entertainment what?

so if you or someone you know have an entertainment book, get using those coupons because they expire on November 1. tim's parents have one and we were over there the other day and joy told me to rip out any coupons i wanted. here's what i have:

vancouver aquarium - BOGO admission
hell's gate air tram - BOGO admission
pacific theatre - BOGO admission up to $32
the falls golf and country club - BOGO green fee
vancouver theatresports - BOGO admission
science world - BOGO admission
baskin robbins - sundae
seaside scoops - frozen yogurt
nandos - half chicken
taco del mar - burrito and med. drink
flying wedge - pizza slice
DQ - box of dilly bars
saras ice cream - one ice cream
tacotime - soft taco
little caesars - large pleaser pizza
after thoughts gourmet dessert - $7 worth of dessert
mountain mocha - a beverage
save on video - dvd rental
carlton cards - 25% off
mcgavins bread basket - 50% off

so here's my proposition to tim for today's events:

we to taco del mar here in abbotsford for a burrito for lunch. then we stop by DQ for two boxes of dilly bars, eat one then drop it off at the house. we grab a coffee to go at mountain mocha the head to vancouver stanley park. drive around there then go into the aquarium for a few hours. after that, we drive over to science world and see that bodies with no skin exhibit that everyone's talking about. then we go to nandos on W 41st for our half chicken meals. on our way to granville island for theatre sports, we stop at sara's ice cream on Davie for a cone. after theatre sports, it's only 9:00 so we head home and make to after thoughts gourmet desserts before they close to finish the day with a gourmet dessert.

that's nine coupons down. i'll let you know how it goes.

what i've figured out is that you need to spend a lot of money to make your coupons worth it.

next week: hell's gate air tram, a little golf then flying wedge and ice cream in white rock.

what's with my calves?

so after the hike, sunday morning i almost fell over when i got out of bed because my calves were so tight and sore. here i am monday night with equally as tight calves. why is this not going away? i've been stretching. i played soccer in PE today. i went to my hiphop class. i stretched some more. what's the deal? i almost tripped going down the stairs about my house tonight because when i stepped down, the pain shot through my body at an alarming rate.

tim gets home tomorrow. thank goodness. i love being married and living with my husband. i do not love living alone.

i have an assignment for anyone reading this. no. do not look away now - you've already seen it. here it is: "God gave us authority over the environment. read Genesis 1:26-28 and write what you feel is an appropriate Christian response to this verse. Give practical application of what we can or should do." this is my assignment due friday. any thoughts?

i survived

my first hike. it went ok. met at TWU at 8am this morning. didn't get home until 6:45pm. now that's a long day. carrying the pack gave me a wicked headache for the second half of the day until now. i'm sunburned. i ache. but other than that...

it was a beautiful hike. and beautiful day for a hike. not only are you in heather meadows, you have baker on one side and mt. shuksun on the other. it's pretty amazing.

it's also amazing what you can find on the internet. here are some pics of the hike though not ones that i took.

this is the view of baker from where we were hiking.


this is the mountain on the other side of us - mt. shuksun. according to our instructor, it's the most photographed mountain in the world...hmm...


this is what the scenery looked like. mostly alpine meadows covered in heather and wild blueberries. the blueberries were the best i've ever tasted. and yes, the sky was this blue today.


the mountain on the right is tabletop mountain. that's what we hiked around today. we climbed up in between these two peaks in this picture.

the sarcastic edge

i've gotta say that by friday, teaching grade 2s and 3s begins to get to me. most of their jokes just aren't funny. and they ask these horribly obvious questions thinking that they're funny. now don't get me wrong...i'm thouroughly enjoying teaching the younger grades the past three weeks but today...things got a little sarcastic and i just couldn't help myself. i kept telling myself, "you're the teacher. grow up."

situation: i write on board at the end of everyday things that should be written in their planners. they write them in and i initial them.
question: "do we have to write that in our planner?"
my answer: "no. i just wrote it here for myself to look at."

situation: i draw a 6 circle colour wheel on the board that matches the paper i just handed out to them.
question: "wow. did you draw that?" (and no...that's not sarcasm in gr.3)
my answer: "no. it just appeared here. what do you think?"

oops.

this particular kid however does ask the obvious day in and day out. as you can tell, art and planners are the last things of the day. i really am a nice teacher. i just don't write a post about all the nice things i say all day. haha.

my brother bought me this little calendar where you pull of the page each day and it's for teachers. there's quotes and stats and trivia etc. my favourite category is "if you teach school...". here's todays:

If you teach school...you possess a lot more patience than the average person.

this makes me feel better on a bit of a sarcastic friday. haha.

hiking? what?

so i'm taking hiking 101 at TWU this fall. yes, it's a class...worth one credit. one credit is what i was short graduating with my BA in 2004. no. i do not have a BA. I'm a fully accredited teacher by the province of British Columbia but I am one credit short of a BA.

i'm hiking to graduate.

i know, it's totally insane. faulty grad audit missed that i'd be short a credit and i guess all my counting and recounting proves my inability to do math. i've begged and pleaded and no one will waive this measly credit hence a hiking class that takes place on four saturdays this semester, a hiking journal, and a "personal library" assignment. i can do that while working, right?

so i go to the first thursday night "class" which is the only lecture class there will be. yes, lecture on hiking. i also was suprised. however, i learned the following:

> dress in layers.
> come prepared with water, extra clothes, extra food, and a whistle. "we need to be prepared to spend the night."
> if lightning storm starts, "there's no good place to be". the best option is to stand on your backpack in order to remove yourself from the ground.
> if a bear attacks you, you "don't swing first". after the bear takes it's first swing, fight back with all your might. aim for the nose. you're fighting with all your might because "it's going to take a couple swipes and finish you".

yes...he really did say all these things and the things in quotations were word for word what i wrote down on my paper. it's sounding a little bleak.

sharelle is RANDOMLY in my class...how great is that? however, her first hike was last weekend and i'm going this saturday. he gives you six dates and you need to be there for four of them. if you miss ONE of the four, you fail the class. augh...the pressure!

anyways...i figure with all the complaining that i do when hiking with tim, this will be a good opportunity for me to learn how to hike without complaining. plus i never ever carry a backpack because i'm so pathetically weak and now i don't have a backpack carrier for me so this will be a whole a new hiking experience.

i'll be hiking somewhere around mt. baker this saturday. stay tuned...

what not to wear

if what not to wear had been filming their secret footage of me today, they would have found me buying sushi to go in tan cords, old tan shoes, and a terry fox run 2006 t-shirt. then later they would have found me buying orange juice and neo citran at save-on in old sweats, a big sweatshirt, and those same old tan shoes. when you're not feeling good, it doesn't matter that what not to wear might be following you. and even though i was feeling sick i was actually buying diet coke and popcorn not oj and nc. when i got home though, i came to my senses and made orage juice with my popcorn though. the third week of school has hit me hard with a sore throat and runny nose that seriously will not stop, a super sore neck and shoulders, and headache that won't go away. i blame the first two ailments on little kid germs and the latter two on my new hiphop class yesterday. i drank some neo citran as well as took a tylenol sinus thing but i feel like they should have kicked in by now.

well i just wanted to complain and tim's away for the night in merritt doing a highschool visit. sorry that this is my first post in awhile and i complain.

i'd like to say that if my last post convinced anyone to watch corner gas season premiere last night, i apologize. there's just something about watching it on dvd without commercials that made it better than last night's episode.

in better news: tim and i tried a different church this past sunday - heritage alliance church in abbotsford. only about 250-300 people and we were there on their ministry fair day so we got to talk to people in the youngcouples/families ministry and sign up for stuff and then we stayed for the bbq and talked to some more people. it was a very good first sunday. we have found our abbotsford church. it feels good.

and my one last complaint: my ears are plugged from blowing my nose so much.

keep checkin the blog -- i promise to have more interesting read-worthy things sooner than 7 days. you know...things like the little caesar's sign holder. ha.

no pictures

i have to admit that i'm liking the new cooler weather today. even though the darkness at 8pm is throwing me off more than it does other years, i'm ready for fall climate. i wore socks and shoes today. i'm wearing sweatpants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt tonight. i'm a fan of fall.

unrelated...i'm sick of having no photos to post. i hate not having a camera. it still has not shown up and it's very sad for me. and maybe for you since you have nothing to look at except typing. it's keeping me from posting more often.

new favourite tv show has been corner gas these days. i rented the 1st season from the library this summer and tim and i are just finishing up the 2nd season this week...just in time for the 3rd season premiere. now i know you've all been watching tv one evening and flipped by a channel playing corner gas but when you stop for a minute, it doesn't seem worth staying on that channel. i haven't posted about liking this show until now because i know that there are some preconcieved ideas about the worthiness of canadian television but i'm finally standing up for this show. it's good. it's dry and there's no laugh track to encourage you to laugh (i love no laugh track) so sometimes you're not sure if it's funny but i really like the humour. plus it really is so canadian about things that you didn't really think about being canadian until you hear someone else say/do them. you'd know if you saw. after saying all this though, i'd recommend watching them on dvd where there's no commercials to distract your attention...

seven oaks?

well, tim and i have finally decided to find a church in abbotsford after a year of commuting to PPAC. last week and today we went to seven oaks alliance...sticking with my alliance roots. it's a big church. we filled out a "i'm new" type card and put it in the offering and got a call from a pastor so that was nice. but after this morning, it's weird to not have one familiar face when you go to church. yes, yes...it's only day two. but they were talking about the kick-off sunday bbq taking place on the 24th and i was thinking, "i know that we should go to that to try and meet people but i don't want to go." augh. the pastor who'd called (he left a message) said to call him if we have any questions. maybe i'll call this week and ask about their young adults/young marrieds stuff going on. the website says that there's a young married equipping class on sunday mornings but i hadn't seen any info like that in the bulletin. if you know anyone who goes to seven oaks and would like to welcome someone new, let me know. ;)

oh dear...too much to say

man, when i wait this long to post, especially on a week like this past one, you know that this post is just going to be way too long. but let's get to the important things first.

little caesar's has these people (usually kids) who stand on the corner with the $5 hot and ready pepperoni pizza signs, right? you've seen them. well i'd like to invite you to take the #1 Hwy to the Sumas exit and drive up the hill (away from the border) to see the kid on the corner of Sumas Way and Marshall. it seems to be a different kid every time i drive by but he is always shaking it like there's no tomorrow. full fledged dancing. by himself. on the corner. no headphones. the past week driving by him every evening on my way home? i just can't look away...but when i do look away at the drivers in other cars? we're all watching. he's the greatest. you'd think you'd get tired. maybe he steps it up a little during rush-hour. either way, it's the highlight of my drive home.

now that we got that out of the way...yes, i started school this year. and i was caught saying, quote "this was the least stressed week of my life" today. the secretary didn't believe me and now that i see that in writing...well...it's obviously not true, however, it was the least stressed week of my teaching career for sure. i think i was just super prepared each day, a slept really well, i ate breakfast every morning, i was happy to go to work each morning...it was great. they say that the second year is easier but it turns out it's true to a certain extent. i put a lot of work into this week but it was relaxing to know so many parents and to know what the school day was going to look like. that there was going to be chapel on tuesday morning and that it would be ok if i forgot to send the attendance to the office (which is pretty much everyday).

so...having younger kids. they're just so eager to do everything. best moments of the week:

> nearing the end of tuesday, a student says, "it's almost time to go home? today has flown by! maybe our classroom is in a different time zone than our old one!"
> counting down from five to get everyone's attention and everyone silent at 3.
> handing out the grade 3 math textbooks - they were so excited to have a textbook because they didn't have them in gr.1/2.
> teaching how to handwrite "a" and "c" and hearing kids say, "i can't believe i'm really handwriting!" (is that not a sylvan commercial?)
> having every single planner brought to class and signed everyday. (that's a record for sure!)
> teaching rotation and revolution today by having the kids draw planet orbits in chalk on the cement and then pretending they're planets by walking around the sun in their orbit while spinning. there were some seriously dizzy kids but they're all clear on those two vocab words.

yes, those are just a few. there were some frustrations too but definitely outweighed. now, i know it's just the first week but today i stayed at work until 5pm ( yes, i was all alone in the school) and have almost my entire week planned for next week. written in my daybook. i love seeing it all filled up. don't be afraid, i'm still the same rebecca. you should see my desk. i lost my grade 2 math sheets that they were supposed to do today. haha. ahh...things to work on.

so tim had told me that if we didn't buy a new car (new to us) by the time school started, that i could drive the truck to and from work. well that day has come and gone and i've been driving the truck. i'm thinking we may never get a new to us car because he's not seeming to mind the car and he's making me look like a whiny baby. haha. as much as i miss the good radio reception in the car, i've been loving singing my heart out to alanis and jann arden this week. (yeah, jann arden. i was cleaning out my cds and found it and thought - i loved this cd...why not dust it off?) although by today my throat was a little sore from all my singing so i put in city and color since i don't know it very well. it's been nice.

tim's away camping overnight tonight. i've had a homebody evening watching tv and eating pizza by myself. i cut out a ton of word wall words. i feel like i should go get a movie or something but that would mean leaving the house and taking this headband off. hmm...

what does my dad do again?

i go almost a week with nothing to say and then this piece of blog-worthy news comes along:



yes, this was published in the province today (for you ontario-ites...that's one of two main vancouver newspapers). a picture with jmac himself front and center with the prime minister at the US/CAN border. what was he doing there? you never can be too sure. the south surrey MP asked him to be there and his version of this featured moment with the PM is, quote, "i said, 'thanks for coming.' and he asked, 'well what's your name?'." jamie introduced himself and good old Steve thanked him for being there. my mother in law discovered this picture before us or my dad and cut it out for us.

what a great expression dad!

addicted to mute

growing up in a family where both parents couldn't find the remote fast enough when the commercials came on in order to mute them, i have inherited this characteristic. i am addicted to the mute button. our tv is hooked up to the stereo and the stereo has a mute that just turns the sound way down but not totally silent which i love even more than plain old mute. however, when people are over to watch season finales and such, i often get strange looks when i mute. like, "if it's silent, what are we going to talk about?" looks. tim is the most anti-mute person i've met however and on veg-out evenings there is quite a bit of complaining about the muteing. but i can't help myself. i used to fight it when my parents had the remote but now that it's me, i can't figure out why you wouldn't want to turn down those too-loud commercials.

in regards to real life...aka school...my first couple days have been good. it's nice to break into routines slowly without kids there for a few days and you can remind yourself about all the things you love about teaching. my whole classroom has been revamped with new furniture layouts and faux bulletin boards (wha?) and i love that. i had two major meetings today: one with our new TA in regards to a number of students that she'll be working with - 1hr 20min and one with the PR commitee of which i am the newest member - 1hr 10min. last year i wasn't on a committee (we have a few) but this year with one teacher leaving, there was an opening that required a teacher so i stepped in. i've been appointed secretary with my quick typing skills (haha) so i typed the minutes while the meeting took place. i find when you're the writer, there's less pressure on you to interject into the discussions. this is the number one reason i volunteered regularly to be the writer on the posters in education group work in university. ha. (reason number two? using smelly felts...) anyways...so a chunk of the afternoon was with other people plus coffee breaks (aka iced tea breaks). umm...really, i'm feeling like i haven't gotten that much done. tomorrow will be a more focused day. maybe i'll make a list of goals. maybe i'll schedule my time in raquel units.

muscle maker

yes, that's the name of the granola that i made tonight (recipe from Women's Health). researchers found that vitamin E in the granola's nuts, apricots, and oatmeal, helps speed muscle recovery after you workout too hard.

Ingredients
• nonstick cooking spray
• 3 cup plain oatmeal
• 1/2 cup almonds and hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar,
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoon orange juice
• . Dash of salt
• 1/4 cup dried apricots,


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 ° and coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mix oats, nuts, and seeds. In a separate bowl, stir honey, sugar, oil, juice, and salt together.

3. Combine the two bowls and spread mixture on the cookie sheet. Bake about 20 minutes or until evenly browned. Let cool.

4. Stir in apricots, then place granola in six airtight ziplock bags for easy retrieval.

some good vibrations

"Vibrations good like Sunkist
Many wanna know who done this
Marky Mark and I'm here to move you
Rhymes will groove you
And I'm here to prove to you
That we can party on the positive side
And pump positive vibes
So come along for the ride
Making you feel the rhythm is my occupation
So feel the vibration"

ahh yes, marky mark. i swear, i tried to find a picture of him in the funky bunch days with a shirt on and it doesn't exist. i played this song today loudly while i cleaned the living room. i went to see Invincible (in theatres now) starring Mark Wahlberg himself. I've been a fan since he did Rockstar. i recently saw a THS (True Hollywood Story) about him and his life and it was so interesting. they were saying that if his brother donny (of NKOTB) hadn't hooked him up with his own agent and helped him get started with the funky bunch, he'd most likely be in jail today with the path he was going. very interesting story. and seriously, who could move away from the pants-dropping underwear model white rapper persona and go onto acting in pretty decent movies? planet of the apes, rockstar, italian job, i heart huckabees, etc. AND when i was googling for pictures, i found out that between now and 2008, he's in 4 more movies coming out. it's a pretty amazing story -- how can you not love marky?

ANYWAYS...so tim and i went with some friends last night to see Invincible and it's a great movie. rated G so you can go with anyone and being based on a true story and about football...you're expecting some major cheesy-ness but actually...they did it really well. a little cheesy but nice. i really liked it. good story. based in the mid 70s so mark has some sweet hair (see pic) and there are a lot of mustaches too. mark has always had some wicked forehead wrinkles but there are a couple scenes where they distracted from the dialogue. umm...not that i base my movies on the main actor's forehead wrinkles though. anyways...worth a see. even if only to see how totally ripped he still is. haha.

in more important news...i go back to school tomorrow. AUGH! i know, i know, teachers shouldn't complain about having only 7 weeks off vacation and how short it is BUT it seriously went by SO fast. too fast. as a kid, i was always ready to get back to school but man. as a teacher? a little different. once i get there tomorrow it'll be good but right now, not so much. i'm excited to meet the new part-time teacher who will be teaching gr.4/5 LA and Math. i guess the other staff must have felt like, "ohh...i hope this new girl will work into the group ok" last year when i was coming but now i'm on that side feeling like, "ohh...i hope this new guy will work into the group ok". i'm sure it'll be good. so stay tuned to new tales from the classroom.

check your wallets...

so in checking my wallet this week, i discovered some gift cards that i'd forgotten were there. in seeing them i thought to myself, "there must just be a couple dollars left on there." nonetheless, when you're not supposed to be spending and you find giftcards, you figure you can find something for a few dollars to spend them on, right? so i go to old navy at the beginning of the week and discover that the card has $30! wow. i bought a skirt then took it back and bought some pants and i'm pretty sure i'm going to take those back too. i don't really like old navy. everything fits a little weird on me. the next store that i hit today was AE. if you remember, i was there the other day and spent $10 on a tube top but i discovered this card after that incident. so the card has a christmasy theme to it and i ask the girl, "i'm wondering if this has any money on it." she looks at it and says, "whoa, this is old." and then launches into a speech about how yada yada a dollar is taken off every month after non-use of 24 months blah blah blah "so there's probably nothing left on it" and i'm just giving her the stare saying, "just check." so she checks it. there was $40!!! how great is that? i'm pretty sure that these gift cards were from my mom (THANKS MOM!) at some time but when you have the card, you're way more careful about what you spend it on because you don't want to waste it right? ok...maybe that's just me. but anyways...apparently i was so careful that i forgot about the cards. happy me to have bought a sheerish white long-sleeved hooded v-neck pullover (use your adjectives kids) from AE today.

is there too much talk about shopping on this blog? when you have full days with no plans, why not walk around a mall or "power centre"?

anyways...off to JLF for some treadmill intervals.

step out

of line if you are buying tickets for step up, the movie where "Every second chance begins with a first step." ahh yes. okay okay...i was very excited to see it with all the dance hype on the ads. the critique? just not enough dancing. way too much attempt at a plot. just dance. i have to admit, i loved the main guy. highlights of the movie are twofold: (1) when the white kid is dancing with his homies in his janitor outfit outside the arts school. yeah right. and (2) all the handshake/slaps that turn into hugs in the hood...does that really happen? because these guys are hugging each other more than i get hugged. other than that, wait to rent. at this moment, i can see you laughing and saying, "i already knew that." but just in case...i'm putting it out there for you.

sunshine coast, there we were

it's official. i've been converted to the coast. i want to live there. it is so gorgeous. now, for those of you who don't know the sunshine coast, it's a part of BC's mainland but you have to take a ferry to get there as there are no roads in. it's about a 40min ferry ride. when you get to the other side, it's just full of little towns who weren't swayed by the stucco revolution in the 90s and have very quaint buildings and town centres. even the starbucks in sechelt has a cool cedar look to it. we were actually in robert's creek which has a "downtown" consisting of a restaurant, coffee shop, library, and general store. the "cabin" that we stayed in(in quotations because it's really a house) is a 1 minute walk to the beach. beautiful. let me break it down in pics.

day one: friday night we arrive on the 5:30 ferry (aka arriving at 6:10) and we have dinner then walk to the beach for the sunset. here we are. (minus judy who's taking the photo)


we started building rock statues. here's tim in action.

this is my artistic attempt at a photo of both my statue plus dad and bro in background.


day two: we went on this mini-hike to find a cache (don't ask if you don't know) and took a few photos. some of them are pretty dark with shadows and such. i upped the brightness on my computer screen and that helped a little. then we headed onto a bigger hike.


katie and i are unimpressed by this display of sea-food.

we headed up the coast to skookumchuck falls where we hike for about an hour to a place where when the tide comes in, it makes these crazy waves that are apparently the thing for kayakers to attempt. there were masses of kayakers who go a little upstream, jump in the kayak, and flost towards this constant wave and then they paddle hard while trying to stay on the wave for as long as possible. it's pretty amazing to watch (that's what we're doing below) and harder to explain. worth the hike.



day three: cleaning up, reading, played a game, ate macdonald pizza out of it's natural environment then went to catch the 7pm ferry. turns out, it was a busy weekend on the coast and everyone was catching the 7pm ferry and we had to wait for the 9:15pm. we played a lot of euchre. we were pretty tired when we finally hit home.



sunshine coast is the place to be and i recommend it to all. you can come stay with us when we live there. haha.

sunshine coast, here we come

this weekend, tim and i, jamie and judy, and matt and katie are all heading over to the sunshine coast to spend the weekend at my parents' friends' cabin. we really haven't done anything like this as a family before so i think it's going to be awesome. (plus i'll have photos at the end with jm's camera...) i'm picking tim up at work at 1:15pm then we're heading into walnut grove to pick up katie then out to downtown van to get matt at work. then we catch the ferry. it's going to be a bit of a crazy directions day as none of us are very inclined that way. but once we get there, it'll be good. :) i have a number of errands to run this morning plus packing so i have gotten up earlier than maybe ever all summer. umm...8:30am. heehee.

here are a couple photos that came up when i google imaged sunshine coast:

i'm a sucker for deals

so i've been "off" shopping for a little while as tim and i work on saving for cars and loans and such but today i found a white button up dress shirt in my closet that had never been worn with the WINNERS tags still on it. hmm... $19.99. i took it back. i probably bought that shirt about a year ago and today i cashed it in. i love the return policy at WINNERS. of course, they only give you a gift card which meant that i should do a little looking around when i got there. the clearance was on and having not been shopping in a good couple weeks, i was ready to hunt. having already worked out this morning and eaten a healthy, well balanced lunch, i was loving everything i tried on. shoot. i limited my purchases to four: a black and gray camo tank for working out, a long black tank with a great neckline, a diagonally navy and baby blue stiped t-shirt with a huge v-neck that is intended to wear something under it, and a long-sleeved light gray AE shirt. (that last one may be going back as it was over $10...unlike the other three at $7-$8 each!) with these wonderful purchases under my belt, i headed out to the mall with something to return at the Bay. i'd bought these journals in a crazy state of mind b/c they were only $11.99 for two (lime and black) with leathery covers but...who needs another journal? not me. (i have a blog...haha) anyways. i stand in line thinking about where i can go and spend this credit of $11.99 when the i get to the front and the lady tells me that i can't return them because it's been more than 90 days. WHAT? how annoying. well not getting my credit doesn't make the problem of a shirt to go under the huge v-neck shirt less pressing so i head on out to AE to check out the sales. there were these reversible tube tops for sale at the beginning of the summer for $34.95 (or something) that i loved and wanted but knew that was way too much to spend. then about a month ago, in a sale rack discovery, i found some of the white ones left over but it was too small and so very sad. well today there were NAVY ones! navy is in fact the perfect colour of the day so i got the tube top i'd wanted for only $9.95. gotta love it. and so ends the shopping tales of the day.

however...in dance news...BENJI WON! what a finale. ang came over and we danced to nelly furtado in all the commercials. how can you watch so you think you can dance and not want to dance yourself? tim joined us for a couple but hurt his back at the driving range today so his moves weren't as stellar as usual. nonetheless, it was a party.

mr. gray

liz and i attended a david gray concert last night at deer lake park. what a perfect night for an outdoor concert! it was gorgeous. but the new plan for the next deer lake concert? don't buy tickets. just sit on the other side of the lake where i'm sure you can hear all the music no problem.

anyways. we got in line at 5pm (concert's not til...7:30ish) and the doors opened at 5:45. we walked down the hill and got a fantastic spot for our blankets. we had two large blankets for three of us (a friend of liz was also with us) and really hogged our space. i've never been to an outdoor concert before so as the time got closer to concet time, i hadn't realized that people just showing up would be walking way up to the frnt where we were and finding tiny patches of grass to settle on even if the personal space is way too close. we had no issues though because our huge blanket. heehee.

david gray is the kind of concert that you relax at on your blanket...however, the people in front of us got the idea they should stand up. we couldn't see for a long time because we didn't want to stand up. when he left the stage then came back for his encore, we decided to stand. the encore was about 50 min! it was great.

the band all had suits on plus there's one girl who played the cello in a lot of songs and she was wearing a really nice strapless dress.

if you haven't listened to david gray before, i recommend him to anyone no matter what genre of music you enjoy. he's good mellow listening but not soft rock. he plays the piano and the guitar and switched back an forth. i'm so impressed by people who can do that.

it was a great concert.

camping sans photos

yes, camping was good. we've returned safely. we took along a professional photographer since my camera is still lost. haha...we took her along for other reasons as well...one being that she's fun. ang came along last minute too. good times for the four of us in manning. in tim style, let's recap:

we leave super late from abbotsford.

stop in chilliwack for wendys.

get to manning at 11pm.

no spots left in the main campground (with the bathrooms).

go up the road to "Hampton" and set up at a lesser campground (with outhouses eww).

get firewood and make a fire.

make smores.

sleep 4 people in a 4-person tent. it was bursting at the seams. it never got less funny everytime we were in there.

"good morning" lady wakes us up too early to get money for the site. we were very annoyed.

ang and matt make fire and eggs and bacon for breakfast.

head to the day beach at the regular campground.

hike mt. frosty. super steep.

a few hours in ang and i turn back because we've seen the views we need to see and are ready to be finished.

lay on the beach staring at people.

matt and tim return after trail running the entire way down. an hour and half for ang and i to come down...30 min for the boys to come down.

competetive bocci. tim&ang vs. matt&bec

dinner in princeton because i forgot the hamburger patties. chinese food. it was great.

sit around the fire/lay in tent with head sticking out, listening to tim stories. haha.

sleep 4 people in the 4-person tent. haha.

"good morning" lady returns but this time, tim and i are up already. still annoying but to a lesser degree.

tim and bac make fire and pancakes for breakfast.

clean up camp.

matt has an ash incident.

head to the day beach again. it's hot out.

hike around the lake is vetoed unanimously.

lay on the beach/play frisbee/throw the football/stare at people making up stories of their lives.

eat "lunch" consisting of grapes, bananas, pudding, yogurt, rootbeer, diet coke, iced tea, tostitos, salsa, ritz, trail mix, nature valley bars, and fruit leathers.

competetive bocci round two: no shirt guy and bikini girl vs. hat guy and pink tank girl. (these would be the people watching and making up stories about our lives names for us...can you guess who's who?)

head home. matt and ang sleep the entire way.

camping is over.

look for pictures of this event at a later date...or on angela's blog maybe.