skiing

i have not been on my downhill skis since the beginning of '06. yes, i'm serious. i own the gear and never even went skiing last year. but not so this year. tim, matt, and i headed to manning park this past saturday for a little ski time. matt invested in skis, bindings, poles, boots, snowpants, googles, and a touque this week so we thought we should take him out. good times.

i admit, i was sad to be missing my saturday morning step class but as it turns out, i'd forgotten what a workout skiing is. my legs were killing me on my first run. i thought that i'd do great this year since i'm in much better shape than two years ago, but it didn't seem to matter. i stuck with the green runs, sometimes having to go by myself so that the boys could go do blue, and in my alone time on the mountain, i decided that skiing is not my thing. i'm not having fun going down the hill - i'm desperately trying to stay up. i'm am in constant fear that i'm going to fall. it shouldn't matter so much - oh well you fall - but it matters to me. i fell once. lots of snow p the jacket. had to take the one ski off to climb up the hill to get my other ski that had fallen off and then i couldn't for the life of me get the skis back on. i eventually got them on and finished the run but i didn't want to go back out. it was reminicient of night skiing in grade 9, ang. i wanted to sit it out. BUT i stuck it out, kept doing the greens and made it through the day. maybe skiing would grow on me if i went more often than once every two years. i'll have to try that out. i think i'll invest in a new pair of goggles though - the ones in the picture are from grade 7 and when i'd wear them, air was still coming up into my eyes and they left tiny foam chunks on my face when i took them off. haha.

as for matt - he's a natural at every sport so it didn't matter that he'd only been on skis a total of 4 times - he was great. i'm going to HAVE to get better because it's beginning to look like a family sport.

into the wild

a couple weeks ago, tim and i went to see "into the wild" in theatres with some friends. it is quite the movie. if you haven't heard of it - in a nutshell: a guy out of college, gives away all his money, and he travels around the US with nothing but the things he carries in his backpack with the ultimate goal of getting to alaska and living in the wild. now, i'm not a philisophical person and don't usually go too deep into the movies or books i encounter so you'll have to see it yourself and see what you make of it. but when we came out of the theatre, if we hadn't been with people, it's the kind of movie where you think you might cry the whole way home but you're not sure. it's amazing. see it.

super interested in the story behind the movie, i borrowed the book from a friend and read it this week. the movie is fairly identical to the movie which is great excpet the book adds a lot more thought and theories on the main character's reason for his actions and come comparisons to other people in history. an interesting read. read it.

then tim and i were in future shop and came across the soundtrack for the movie. eddie vedder wrote 10 of the 11 songs for the movie and performs them all. if you like eddie - this is a phenomenal cd. eddie and a guitar for most of the songs. so good. listen to it.

i can't stop thinking about this movie - it stays with you. february 12 - out on dvd. let me know what you think.

teacher shulba...

so, first week back has actually been good. it's hard to leave vacation but i definitely felt the benefits of rest and relaxation when getting back into the classroom. less easily irritated, more patience, more laughs with the kids - it's been a good week. some random stories?

whenever kids come up and ask me how to spell something, i always say, "how do you think you spell it?" and then they spell it out for me and i help them correct it. but man, wouldn't that get annoying as a kid? haha.

trying to drink more water at school has meant going to the washroom more which is okay because my class is quite well behaved if i'm out of the room for a minute. but the other day when they were writing in their planners and getting lined up to go to the gym, i slipped out quickly to go to the washroom (which is across the hall from my class) and there's a knock on the door and i hear a student call, "mrs. shulba?". so i say, "go away, i'll be out in a second!" embarrassing. so i come out and say to that student, "what could you possibly have to ask me that you would come and knock on the bathroom door?" and he says, "i wanted to know if we were going to have to run laps." oh my goodness.

in Bible class, the kids were following along with me in their Bibles while i read them a story about David and Saul from 1Samuel. it happened to be the story where Saul tells David to go and bring him back 400 foreskins. "what's a foreskin?" umm...when they're following along with you reading, you can't just skip over things. haha.

in p.e., we've started basketball. it's amazing how athletic my class is. i was avoiding playing a real basketball game with them because i thought it would be too frustrating but then we tried it when the gr.5s went with the 6/7s for p.e. and the 3/4s were awesome. one game that we play most days to practice shooting though is HORSE. that's where when a kid shoots a basket and if he misses, he gets the first letter: H. then when it's their turn again, if they miss they get the next lett: O. the last person standing without spelling the word HORSE is the winner. so one group was playing and the winning student yells out at the end, "i'm a HOR!" i laughed outloud. i love that they're still pretty innocent in grades 3 and 4.

all days in the life of mrs. shulba.

most suprising christmas gift of 07

a cd - the wailin' jennys - from tim.

the day before christmas, we each picked a gift to give to each other to open early. he hands me a cd-shaped package. "oh - thanks" giggle. rip rip rip. "hunh. the wailin' jennys?" "yeah, i really researched this to find you a new band that i thought you'd like." "hmm...thanks." "let's open and listen to it." "wellll...it looks country. did you buy it because you thought you'd like it?" "no - it's folky. sarah harmer like." "well, let's listen to some clips before we open it in case i don't like it." "okaay..." music music music. "sure, let's open it. it sounds okay."

as it turns out, (poor tim) it's the greatest cd and i've listened to it non-stop since christmas day. i love every song, no skipping certain ones. it is a little country - i can't deny it. but still fantastic. soo...

if you want to hear them with tim and i on february 8th, they're playing in Harrison Hot Springs (of all places...i don't think they're too big) and it's only something like $18. sweet!

i recommend a listen. even if it's just on itunes and not at the concert way out in the boonies.

the most coveted party favour ever...

so...greatest invention ever - the photobooth. when my friends and i were in grade 8 and 9, there was a black and white photobooth in Bootlegger at the mall and we would go as a group with our coins in hand and stay at bootlegger foreva eva, getting in and out of the photobooth. seriously hours. we'd plan the poses for each shot, people would jump in and out of the booth between shots. it was much fun. and these photos were the only things in our little wallets for many years.



i think i may have forgotten the fun of the photobooth...until last night.



domi and ang have created a photobooth. for real. with a screen and a camera and printer in a giant box like thing. apparently domi has one in hawaii and has rented it out at wedding receptions and it's been a big hit. and now they've made one here. http://www.photoboothvancouver.com/ . one cost, unlimited pics, greatest invention ever. well done dolientes! can't wait to see it up and running somewhere.



what event do you have coming up that you need a photobooth for? guarenteed hit.

happy new year!

christmas 2007

merry christmas! i think we can still say it up until january, right? though i said it to someone accidently at church today and they laughed at me and said "happy new year." hmm...

-

so as always, the shulba christmas took place on christmas eve. we tried something new - cooking food on stones. yes, marble stones with fuel under them like fondue... i was definitely unsure of how this would work and whether we'd be waiting a long time to eat but what better time to try them out on an evening you have no where else to be except sitting around with family chatting? and as it turned out, they worked great. they're quite fun. and healthy really - tiny portions of meat and vegetables? it was very good.

prawns were my favourite...i ate 17. so maybe it's not necessarily portion control...

-

and then on to christmas morning at the macdonald household. we forgot to take pictures of us around the tree opening presents but we had a great time nonetheless. judy served up a great turkey meal and we remembered to take a couple photos then. (and i know you're wondering - but it's blueberry juice.) :)

and of course we gamed it up throughout the day. good times.

-

hope you all had a great celebration as well!

poached eggs anyone?

this is just a little by the way...because i couldn't let this information pass by me without passing it on to all other egg poachers out there...

yesterday when i was on the treadmill, there were two tvs in front of me - one had the news on and the other had the food network. i don't know who picks these channels but i did not. anyways, watching the food network and some girl was making a breakfast meal blah blah blah and she was going to make poached eggs (you know, when you crack the egg into the boiling water and then take it out in 3 min) and these were her tips:

[wait, let's insert here that i make poached eggs all the time and the problem is that when you drop them in, even if you do it gently from a little cup or something, the white part spreads everywhere and doesn't cook with the yolk. you may not care but people who poach are feeling my pain.]

so the tips:

crack the egg into a little bowl or cup first. (i already do that)
turn the heat down a little so it's not crazy boiling when you drop the egg. (i already do that)
stir the water (whatever.)
add a tsp. of vinegar before adding the egg.

so yesterday and today? added the vinegar and WOW!!! HUGE difference! the egg doesn't fly all apart in the boiling bubbles - it stays together! you have to try it.

then the woman on the stepper behind me (who apparently had the remote) changed from the foodnetwork channel to the news. the SAME news that was on the tv right next to it. so now i had two tvs with the same thing on it while i finished my intervals. i turned around and looked at her to try to show that i was watching this egg poaching penomenon but she ignored me.

at least i learned about the vinegar.

inspiration (or...you did what?)

so with the lack of blogging from people i know, i've had to resort to reading the blogs of people i don't know. on my google reader list i have been keeping up with these two blogs: Soule Mama and Wee Wonderfuls. two very crafty, sew-y, inspiring blogs. they make you want to be able to sew. seriously. so after a monh or so of reading...i've decided to do something about it...

i signed up for a beginner sewing class!

i know, its almost as shocking as me signing up for the triathlon (i said, almost) but i just think it would be so great to be able to whip up cute shirts or sew baby clothes for your friends' baby showers with the fabric that you get to choose. then i could learn to make quilts. the ideas are really getting out of hand.

so if you feel the inspiration with me, by chance, and want to learn to sew yourself...consider coming to abbotsford for 4 mondays starting jan 21 from 6 - 9pm with me. it's going to great.

i saw it...

juno.

it was awesome. when it comes out in theatres near you - go see it.

where can you see preschoolers singing, choirs rejoicing, skits like you've never seen before, all in one night? agassiz! see if the grade 3 4 5 class pulled it together and memorized all their lines in one week. come one, come all, to our christmas production wednesday night at 7pm. maybe if you're in the neighbourhood. haha. okay, i know, i know - you're not coming. but one year, i'll put out the invitation and someone will come and it'll be great. :) yay for jamie, judy, and tim for their faithful attending every year! see you tomorrow!

relax - it's just christmas shopping...

i started today. christmas shopping. after a long day at work, i went straight to winner's and wandered around. then to costco. then to walmart. then to the mall. then to future shop. and it was a great evening.

if you don't let yourself get too uptight about 10 person line or the fact that you had to park far away from the door and then walk in the rain - it's not so bad. i'm definitely a "wander till you find something you think they'll like" kind of christmas shopper. sometimes i have some pre-shopping ideas but most often i don't. i think it's less stressful. i'm not really looking for anything...just looking.

so if you still haven't started your christmas shopping, take a deep breath and remind yourself that giving is about the thought - not the amount of money. there's nothing that any of us NEED so it's all a little bit extra and that should be fun to shop for. smile at the people behind the counter because no doubt they're stressed and if you're shopping for someone who's hard to buy for, costco has a great deal on movie tickets. :) just so you know.

happy shopping.

for sharelle...

biggest mandarin ever.

no juno?

i have been waiting for the movie juno in great anticipation ever since i saw the preview at some other movie. it has my favourites, michael cera and jason bateman, and looked great (in that artsy, film festival way that makes some of you not want to go see it). tonight, we were excited to go see it since i'd heard it was out in theatres.

I CAN'T FIND IT!

in a deeper search on the the juno website i found that there are some free screenings over the next couple weeks. only ONE in vancouver on wed. dec. 19 at 7pm. if you live in vancouver, i suggest signing up for free tickets at 5th ave cinema - find more details on the website. also, you edmonton-ites also get a couple free screenings. but alas, i cannot go because it's our christmas program at school that night. sigh. but i guess we can go another night. :)

oh the propaganda

in case you don't buy 12-packs of diet cokes, i thought i should let you know some very interesting facts that are now written on the side of the box:

"Refreshing. Uplifting. Hydrating? It's true. Research shows that all beverages contribute to proper hydration. That means wether it's your first can of the day or your afternoon pick-me-up, Diet Coke helps you stay hydrated throughout the day. So stick with the Diet Coke taste you love. Your body will thank you for it."

who's buying this (the words above, not the diet coke itself...i'm buying that.)? your first can of the day? your body will thank you for it? oh man. too funny.

calorie counter...

i found a site that you can type in all the ingredients of a recipe and it will calculate how many calories, fat, fiber etc is in each serving.

http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/recipe_analysis.php

just in case any of you were wishing you had such a tool.

you've heard the ads...

but will 10,000 songs on our phone really give us joy this christmas?

the clock is ticking...

as we come down to christmas vacation, it also means the christmas program and this year...i'm at a loss. two years ago i searched and searched for a skit online that could accomodate 22 kids. one year ago, i wrote a skit. this year? i'm out of ideas.

HELP! Au Secour!

sooo...any ideas for a clever skit? any links to skits? anyone already written a christmas related skit with 16 parts and at a grade 4 reading level? haha.

no but seriously - i need a premise for a skit so that i can write one.

some time on your hands?

so you know when you have a little time to kill and you're on the internet but there's nothing new on facebook or the blogroll? what do you do? i hate to admit it but sometimes i play yahtzee online. so today, i'm having a snowday! school was very unexpectedly cancelled (unexpectedly because agassiz never seems to cancel) and there's a few minutes until something on tv comes on.

so...i went to the yahtzee page. and i get this blank screen with this message: this page is unavailable due to excessive traffic. sorry for the inconvenience.

excessive traffic? so what? doesn't one want excessive traffic at their page? anyways...now it's gone and i'm sure i could find it elsewhere but i liked this version. and i really should find something more useful to do with me time. ha.

what do you do with your spare minutes on the internet...i'll be needing some new ideas.

does anyone else feel like this?

so once december hits, christmas shopping is on for me. however, i tend to find lots of things that i'd like. but you're not allowed to buy them because you're shopping for others. so...despite this rule, i bought myself a christmas present today. augh. i hate people like me. but anyways...what do you think? it's real leather even though it looks a little shiny in this picture. worth keeping?

a little inspiration...

okay - i've been avoiding the blog. and the reasons are two-fold.

one - i said i would be posting more wedding pics...well i'm not. i've been not wanting to post because it takes so much time to upload photos on my blog and when they're all on facebook anyways...why would i re-post them? sorry aunt laurie - if you haven't seen them, get judy and rachel to send you a link to their facebook accounts. :) though my uncle sent me a few so maybe i'll post those. but anyways, the point is that why should i not want to blog just because i don't want to post photos?


two - no one blogs. no one comments. facebook has turned the blogging world to bleakness. however, i was feeling a little more inspired today because three friends had posted and my heart felt uplifted. ha. but you know what i mean.

so here i am. back. making the effort to blog a little more because, as i was told a couple weekends ago, "it makes me mad when you don't blog." thank you laurie.

this week was report cards. it was definitely a different experience than my first year when i was in tears and spend hours and hours labouring over my comments. this year, apparently, other teachers were crticized by parents for not having as many comments as Mrs. Shulba. haha. it's nice having just 16 kids. this will probably be my easiest set of cards ever since i know them all so well too. but overall, a positive experience. parent teacher conferences on the other hand...haha. no, not too bad.

it's most definitely feeling like christmas. tim forced me to help put up the christmas tree (which only means pulling the fully assembled tree from the room downstairs and bringing it upstairs) on the day that it snowed this week. apparently, to tim, snow equals christmas. so it's set up before december even hits. but tonight tim and i are going to "Christmas in the Valley" which TWU is a part of. they put on a live nativity with acting and there's a play that you can go to and lots of live music in the atrium. we were very impressed last year when we went with both sets of parents but this year it'll just be us. we're going to eat at the caf for old time's sake. haha.

a taste of what's to come...

yes, there was a wedding. it was in edmonton. it was awesome. and so is the dance move my cousin sarah is pulling in this photo. holla! i'm waiting on some family uploads to get a few more photos to help tell my tale of our weekend in edmonton. but when my aunt bonnie sent me this one...how could i resist posting it?

you know you live in BC when...

you walk to the gym in your capris, tshirt, and thin zip-up on a day in november and you're sweating.

the fight against carwashing

besides a stint of youthgroup related car washes at the now-gone petro can at the corner of 152 and kg, i do not wash cars. tim, on the other hand, does. and it takes hours to wash a car properly.

so since we got married, tim will ask me to come help wash the car or tell me to wash the car and i never do. when we bought the mazda 3, tim said, "you're going to have to wash your own car now" and i said, "i'll take it to the carwash then." which means, he'll wash it himself as he's anti-carwashes. clean cars were never a big priority for me. maybe because i drove an oxidizing 89 topaz for so long. but i just don't want to spend the time.

well today the question was posed "do you want to help me wash the car?"

"no."

"okay." and off he goes to wash the car alone.

and then i felt a little bad. and it's a gorgeous day outside.

so i went and helped wash the car...for the first time in our marriage. and we captured it on film.

i was in charge of the hose.

here tim is looking warily at the hose in my hand because i'd just accidently sprayed a bunch of things inside the open garage. then i'd dropped the hose and it had sprayed up into the air getting us wet.

so i was put on wheel duty.

alyssa as teacher

so on friday, i had my first friend come visit me in agassiz...not just to visit but to teach all about weather to end off our weather unit! it was so great! she did an amazing job...and i'm not just saying that. :)look how engaged those kids are - hand raised with questions! go alyssa!

thanks for coming mrs. charbonneau!

take the parents...

tim and i went to the movies tonight and say "dan in real life" with steve carrall.

no swearing, no inuendos, funny without being over the top. perfect movie for seeing with the parents...or the kids.

there were a lot of older parental-types sitting around us at the theatre tonight and man they laughed a lot. i think they were getting some undercurrent jokes about having teenagers that tim and i just can't grasp. and they must have needed a laugh because they just let go. tim and i laughed half the time at all of them laughing.

but it is sweet...date-night type movie. worth a watch. it was nice to see steve play a bit more of an understated character. i was getting tired of his other character. ha.

i'm a "phase" person...

my brother goes through crazed phases...like canucks or baseball or pogs...and it's all he thinks about and talks about during the phase. sure - these phases were a long time ago and i'm sure he doesnt appreciate me bringing them up again but each one was much stronger than any of my phases...

however....

i am still a phase person nonetheless. maybe you remember the rice pudding phase? kozy shack at least once a day. or the john mayer phase? listened to him non-stop. or shopping at winners phase? wait a sec...

anyways, i wanted to keep you up to date on the phases du jour.

pears, creamy dill ripple chips, and tom petty. i watched a 4 hour documentary this weekend and if you've talked to me since saturday, i'm sure i told you something about tom petty or the heartbreakers in our conversation. i'm trying to stop the chip phase but they're just SO good. ifyou like dill pickle chips, i highly recommend creamy dill. as for pears? i've just been buying them all month since ang's birthday and want one everyday.

yep. what will be next?

in lieu of halloween...

okay, so maybe you've seen these ones but they're still funny.

circa.1985

vivid memory of going to k-mart to pick out a mask with my dad and picking this one. his response? "don't you want a girl mask?" me - "no." and so i handed out candy at the door in this outfit. very scary. though good to see that at the time of this photo i wasn't gorging on candy but instead choosing celery.

circa.1989?

the macdonalds were all about making your own costume. poor matt. i think he was a baseball player for the rest of his trick-or-treating years. haha.

since november 1st was always conveniently "bible dress up day", i usually had a costume that doubled. i was queen esther that year. minus the mask.

circa. 1990?

matt's memory of this halloween? some kid asking him "are you wearing pantyhose on your head?" this was maybe my least creative costume ever. black spandex, black sweatshirt, paper ears on the headband. angela showed up in a wooly sheep costume and put us all to shame.

lack of learning?

i just saw a commercial tonight for monopoly that has no money. it's all put on charge cards. so when someone lands on your hotel? they put their charge card in your bank thing-y and it adds up how much they should give you.

oh man. and if you think you're not great at adding? we have some problems for future generations.

okay...i know it's just monopoly. but you know what i mean.

the never-ending pillow search...

has it maybe ended?

i hate pillows. i can never find one i like. i've been searching my whole life.

this week i bought an extra-firm nautica pillow on clearance at winners and have slept on it for the last two nights.

but what's this? a pillow i like? it's still a little early to tell. but there's perhaps an end in sight to this search.

i heart sleep.

painting the spare bedroom....finally

we've been planning to paint this room since the day we moved in. when we went and bought the paint for our kitchen this summer, we bought the paint for this room too. every weekend tim suggested painting and i shot it down. i'm not a big fan of painting. haha. but it was finally the day. and now it's done.

oops - forgot the before photo...but you can still see the pink and yellow.

during...i can only reach so high.

after! gray-blue-teal?

now that it's done and we moved the bed in (that's been sitting in our office since we got it from the charbonneaus!) tim says he doesn't like the colour. the mattress is blue which makes the walls look quite green. he thinks that the colour isn't relaxing. me? i'm afraid that when i buy bedding to match, i won't want to sleep in my own room anymore i love it so much! haha. hopefully it'll grow on him.

so who's coming out to stay with us first?

the blame game

so today in class, we talked about not "playing the blame game". when you tell someone "it's your fault that we're in trouble!" - that's a blame message. we want to give "why" messages. (did we do this kind of stuff in school? i definitely can't remember...maybe we didn't even have personal planning) the kids love making up skits which is a lot of what we do in personal planning. but what i learned today was the 3 steps to giving a "why" message.

i thought maybe you should know too...this really could have helped us in life. ha.

> name the behavious that's bothering you.
> say WHY it's bothering you.
> say what you want to happen instead.

so now that you know the steps, take the quiz: are the following messages blame or why?

1. Someone in your group didn't do a part of an important project. You say, "I knew this would happen! That's why I didn't want you in our group. You never do your work. You're so lazy!"

2. A classmate told the teacher something was your fault when it wasn't. You say, "What you told the teacher wasn't true. I don't want to be blamed for something I didn't do. I'd like you to tell Mr. Jones the truth."

3. You were walking down the hall and someone ran into you, makin gyou drop your books. You say, "You jerk! Look what you did! My books are all over the floor."

the thing is...i did touch on the fact that just because you give a why message, it doesn't mean that that person is necessarily going to do what you ask. but i didn't really say what the alternative was...i don't know. what is it? tell a teacher? that can't be the only solution. because i'm tired of solving problems.

the library loophole

well...if you know me well - you'll know that i usually have mega-fines on my public library card. this summer, i did not frequent the library as my fines were up to $75. i wanted to go to the library but didn't want to pay my fines. unfourtunately, i had also racked up some fines on tim's library card. i once took out a teen book called "bad girls in love" on his card, lost it and never returned it. who knew how big the fine would be on that card?

finally - something had to be done. tim and i went in, i paid my fine down to $24 (has to be under $25 so that you can take out books) and started happily taking out books. however, tim wanted to be able to use his own card again but didn't want to have to face the librarian about why he'd had "bad girls in love" out for over 2 years. since i took it out, i'd found it again and it was sitting on our bookshelf at home. so tim made me go ask about his card. i told the librarian the deal and explained that i'd found the book - what would the fines be? she told me that only the cost of the book is still on his card ($9) - no late fees. AND if we returned the book, the cost of the book would be DELETED!

WHAT?

do you realize what this means? if you have a book overdue, you just keep it until they erase the fine and charge you for it then return it. for free!

okay okay - obviously i'm not going to be doing this BUT...it IS a library loophole that they really should look out for.

how much?

today i stopped at the dollar store for a few things. i bought one of those extra small bags of chips. i get to the till and the woman says, "you know, these are 3 for a dollar." and i say, "how much is one?"...she says, "25 cents."

...

to be a grown-up

the older i get, the more i think i should be feeling like a grown-up...however, i still seem to find myself in situations that seem strange because on the inside, i just feel like a litle kid. am i the only one who feels this way?

(just to put the following stories into context, keep in mind that i went to the store three times on the previous night for a variety of things that i would need for meals for the next couple days.)

something a grown up does that i do not: checks for all ingredients before beginning a recipe. today i dumped a box of cake mix into a bowl (okay - not exactly a recipe but you know what i mean) then before adding the wet ingredients, i thought ahead (!) and checked to be sure i had cupcake papers before starting. i did. so i poured in the oil and water and realized...i didn't have eggs. so i had to go to the store.

something a grown up does and i tried: make a list. i made a list of everything that i needed at the store so that i wouldn't have to go out again. i am hosting thanksgiving dinner at my house so i thought about what i'd need for that. i even thought forward to tuesday because i'm hosting another dinner that night. i made a long list. so far so good.

something a grown up can do that i cannot: estimate how much of something there is in a package. for example - i am planning to make a reciepe for tuesday that calls for 1 3/4 cups of sour cream. so at the store i look at the sourcream containers. you know them. tiny, medium, and yogurt container size. hmm...the medium didn't seem quite big enough so i got the large. at home? i'm sure the medium had more than 2 cups in it. why do i overestimate? who was at my place on fondue night and saw how many chocolates i'd bought to melt? case and point.

something a grown up does and i didn't: check to make sure you have everything on your list before leaving the store. it sounds easy. in fact, i'd thought that i had. but i forgot three items. oh well - at least they were tuesday items. they can wait.

back to the cupcakes with my eggs...stir stir stir. then i go to put out the cupcake papers in the muffin tin...i hadn't thought to actually count the cupcake papers when i checked them at the beginning of this story...and there were only 12.

back to the store.

it's painful to read - i know. doesn't this girl ever cook or prepare meals? (umm...) my aunts who read this are thinking, "are you related to judy?" haha. but as i am writing this out, i'm thinking...maybe it's not a "grown-up" thing. maybe i equate grown-ups to having things put together...but actually i may never be that way. i'm just this way. oh the psychoanalysis. but let me tell you - grown-up or little kid...i'm sick of going to the store for one more thing. but i still don't have everything i need. :)

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!