Bad Idea

As much as I love every single one of my students, I have to say that sometimes they follow through with bad idea's.

Take for example what happened on Monday. I told them an interactive Bible story. So whenever I said "Esther" they had to cat call, when I said "Mordecai" they had to clap and cheer. "Haaman" got boo's, and King Xerxes called for them to stand up and shout "long live the king!"

Just a new fun way to tell a story that they have heard before.

The assignment: Choose a Biblical hero and turn his/her story into an interactive one that you can share with the class.

Now, I'm not a newbie at teaching anymore. I know full well that when an open assignment such as this is given, it will lead to distractions and a few kids not doing what they are supposed to be doing. While working with another group, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that one group of boys was clearly goofing around. I storm over there.

One of the boys is holding his nose and trying not to cry. He is clearly hurt. I ask the boys what happened.

"We were working on our assignment," they replied. I gave them 'the look."
"Do NOT tell me that you were working on your assignment,"I say in my best angry teacher voice. "Do NOT tell me that is what you were doing. Clearly you were NOT working on your assignment. What is going on here?"
"Really Miss. G. We were working on our assignment!" the boys insisted. I kneel down to the boy who is hurt and ask gently,
"Bobby*, can you tell me what happened?" He looks up at me with tear filled eyes,
"We were working on our story!" I once again give him 'the look.' You know, the I-don't-believe-you-stop-tying-to-not-get-in-trouble-we-have-a-problem-here-Look. He continues. "We were doing the story, and I was being the water, and they were being Jesus and Peter and walking on me!"

First of all, I get 10 000 points for not immediately laughing at them. Secondly, I gave them my 'look' again and said, "Well boys.... didn't really think that one through did you?"

Shamefaced, and smirking a bit all four of them start giggling at what a bad idea they had followed through with.

(*Names have been changed to protect identity)

Seattle

So last weekend me and Esther took Bethany and Vanessa on a mystery road trip to Seattle. None of us had ever been there before and we found so much fun stuff to do. It was a great, great, great weekend away. Americans are nice, even if they dress weird (have you been to peopleofwalmart.com?), And even if one radical anti-Obama fanatic told me that eventually the US would take over Canada so I need to participate in his riot against the US government. The weather was great, the drive was great, the boarder was great, my sisters are great. It was all.... great. Here are few pictures of what we did. Step One: Road trip games! Which I totally won.
Step Two: Drive through Bellingham and point out all the stops of interest on Me and Bethany's doomed trip to Vegas. We were so hungry by this point that we stopped at the first place that looked like it had food. It also was a bowling alley. Apparently that is a popular thing in the USA. I had no idea. I'm thinking that bowling and eating at the same time isn't particularly sanitary. Oh well.
Step Four: Your only hint for our first stop is the ever so hot Sam and Dean Winchester - from the tv show "The Adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester." aka Supernatural. Which we *never* (cough cough) watch. We ended up at a haunted corn maze in Everett WA, which was AMAZING. They hired professional actors to dress up as ghosts and sasquatches and people chasing you around with chainsaws. It was really well done. Good fun. And I don't care that some of you don't approve of my choice of Friday night activities. We laughed.
Five. Pike Place Market. Pretty good, but a bit disappointing after thinking for 3 months that it would be like Granville Island in Vancouver. Granville Island gets 100%, Pike Place Market gets a 70%. However, the singing, fish-throwing fishermen were quite cool.

Six. Tea and crumpets and a horrible rendition of an Asian tourist photo. We are so white.
Seven. This guy. Dumb. Seriously. You cover yourself in silver paint, fill your pockets with birdseed and then expect me to PAY you? No. I'm sorry. You are not contributing to society whatsoever, and your 'job' is dumb. You are a terrible street performer, you don't entertain me, and I don't care how bad the recession is - do something useful.
Eight. Laugh at the note attached to this t-shirt.
Eight. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Yum Yum.
Nine. Hat store. Awesome. I have so many pictures.
Ten: Blue Man Group. ahhhh maaaaze ing. So fun.

Eleven. Cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. Seriously. To die. for. It was delicious. I'm pretty sure heaven tastes like cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

Don't Ignore The Signs.

I bike a fair bit. Quite a lot actually. For the last two summers I've biked to and from Barkerville from Wells on a daily basis and here in Kamloops I bike to work every day and if I'm going anywhere in town that is not up a mountain I try to bike.

About a week and a half ago - my free, super ghetto bike - started giving me signs that perhaps it was in need of some TLC. I didn't give my bike any care and continued to ride it - although slower and more careful than normal. Something was definitely not right with my bike. It just didn't feel... solid... safe... normal...
(Me on a ride in happier days)

Yesterday my bike fell apart. Literally. As I was riding it.

I was biking to work like normal (all of 2km) and just before work, as I was peddling away, my handlebars fell off. Full out, 100% fell off my bike. That was awkward. Luckily I was going slowly around a corner and up an incline so I was able to jump off and not crash/kill myself. Then I carried my bike in one arm, and the handles in the other, the rest of the way to school. I'm sure I looked dumb, but I was alive. AND my patheticness caused our building manager to fix my bike for me! Woot Woot!

Happy Thanksgiving & Other Holiday's

I really like holidays. I love the Sunday of a long weekend because I know that it's not the end of my weekend - I still have another day off.

mmmmm. bliss. Throw some turkey at me and it's pretty much heaven.

So today I present to you my top eleven list of things to do on a Holiday Weekend.

1. Sleep in.
2. Eat french toast (preferably made by someone else - high 5 to my sister Beth for this mornings breakfast deliciousness)
3. Get all dressed up - take extra time with hair and make-up.
4. Have a morning nap - and you are already looking all pretty, so pretend you are a princess at the same time and that your handsome prince charming (who BTW looks like Paul Walker) will wake you up.
5. Hug people and be nice.
6. Eat good food. Like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.
7. Do crafts.
8. Have an afternoon nap.
9. Play games.
10. Go shopping.
11. Stay up late.

Smiles. And I'm going to do it all again tomorrow!

the unanswerable question

Hey Guys,

I have a serious problem. A conundrum if you will. A question that needs answering and a riddle to be solved. I've taken to asking my question to everyone I meet and after a brief moment of serious thought and reflection, no person has been able to give me a straight answer.

I can't sleep, I can't eat (I can't eat? Someone make me some pork - 50 000 bonus points if you can tell me where that quote is from.) I can't even look at myself in the mirror anymore. I'm a failure because I can't solve this one life question. I'm hoping that among my wide-spread audience (all 12 of you), there is someone out there who can answer me this: If I ate myself, would I be twice as big or disappear entirely?

See - - You are thinking about the answer to that question aren't you.

Your welcome for bringing this thought provoking question to your attention.
Happy thinking!