you love teaching when...

in the middle of class a student calls out, "wow mrs. shulba! you really know how to make school fun!" seriously. word for word. but then i schooled them in soccer.

oh small schools...

today i taught PE to grades 1 - 5. it's a bit of a range. it's not great for soccer in the gym even though that's what they voted to play. those poor grade 1s and 2s didn't know what hit them...though it was usually the ball. i just ran around putting out fires (metaphorically of course) but it was quite the experience.

the french program is going great though. tomorow the 6/7s begin desk work. i'm a little nervous as i want to be on top of them to be speaking only french but it's easier when they're contained on the carpet. i'm sure it'll be fine. you wouldn't believe how much french i can speak now. haha.

i now no longer have 18 students in my class - it's down to 16. we had a family leave and they had 2 kids in my class. that means when my gr. 5s are out of the class, i only have 12. crazy. though it means we get to do some very fun things. (umm...maybe they're only fun in teacher-minds).

so that's the school update fyi. i cannot believe that next week is october. it really flies.

snow? in september?

on saturday, tim and i did something silly. we hiked mt. cheam again.

now maybe you don't know the tim and rebecca history of mt. cheam BUT in short: after we'd been dating for about a month, tim suggested we go on a hike - pretty much my first hike ever. he picked cheam because it was "easy". it's not. you drive an hour up a rocky, potholed mountain in 4-wheel drive then begin your hike staring up at the peak to which you are headed. and you stare at it the entire time you hike and it never seems to get any closer. it's discouraging. there are switchbacks. it's steep. at one point i told tim, "i don't need to go any further. i'm done." of course, we made it to the top. i was happy to have made it and learn that the gorgeous view is the reward. tim was sad because his new girlfriend did not like hiking. we came down. tim went on vacation for a week and didn't speak to me. thought about breaking up. who knew it was so important to him? but he decided he could be with someone who didn't like hiking. and we stayed together...as you know.

THEN (okay this isn't the "short" history...it's the whole history) we attempted mt. cheam again. (smartly, after we were married.) it was summer. there were more flies than i've ever seen before. 45 minutes in, i swallowed a fly. i don't know why i swallowed a fly. i guessed i'd die. and i freaked. we headed down the mountain.

SO here we were setting up a hiking date with our friends ryan and heidi to hike cheam once again. it was under clear terms that if it were cloudy and rainy - we would not go since there would be no view. but saturday morning came, it was cloudy and i asked tim to cancel and he said no. then ryan and heidi showed up at our place and we made jokes about it being cloudy and jokes about cancelling but still no cancellation. "it's our tradition to hike in the worst possible hiking weather ever!" ryan and tim told us. heidi and i were apparently along for the ride. shoot. and off we went.

as we bumped our way up cheam in 4wheel drive, it started to rain. "let's turn around!" the girls suggested. no way. then we find out that ryan hadn't thought to bring jackets. "we better not go without jackets!" i warned. no way. the higher the truck climbed, the rain turned to snow. "we're not hiking in the snow!" i said. of course we are!

this was the most miserable hike ever. part of me was very glad that ryan and heidi were with us because it was more fun with them BUT as we hiked, ryan confided in us that "if it was supposed to be just me and heidi - we wouldn't have come" and tim tells them that "if it was just me and rebecca planning to hike, we wouldn't have come". THEN WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

but we made it to the top. sort of. it was some wicked blowing snow at the top and it's all shale as you scramble for the peak and then there's a cliff drop-off. so we were at the top. but not at the very peak-top. really - it was enough.

and i have never moved so fast down a mountain in my life. i ran halfway down. with 2 inches of snow on the path. at the bottom, tim says, "but now you'll have a story to tell."

no email?

today i bought a package of "munchies".

there were only four pretzels in it. FOUR.

i went to the frito lay website to complain. thought maybe i coud get something free?

they cleverly do not have an email address - only phone number and address.

is only 4 pretzels worth writing a letter? hmm...i'll have to get back to you on that one.

but i really like pretzels.

the float...

how is it possible we only came in third?

this was before more kids had gotten therem. the sign says "fall in love with learning"

me and some of my students. (the plaid is my costume...)

sally and some of her students.


you wouldn't believe how long this parade is for such a small little town. the first year that i'm not working in agassiz, i will still be at the fair to watch the parade.

here's one of the reasons we should have won - fluttering leaves along the side of our float...

what are you doing saturday morning?

agassiz fall fair is calling your name. if you're looking for something to do - it's a pretty cute fair. tomorrow at 9:30 there's a parade (that i'll be in on a float with the school) and rides. lots of animals and tractors. all the great fair foods like mini donuts and cotton candy PLUS...the reason i stay aoround until lunch time? bbq chicken and corn. it's the best meal ever. they have tons of it. i was supposed to have entered my scrapbook in the fair but never got it in. shoot - could have won $4 if it had come in first. there's always next year.

on the road again...

the past couple mornings it's been so gorgeous out that i've been snapping pictures through the windshield despite knowing they won't be good...

see all the rough mountains in the center of the above pic? (and in the other two too) the one on the far left is where i'm headed. yes - that's how far i go everyday. here's what it looks like when i get to school:

it really is a beautiful drive on days like this week.

classic.

my mom's current facebook profile pic. i copied it and pasted it here because it's just so crazy how young they were when they started dating. and they both had awesome hair.

am i the only one who just learned about...

parchment paper? do you use it?

i was given a roll in a giftbasket at a wedding shower back in the day and used it mostly for cookies and frozen french fried. my mom uses it when she cuts up chunks of potatoes and bakes them in the oven so that they get crispy but not stuck to the pan. recently though i've been using parchment paper under other things and the results have been crazy. like brownies? i put a sheet of paper into the pan and then poured the batter over it. i was thinking, "ooh...maybe this isn't a good idea" as i was doing it because it was sticking to the paper. but when i pulled those brownies out of the oven, i was able to lift them right out of the pan on the piece of parchment! beautiful! and tonight we had sausage and eggs for dinner both cooked in frying pans with parchment under them. no sticky mess in the pan afterwards! this parchment stuff...pretty great. just thought that you should know about it if you don't already. but hey...maybe i'm just the last one to have found it. :)

the break up...

i don't know if you've seen it but we own it. jen and vince. and i watched it again today. the last 1/3 of the movie i cried and cried. and i've seen it before many times!!! it's just too real life. we've all had arguments like this. "i want you to want to do the dishes!" (haven't we?) i don't think it got great reviews...i don't remember...but if you want to see a bittersweet movie about relationships with a lot of too real arguing...this is it. haha. anyways...where am i going with this? nearing the end, tim's chastising me for watching this movie ("it's too sad for you rebecca") he says, "well at least it's a happy ending." oh wait...umm...don't read this next part if you haven't seen it before and don't want me to spoil it for you.

anyways...tim says, "well at least it's a happy ending" and i say, "no it's not. they go their separate ways". he's like, "no - they look back at each other. they're going to end up together." and i'm like, "no! it's that awkward conversation where you say that you should catch up sometime and then you both know you're not going to. they're not going to get back together - it's over!" and tim continues to disagree.

so what do YOU think? c'mon - they're not getting together, are they? that was definitely not the vibe. or am i just a pessimistic person who likes the bittersweet endings to movies instead of lame happy endings? let me know. i need some back up.

le premiere classe de francais...

they just stared at me and copied my actions. they started at me and tried to understand. they learned a couple lessons worth of words. they lapped it up. no one tried to speak english. i accidently spoke english! more than once! oh man. bad example but...it was okay. we can do it. everyone got a 5 in participation today. class two tomorrow.

first day back!

kids wouldn't believe it but teachers are nervous too on the first day of school. last night i woke up in the middle of the night and remembered that i hadn't cut out the leaves for my tree on the wall of my classroom. i was up at 5:30am this morning to get the hair right and the outfit perfect. i tried out the starbucks breakfast sandwiches. as it turns out, there's a reason i've never bought a breakfast sandwich anywhere...i didn't think i liked them...and i don't. shoot.

but of course, leaves or no leaves (and i did get some cut out and on the wall), the day went fine. i actually was not as nervous about the day as i've been the past two years. all the same kids except for two new ones. they seemed happy to see me and i was happy to see them. until math. haha. just joking. we wrote some poems, interviewed each other about summer, and played some capture the flag. and now the year has begun. tomorrow is my first day teaching french and just one block so stay tuned for how that works out. :)

as for the hair and outfit? i had one student comment, "your hair is different this year than it was last year. do you get a new haircut at the beginning of every year?" and i have a total of 4 blisters from my new teacher shoes. tomorrow i'll be back to flipflops and ponytails. :)

29 years ago...

these two got married.

happy 29th anniversary!

we love you!