Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Music on the Radio??
This morning as I drove into work, I heard the DJ talking into a song on the radio and stopping mid-sentence so as to let the song begin. I instantly flashed back to the days where radio is where we got our variety! I miss the music of the 90's and sadly that's the era of music I know the most (secular) songs from, thanks to good ol' CKSY.'s 80, 90's and today!
I remember sitting on the floor in the living room, and calling the radio station to request to hear a song. My brother or I would have a cassette in the tape deck and our finger hovering over the record button. I think we requested Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden a lot.
Does anyone else remember that? The era before iTunes and YouTube? It baffles my mind to think that the TV Show the Bachelor started in 2002 when my friend Mariah was 2.5 so basically she has grown up with Reality TV, which started as we know it with Survivor in 2000. She never knew life before Reality TV! That thought even made Nick laugh the other day, talk about feeling old.
I can still picture the thing radio/tape player I had in my room when I was a kid. Or was mine pink and Michael had a green one?? I found a website with pictures of them. They're calling it Vintage. Ohh man. I'm feeling even older now!
I remember sitting on the floor in the living room, and calling the radio station to request to hear a song. My brother or I would have a cassette in the tape deck and our finger hovering over the record button. I think we requested Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden a lot.
Does anyone else remember that? The era before iTunes and YouTube? It baffles my mind to think that the TV Show the Bachelor started in 2002 when my friend Mariah was 2.5 so basically she has grown up with Reality TV, which started as we know it with Survivor in 2000. She never knew life before Reality TV! That thought even made Nick laugh the other day, talk about feeling old.
I can still picture the thing radio/tape player I had in my room when I was a kid. Or was mine pink and Michael had a green one?? I found a website with pictures of them. They're calling it Vintage. Ohh man. I'm feeling even older now!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Toyota University
Wow the other day, I don't know why it crossed my mind, but I'm so glad it did and I'm smart enough to write myself a memo in my phone so I remember to write a blog post!
My dad, my daddio, my daddy, has worked for Toyota for 30ish years. He's the best Mechanic in the city! I love him and I'm sooo proud of him.
Anyhoo, every other year or so, he gets sent off to Toyota University in Toronto, Ontario. It makes sense, if the only knowledge he was as from cars from 43 years ago, he'd have no idea how to fix a new Prius.
As a kid I remember we would go with him, and stay at a hotel and have special daddy time! I mean yeah he had to go to class, but I remember sitting in the hotel room reading!! How young was I?? I have no idea... I'd have to be old enough to be left alone....
I love going on daddy dates! I love feeling like I'm the most special girl in the world, and dad's have the power to make that happen!
My dad, my daddio, my daddy, has worked for Toyota for 30ish years. He's the best Mechanic in the city! I love him and I'm sooo proud of him.
Anyhoo, every other year or so, he gets sent off to Toyota University in Toronto, Ontario. It makes sense, if the only knowledge he was as from cars from 43 years ago, he'd have no idea how to fix a new Prius.
As a kid I remember we would go with him, and stay at a hotel and have special daddy time! I mean yeah he had to go to class, but I remember sitting in the hotel room reading!! How young was I?? I have no idea... I'd have to be old enough to be left alone....
I love going on daddy dates! I love feeling like I'm the most special girl in the world, and dad's have the power to make that happen!
Friday, February 1, 2013
High School?
What was high school? I barely remember it.... a conversation was spawned between Nick and I yesterday after I went to Mariah's school. Her class period was only 50 minutes long, and I thought that was strange, but Nick said it was normal. I was pretty sure when I was in in High School we took 4 classes a day at 2 hours each. That means that the semesters that we had "spare's" or "sdfjsdfjs;" as American's call it, we could have potentially had a semester that included: band, sewing, and history or something like that. I started re-calling classes that I took:
@CCI:
Business with Mrs. Zeleski-McCauley, and Gym with her too (then I remembered we had to wear gross Gym Uniforms... eeww)
Band: with Mrs. (DJfSLDFJ)
French - with Mrs. Rodriguez, which I was in when 9/11 happened
I think I maybe remember having Math on the 3rd floor with a skinny old man teacher.
Geography - with Mr. Woods
History - with Mr. Dutry - AWESOME Class
Yearbook was an extra curricular I believe.
@CKSS:
Entrepreneurial Studies with Mr. Hunt (the Vice Principle)
Economics with Mr. (sdfsdfsdf) (he had long silver hair wore Hawaiian shirts) - we almost always had a Timmies run in that class - Josh Kenney would go pick up the entire class's orders!
Yearbook - was a class - I took it.
Band - with Mr. (sdfsdlflsk)
I took 2 History Classes with Mr. Leidl - one where we learned about Napoleon, and 1 American History class.
Sewing class. I made PJ's (button top and pants) and some kind of stuffed cat teddy bear thing.
That's all I remember.... sad right? 4 years of High School. 8 Classes a year. 32 total classes and I only remember.....13ish - cuz I did take band more than once at each school, but I don't remember how many times....1x a year makes sense.
@CCI:
Business with Mrs. Zeleski-McCauley, and Gym with her too (then I remembered we had to wear gross Gym Uniforms... eeww)
Band: with Mrs. (DJfSLDFJ)
French - with Mrs. Rodriguez, which I was in when 9/11 happened
I think I maybe remember having Math on the 3rd floor with a skinny old man teacher.
Geography - with Mr. Woods
History - with Mr. Dutry - AWESOME Class
Yearbook was an extra curricular I believe.
@CKSS:
Entrepreneurial Studies with Mr. Hunt (the Vice Principle)
Economics with Mr. (sdfsdfsdf) (he had long silver hair wore Hawaiian shirts) - we almost always had a Timmies run in that class - Josh Kenney would go pick up the entire class's orders!
Yearbook - was a class - I took it.
Band - with Mr. (sdfsdlflsk)
I took 2 History Classes with Mr. Leidl - one where we learned about Napoleon, and 1 American History class.
Sewing class. I made PJ's (button top and pants) and some kind of stuffed cat teddy bear thing.
That's all I remember.... sad right? 4 years of High School. 8 Classes a year. 32 total classes and I only remember.....13ish - cuz I did take band more than once at each school, but I don't remember how many times....1x a year makes sense.
Friday, January 11, 2013
O Canada How I Love Thee
Growing up in Canada is something I will always Cherish! (Just writing this sentence brought tears to my eyes immediately)
This morning at work, one of the ladies was wearing a really cute outfit and I could just picture her on an ice rink.
This took me back to Chatham Memorial Arena.
Our church has a Church Skate every year, I think there used to be 2 or 3 a year. I hope they're still doing them. Those are some of my favourite memories! We use to rent out an arena just for the church. So many wonderful memories. A few sad ones too (Russ: had a heart-attack on the ice and died). If I had all the money in the world - I would fly back there just for a church skate. It was cheap for us too, because in Canada EVERYONE owns their own skates so you don't have to pay to rent them.
So many pictures are flashing through my mind and I wish I could describe them all, or had them on video. In my mind they are as clear as watching a DVD. Over the years we rented out different arena's but most of my memories are at the Chatham Memorial Arena.
My memory takes me back to sitting out in the hallway, with the elementary school like hooks for your coats and benches to sit on to lace up your skates. I remember making hot chocolate in white Styrofoam cups. I have memories with people too; the Loney's, skating around paying attention to where on the rink they boy I liked was, skating really really fast with my cousin's in and out of the slow skaters.... the little ones in the "shallow end" with tiny little chairs to hold them up.
This webpage has a lot more information on the town I call home! We have a lot of really cool history including:
This morning at work, one of the ladies was wearing a really cute outfit and I could just picture her on an ice rink.
This took me back to Chatham Memorial Arena.
 |
| Chatham Memorial Arena |
 |
| Thames Campus Arena |
So many pictures are flashing through my mind and I wish I could describe them all, or had them on video. In my mind they are as clear as watching a DVD. Over the years we rented out different arena's but most of my memories are at the Chatham Memorial Arena.
 |
| Chatham Memorial Arena |
This webpage has a lot more information on the town I call home! We have a lot of really cool history including:
- War of 1812 - Shawnee Indian Chief TECUMSEH
- Rev. Josiah Henson (Uncle Tom's Cabin), and John Brown, both abolitionist working with the "Underground Railroad"
- Geoffrey O'Hara - Song writer: wrote "K-K-K-Katy my Beautiful K-K-Katy" sung in the trenches of world war one.
- Fergie Jenkins - signed up by the Phillies in 1962, traded to the Cubs from 1967 to 1972.
- Shae-Lynn Bourne - Ice Dancer with Victor Kratz - 2 time Olympians, and 4 times World Bronze Medallists. Invented Shae-Crusher.
- Michelle Wright - most awarded artist in Canadian country Music history. She has over 30 major music industry awards to her credit, and a string of 23 top ten hits. (She was raised by my Grandpa's cousin who I grew up calling Aunt and Uncle)
- Dave Gagner - NHL Player for the New York Rangers
- Doug Anakin - Olympic Gold Medal Winner in 1964
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Memories from Gregory Drive
I'm about to sum up as many memories as I can from my 9 years at Gregory Drive Public School. This should be fun!
Kindergarten and Daycare:
I don't remember much from Kindergarten except these few things:
There was a YMCA Daycare attached to the school I went to.We used to go to Daycare before and after school. We had our own separate playground with really cool triangle seated bike thingys that you have to move the handles back and forth to make the contraption move. I think they're called Roller Carts, but I can't find a picture of them anywhere online! The water table was fun to play on.... I remember teaching all the cool boys how to braid! We used to sit at the tables and I taught them all how to braid with embroidery floss. I don't think any of those boys are married yet, but one day their wives can thank me! One of the worker's named Linda I think was our favourite. Sean McLaughlin's mom used to run the day care. Daycare did introduce me to one of my favourite meals... cream of mushroom soup with rice in it!
Things I hated about daycare:
The bathroom had a window in it, out to the main room which seems sooo wrong, but I understand why they had that sort of. Eww. Also they used to make us dip banana's in strawberry yogurt and then in coconuts! I hate yogurt and coconuts.... Ewww to this day I still have a hard time eating banana's! I remember hating nap time, but now I wish we had those ugly green canvas cots everywhere and that naptime was still mandatory. That must have been during the summer that we had to take naps.
Grade 1:
I had Mrs. Simmons. I don't remember much from her class, but I remember after that year or right before the year was up, she moved to New Zealand. I also had a best friend named Chrystal who also moved Down Under that year... Several years of school I remember we celebrated the 100th day of class by bringing in 100 somethings... (100 pennies, or marbles, paperclips etc.)
Grade 2:
I had Mrs. Peach. She was sweet! I liked her a lot. I remember that year I was put in Mrs. Powells class and then I was taken out of it. I was told it was because Michael, Jacqi and I were all in the same class (it was a 1/2 split) and you can't have that many relatives in once class, but in all actuality my mom wanted me to spread my wings and fly and not feel like I had to take care of the youngins (I was a typical big sister). I was mad though because you see Mrs. Powells class was the coolest because she would bring in eggs and raise ducks! I thought I missed my chance because she only taught Grade 1, but then she got a split class! Oh well I'm pretty sure I learned to love reading in Mrs. Peach's class!!!
Grade 3:
I had Mrs. Flannagan. She was my favourite! I still see her from time to time, run into her at the mall or something.... I think I saw her at a church function one time. She still remembers me. I'm pretty sure it was in Grade 3 that I had my tonsils out, January 28th and also that was the year Matt Laird's dad, whom I now affectionately call Phil came in and taught all about Bread. He brought in a ton of different kinds of bread and we got to try them all! That's when I fell in love with Pumpernickel Bread. I also think that was the year we learned to tell time. I know I think they learn that in Kindergarten now.
Grade 4:
I had Mrs. Sharp (appropriately named). I hated pretty much everything about this year, except that's when Mandy showed up on the scene. That was the year, I sneezed really loud (like I always do) and a substitute male teacher made some rude comment and hurt my feelings. I was embarrassed. I also had to start going to science class and NO one liked the science teacher. Girls felt weird around him. A lot of the girls I grew up with ended up in his homeroom class in grade 7, I'm SOOOO glad I didn't! I do remember we read James and the Giant Peach that year. We also had Mrs. Mitchell, the best Substitute in the city for a significant period of time that year! She had a smiley face system that could get you treasures from the treasure chest! She died way to young about 6 years ago...
Grade 5 & 6:
I had the same teacher: Mr. Robertson. I didn't like him, he was weird. He loved art though I got good grades in his art classes which I remembered loving his art class. He also was a computer geek and I learned a lot from him, although all that stuff I learned is completely obsolete now!! As weird as he was, he was the teacher who teacher who made us watch Les Miserables for the first time! I am grateful for that for sure!!
Grade 7:
There was 1 teacher who everyone loved! He was the one you couldn't wait to have and he taught Grade 8! The last teacher before High School. However he ended up teach a Grade 7/8 split the year that I was in Grade 7 and I was luck enough to get him! (sad that it wasn't my last year though - best to go out with a bang!) Mr. V or Mr. VanKesteren is still my friend today! I remember we had a Euchre tournament, and he taught us how to make and paint wooden birdhouses. We also had an assignment in his music class to bring in a song we like on the radio and to dissect the words of the song. He was a Christian man who taught his values in the best way how in a public school. He wanted us to realize, that though a song my be catchy the lyrics that we're subjecting to our minds may not always be the best. He was in a men's quartet that sang together at church, not our church but I did get to hear him sing a few times! He also was one of my favourite customers at Gospel Text!
Grade 8:
Mr. Rehl was a new teacher at our school and I had him his first year teaching there. He was an older gentleman and got sick halfway through the year and was out almost the whole rest of the year. Sadly I don't even remember who filled in for him.
The rest of the things I'm going to write about, I can't necessarily pin to one year, or I know they spread across several years.
Remembrance Day Assemblies: We used to have amazing assemblies... they would take up half the day, we'd watch a war movie, we'd have my vets there representing, the Town Crier (Mr. Simms) was our principle so we got special perks and were featured in the newspapers a lot!
Mr. Simms - was our principle my younger years along with Mr. Beatty! They were great! They were sooo much fun! Mr. Simms got us all kinds of perks because he was our Town Crier - which no town has anymore but he would get all dressed up and yell stuff in parades and at big town events! He was also just really fun. Mr. Beatty was a sweetheart. He had a goofy Christmas sweater with lights in it the light up! At an assembly when I was young, it must have been a talent show, Mr. Simms did a rendition of Achey Breaky Heart.
Colour Guard - This is something I'm soo glad I got to be a part of! I did this probably when I was in Grade 4? There were 13 of us that would carry around the Canadian Provinces/Canadian flag in formations and in goofy red and white windbreaker-like outfits with white gloves! I got to be in a parade and attended other cool events like when the Snowbirds came to town for an airshow! We got to meet the pilots on several occasions too!
"Elmer the Safety Elephant - knows just want to do, Elmer the Safety Elephant says to me and you, I am the Safety Elephant here we go again, I'm Elmer the Safety Elephant, I will be your friend. verse 1 - when you walk across the street......." He is a blow up costume that goes around to schools and teaches about being safe in all kinds of places in song! Constable Lauers was the dude who brought Elmer to all the schools!
choir - Mrs.Geneau the french teacher taught the choir. We would practice at lunch time, and we sang at assemblies and in nursing homes. We sang a really cool song for Remembrance Day, apparently it's by Simon and Garfunkel. I also remember the other music teacher, Mrs. Wellington was sick once and we had Mrs. Linklater as a substitute. I remember singing out of a red or green hard cover music book. My favourite was something to do with a covered wagon. Mrs. Geneau was our French teacher, and to this day I'm still kind of friends with her daughter which is cool because she didn't go to our school. She didn't have her own classroom, she had a cart that she pushed from classroom to classroom and a closet to keep it in. But she had this Green puppet, Dimoutu (sp?) (pronounced Deem-wa-two). We also learned about Bonhomme de Neige, the snow man.
Recess - Everyone's favourite class of the day, what ever happened to that concept of required play time! Well when I was in Grade 1 we used to spend recess after recess building castles in the snow, not like a sand castle, these were huge and consisted of making paths that were like walls. We'd have rooms upon rooms in these castles. Some times when there was enough snow we'd build up walls, sometimes we just made pathways. We also would get married to other kids at recess. Pretty much like how they show it on TV... then getting mad when the person you were supposed to marry, would marry someone else instead.... crazy.
There was also this brick wall around the Air conditioner unit that was close enough to the wall of the building that we could walk up the wall into a planking - horizontal position! That was fun. We did that around Grade 6 or 7. My friend Sarah and I used to speed walk from the front to the back of the school yard and talk, yep when all the other kids were playing games we speed-walked.
Grade 7 & 8 - I've always said that I think Junior High is stupid! I think we're already awkward enough at that age, why would you take them out of a comfortable environment and put them into a new one.... any who I was still a typical Jr. Higher and there are things I did as a stupid tween that I never want to relive! All of us though, had a crush on this kid named James who was actually a year younger. I remember in Grade 7, my desk was set up where I could actually see him in the room diagonally across the hall! He had the same hair cut at one of the N-Sync boys.
Fundraisers - all schools do fundraisers, we sold Chocolate bars, they were delicious chocolate bars. We had a secret up our sleeve, so every other year Michael and I would switch so when we won our class would win the class prize! My uncle Eldon would take the boxes of chocolate bars to his work, at the Chrysler plant and sell them on his breaks! We won almost every year! One year I won a 10lb chocolate bar, one year I won an electric pencil sharpener, which I still use to this day!
One year, maybe around Grade 5 or 6, Lauren Sparks who goes to my church, got the chance to ride in a Hot Air Balloon, in our school yard! She had been really really sick and almost died and I think it was a make a wish wish kind of dealio. I remember the whole school went out to watch! It was very cool!
Who were my friends? I was Friends with Jessica Isherwood most of my young days. She called me B and I called her J. Us redheads stuck together. She was friends with Katie Poredos, so I was by association. She was also good friends with Laura Goulden so I got to be her friend too! I love that girl to death to this day! Sarah Mayes moved to our school in the later years, and I remember she couldn't open a bottle of water because she was too weak, so we would do it for her. In Grade 4, Mandy arrived on the scene, new from out of town! She was going to be my new best friend. Her family started going to our church, but she refused to go to Pioneer girls with me, even though her mom became a leader! Anyways I shared my juice box with her, because she had to take this medicine that tasted GROSS! She had run over her arm with a toboggan and lost a lot of skin and needed fancy antibiotics I think.... So there were a few of us that would share our drinks with her so she could take the medicine without tasting it. Over the next 4 years though we became best friends and we biked to school together everyday! She was at the border of taking the bus, but most of the time she would bike or roller blade or walk to the park behind me house, and then we'd go together from there to school, stopping to pick up Katie, then Jessica at their houses on the way! She would often roller blade and I would pull her on my bike! If the water was low enough we would cross the creek on the rocks and logs that were at a crossing point instead of walking all the way down to the bridge and then back. One time she roller bladed down the hill, the steep side of the hill. She also used to fall over a lot, and I was always there to catch her. Funny the thing we remember. One day we found a hurt squirrel and named him Ezekiel and tried to take care of him! When she had to go home, we talked on the phone for like 3 hours that night, I would report how he was doing.... "oh his leg moved."
I don't wanna grow up - Beth Townsend and I used to sing this with each other when life was getting stressful!
There was a talent show every year. One year Mandy and I did the Lip Song from Veggie Tales, she was Larry and I was the Shrink! I still have most of the song memorized! I also did a backstreet boys song with the chair dance.
I was a Crossing Guard for 3 or 4 years, I want to say 4 which is like the most you can be. We had these ugly reflective belts and vests to wear, and we got to go to training every year (which was really the reason to do it). The training was at St. Paul's church for all the crossing guards. We learned how to put on the belts, we learned all kinds of safety stuff.We got out of school for a day, and got free food! Fun! You would get divided into how many years experience you had, and you'd get training specific to that. Carrie did it too, so I got to see her at the training which was sweet! I had to be at school early or stay late depending on the schedule to help all the little ones cross the street! It also meant I got to hang out with Elmer more than the other kids!
Also the crosswalk was in front of Art & Verla's house. Art is my Grandpa's cousin and those 2 couples were best friends! They're more than distance relatives to us. We used to stop in and say hi or climb in their tree. One time while I was hanging from the tree, there was a bat in the knot whole in the tree....
Grade 8 Graduation was a big deal, bigger than it is here in America. I wore a black dress that I got a Sears, and the day of graduation I got my hair cut! I chopped off like 8 or more Inches! That may have been the first time I donated it... I think. It was crazy because I hadn't had my hair that short in like 5 or 6 years and didn't know how it was going to turn out! Can you say Risky!?!? I graduated in 2000.
I'm sure there is more and I will add to this as I think of things....
Kindergarten and Daycare:
I don't remember much from Kindergarten except these few things:
- the cubby closet where you hung your backpack, coats and shoes
- the alphabet around the top of the classroom
- painting with smocks
- the water/sand table
There was a YMCA Daycare attached to the school I went to.We used to go to Daycare before and after school. We had our own separate playground with really cool triangle seated bike thingys that you have to move the handles back and forth to make the contraption move. I think they're called Roller Carts, but I can't find a picture of them anywhere online! The water table was fun to play on.... I remember teaching all the cool boys how to braid! We used to sit at the tables and I taught them all how to braid with embroidery floss. I don't think any of those boys are married yet, but one day their wives can thank me! One of the worker's named Linda I think was our favourite. Sean McLaughlin's mom used to run the day care. Daycare did introduce me to one of my favourite meals... cream of mushroom soup with rice in it!
Things I hated about daycare:
The bathroom had a window in it, out to the main room which seems sooo wrong, but I understand why they had that sort of. Eww. Also they used to make us dip banana's in strawberry yogurt and then in coconuts! I hate yogurt and coconuts.... Ewww to this day I still have a hard time eating banana's! I remember hating nap time, but now I wish we had those ugly green canvas cots everywhere and that naptime was still mandatory. That must have been during the summer that we had to take naps.
Grade 1:
I had Mrs. Simmons. I don't remember much from her class, but I remember after that year or right before the year was up, she moved to New Zealand. I also had a best friend named Chrystal who also moved Down Under that year... Several years of school I remember we celebrated the 100th day of class by bringing in 100 somethings... (100 pennies, or marbles, paperclips etc.)
Grade 2:
I had Mrs. Peach. She was sweet! I liked her a lot. I remember that year I was put in Mrs. Powells class and then I was taken out of it. I was told it was because Michael, Jacqi and I were all in the same class (it was a 1/2 split) and you can't have that many relatives in once class, but in all actuality my mom wanted me to spread my wings and fly and not feel like I had to take care of the youngins (I was a typical big sister). I was mad though because you see Mrs. Powells class was the coolest because she would bring in eggs and raise ducks! I thought I missed my chance because she only taught Grade 1, but then she got a split class! Oh well I'm pretty sure I learned to love reading in Mrs. Peach's class!!!
Grade 3:
I had Mrs. Flannagan. She was my favourite! I still see her from time to time, run into her at the mall or something.... I think I saw her at a church function one time. She still remembers me. I'm pretty sure it was in Grade 3 that I had my tonsils out, January 28th and also that was the year Matt Laird's dad, whom I now affectionately call Phil came in and taught all about Bread. He brought in a ton of different kinds of bread and we got to try them all! That's when I fell in love with Pumpernickel Bread. I also think that was the year we learned to tell time. I know I think they learn that in Kindergarten now.
Grade 4:
I had Mrs. Sharp (appropriately named). I hated pretty much everything about this year, except that's when Mandy showed up on the scene. That was the year, I sneezed really loud (like I always do) and a substitute male teacher made some rude comment and hurt my feelings. I was embarrassed. I also had to start going to science class and NO one liked the science teacher. Girls felt weird around him. A lot of the girls I grew up with ended up in his homeroom class in grade 7, I'm SOOOO glad I didn't! I do remember we read James and the Giant Peach that year. We also had Mrs. Mitchell, the best Substitute in the city for a significant period of time that year! She had a smiley face system that could get you treasures from the treasure chest! She died way to young about 6 years ago...
Grade 5 & 6:
I had the same teacher: Mr. Robertson. I didn't like him, he was weird. He loved art though I got good grades in his art classes which I remembered loving his art class. He also was a computer geek and I learned a lot from him, although all that stuff I learned is completely obsolete now!! As weird as he was, he was the teacher who teacher who made us watch Les Miserables for the first time! I am grateful for that for sure!!
Grade 7:
There was 1 teacher who everyone loved! He was the one you couldn't wait to have and he taught Grade 8! The last teacher before High School. However he ended up teach a Grade 7/8 split the year that I was in Grade 7 and I was luck enough to get him! (sad that it wasn't my last year though - best to go out with a bang!) Mr. V or Mr. VanKesteren is still my friend today! I remember we had a Euchre tournament, and he taught us how to make and paint wooden birdhouses. We also had an assignment in his music class to bring in a song we like on the radio and to dissect the words of the song. He was a Christian man who taught his values in the best way how in a public school. He wanted us to realize, that though a song my be catchy the lyrics that we're subjecting to our minds may not always be the best. He was in a men's quartet that sang together at church, not our church but I did get to hear him sing a few times! He also was one of my favourite customers at Gospel Text!
Grade 8:
Mr. Rehl was a new teacher at our school and I had him his first year teaching there. He was an older gentleman and got sick halfway through the year and was out almost the whole rest of the year. Sadly I don't even remember who filled in for him.
The rest of the things I'm going to write about, I can't necessarily pin to one year, or I know they spread across several years.
Remembrance Day Assemblies: We used to have amazing assemblies... they would take up half the day, we'd watch a war movie, we'd have my vets there representing, the Town Crier (Mr. Simms) was our principle so we got special perks and were featured in the newspapers a lot!
Mr. Simms - was our principle my younger years along with Mr. Beatty! They were great! They were sooo much fun! Mr. Simms got us all kinds of perks because he was our Town Crier - which no town has anymore but he would get all dressed up and yell stuff in parades and at big town events! He was also just really fun. Mr. Beatty was a sweetheart. He had a goofy Christmas sweater with lights in it the light up! At an assembly when I was young, it must have been a talent show, Mr. Simms did a rendition of Achey Breaky Heart.
Colour Guard - This is something I'm soo glad I got to be a part of! I did this probably when I was in Grade 4? There were 13 of us that would carry around the Canadian Provinces/Canadian flag in formations and in goofy red and white windbreaker-like outfits with white gloves! I got to be in a parade and attended other cool events like when the Snowbirds came to town for an airshow! We got to meet the pilots on several occasions too!
"Elmer the Safety Elephant - knows just want to do, Elmer the Safety Elephant says to me and you, I am the Safety Elephant here we go again, I'm Elmer the Safety Elephant, I will be your friend. verse 1 - when you walk across the street......." He is a blow up costume that goes around to schools and teaches about being safe in all kinds of places in song! Constable Lauers was the dude who brought Elmer to all the schools!
choir - Mrs.Geneau the french teacher taught the choir. We would practice at lunch time, and we sang at assemblies and in nursing homes. We sang a really cool song for Remembrance Day, apparently it's by Simon and Garfunkel. I also remember the other music teacher, Mrs. Wellington was sick once and we had Mrs. Linklater as a substitute. I remember singing out of a red or green hard cover music book. My favourite was something to do with a covered wagon. Mrs. Geneau was our French teacher, and to this day I'm still kind of friends with her daughter which is cool because she didn't go to our school. She didn't have her own classroom, she had a cart that she pushed from classroom to classroom and a closet to keep it in. But she had this Green puppet, Dimoutu (sp?) (pronounced Deem-wa-two). We also learned about Bonhomme de Neige, the snow man.
Recess - Everyone's favourite class of the day, what ever happened to that concept of required play time! Well when I was in Grade 1 we used to spend recess after recess building castles in the snow, not like a sand castle, these were huge and consisted of making paths that were like walls. We'd have rooms upon rooms in these castles. Some times when there was enough snow we'd build up walls, sometimes we just made pathways. We also would get married to other kids at recess. Pretty much like how they show it on TV... then getting mad when the person you were supposed to marry, would marry someone else instead.... crazy.
There was also this brick wall around the Air conditioner unit that was close enough to the wall of the building that we could walk up the wall into a planking - horizontal position! That was fun. We did that around Grade 6 or 7. My friend Sarah and I used to speed walk from the front to the back of the school yard and talk, yep when all the other kids were playing games we speed-walked.
Grade 7 & 8 - I've always said that I think Junior High is stupid! I think we're already awkward enough at that age, why would you take them out of a comfortable environment and put them into a new one.... any who I was still a typical Jr. Higher and there are things I did as a stupid tween that I never want to relive! All of us though, had a crush on this kid named James who was actually a year younger. I remember in Grade 7, my desk was set up where I could actually see him in the room diagonally across the hall! He had the same hair cut at one of the N-Sync boys.
Fundraisers - all schools do fundraisers, we sold Chocolate bars, they were delicious chocolate bars. We had a secret up our sleeve, so every other year Michael and I would switch so when we won our class would win the class prize! My uncle Eldon would take the boxes of chocolate bars to his work, at the Chrysler plant and sell them on his breaks! We won almost every year! One year I won a 10lb chocolate bar, one year I won an electric pencil sharpener, which I still use to this day!
One year, maybe around Grade 5 or 6, Lauren Sparks who goes to my church, got the chance to ride in a Hot Air Balloon, in our school yard! She had been really really sick and almost died and I think it was a make a wish wish kind of dealio. I remember the whole school went out to watch! It was very cool!
Who were my friends? I was Friends with Jessica Isherwood most of my young days. She called me B and I called her J. Us redheads stuck together. She was friends with Katie Poredos, so I was by association. She was also good friends with Laura Goulden so I got to be her friend too! I love that girl to death to this day! Sarah Mayes moved to our school in the later years, and I remember she couldn't open a bottle of water because she was too weak, so we would do it for her. In Grade 4, Mandy arrived on the scene, new from out of town! She was going to be my new best friend. Her family started going to our church, but she refused to go to Pioneer girls with me, even though her mom became a leader! Anyways I shared my juice box with her, because she had to take this medicine that tasted GROSS! She had run over her arm with a toboggan and lost a lot of skin and needed fancy antibiotics I think.... So there were a few of us that would share our drinks with her so she could take the medicine without tasting it. Over the next 4 years though we became best friends and we biked to school together everyday! She was at the border of taking the bus, but most of the time she would bike or roller blade or walk to the park behind me house, and then we'd go together from there to school, stopping to pick up Katie, then Jessica at their houses on the way! She would often roller blade and I would pull her on my bike! If the water was low enough we would cross the creek on the rocks and logs that were at a crossing point instead of walking all the way down to the bridge and then back. One time she roller bladed down the hill, the steep side of the hill. She also used to fall over a lot, and I was always there to catch her. Funny the thing we remember. One day we found a hurt squirrel and named him Ezekiel and tried to take care of him! When she had to go home, we talked on the phone for like 3 hours that night, I would report how he was doing.... "oh his leg moved."
I don't wanna grow up - Beth Townsend and I used to sing this with each other when life was getting stressful!
There was a talent show every year. One year Mandy and I did the Lip Song from Veggie Tales, she was Larry and I was the Shrink! I still have most of the song memorized! I also did a backstreet boys song with the chair dance.
I was a Crossing Guard for 3 or 4 years, I want to say 4 which is like the most you can be. We had these ugly reflective belts and vests to wear, and we got to go to training every year (which was really the reason to do it). The training was at St. Paul's church for all the crossing guards. We learned how to put on the belts, we learned all kinds of safety stuff.We got out of school for a day, and got free food! Fun! You would get divided into how many years experience you had, and you'd get training specific to that. Carrie did it too, so I got to see her at the training which was sweet! I had to be at school early or stay late depending on the schedule to help all the little ones cross the street! It also meant I got to hang out with Elmer more than the other kids!
Also the crosswalk was in front of Art & Verla's house. Art is my Grandpa's cousin and those 2 couples were best friends! They're more than distance relatives to us. We used to stop in and say hi or climb in their tree. One time while I was hanging from the tree, there was a bat in the knot whole in the tree....
Grade 8 Graduation was a big deal, bigger than it is here in America. I wore a black dress that I got a Sears, and the day of graduation I got my hair cut! I chopped off like 8 or more Inches! That may have been the first time I donated it... I think. It was crazy because I hadn't had my hair that short in like 5 or 6 years and didn't know how it was going to turn out! Can you say Risky!?!? I graduated in 2000.
I'm sure there is more and I will add to this as I think of things....
Friday, November 16, 2012
Kings Kids
This memory is fresh in my mind because I'm am helping with the Kids Christmas Choir at WBCC.
Growing up my mama led a kids choir that sang once in a while throughout the year, not just at Christmas.
We were called the Kings Kids.
We had a song: I'm gonna be a Kings Kid! (with people everywhere)
We also learned to sing lots of other songs, including: The Mission, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms (hymn #271), Be Bold/Be Strong, Hallelujah Heart, All Day, What a Mighty God We Serve, Your First Day in Heaven, 7 Times a Day, I just want to be a Sheep. etc.
It was fun. As the child of the choir director I got to help pick out the songs, and learn them before all the other kids.
I loved getting all dressed up at Christmas and singing on stage. Being the daughter of the Adult Choir director as well, I got to do special things. One year when I was wearing the navy blue and sparkly stars homemade dress, I was in charge of changing the "Scene Title" card that was up on an easel.
I also remember as a kid, and this is separate from Kings Kids but my mom used to sing solo's and on Mother's day she would sing this song and look directly at Michael and I the entire time!
Growing up my mama led a kids choir that sang once in a while throughout the year, not just at Christmas.
We were called the Kings Kids.
We had a song: I'm gonna be a Kings Kid! (with people everywhere)
We also learned to sing lots of other songs, including: The Mission, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms (hymn #271), Be Bold/Be Strong, Hallelujah Heart, All Day, What a Mighty God We Serve, Your First Day in Heaven, 7 Times a Day, I just want to be a Sheep. etc.
It was fun. As the child of the choir director I got to help pick out the songs, and learn them before all the other kids.
I loved getting all dressed up at Christmas and singing on stage. Being the daughter of the Adult Choir director as well, I got to do special things. One year when I was wearing the navy blue and sparkly stars homemade dress, I was in charge of changing the "Scene Title" card that was up on an easel.
I also remember as a kid, and this is separate from Kings Kids but my mom used to sing solo's and on Mother's day she would sing this song and look directly at Michael and I the entire time!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Colours of My Room
The room I grew up in was my room my whole life. Although the 4 walls never moved, the room changed looks a lot! When I was just a wee baby, my mom decided to paint the light grey carpeted room a "dusty rose" however either someone mixed the paint wrong or named the paint wrong because it came out HOT PINK!!!! So I had a very pink room for the first couple years. I barely remember this so I must have been young when my mom turned my room into a Victorian magazine. The bottom third of my room was thin stripped pink & cream wall paper, with a very florally border above the stripes. I want to say the top of the room was also pink?? Mom correct me on that??
Then I got old enough to make my own decisions and that's where it got crazy! I was still in Public school so I was probably 12 year old, when I told my mom I wanted to paint my room lime green!!! She just about had a cow! However the amazing parents that I have let me do it! I got really creative! That might have been around the same time as the "Floor Incident".
What is that you ask? well that's a whole other story but I will tell it to you anyways!
My parents were having the hard wood refinished that was under the carpet in the living room and the old wide pine hardwood that was in the kitchen/dinning room replaced to match it. We went on vacation and put all of the furniture in my brother and my rooms. The fridge happened to be in my room! In that fridge the floor workers stored their lunches....also in the fridge was a pitcher of red Kool-aid that one of the workers lunches pails accidentally caught on and spilled all over my light grey carpeted floors! AND HE DIDN'T TELL ANYONE! Crazy right??? So we get back from vacation to a beautifully hard wooded house and one big deep red stain in my Victorian bedroom. Once the owner of the flooring company learned of this, he offered to replace the carpet in my room or re-do the hard wood that was also under my carpet. My parents left it up to me to decide! I wasn't crazy I did grow up in a classy house so I made the right decision and picked the wood!
Back to Lime Green!! I, being the grown up that I was at 12 years old picked out 3 colours that no one in their right mind would put together today.... lime green, pastel purple and a pastelly-blue-almost periwinkle. I came up with this crazy idea, that who knows where it came from, because Pinterest wasn't around then.... heck the internet was barely around then! I painted the bottom the light purple with a darker shade of the same purple sponge painted over top. The Top 2/3rd of the room was the Lime Green and the border is where it got crazy! I had 4 of my best friends forever come over and we painted the bottom of our feet, rolled around on a computer chair and placed our feet wherever our initials were on the wall.
I remember I had a sophisticated sticky-note system: something like: KP - P, MK- B, JI - G, etc. which stood for Katie Porados -Purple, Mandy Kenney- Blue, Jessica Isherwood - Green. I think the 4th person was Laura Goulden but I sadly can't even remember!! I'll have to go back and look at pictures! I'm still friends with Mandy and still sort of friends with Laura, Jessica was my best friend for YEARS and I should write a whole blog about that. Katie was a really "cool" girl thought she was best friends with Mandy, but that is iffy, again a whole other blog! I was the 5th set of feet around the room and I also put 1 hand print on the back of my door surrounded by 1 foot of each girl! I remember that if I could remember the order of the feet pairs I could always figure out who's were who's because Mandy had the biggest gap between her big toe and her next toe, so I would find hers and go from there!
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| notice the hand print on the door |
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My brother was moving in so we agreed on a colour that would work for the rich wedding pictures as well as make him happy to live in that room until further notice.... We decided on a burnt orange, and after the wedding he painted all the trim a tan colour!
The Basement
This is one of those memories I'll never forget because as soon as I light a wood burning fireplace, I'm transported right back to the basement of the house I grew up in.
The basement, now home to a new guest bedroom with a gas fireplace on the wall, and the laundry room was once our main living space. The upstairs living room used to be full of antiques and was more of a formal living room.
There used to be an ugly green and off-white-ish sort of couch as well as a burnt orangish red lazy boy chair.
There was a large hutch, which I believe is still there that used to hold our box TV and if I am remembering correctly it had a dial to change the channels. I remember watching cartoons and Sesame Street on it! I remember my dad coming home for lunch and us RUNNING upstairs
Most of my memories stem from looking at pictures of my childhood which might be why I LOVE pictures so much! But we had many birthday parties down there. We had a long table set up along the front side of the house of the basement... There are home video's of these parties and I love seeing my Grandma in them!
We also used to have Christmas down in the basement. We used to get a REAL Christmas tree that went in the basement every year and the fake one in the living room upstairs. The one down stairs had all the goofy, animated, colourful ornaments and the bead strands. We also have a wood burning fireplace in the basement which is why we lived down there. Once we got the "fake" one upstairs the downstairs ceased to exist as "the" hang out place.
My brother and I used to make some forts down there that were pretty cool! I remember a series of tunnels we made with the amazing cardboard boxes my dad used to bring home from work! I need to remember to bring home random stuff like that for when I have kids!
I also had a fancy tea party birthday down there one year!
I remember falling in love with Kristi Yamaguchiand Scotty Hamilton's backflips there, snuggled up under ugly but warm (yellow, brown & orange zigzag striped) blankets, sipping cocoa, replacing wood in the fire. Such wonderful, wonderful memories!
One year I hosted a big dinner for 21 girls! It was formal attire, and it was a full turkey & potatoes spread on Valentines Day! After dinner we had an awards show in the basement that Carrie helped me plan! We had a red carpet lined with Christmas lights, and a podium! We invited Anne - the Youth Leaders wife, and we even had entertainment; Nikki & Nicole sang a duet! We gave each girl an award based on something from their personality! That could be a whole other blog post as well!! But here's a picture of the senior girls from the party!!
The basement, now home to a new guest bedroom with a gas fireplace on the wall, and the laundry room was once our main living space. The upstairs living room used to be full of antiques and was more of a formal living room.
There used to be an ugly green and off-white-ish sort of couch as well as a burnt orangish red lazy boy chair.
Most of my memories stem from looking at pictures of my childhood which might be why I LOVE pictures so much! But we had many birthday parties down there. We had a long table set up along the front side of the house of the basement... There are home video's of these parties and I love seeing my Grandma in them!
We also used to have Christmas down in the basement. We used to get a REAL Christmas tree that went in the basement every year and the fake one in the living room upstairs. The one down stairs had all the goofy, animated, colourful ornaments and the bead strands. We also have a wood burning fireplace in the basement which is why we lived down there. Once we got the "fake" one upstairs the downstairs ceased to exist as "the" hang out place.
My brother and I used to make some forts down there that were pretty cool! I remember a series of tunnels we made with the amazing cardboard boxes my dad used to bring home from work! I need to remember to bring home random stuff like that for when I have kids!
I also had a fancy tea party birthday down there one year!
One year I hosted a big dinner for 21 girls! It was formal attire, and it was a full turkey & potatoes spread on Valentines Day! After dinner we had an awards show in the basement that Carrie helped me plan! We had a red carpet lined with Christmas lights, and a podium! We invited Anne - the Youth Leaders wife, and we even had entertainment; Nikki & Nicole sang a duet! We gave each girl an award based on something from their personality! That could be a whole other blog post as well!! But here's a picture of the senior girls from the party!!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Practically an Older Brother
Way back around the time we got our first computer, whenever that was, I also got a big brother.
How did I get a big brother you say? There was a guy who was attending our church who needed a place to live. He had been kicked out of his home and my parent's offered our basement to him. Man was he cool! I think he lived with us for 2 year or so but I don't remember for sure... He had a really cool set of weights and a bench press. He also had a really cool sterio set with a lot of speakers. Isn't it funny what you remember from when you were really young.
The thing that I think my whole family will never forget is that he made the BEST French Toast.
He dated this one girl for like 5 years, and then it didn't end up working out but they both ended up getting married within a couple months of each other!
It was really fun to have an older brother who had a girlfriend. We made some fun memories together.
How did I get a big brother you say? There was a guy who was attending our church who needed a place to live. He had been kicked out of his home and my parent's offered our basement to him. Man was he cool! I think he lived with us for 2 year or so but I don't remember for sure... He had a really cool set of weights and a bench press. He also had a really cool sterio set with a lot of speakers. Isn't it funny what you remember from when you were really young.
The thing that I think my whole family will never forget is that he made the BEST French Toast.
He dated this one girl for like 5 years, and then it didn't end up working out but they both ended up getting married within a couple months of each other!
It was really fun to have an older brother who had a girlfriend. We made some fun memories together.
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