oh halloween...

so today in devotions when i gave the kids the opportunity to pray, i'd say at least half of them said, "Dear God, thank you for Halloween."

my computer is under attack

or maybe it's going to attack me?

it has a mind of it's own. for awhile, you'd be doing things on it and then all of a sudden the mouse would start moving itself around clicking on things and opening up boxes everywhere. then finally it would calm down and i'd have to go around and close all the boxes.

the computer very much dislikes facebook. it often shuts itself down when i'm there which is why if you've sent me a facebook message in the last week, i have not replied. i can't get facebook at school OR home now. i should go to the library...

and then tim, thinking it was a good idea, installed some anti-virus thing on the computer. it was of no help. and now, every website i go to, a page pops up saying that i shouldn't be looking at this page unprotected and so i press "continue" anyways and sometimes it lets me continue and other times it doesn't.

so if you've been wondering about the lack posts or the lack of my presence on fb - that is why. i do, however, check my hotmail and work email constantly at school. haha.

Flashback to Grade 4...

in grades 4 - 7, i was a runner. and every October, our school participated in the Bear Creek Cross Country. i loved it.

today i went back. i don't think i've blogged about being the cross-country coach this year but it's been fun being the newbie coach and learning how it all works as the teacher. and today was Bear Creek Cross Country.

i show up at school today in jeans and runners. my other coach (and another grade 3 teacher with me) says to me, "are you running in those?" i thought she was joking. but apparently, at the end of the day before the award ceremonies, there is a COACHES RACE. what? it's probably good that i didn't know or else i would have stressed. haha. but no, i was in jeans. i wouldn't need to run.

but since lisa (the coach) lives two minutes from the school and was stopping to pick up her sunglasses, she grabbed me a pair of pants to wear.

and now i would be a runner.

so the kids were awesome - some great placings. unfourtunately didn't pan out for us in the final standings but we had a GORGEOUS day and lots of fun.

and then the coaches had to run. about 1.8km. it's a bit of an adrenaline rush because there were probably about 40 people racing. and when we got to the start line, there was a woman in matching red adidas tank and capris - very professional. men in spandex stretching. these people are runners. i knew i couldn't do it without some walking...and there was some walking. every corner i rounded, i thought it was the finishline so i would start to speed up and then it wasn't the end! many people passed me...i did not pass anyone.

when we finally hit the end, tons of kids were cheering, i ran up the hill, fast guy sped by me right at the finishline but as it turned out they were placing men and women separately so for the women? i finished 5th. what a flashback to grade 4. though i didn't cry at the end this time. ha.

and now my workout is done for the day!

and then it was thanksgiving...

and we made it happen. turkey, ham, gravy, yams in halved oranges, yams and apples, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans with slice almonds, and rolls.

thankfully my cousin dan, who is a cook, and his wife nicholine were staying with us so they helped out a lot.

my mom and her sisters

yum.

my uncle sam carved the turkey and the ham.

and now that i look through the pics, i realize we don't have any photographic proof that i cooked a turkey...just witnesses. :) but i survived my first thanksgiving dinner with 17 people. next year? thanksgiving for 6 - 8? no problem.

here are a couple good pics from the rehearsal dinner of me and my grandma and aunts.

introducing matt and katie macdonald

what a beautiful day! the sun was shining, the ceremony was fantastic, the reception, great, and matt and katie are MARRIED!

my aunt laurie travelled with her outfit and bagpipes to pipe at the beginning of the wedding. so great.

i didn't have a camera with me so i rely on others. thanks to those whose photos i've borrowed.

oh fieldtrips!

today i sent my students on a very strange fieldtrip. this was a fieldtrip that "the grade 3 classes do" which is typical of the big school mentality...but i like it. this fieldtrip however was QUITE the planning. it was a car rally.

the car rally was in conjunction with the conclusion of our Mapping unit. the kids had to find their way around langley finding 5 different checkpoints. i'd made clues with the help of google maps from one house to the next. when they got to a checkpoint, someone would give them the clue to the next place. they would direct their parent driver to the next spot.

the reason it was strange - i didn't have to go. i stayed at the school! i had my cell phone and checkpoint parents were to call when all the cars had come by and driver parents were to call if anything went wrong. i got SO much marking done.

so after all my google mapping work, it turned out one clue was wrong. shoot. only a couple cars ended up making it to that checkpoint. the others skipped it since i'd give the drivers a master set of clues.

one checkpoint was TWU (where tim works) and the kids had to go into the building, ask where Mr. Shulba worked, and find his office to get their next clue. they were SO jazzed about meeting Mr. Shulba. tim called me when they'd all come by and said that there had been one huge group of about 17 and then a little group of 3. i asked him if they'd been quiet and polite and he reported that they HAD! yay.

the final report? one mom said that the kids in her car figured out that the numbers on the houses on one side of the street are even and the other are odd. another mom kept her kids on task by yelling, "hey! look at that!" every so often. one mom told me that as her group was walking into tim's building, the kids coming out were saying, "mr. shulba is so cute and nice."

hmm...

it's nice to see that this is a place that you can all connect and chat with each other in my comment section. i'm serious. it gives me great joy to see 9 comments...even when they are just a conversation amongst other people with very little relation to my blog.