Lovely, lovely, lovely summer.

Just pictures today! Some of my summer adventures.

Back to school

Yikes! It's almost been 2 months since I blogged last! What can I say? It was my first summer vacation as a teacher.

It was wonderful.

And busy! When school was done, I spent a few days here in the Village tidying up my apartment and my classroom. Then I went to Saskatoon to pick up my sister Shannon and we went home to my parents' house for mom's birthday. We stayed for a couple days and went back to Saskatoon. I spent a couple nights there before leaving on my big trip.

It was wonderful.

I took my time getting out to Vancouver. I stayed a night catching up with Lynnie C in Edmonton, then I spent a day and night in Jasper (where I did my part in supporting their economy!) and then I crossed the border into BC. I spent a night with some friends who just moved from SK to BC, and then I finally got to Vancouver!

I spent about 10 days in Vancouver and it was so great. I was staying with one of my best friends, Emma, who worked during the day while I did my shopping and shopping and sightseeing, (yes, I know I said shopping twice...I really did a lot of it!) and then we kicked around together in the evenings.

I left Van. on the 17th of July and drove to Calgary and then back to my parents' house. We drove to Moose Jaw the next day to meet my sister and Arizona Grandparents, where we spent the weekend doing the tunnels and drinking milkshakes and yes, more shopping. My parents and Grandparents went back to my parent's house for the rest of the week.

It was wonderful.

I was so enjoying relaxing that I stayed for a few days longer than I was planning! I think I would have stayed another week, but I had a meeting in Saskatoon.

So I went to Saskatoon for a few days, and then I was off with my friend Colleen to Pioneer Girls' Camp for a week!

It was wonderful.

We had such great weather and it was SUCH a lovely group of girls this year. Other than our furry friend who kept visiting (think Winnie the Pooh) (but that's a whole other blog for later), it was a seamless, fun week.

Then I was back in Saskatoon for a few days, where I squeezed in some last visits with friends, and then I was back to the Village by the 15th of August! I spent the last week planning for the school year and working on my classroom and now we're back at it! We started on the 24th and students started on the 25th, so we've already had 4 days of school!

So overall, my summer was...wonderful.

T-Minus 5 days!

I'm supposed to be packing to leave The Village for the summer, so naturally...it's the perfect time for a blog!

I'm off to Saskatoon to pick up my sister and then we're off to my parents' house to celebrate mom's birthday and then...Ginger and I are heading west! In 5 days! Here are my travel plans:

Saturday, July 5th-leave Saskatoon in the am and travel to Edmonton. Have supper with LynnieC and crash at her place.

Sunday, July 6th-leave Edmonton and travel to Jasper. Do stuff in Jasper. Stay overnight.

Monday, July 7th-leave Jasper and travel to Salmon Arm, BC to see newly moved friends Karen and Garrett and baby Ezekiel. Supper, stay overnight in their camper.

Tuesday, July 8th-leave Salmon Arm (very weird name) for VANCOUVER!!! Emma!!!

Wednesday, July 9th-Wednesday, July 15th...hang out in Vancouver. Plan to see Aquarium, zoo perhaps, Stanley Park, Auntie Brenda and Uncle Garry, hopefully hop over to Victoria to see more family, have sushi, go to the opening of Harry Potter 6, and other fun stuff!

Thursday, July 16th-leave Vancouver and make a loooong day of traveling to Calgary. Stay overnight.

Friday, July 17th-leave Calgary for Saskatoon or Leader...haven't decided yet.

Any suggestions for must-sees in Vancouver/Victoria or along the way?

Appliance Attachment

My microwave died this weekend. I was heating up some leftovers when it flickered like there was a power surge. I stopped it and when I tried again, the same thing happened. Boo. Lukewarm leftovers for me. I left it unplugged overnight and tried again yesterday...no change. So, I guess it didn't actually die, but rather malfunctioned.

I got that microwave for free. My friend Regan and her husband bought a house in Saskatoon that had belonged to 2 elderly, unmarried sisters. Their family had decided to move them to a home, so they were selling the house. Regan and husband told them that if they wanted to leave anything (there were a lot of antiques in the house), that they would take care of it in an estate sale. The idea, obviously, was to hopefully score some items that could bring in a bit of extra cash.

Unfortunately, the family of the sisters took advantage of the offer and left SO MUCH JUNK. Like, they took clothes and some knick-knacks, but they left everything else. Records, clothes hangers, beds...even food in the cupboards. The pantry downstairs was clearly left untouched and Regan and I spent a long evening cleaning it out. We found old letters, containers full of old pill bottles, almost empty paint cans, old cleaners...along with a lot of spiders. Gross. We probably filled up 10 garbage bags full of junk.

Anyway, as a reward for my work, Regan gave me the microwave the families had left. Regan and Jon had one already, so they didn't need it. It was practically new and has served me well for the past few years.

I already don't like the new one. It's not as pretty. And it doesn't have any memories attached to it.

Summertime, and the livin' is...

Seriously, I love that song.

So, I'm working at MEXX. I move at the start of August and I was subbing till the end of June, so I kinda just needed something for a month. I was hoping to go back to Blossoms, but a girl came back from her mat leave so they didn't really need me. BUT, my boss at Blossoms had been talking to Christine, my old boss from GAP, and she was saying that SHE needed people. So I went into the store and in three minutes, had a job. It's funny because Christine lost me to Carla a few years ago when Carla needed a part-timer. I was working at both GAP and Blossoms but had to give up one when I started Education. So I left Christine for Carla and now I'm back with Christine. Which is great, because she's great.

I'm working on kids side and seriously, I have seen some of the cutest kids in the entire world. I wish I could take pictures of them just to prove it to you. If you have a kid and you've been into MEXX kids in Saskatoon recently, you have one of the cutest kids in the world.

And it's a repeat of the summer of 2006 for weddings. This year I'm going to 4. It could have been 5 but I couldn't go to the one in June. Actually, it could have been 6, because I was invited to be a date at one but it was on the same weekend as one that I was already RSVP'd to. Seriously. Last week was Derek and Ariann's wedding. This weekend is Kerrie's wedding, the next weekend is Ang's wedding, and Sherri's wedding is in August.

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

Oh, and I move to The Village in THREE WEEKS!!!

Pictures of pictures

So I FINALLY printed off some recent pictures to put in the gazillion (okay, like, 14) frames that I have. And when Dad was here, he put up my shelves that have been waiting to go up for a year and a half. Anyway, I'm so pleased with the way it turned out, I thought I'd share some pictures...of pictures.






I narrowly avoided a disaster with one of my classes. I'm eternally indebted (althought I haven't told her yet) to a girl in one of my classes for catching my mistake. She was talking about EdPsych 390, one of the classes required for graduation this spring. I was confused, because I thought 390 was called Exceptional Learners, and I thought, Isn't the class we're in right now called Exceptional Learners? In fact it was.

When I was registering for 390, I was scrolling through the sections offered and found one at the PERFECT time called "Exceptional Learners & Classroom Implications." So I registered for it and was enjoying the class and the prof. Well, it just so happens that 390 and the one I signed up for, 414, have almost the exact same title. So I wasn't registered for a class required for graduation and had Jocelyn not said something and confused me, I may have gone through the whole semester and then been, well, screwed.

Unfortunately, I couldn't fit 390 into my schedule (well, I could but it would require me taking it on Tuesdays & Thursdays and right now I only have Mon.Wed. classes and am not willing to give up that schedule!) so I'm taking it online. I'm a bit confused about how that whole thing works, though, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Snappy, snappy!

Hooray, hooray! I have a camera again! It was a gift from my lovely parents and it's so little and cute and lightweight! LOVE IT!! If I could take a picture of it, I would. I guess I could use my sister's camera to take a picture of mine. Hmmm...

Anyway, in honour of the event, I'll post some pictures.





Here's a picture of me on the phone thanking my parents for the camera I'm using to take this picture.



This is my classroom at the end of the day (thus the messy floor!)



This is the current state of my desk. It's like a physical representation of what my head feels like inside right now.



We made these yesterday. So proud of them. I've received so many compliments from other teachers...which makes me feel good! Emma painted the tree a year ago for part of my Autumn learning centre (for my Science Methods class). You're gaining fame among the teachers at my school, Em!



This is me. At the end of the day. In my classroom. So ready to go home.











Now that I'm home, I really need to get some work done for tomorrow and GO TO SLEEP!

Goodnight!

Bubbles

I recently had a quite random, but completely hilarious experience that I would like to share.


A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling like a throat infection was on the way. I had to go to work because we had an early morning staff meeting and as I'm the one that called it, I kinda had to be there! By about 3 in the afternoon, though, I felt like I could barely swallow, so I opted to come home for a nap. I was rudely (not so rudely) awakened by my phone. Dorian was a couple of blocks away from my house and needed to kill an hour or so.

So I woke myself up and went out to the backyard, pajamas and bed hair and all! He had bought a pack of bubble gum (Hubba Bubba or Bubblicious or something of the sort) and thought we could sit outside in the sun and blow bubbles! So we did. We sat and blew bubbles and talked (mostly about the bubbles we were blowing) for almost two hours. And we laughed and laughed and laughed.

It was the most random, childish, and wonderful way to spend a couple of hours!

I was feeling so much better afterwards (laughter is the best medicine) so we went back to our respective houses, cleaned ourselves up and then went out for supper at Koutouki's and later to O'Shea's to celebrate my friend Tara's birthday.

What started as a feeling-sick-day, turned out to be a day of good food, good friends, and GREAT bubbles!

For Pete's sake...

Well, I have apparently set a precedent for myself for regular blogging and tonight it was drawn to my attention by my friend Peter that it's been awhile.

So I thought I would blog about something that Peter may enjoy...himself!





















Typical Peter pose #1























Peter and touque.






Typical Peter pose #2.







Peter is a young, promising engineer who enjoys the great outdoors and spending time with great people. Peter's "got the groove" and loves to "boogey down," showing off his moves whenever and wherever. Peter may be seen with or without facial hair, including but not limited to the infamous handlebar moustache.


Peter is admired and revered for his intelligence; he has sometimes even been referred to as a "fountain of knowledge." Peter has been blessed with the gift of hospitality and enjoys nothing more than hosting excellent, low-key, open-to-all get togethers at his house, especially during the summer when great bonfires are to be had!

He loves rock climbing and cycling...and ambrosia.

I support the Arts!

Okay, so the ballet. It was beautiful. It was a ballet to Handel's The Messiah and it was absolutely beautiful. It was all in white. The floor looked like white marble, the side curtains were white, the backdrop was white, there were white benches at the back of the stage, and they were all dressed in...you guessed it...WHITE! Very heaven-like.

We were in the third row close to the centre, which was the closest I've ever sat to the stage at a big show like this, so I was very excited. The singing was by Greystone choir and the Saskatoon Symphony was playing. The dancing was...amazing. Because there are so many different movements in The Messiah, there were a lot of different duets, solos and ensembles, so when dancers weren't dancing, they were sitting on the benches at the back of the stage, which was really interesting.

It was especially exciting since we just sang the Hallelujah Chorus at our Christmas concert this year, (speaking of which, Leon, one of our guest soloists, is experiencing some impressive success with Destino, his hot singing group! Check out this story! They even call him their secret weapon!) although I was disappointed they didn't do Worthy is the Lamb--one of my favourites from The Messiah. There were also some other songs that I knew, like For Unto Us--which I recognize from you know where!

Overall, a wonderful experience!

Oh, and we ran into some friends of mine who are expecting a baby in September! I just heard she was preggo, and then there she was, looking gorgeous with her little baby bump!

I don't know if this will count as enough of a new post for Leticia, since I told her all about the ballet on Friday. She wasn't happy when she came home from Vancouver to a post about chicken noodle soup...haha.

She said she likes when I post pictures, so here are some gratuitous pictures of some peeps (and Walter). Anything for you, Teesha!!!


Jenn and Teesh at Moxie's from Colleen's birthday. Teesh and Ky, though they've never met, have something in common...that they often make silly faces when pictures are taken! Kindred spirits, I guess.


Best buds Dale and Cordell. This is at Calories one night...I think Cordell is trying to get Dale to pose for the picture by force.


Gord wearing his wife Tracy's jacket. Lookin' good...


My sister Shannon and me at David Copperfield in January. He made a car appear on stage.


Walter. It looks like he's winking.












p.s. I wanna send a shout out to Renee, who recently identified herself to me as a blurker! Hi Renee!