (regular ones) on tuesday and we'd finished a couple games and i was feeling desperate to leave because it was getting late and i was so tired and then jeff says to his wife, "i think we should teach rebecca how to ride the cows. she'll really like it." and i'm like, "wha?" well, tim and i didn't want to go home after trying this out. i kept saying, "okay -- just one more game of tennis." and then we'd keep going. it's a fantastic device. i'd recommend trying one out.

do i look a little unsteady?

it was skating day on friday. even though both me and my student don't look to happy here, we did have a really great time. there's actually another one of my kids behind me here pushing me along. now that's the way to skate.

you know you're a teacher when

you keep waking up in the night thinking of activities to teach "change the y into an i and add es". city - cities. i couldn't go back to sleep.

not impressed?

okay, so no one likes the "things i hate" post. i understand. what do you say to that?

how about a movie review? if you don't mind violence and a lot boston swearing, rent The Departed. did i already rave about it you after i saw it in theatres? well, the plot is just so fantastic. you're saying, "wait, he's a bad guy? what? he's a cop?" the whole time. edge of your seat with interest. it's not a movie that i'd recommend to my parents...even though i already did. it's so rough and violent. but i'd say it's worth the watch just for the cleverness. jack nicholson is the best at this role and even though you go into it wanting to dislike leonardo, you can't help but root for him.

what did you think?

things i hate?

so having missed last season, i thought i'd be returning to survivor this season now that it's on a night that i can watch it. let's just say, it's 8:45pm and i'm not interested enough to watch the rest. it's a little bit sad for me having been such an avid survivor fan for so many years. it was even mentioned numerous times at my wedding. ah, well life has got to go on, right? ha.



well even though i've been lacking in the LOVE posts this past 10 days of valentines, it's not because i haven't thought about it. everyday this week as i drove to and from school alone because my carpool partner was sick, i thought about things that i love. things such as my magic bag, cheese pleasers, ang's posts, cruise control and my straightening iron jumped to mind. however, i had many things that i hate jump to mind as well. i know, hate is a strong word. but i was feeling strongly about some of these things. so to counteract the love-in we've had this past week, as much as i enjoyed it, i just had to get these things off my chest.

i hate that cheese pleasers have 400cal. a bag.

i hate it when you're using cruise control and you pass someone only to have them then speed up and tail you until you pull into the right lane and they pass you. then you pull out again behind them, still on cruise control, and they slow down again, forcing you to step on the brakes and end your cruising.

i hate it when i'm straightening my hair and some hairs just want to stick out no matter how many times i straighten them THEN they're fried from being straightened too many times.

i hate ridiculous questions - there IS such thing as a stupid question.

i hate photocopying things then losing them on my desk and having to go re-photocopy them.

i hate finding things that i've already re-photocopied.

i hate headaches.

i hate hearing the alarm in the morning.

i hate days that you want to call in sick but know that you can't.





umm...alrighty then. maybe you're guessing that i didn't have a great day. i re-photocopied a ton of things today and then found them again later. i lost a lot of things on my desk today. i have a headache. i want to call in sick tomorrow but most definitley cant. i did eat a bag of cheese pleasers though which made feel temporarily better. i wish tomorrow was saturday. but at least it's not monday. and i'm just a big complainer. and i know it. but sometimes it really is nice just to get things off your chest.

ahhh...i think i'll sleep good tonight. haha.

twu? what?

so what kind of university is T-dub turning into? tim's spent some major hours at work overtime lately working on a view day video. you know -- have prospective students and their parents watch a little promo video? little did i know what this video was about. since when does twu have humour like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooHKC_F7ics

maybe i'm biased because it's tim. haha.

I LOVE So You Think You Can Dance

I absolutely adore this show. i didn't watch the first season but this past season was fantastic. my favs were benji and heidi though. after the season was over, MUCH started replaying it again on sundays. i watched the entire season a second time and i liked just as much if not more! whenever a show was finished, i just wanted to dance around the house. now that's love. the question is: when is the next season???

I LOVE...

i admit. i've been avoiding this. i've now had a couple questions about it and then today i walked into the penn village starbucks and sharelle was working. second thing out her mouth? where's the I Love posts? good question. i have some ground to make up.

but here was my first thought when i read ang's first I LOVE post:

"I like my sketchers, but i LOVE my prada backpack." "but i love my sketchers." "that's because you don't have a prada backpack."

name that quote.

I LOVE pedicures

i know that i've spoken of my $18 pedicures before but i came home early from work this past thursday and thought to myself, "i should get a pedicure.", walked in and got one. the price has gone up to $22 but it's still a steal. the woman recorgnizes me and was quizzing my down as to why i hadn't been there in so long. i told hre that i don't usually get pedicures in winter. she asked, "so you not going somehwere else?" and i said no. and then when i took my socks off, i still had a bit of old nailpolish on my big toenails and she asked, "this my colour?" like she hadn't believed my first answer. i assured her that it was. my toes look fantastic inside my socks inside my shoes. i'd be willing to take my socks and shoes off for you if you were to ask. ha. i love my pedicures.

I LOVE sleeping in

i was torn between "sleeping in" and "my duvet". like maybe i love to sleep in because of my duvet? but i decided that i'd like to sleep in anywhere. tim can't understand how i can possibly sleep in as late as i do and i always feel like i'm getting up earlier than i would because he's already up. i called my brother lasst sunday to ask him if he was going to watch the super bowl and my dad's like, "he's still sleeping"...it was 12:47pm. tim thinks sleeping in must run in the family. but i can fully wake up and look at the clock then think to myself, "naww." and go back to sleep for another couple for hours. i love it.

I LOVE diet coke

it sounds like i'm lacking imagination but i honestly love it. last year, it was the only thing that got me through the afternoon at work -- when i drank my diet coke in the peace of the staff room each day. this year, i've been cutting back to one a day so i drink my one at dinner. water with lunch is always a little disappointing but it's been okay. and then this past friday? i'd carpooled with sally so my car wasn't there. at 12:15, i walked into her classroom and said, "i NEED a diet coke -- can i take your car?" and i drove to the gas station to get one. sometimes, you just need one. i love my diet coke.

speaking of points...

so have you heard all the Z-points stuff on the radio? (for those who don't know -- on the radio, they give you a bonus word and you type it in on their website and they give you 500 points. keep your points and then you can bid on things in their online auctions.) well i never hear the bonus words at 12:15, 5:15, or 8:15 so i never bothered typing in the one word that i'd hear just get 500 points. there are people out there getting points for everything, right? well, yesterday i discovered a forum where people are posting all the bonus words to get points. in two days, i've gained 6500 points!

if you want to get started, type in the following:

akon
witty
hoopla
banter

that'll get you 2500 points right there!

i'm saving up for tickets to see rod stewart. ha.

airmiles obsessed

so i've become an airmiles collector through signing up for one of these westjet mastercards. if you're a gold member card, you can fly anywhere in north america for 1600 points. without the gold card, these flights can cost up to 5600 - 6400 points.

now tim and i want to go to the maritimes this summer and do the east coast trail plus see the other provinces too. so my great idea was to rack up airmiles to fly there since tickets to fly east are outrageous. so now the countdown is on and we have approximately 5 months to get as many airmiles as possible.

so safeway seems to be the best place to do this. this past week in the flyer there were tons of coupons for "buy 3 of these and get 25 airmiles" and "buy 8 frozen things and get 50 airmiles" etc etc. so i went there and scoured the aisles for the points. how many items do i need to get 50 points? it was a little crazy - i was there forever trying not to buy things that i didn't need but also trying to tell myself that "you'd be buying that anyways...oneday...". i bought 4 ragu spaghetti sauces, 5 boxes of popcorn, 8 lean cuisine meals, 2 frozen pizzas, among a list of other things. okay...maybe not the best way to get points BUT if only i could shop FOR someone else who needs to buy more than i do and use my airmiles card for them. it would be perfect.

--------------------------------ADVERTISEMENT---------------------------------------
Buy your groceries through Rebecca! She'll give you the list of participating airmiles products for the week and you give her a list of what you want! Read MORE!

so here's this week's list -- if you need it, let me know and i'll buy it then you can pay me back. (haha...i know none of you will do this but i thought i should put it out there JUST IN CASE you are willing) seriously. i'll make a trip to your house to deliver it. delivered groceries? what a deal!

General Mills cereal - $5.49
Tropicana Orange juice - $4.49
Nicorette - 20% off (i don't know the price)
Advil Pain or Cold and Sinus - 20% off
6 Pack of Royale Facial Tissue - $9.99
Redenbacher Popcorn 10 pack - $7.49
Kraft dinner 12 pack - $6.99
Post cereals 2 for $7
Kraft peanut butter - $3.99
Nabob coffee - $3.49
Kraft singles Cheese slices - $4.49
Anything Old Dutch - potato and tortilla chips, pretzels, cheezies, salsa
Delissio pizzas - $6.49

buy food from me -- it's for a good cause.