Score one for the Teacher!

So, I guess the rule is: in order to be a good blogger, you have to blog every day. I don't know that I agree, but I think a few times a week is sufficient.

Today I took my grade five class to Harper Moutain for a day of skiing and snowboarding. I promised them that if they chose to ski, that they would be skiing by themselves by lunchtime and be having a great time. I promised them that if they chose to snowboard for their first time, that they would not have fun or learn how to snowboard by the end of the day.

I'm a snowboarder. I like it a lot. But you have to be willing to invest some serious time into learning how to do it. At least three to four days of falling down and figuring out how it works. Every year there is one student who does not heed my (may I say expert) advice. Not to rub it in or anything (well... not too much anyways...) but he/she did not have fun snowboarding and switched to skiing after lunch. Bwahaaa. Score 1 for the teacher! Seriously people/students/everyone, sometimes (just sometimes) I actually do know what I'm talking about and you should listen to me.

I had a great day with myself and my students and the parents that came along. I got in some excellently wonderful runs, enjoyed being outside, didn't get hurt (too much... I mean I am pushing 30 now and am not as young and spry as I used to be). It was awesome to hang out with my students and help them learn a new skill and see their joy at their success. It was also awesome to have a free day skiing - that I got paid for. :D

Back Again

So...
Three years later, I'm starting it up again because of the persistence of a few key people. AND luckily for them/you, I never, ever change my password so I was able to get back onto my blog. I'm actually really impressed with how far blogspot has come since I last used it. It is so easy to update and change and make look good. I started blogging before you could just 'click' on things. Back in the day when blogging was big (2005) you had to manually type in the commands for everything. Colours, locations, pictures had to be downloaded from a different site. It was not so easy.

So... back to the theme of my original blogs, it's simply going to be a digital version of me. Things I think are funny, stuff that happens, pictures, my life. I'm anti-anything boring, so my goal (as always) is to be amusing if not interesting.

As a welcome back to you ... my faithful three readers... I've put together a tribute to my favourite thing to do. Dressing Up. Most people stop dressing up at some point in their life. I don't. I think it is fabulous to dress up and pretend you are someone or something else.

Enjoy. Laugh. Comment.

Come on, I'm really cute!

This was when I went through my 'I want to be a real woman' phase. It lasted about 5 years. Then when I became a 'real woman' I realized that 'they' are not actually that exciting. Or handy.

This is the start of my 'Dr.Quinn' phase. It lasted 6 years. Wait. I can't lie... the truth is that I'm still in that phase.

The 'wanting to be Indian' phase.

I only vaguely remember this day. But it was fun.

Jacob Moon Day in Dorm 8. A LOT of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts were involved in the decision to behave like this, and willingly get our picture taken.

Decade Dance

Banquet

Cherry Creek Disco Party

Old Fort Langely

Value Village. I was contemplating starting a new teacher wardrobe that consisted of massive gaudy broaches and tacky/awesome sweaters.

Christmas Party Tacky Sweater Contest

80's party. I love this outfit and will keep it forever.

Murder Mystery Dinner

This past summer in Barkerville

Why I love Fall.

I just love fall. A LOT. It is, without a doubt, my favourite season. Look at these pictures I took and tell me that fall is not amazing!

August in Pictures

As promised, here is a photo-journey through the month of August.
And remember, I'm facebook friendly so check out more pictures there!

The first thing I did in August was head to "The Shuswap" (pronounced Shoe-SHwap) with my almost sisters Tiersa, Laura and Jenny. We did a LOT of this:


A little bit of this:


A bit of this:


And for those of you who watch Canadian Idol, I was at the family reunion for this top 10 singer:


Next the vacation continued. I took some much needed time off from work. My sisters Bethany and Vanessa and I, drove to Panorama BC - in the heart of the Rockies, to visit my sister Esther who lives there. On the way we went white water rafting. We also spent some time in hot springs as well as Lake Louise. Very relaxing, very fun. I love white water rafting. I think maybe I'll be a teacher by winter, a professional white water rafter by summer. Yeah?



Shortly after returning from my adventures in Panorama (and by shortly I mean two days later) my friend Erik and I headed to Penticton BC for 'summer friend' Lillian's 24th Birthday party. I met Lillian in a parking lot in June and we've been friends ever since.





Then a week later it was my birthday.
I went to a concert with my family and then out for dinner in my new birthday outfit. Not to be confused with my birthday suit. Sunday was a big lunch with friends and then the closer friends headed to the beach. This is me and the almost-sisters. So pretty eh?








Tom brought out his super powerful telescope and we spied on the people across the lake.



Then my little friend Gracie came over for a Highschool Musical party.



The next weekend, Tiersa, Bethany, Laura, Jenny and I headed to the IPE (interior Provincial Exibition) aka Rodeo and sketchy midway.





Where I saw a lumberjack show. Cheesy and entertaining.



After my birthday came Bethany's birthday.
Which I gave her, ahem US, season 2 of Prison Break.



2 Days after Bethany's birthday, and in the middle of our obsessed Prison Break marathon. (we had 10 days to watch them all before season 3 started) It was Ferin's fantastically 80's birthday party.



Mike and Ferin


Classic 80's feet.


And last but not least, this post would not be complete without a shout out to my summer friends. Bo, Erik and Deborah.

Jobs

I was thinking today about how my friends have a LOT of different jobs. Cool Jobs, random jobs, fun jobs. And NONE of them work in a field even remotly related to mine.

Nikki: I'm a teacher. I teach fifth graders about spelling and try to make them love reading books as much as me. As a bonus I can infiltrate them with Dr. Quinn stories unntil they are as passionate about it as I am.

Bethany: Is an Out-tripper. She takes people rock climbing, and camping in the bush, and kyaking and white water rafting, and caveing. Her bonus is that she gets to be all buff and pretty.

Tiersa: Is an Administrative Assistant for the Continental Singers. She does paperwork and books hotels and flights and makes posters and brochures and gets to do awesome things on the computer. Her bonus is that she gets to live in California part of the year.

Tom: Is a fish wrangler. He wrestles fish out of the water in rivers all over BC so that the gov't can know what types of fish are in what rivers and in what quantity. His bonus is that... he gets to play with fish all day.

Mike: Walks around the bush (and there is a lot of it here) and maps out cut-blocks for logging companies. His bonus is that he gets to be as back-woodsmany as he wants to be and no one can say anything. And he gets to take his dog to work with him.

Ferin: Is a clothing store manager. She gets a sweet discount.

Bowen: Is a miner. I don't know exactly what he does. But neither does he half the time. His bonus is that he gets paid a lot.

Erik: Works Rockey Mountaineer Vacations. He serves and is in a musical. His bonus is that He is in a musical!

My Inspiration

Yesterday was an awesome awesome day. My sister Bethany and I headed to the Shuswap with her friend Rita for a day on her boat on the lake. (Side note, where do British Columbians go to trade their shoes??? the Shuswap)

We boated on her speed boat in 37 degree weather with no clouds and a bright sun. We stopped on a random beach for lunch, stopped at a store that floated in the middle of the water so you could only get their by boat, we found an awesome swimming beach. We boated some more and then swam off the boat with a waterfall tumbling down the mountain on my left, and a view of the coastal mountains and rocky mountains on my left. Amazing. We boated some more and then went over to Copper Island in the middle of the lake where people often cliff jump. I hummed and hawed about doing it, because it was really high and dangerous and you had to free rock climb to get to the cliff. But then I thought to myself "You just swam at the base of a waterfall looking at the Rockies. You have to do this! You are in BC. This is an awesome opportunity that might not come along again."

So I jumped out of the boat and swam toward the rock cliffs jutting out of the water. I climbed to the top of the cliff very carefully, knowing that a) i was wet and b) the crevaces in the the rocks would mean broken bones for sure if I slipped. Very treacherous. I got to the cliff and stood there looking out over the lake and the mountains and then I looked down. And it was VERY high. Very high. I stood there for a few minutes getting my courage up and the yelled to my sister that it was too high and I couldn't do it. i climbed down a bit. Bethany started heckling me. "Nikki, theres 10 year olds jumping off the cliff. You are a teacher you should be the example DO IT!"

Her pressure made me climb back up. I looked down. It was too high. I climbed down again. Bethany continued heckling me. I climbed back up. It was freaking high. VERY high. I climbed down again. This time Bethany said something that really stuck with me:

"NIKKI! IF DR. QUINN CAN DO IT SO CAN YOU. SHE JUMPED OFF A CLIFF THAT WAS WAY HIGHER THAN THIS ONE."

It was so true.

"You're right!" I yelled back. "She did! I'm doing it!" Seriously, if Dr. Quinn could do it, so could I. I climbed back up and jumped realizing on the way down that Dr. Quinn jumped off a cliff because some crazy renegade Indians were trying to kill her AND Sully held her hand the whole time. I had a) no indians chasing me and b) no handsome backwoodsman holding my hand. Even ONE of those would have been a better reason for jumping than just doing it for 'fun'.

But I did it. I can officially call myself a cliff jumper.

Seriously, Dr. Quinn IS my inspiration. Time and time again she inspires me to do different things, move west, jump off cliffs, have crushes on boys with tight deerskin pants, just wonderful wonderful things.