More Halloween Party Pictures

Halloween Party 2006

Some friends of mine from highschool have been putting on this awesome Halloween Party for the past few years and this years party was no exception. Everyone goes ALL OUT on their costumes and its so fun to see what people come up with. Since Brad and I did not put too much effort into our costumes last year (and were reminded of that often!!) we decided to be a little more creative this year. Our idea....A PAIR of DICE!!.We were probably the most inconveinent costume there, other than the guy who decided to be a boombox!! Our very own RIFT and The AUDIOVISUALS put on an awesome show and everyone had a great time.
Blogger is being annoying right now and won't upload anymore pictures for me so you'll have to wait for another post to see some of the other amazing costumes. My personal favourite were Conrad and Steph who dressed as the ipod commercial people. You'll know what I mean when you see a picture.

Corn maze fun!

This is an arial shot of the corn maze a few of us managed to conquer this weekend. For Brad's brithday, I took him on a surprise afternoon of fun and we went to an awesome corn maze out in Dunnville. Brad has often mentioned he would love to go through one, so I knew he would have a blast...and the rain and muddiness only added to the fun. Matt and Becky came with and we had a great time competing against each other, trying to beat each other to various spots within the maze...and this was a big corn maze..10 acres to be exact.
This was the boys after they beat us to the tower in the middle of the field. Let me just mention they only beat us by no more than 30 seconds!!! We were just happy to have made it there at all without falling flat on our face in the mud!Mmmmmm....CORN!!! Just a glimpse of the muddiness we decided not to care about! I think more people should pretend to be 6 again more often.
And this was the lake that the boys decided to pass through out of sheer determination to beat us girls. Boys!!!!

Taking the stage....

On Friday night, the Upper Deck hosted a concert by its very own 'Courtesy Rose'. The band consists of 6 guys that hang out at the centre quite often. They just put together this band in the last few months and were so pumped to be able to have their very own show. They did a great job and as loud as it was, it was so great to see the guys in their element and doing something they can do well together. A bunch of parents even came out so it was a great opportunity for us as volunteers to interact with them as well. During the intermission of the concert, a girl from the centre played a couple 'mellower' songs to entertain the crowd and I joined her on stage. I've been getting to know her over the past couple months and our common interest in guitar playing led to some jamming sessions once in awhile. It was so fun to play with her and see her glow in the spotlight as she did such an amazing job singing and playing. We played "I'll Be by Edwin McCain and "Tea and Sympathy' by Jars of Clay. Fun times. Hopefully we can play together again sometime. Maybe when Courtesy Rose goes on tour we'll get some more gigs!!!

Rain, rain go away!!

I think I have S.A.D. - seasonal affectiveness disorder. It has been raining for I don't know how many days straight and I really really miss the sun. It seriously effects my mood. I just don't feel as happy and motivated as I usually do and want to curl up on the couch and watch T.V. instead of usually getting things accomplished. I love being outside as much as I possibly can and that has not really happened lately. Instead of enjoying the fall season as I usually do, I've been starting at it through the rain soaked window. If only the sun would shine through......
Mental note: When I have a place of my own, make sure there are a ton of windows!
The cold, rainy weather has also added a new dimention to my interesting array of teaching experiences this week. I started off the week in a JK/SK class jumped around to 5/6, then to a couple grade 3 classes, onto some learning disabled class and finally ending the week in another JK/SK class. My first kindergarten experience at the beginning of the week left me feeling pretty sure I would NOT want a kindergarten class of my own. I don't think I had all of them NOT talking at once. Its like my words went straight through their heads. As frustrating as it is, I recognize that this is pretty normal for this age group. Today's kindergarten experience was quite a bit different. I actually had twice as many kids and oddly enough, it went so much smoother. I was able to quiet the kids down when they needed to and even had them all paying attention during story time. I decided to take advantage and teach them a song on my guitar and they loved it. Anybody remember, "Listen to the Water"?? It is such an amazing feeling to have 20 little pairs of eyes staring straight at you and eating up every word you say. Those are the teachable moments I crave and motivate me to know my efforts are worth it.
I am looking forward to the weekend. Cyriac Joseph, my brothers friend from India, is visiting Canada and staying at our place for a night. He is sharing in our church on Sunday as well. It will be nice to finally meet him and spend some time getting to know him. It is also Brad's 26th birthday on Sunday so we have some fun family celebrations lined up. The weather man has even said that the sun might come out tomorrow, so I hope, I hope he isn't wrong this time.

The weird weather of the Niagara Region

Speaking of the 'unexpectedness' of supply teaching, I awoke to a call today from the principal of the school I was scheduled to supply at in Fort Erie saying that school was actually cancelled becuase of a major snow storm. What? I was quite confused, not just because I had just barely opened my eyes and it was before 7am, but because I looked outside my window to see absolutely nothing on the ground, not even rain! So only a mere 30 minutes down the highway, almost 2 feet of snow was dumped on the ground, trees are down everywhere, hydro poles are down and the principal said, quote on quote, 'it looks like a war zone'. I guess the highway is even shut right down. And....more snow is on the way. Its a little hard to believe it, but I guess its true. I am even watching it on Canada AM as I type. The Great Lakes really create some weird weather situations. Fort Erie and Buffalo were hit the worst and I guess travelling to the US right now is, well, a long wait. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.....I hope I don't have to officially pack up my flip flops just yet.

Adventures in supply teaching....

Tomorrow will mark the end of my first official week supply teaching. Its been a good week. I've been given a taste of what it will be like this year as I embarke into this new world of the unexpected. I started the week off teaching grade 6, then ventured into grade 1, today in grade 8 and tomorrow back to grade 6. The grade 1's were definetly the cutest so far...well except for the kid who threw up first thing when the bell rang!! A lovely way to start the day!! Actually, that day I also arrived to find out I had a Brock student teacher working with me, which was so weird to think about. She was older than I was and yet I was the teacher in charge. That was me exactly one year ago. Its amazing how much a year changes things....
Supply teaching is really strange to think about in a way. Here I am, this random teacher, who arrives at a school I have never been to, never met the teachers or the principal before. I just sign in at the office, sometimes not even talking to anyone, find the classroom, greet these kids I have never met before, and then take charge of their class. No one comes to check up on me, no one is evaluating me, I do my thing, teach some stuff, and then leave. Of course, that will change over the year as I get to know schools better and the teachers and students in them, but for now, thats how it is. As nervous as I was the first day, so far my conclusion is that I think I'm going to like this supply teaching thing. Its been great to find out that it will probably not be as last minute as I originally thought. Becuase of the how the automated system works, I am able to book teaching assignments quite a bit ahead of time and already know where I'll be going for almost the whole month of October. Of course things can change last minute, and there are a few spaces in there for last minute calls, but for the most part, I know what I'll be doing. I'm thankful for so many opportunities and am looking forward to teaching all different grades, gaining exposure to many different teaching styles and making connections at different schools. Bring on the adventures.....

Cool Shots

Just wanted to post these pictures that my friend Courtney took of the prairie provinces on her move out to Calgary. She is an amazing photographer and I wanted to give her a little spotlight here. I love her style and creative ideas. Awesome job Courtney!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Just wanted to wish you all a wonderful thanksgiving weekend. I'm heading up north on a church retreat up at Camp Crossroads so it should be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing all the beautiful colours as I'm sure the leaves are changing colour a lot faster up there. So be blessed and be thankful. God's blessings abound in our lives if we take the time to look for them.

Did you know...

Did you know that...

1. The Alphabet Song

2. Baa Baa Black Sheep

and

3. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

..... are all the same song? Try singing them!!! Werid, eh!

first supply teaching call

I thought I would describe my experience last night as I received my first supply teaching call from the school board. Okay, so I'm making supper and not even really thinking about receiving a call when the phone rings and I see its the school board. So I'm kinda pumped, kinda nervous, not really sure how it all works. I pick up the phone and the automated system begins and asks me to punch in my ID#. Well, I haven't exactly used my ID number to this point, so I didn't have it memorized, so in a panic, I'm yelling to my mom to run downstairs and get the stickie note with my number on it, not knowing how long I have to actually get my number in before it hangs up on me. While my mom is getting the number, I get a beep from stupid Premier Fitness (which you'll recall I won a 2 week membership too and have since tried to convince me to spend copious amounts of money buying a full membership with them) who I was not pleased to hear from in the moment. The beep threw off the automated system so I couldn't hear when I was suppose to punch in the number. Apparently the first ID number I tried was the wrong one so I tried a different ID number, which afterwards I found out was actually the correct one, but for some reason it wouldn't accept it on the phone...probably because the beep threw off the timing (again, annoyance at Premier Fitness). I kept punching in the number but it still wouldnt' recognize it and after a few minutes, all I could hear was a dial tone. So you can imagine the tizzy of a scene it was as I was trying to figure it all out, find my number, actually punch in the right number, not let dinner burn and calm down my annoyance at Premier Fitness. I was thinking of billing them the cost of a day of supply teaching. What do you think? At least this didn't all happen at 6am, unlike some other friends I know. (Right Amber?)
And so, my frist official call turned out to be a mess. However, there was hope because I received another call that night and handled the whole thing much better. In fact, I have quite a few dates lined up already for the coming weeks. Its actually kind of like a RACE. I went online to look for postings and found a few. So I accepted them, and then went back and there were more posted. So I obviously grabbed those as well before anyone else could. Kinda fun!! So I am officially starting to supply teach now. I am hopeful that more calls will be coming soon. Its getting exciting now. That first paycheck for teaching is going to be so sweet!!