What If Everybody Did That

We read a book in our school this year called "What if Everybody Did That...."

It has positives and negatives: What if everybody just tossed their garbage on the ground? or What if everybody was kind to each other?

Our amazing principal and associate principal put together a memory for everybody based on that theme. There's lots of inside jokes, but I just have to share it here so I don't forget it!

What if everybody....
Flaunted their flip flops
Bet on everything
Went undercover As An Investigative! Reporter!
Crammed into the bathroom
Wore bright red Hawaiian shirts to assemblies
Had a ball...with books.
Had a little ditty for every transition
Could be a pirate! Arrrrr(g)!
Drew cussin' pink snowmen
Had appropriate screensavers
Was on a dream team (We are!)
Could go bananas in Spanish
~We'd all be having fun!~

What if everybody
Baked like Budgen
Made sculptures out of Rice Krispies
Forgot eggs boiling on the stove
Milked the milk fridge
Cherished cheezies
~We'd be nourished and content!~

What if everybody
Encouraged kids to be creative & calculate
Had patience and perseverance for temperamental technology
Was a book whisperer with a sexy minivan
Juggled letters like WRTR, ESL and PE
Tossed stuffies for good listening
Kept finding new ways to be ever active
Supported learning
Was a radical room rejuvenator
Was brave enough to teach tall people
Supervised students and staff with a smile
~We'd all be AWESOME!~

What if everybody
Got up at 5 to take their kids swimming
Had professional portraits of their pets
Spent their weekends at the rink
Drove for hours just to get to work
Bought a bigger car so their dog kennels would fit.
~We'd be dedicated.~

What if everybody
Could Gangman like Gr. 4
Tick Tocked the clock
Tried to find a rhyme for orange
~We'd all have too much time on our hands~

What if everybody
Thought fashion and fitness were fun
Had matching initials
Was a savvy southern shopper
Thought heels were as comfy as slippers
Could decorate with wine bottles'n wax
Had their wedding gown on a roll
~We'd be stylin'!~

What if everybody
Getz hugs
Pulled feelings from a bag
Fostered dogs
Made and delivered sandwiches
Shared their gifts
~We'd be bucket fillers.~


There are so many memories in all those words. We sure do pack a lot of things into one year at our school!

Summer Reading Week 1

It's almost time! School has come to a sad end. With the flooding in Calgary our last week of school a wash out. School was cancelled last Friday while the flooding was happening, and then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week in order for people to deal with all the after effects, as well as to encourage people to stay home so the disaster relief folks could deal with the emergency. It's been quite an experience. It is still far from over. We will be recovering from this for months, perhaps even years.

A lot of great reading teachers that I follow really immerse themselves in reading in the summers. It totally makes sense to me. There is nothing like a string of lazy days in your favorite reading spot, pouring through books that have been sitting in your 'to be read' pile for way too long. I'm not sure if I can totally keep up to their book a day pace, but I'm going to try!

I plan to read plenty of picture books, kids chapter books, some professional development reading and catch up on some of the adult reading I keep putting off. I am not officially into my summer vacation yet, but I am getting started today! Yea for summer reading!

What I plan to read this week:

Jr High Antics

This is Jill's principal's vehicle.

She says she wasn't involved.

Hmmm......

Humbled

I went with some of my co-workers today down to Bowness, a part of Calgary that was hit hard by the floods. We made sandwiches and took cookies and sandwiches and fruit and just walked down the street and handed it out to people.

It was a totally overwhelming experience. People's houses are ruined. There is no insurance that covers this sort of thing. They may get some help from the government - but we all know that will not cover everything.

I was overwhelmed with the mess.
I was overwhelmed by all the people.
I was overwhelmed by the mud.
I was overwhelmed by people's gratitude.
I was overwhelmed by the mass numbers of people there to help.
I was overwhelmed by the police and firemen there trying to keep everything orderly.
I was overwhelmed thinking of how blessed I am that my home is dry.
I was overwhelmed with companies there to hang out piles and piles of food to people.
I was overwhelmed by women driving in with people's laundry fresh and clean.
I was overwhelmed by everyone's friendliness.

This world is a good place, even despite the terrible things that happen.








There is pile after pile after pile like this in front of every house. So much is just being tossed. It's unbelievable.

Walking

I've been walking for pretty much a year now. It's been an interesting learning curve. I got started walking when we ended up having only one vehicle. It seemed like not that big a deal to walk home from work each day. I didn't want to have to live by my husband's schedule for when he could pick me up. I soon learned that I loved the solitude of that hour after school. I walked through the entire year. I wasn't sure it was possible, but I learned it is surprisingly quite possible to walk all year round where I live.

For the last six weeks I've kind of fallen off the band wagon. I wanted to see how many months I could string together 100 km/month. I only got two in. We got a second vehicle and while I had promised myself I'd continue walking to or from work, I haven't. It's just so convenient to take the van for the ten minutes it takes to drive there versus the hour to walk. I told myself I'd get up early and walk - but it seems that morning seminary and early swim practices have the best of me. There's no getting up earlier to fit anything else in. I could have done it after school, but kids activities, evening engagements and more pushed that out. It's almost summer and my schedule is much more free and so I plan to do a lot of walking this summer. Once again I will have to figure out how to continue the trend in the fall. I'm not going to worry about that just yet.

The other funny thing is that I started a group on Facebook. A couple gals at work wanted to join me in the 100 km/month goal. We decided we'd keep ourselves accountable by reporting on Facebook. Then a few more people joined, and a few more. It got to be a much larger group than I'd ever planned on. Bizarre! Now there are a bunch of keeners on there who seem to get to 100 by the 20th of the month easily - and it drives me crazy! It's totally de-motivating to me. So strange. I'd leave the group if I hadn't started it. I pretty much just watch it, rather than participate now.

The experts say you should find a friend to exercise with. That did help me last summer, for sure. However, I've always known I am pretty much a solitude exerciser. Even when I've gone through spurts where I attended exercise classes, I really wasn't much into the social aspect of it. When I go to a gym I put on head phones and live in my own world. I'm the same with walking. A few people have tried to get me to walk with them. Now and then I can fit it in, but mostly I haven't had time and really would rather walk on my own anyway.

This summer my goal is to walk at least 6 km daily, and will try for 10. I also plan to add in some yoga and weights. I've lost some weight this year and toned up, and would like to get to a new level. I've remained pretty much the same for about six months - so I'm grateful to have the time and space to take it up a notch. Yea to summer!

Volunteering

Today Peirce volunteered in my classroom helping clean out desks, take off name tags, empty bulletin boards and more....all the stuff I usually get an army of children to help with.

 

Jill made sandwiches at the church for people helping out in the floods.




They went out and delivered food, but they got stuck in the mud - so the police drove them around on their quads to deliver lunches :) What an adventure!

Calgary Strong

This is what has been going on where I live...

Good Friends

Today Jill shared an experienced in Sunday School. She said one week she didn't want to go to the youth activity because she was afraid she'd be too tired for her swim meet the next day. Her friend said, "You should go. I'll pray for you to do well at your swim meet."

That meet turned out awesome. She had a 50 fly race that was beautiful.

And as she put it, "All thanks to the prayer of a friend."

I'm sure all her practising had something to do with it too. I was, however, so grateful to hear that story. I'm so grateful she has good friends who encourage her to be where she should be. I'm also grateful she has friends that she talks about prayer with. A real blessing!

Trampolines!

Jill sure has some fun friends. Here's a video they made of them playing around on trampolines today.

The Last Five Years

This week, on Facebook, I won tickets to a Storybook Theatre play, The Last Five Years.

The play wasn't your typical Storybook Theatre fare. Most of their plays are for kids, which is right up my alley. This play was rated as 14+. The topic was definitely not one that would interest kids. It was a story told by two actors: a man and a woman. One was an rising author, and the other was an aspiring actress who was struggling in her trade. They sang the whole story. They had an orchestra playing the entire time. The orchestra was amazing.

I found myself grappling the entire time to make connections with this story. I felt like there were some issues with the sound. The music was way louder than the singing.....I hope they figure that out for upcoming shows. At first I thought they were dating other people and would get together in time. In the middle of the story they do get married. That part made a lot of sense to me, then as the story continued on I kept struggling to figure it out. When I got home I googled the play and found out that he tells the story chronologically, and she tells it backward!  I wish I had known that at first! I would have enjoyed the story more if I had known this. I understood some of the story, but couldn't figure out why it was so disjointed. The play received a very positive review in the paper the day before. I felt like maybe I was just being a dum dum again.....like when I read some great work of literature that is hard to slog through.

When the play ended I said to my friend, "Well, I'm glad I didn't pay for that!" Now, however, I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I think I would enjoy it a lot more!

Life Cycles

In the Spring my class studies butterflies as part of our life cycles unit. We order caterpillars from a company that also sends little containers and caterpillar food. Every child in the class gets one and we watch it change. As payment for getting them all organized, I let Peirce have a couple. Jill is totally grossed out now that she's a teenage girl. He loves it - both the caterpillars, and grossing her out.

Morning Reading

Jill has swim practice early on Saturday mornings. It is the perfect time for reading, especially now that the sun is up bright and early with us. This morning I finished The Running Dream. Reading for a couple hours in the morning is a lovely way to start the day. Just ask Chico!