The Date: August 16, 2007 The Time: 6:30 am The Mission: Get Married

The wedding was PERFECT!!
The whole gang

(L-R My Dad, his friend Pat, Chris' Mom, Chris' sister, Chris, Me, Chris' Dad, Chris' Dad's Girlfriend)







My Dad and I

The newlyweds

"Tossing the bouquet" and by bouquet,
mean one sunflower I ripped off my bouquet
because it was floppy.
It made a semi-decent sword I think.

The only pictures chronicling our relationship
are in this self-portrait format. What, you ask?
Don't you live with a professional photographer? Well, yes, actually I do. Hmmmmmmm



Ok, so this one damn picture won't align. I don't care anymore. Click to see larger versions.




Christopher I love you more than anything in this world.

A recent conversation with Chris...

regarding people's, well, I guess attitudes. I don't want to sound "why can't we all just get along?", but I don't understand why ignorance, lack of consideration and self-centredness is so prevalent. What does it take to just be kind to other people? How hard can it be to treat that teenager at Tim Horton's with respect? Why is so difficult to consider how your physical actions, ie stopping in the middle of an aisle at Safeway, or parking on the wrong side of the street right across from another car, may affect others? Why do we assume that we are the most important being in any given area at any given time?

My need is so little. I want for nothing that is essential. In a little bit over 4 days, I will be marrying the most amazing, wonderful, kind, generous, sweet and loving person I have ever met, and in a few short weeks I will be returning to the career that I love. Oh, and I can't forget the cutest dog on earth who will be snuggling with me tonight.
I am extremely lucky.

I owe it to the rest of the world to be grateful for what I have.
I have no use, no excuse for negativity.

Gandhi said it best:
"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

now...the question is, how do I reflect this in my teaching, and maybe rub off on the younger generations?

ah, Tim Horton's

I'm sittin' here with my extra large triple-triple, thinkin' that I don't really feel like doing what I came down here to do just yet. I'm slowly poking away at some school work...

Chris has been out of town for two days. I'm living in a state of surreal un-livingness. I don't want to cook, I don't want to do work, I just want to...do...nothing. Actually, that's sort of only partially true. I don't feel so much like that today, but yesterday was a bad day. I know that it was largely due to the fact that it was grey and dreary, and left to my own devices, I don't handle days like that very well. I got nearly nothing done, ate like crap, and napped with the dog a lot. Today, it's sunny (and HOT!) and I made myself a list of things to do, and I have two left. I need to get a load of laundry going and do the few dishes I used in the last couple of days. No biggie. Why must I be victim to the weather?!

I handled Tuesday the way most females would handle days they are not feeling 100%. I went shopping! Granted, I had some very specific items that I was looking for. I FINALLY found the PERFECT wedding flip-flops (you would NOT believe how hard it is to find just plain white flip flops that are slightly nicer than the Old Navy 3$ ones!). I also bought flowers! You can see the picture that is inspiring my design here.


Yikes, it's creeping up so fast. Tomorrow is my hair appointment. Have I mentioned before I that LOVE Rita? Anyway. Then Monday is my last dress fitting, and Wednesday I have my manicure/pedicure/desquirrelling of the eyebrows, and pick up flowers, head out to Gimli! Oh, and on Tuesday, my Dad's friend Pat, who is coming to the wedding, wants to take Chris and out to dinner. So much to do! I don't feel any sort of nervous. I'm excited - I want to wake up to see a wonderful sunrise that morning, and I'm oh so looking forward to that "You may now kiss the bride" kiss. TMI? Bah.

Man, I should probably get a little something done. I could literally spend all day lying on the bed with Jules, petting her. She's so soft and wonderful, and cute, and loving, and I love this dog more than...well, more than anything but my Chris, and my Dad. Yep, she's number 3.

I'm so glad I'm not an accountant, or tax lawyer

I've been doing Chris' taxes. He's 'slightly' behind, but now is one year away from being caught up! Thanks to me. Oy vey. I swear I am going to dream about lines and numbers and directions to write numbers on lines with numbers.

I'm pretty confident teaching is the profession for me, but I know for sure that working with taxes is not my calling.

Chris and I just got back from watching the Simpsons movie. It was funny, though in the sense of it being just an extended episode. There were a few notable laughs, however, I couldn't convince myself to laugh like the guy just to our left who was almost out of his seat he was howling so loud!! Continuing our lovely date night, we went to Buccacino's for dinner. It was very good. Top it all off with a stop at Tim Horton's, and the night is a success!!

I'm still bouncing back and forth deciding whether I want flowers for the wedding or not. I looked at some pictures online last night and I saw one bouquet that had sunflowers in it that I really, really like. I'm going to see if imitating that one would be possible, and reasonably priced. I also still need shoes. Meh, perhaps I'll go barefoot?

It'll all work out. 10 days people! That's it!

SO SLEEPY

T minus 13 minutes until Chris and I are supposed to make dinner (BBQ Bison mozza burgers + fries) but I am SO SLEEPY.

The dog isn't down here with me for once. Perhaps she's snuggled up on the bed? That's a dangerous thing to be doing all alone. I should go supervise.

and so I'm a big fat liar.

Anyhoo...back to the blogging world!

How is my vacation half over? I don't get it. It seems like just yesterday that I was enjoying year end drinkies with my colleagues. I'm not ready to go back to work! I don't want to see all the "back to school" stuff! Aaaarrrgh!

...now that that is out of my system...

Camp was a lot of fun. For the first couple of days, I was actually quite miserable because I didn't have a hot clue what I was supposed to be doing, and it seemed like the staff were this tight clique that noons could breach. On the first Tuesday, I was asked by the camp director if I would stay an additional week after the two I had planned, and I was honest with him telling him that I wasn't having all that great of a time, and so no. He was quite concerned at that, and asked if they could do anything, but really, there was just a lof of adjustment required. What really turned it around was having to run a couple of trips to Boissevain, Delorain and Brandon that gave me a break from the camp, and allowed me to get back into touch with the outside world. The kids that first week were pretty good. I had a co-dean who was awesome, and we had 31 girls in our dorm. My day off that week was the Friday, and boy was I ready for it. I had decided that come hell or high water, I was going to come home, so I left camp at 10 am, and got home at 145. I don't remeber a lot of the trip. Oy. Chris and I had some errands to run, some snuggling to do, and we went out for dinner. I then had a hot bath, and was fast asleep for the night at 645 pm. I had to get up at 545 to make it back to camp on time. Sadly, I don't remember much of the drive back, except for the trauma of killing a prairie dog.

Week two, I was all alone in my dorm with 13 girls, and then 12 when one decided that she couldn't hack the music and went home. They were a tonne of fun, and the week flew by pretty quick. I think that week I had the best day off of anyone else all summer when Chris and I met in Winkler and spent the evening relaxing in the mineral pool and hot tub at the Heartland Resort. We even went to DQ for ice cream. The advantage to Winkler was it's proximity to the peace gardens. I had to leave at 745 the next morning, which wasn't bad at all. By the end of the second week at camp, I was thinking that I could have stayed for another week, but it's tough to give up vacation time in favour of work, and I really missed my puppypants and Chris.

I've been home for almost two weeks, and boy has time flown. Next thing you know, it's going to be wedding day! Everything, except for my final dress fitting, and Chris buying a shirt and shoes, is done. No stress, no nerves. I'm working on getting used to the sound of my new last name. The weirdest thing will be students calling me "Mrs.". I don't really feel like a Mrs yet, but ah well. I'm certainly excited to marry my Chris though.

I've had a lot of time to think this summer. Really, I drove 2300 kms in two weeks...sooo...and I like how my philosophy of being and teaching is evolving, and affecting who I am, and how I act. It was definitely affected by spending a lot of time around teenagers who called me by my first name, and were a lot less formal with me than my students. It was eye-opening to hear how they saw me - and it was all good, and I think in that sort of environment it was a lot easier to "be me" and work on just being a good, reasonable and kind person. With a really dumb sense of humour.

This, of course, is spilling over into my prep work which is slowly but surely happening. Heh, it has to, sometime...I sometimes mentally run down what I want to tell my new group of grade nines that first day. I know you want to establish authority and position, etc, but I don't think I have to come across as this ruling figure. Most teachers preach of "respect", and that's fine, but I think we also need to work on "consideration". I don't know if that makes sense. It's all sort of a jumble in my head, and by the first week in September it will have taken on the form of some sort of coherence.

Alright, I'm done rambling for tonight. I need to get back to blogging regularly.

Here's a pic of Jules, mid-air going for a ball. Enjoy.

Holy long time batman!

Kal, your comment reminded me that I should probably update. Sheesh. June was so busy, and now I'm off at the International Music Camp until the 21st. I'm home for the night (7 hour drive in 24 hours just to see my Chris and my Jules).

I'm so wiped out, and I want to do the update justice, so I'll write when I'm back.

For now, here's a few point form POSITIVE things:

- the school year ended really well, and I'm looking forward (though not yet salivating about) the coming year

- wedding plans are DONE. 27 days to go!

- camp is fun. Kids are great, and I've met some really cool people.

- I have finally found a pair of capri pants that don't look like I just couldn't find real pants.

A real update in a little over a week. Promise.