Back to School

Wow, August 31st, everyone knows what that means - school starts! (This is usually the part where someone rejoices, but I think not) Not to say I don't like school though. I value my education and I'm looking forward to guitar classes and commercial cooking so I can eat my school work :)
But summer holidays keep getting better so I have a hard time going back to school in the fall. Yep, so the first day of school was welcomed with a bit of sadness and a bit of anticipation.
I got up this morning at 6:10am...hahaha I wish! Actually I set my alarm clock for 6:10 but I pushed the sleep button until 7:20 when my parents told me to get out of bed before they left for work. So I got up and waved good bye to my parents like I have for the past how many years and got ready for school. Which only takes 15 minutes; I'm proud to say. So it's 7:50 and I don't have to leave for another hour since school doesn't start until 9:30 for gr. 10, 11, and 12's. So I think "this is a perfect opportunity to start getting into the habit of starting off my day right!" So I grab my Bible and notebook and do my devotions for about an hour. It felt really good to kick start my day with spending time in God's Word and just talking to the Lord. After that I met Amanda at the corner of the block and to my surprise she brought home made iced cap's. YAY! So we walked to school together, talking and drinking our iced caps. We got to school quite early so we decided to walk around, seeing what's new, who's new and where our classes were. Amanda and I met up with our old IB chums, and headed off to our homeroom - Mr. Wilde's class - for social studies. I laughed so hard when I got in because I was hoping for a smaller class then last year. Last year we had 20 kids in IB and this year we had 27! That's almost a regular class! There's quite a few kids in my class though that were going to drop IB but stayed in because everybody else was. So we kept all the other IB kids and added on seven new kids. So welcome Christina, Chad, Jordan, other Christina, Brett, Jesse and Echo. Which I'm actually really pumped about with the new kids because Chad and Christina (twins) are Christians so now my class of 27 now has 5 Christians in it. Praise the Lord! I remember elementary school and I would be counting my blessings if I had one Christian in my class, but five wow! God is so good!
While we were in our homeroom Mr. Wilde got us to read over and high light some stuff on evidence of the history of Cypress Hills (where we're supposed to go for a field trip next Thursday and Friday) We actually did work! Who does that on the first day of school? Oh well. We were assigned lockers - well 20 of us, 7 students still need a locker - but this time it isn't alphabetical order so I'm not by my sister. This time I'm by my homeroom. Locker #2!
After that all the gr. 9 and 10's assembled in the auditorium to hear a guy talk about his life and the trials he went through growing up in Africa, being thrown in prison for wanting to stay in school then coming to Canada and running in track and field, the olympics and ranking 7th best runner in the world. So that was cool to hear his life story.
Then it was time to eat! All of us went into the auditorium to grab a burger and a glass of Pepsi (although Coke is still better)
At 12:55 classes began again. We did mini classes just to get the feel of going to all of our classes and make introductions so each class was 20 minutes long. The IB kids went to English class with Ms. Hubbs. Man, that lady is funny! Her view from her class window is a brick wall and chain link fence. So she said "If you don't behave, I'll murder you! And I'm ok with that because I'm used to looking at a brick wall and chain link fence for the past 25 years, so what's another 25?" Plus she's been around quite a bit, she's even taught Mr. Reimer (not saying Mr. Reimer's old but just so you have an idea of her age...not saying she's old...well actually she is...I mean...oh nevermind!)
Next was guitar class with Miss Empey. She teaches band so I wasn't sure how things would go since last year I dropped band right after getting the Outstanding Band Student Award so her and my old band teacher were really upset with that. But Miss Empey was excited that I had choosen to take guitar class. There were 15 girls and 10 guys. Some already play guitar, others are beginners. Then have guitars at school so I'm glad I don't have to bring my own guitar. Plus Amanda is in my class so yay for new beginnings!
Third period is of course Social Studies with Mr. Wilde. This was the only class that wasn't fun introductions and an outline to everyone of the semester. Nope, he already had us taking notes from the overhead and discussing primary and secondary sources. (brownie points to me for remembering what we were talking about in class)
Fourth period is math. Not my favorite subject but I don't hate it either. We have a new teacher - Mr. Raedeke - from Knoll. He wasn't very enthusiastic and made it sound like if you're struggling at the beginning of algebra then you'll always struggle and you'll never make it through. So I wasn't very happy at the fact that he was already making some people discouraged about math - especially those who had a hard time last year. Plus, we're taking math 10A (grade ten math), 20A (grade eleven math) and 30A (a third of grade twelve math) So he says we're going to be moving rapidly through the units and there will be LOTS of homework, he assures us. ...great...
Fifth period is French with Mrs. Betson. It was actually fun because Mrs. Betson is easily distracted and likes talking about her 2 and 4 year old kids. She made everyone try to think of the most impressive French word to say and if it was really impressive or one of her fave French words then you got a candy. Apparently grapefruit in French is one of them. We ran out of time before I got to say mine, which was probably for the better because she said "Ok, think of a French word that'll impress me and if it's one of my favorite words then you get a treat" So I was thinking, a fave thing of Mrs. Betson...mange! To eat! Then I thougt about it and I'm kind of glad I didn't say that because I may have offended her. But anyways it was interesting she has one class rule "don't be dumb" She's kind of strange...
Then 3:00 came and school was out. I walked home with Kristy and Amanda, go home and worked out for a bit (yes I'm trying to make a schedule for the school year, nothing strict but it involves getting up a bit earlier and doing my devotions every morning, going to school -no duh- then coming home, exercising for 30 to 40 minutes, having a healthy snack -no junk food, unless in a small portion :) - then doing homework and playing drums and guitar. Drums because I'll be playing a lot for Wednesday's Care Group worship teams and I'm playing for the Prayer Rally so I need to practice. And since I'm playing guitar for one of my school classes I think it would be wise to practice at home (it's like homework, but funner...more fun...)
Yeah so that was my first day of school. So far it's been off to a good start and I hope it can continue to be that way. Especially where devotions and exercise are concerned. Yep. And to end my long story I can only say one thing:
"Yay for new beginnings!"

FINALLY!!!!

FINALLY! I decided that I was going to resize all the pictures and see if that would work and guess what? It did! So sit back and enjoy some of the experiences and moments I share with you from my trip to BC!

Here's Leah, Erin, myself and Jen at Gwellem Lake. The water was freezing but we still had a good time. There were a few waves made when people in motorboats would go by so Erin and I would swim out and 'catch the waves' it was pretty pathetic really but it was still a hoot in the end. Then a lady let us use her canoe. We didn't have life jackets as you can see but she said "oh don't worry! My boys TRIED to tip the canoe yesterday and couldn't. It's impossible to tip" So off we went paddling into the horizon. Erin was giving us directions and telling us which side to paddle on "paddle on the left side" she says so we all do that, leaning to that side when a wave hits us and SLASH! ...we tipped the canoe! Figures...so we spent a fair bit of time trying to swim back while pulling the canoe along with us and making sure the paddles didn't float away. But all in all it was lots of fun.

Erin and I at Kinusou Falls. Wow that place was AMAZING! It's hard to describe it, but the most amazing thing there was the huge waterfall, it's narrower than Niagra Falls but it's actually taller than Niagra Falls so that was cool. All six of us hiked down to the bottom of the waterfall - which wasn't easy but it was well worth it as you can see in the picture. Although it's so much better in person.

Jen and I at Quality Falls together. ...no she's not taller than me she's just standing on a bigger rock....

This was the tower that Erin, Leah, Jen, Mr. Peats and myself quadded/four wheeled up to. If you look closely you'll see that WAY down there there's a small town, well that's Tumbler Ridge where we quadded/four wheeled from. It was a blast!

Here's Erin and me quadding/four wheeling up to the tower. There was a HUGE ... "puddle" I guess you could say that we drove through full speed. We did it a couple of times so we were completely drenched afterwards.

This is Erin and me in the tree in my backyard when they came to Regina on the last week of June.

Here's me, Erin, Leah and Jen after an amazing time quadding. We went through SO MANY puddles and so much mud we were soaked! But it was a blast. And bonus, Erin showed me how to drive a quad...oh the things you learn while at the Peats.

Here's us at Quality Falls. This place was awesome, there was a huge water fall and you could 'wade in the water' ... wow I could break out into song! Plus the water was clean and fresh so you could drink it too!

Erin and me at Flatbed Falls. That place was awesome there were a bunch of mini falls and a long river that you could swim in. There were big rocks that you could dive off of and even a waterfall that you could go behind. It was kerrrayzeeee, being under a waterfall feels so cool! You can hear tons of rushing water over you and you feel like you're under water but you can breathe. It's sooo much fun!

So that was my trip, I have probably 200 pictures but I chose only few to share with you. I also have some really funny movies too so yay for new beginnings!