Whistler

Okay, so I am home from our staff retreat in Whistler.

It was so awesome! The drive up was a little crazy as it was raining, dark & there is a lot of construction happening on the Sea to Sky highway in preparation for the 2010 Olympics happening here. Thursday night was a low key night as we arrived around 9:30pm (after getting a little "misguided" as the directions we had were very unclear and we were looking for a road that was supposed to be after the Whistler village but was actually before it, but we got creative, asked a truck driver and found our final destination on his map -which was only a block from where I ended up stopping to ask for directions, but we had driven 18kms past that and had already turned around and came back!)
When we arrived at the B&B (Cedar Springs B&B - I would recommend it highly!) we all got our room assignments and went and settled in, a few brave souls stayed up and played games but I was exhausted from a late night and early morning and was ready for bed! But, not before enjoying a couple of homemade gluten free chocolate chip cookies that Jackie & Joern (the B&B hosts) had set out for me (everyone else also got homemade cookies) ! They were great! Friday morning I was up early and enjoyed a fabulous hot shower and saw a couple of white snow flakes falling but nothing stuck! Breakfast was another delight as we all enjoyed waffles with whipped cream & strawberries, mine was gluten free but oh so delicious! They also had freshly baked bread, fruit, yogurt and a variety of cereals available. Jackie had gluten free bread that was brought out for me and it was quite good toasted and with jam! After breakfast we had our group session which was a video from Willow Creek's Leadership Summit this summer which our pastoral staff had attended. The session we watched was Go Put Your Strengths to Work with Marcus Buckingham, consultant, speaker, and best-selling author. It was a great session and we will continue to learn and work on the things we learned this weekend. After our group session we headed into the Village for lunch at Splitz Grill which is a burger joint. The burgers & choices of toppings was quite amazing. The chef was quite accomadating to make sure that my chicken breast was cooked on a clean spot without any sauces. After lunch was our "surprise group activity" that NONE of us knew anything about other than Terri who had booked it! We walked from lunch down the village until we arrived at Expressions Art Studio
and learned that we were all going to paint our own ceramic item. We had a price range that we could pick any item in and then choose a design and paint it. It was a hard choice but I finally decided on a small jewelery box that I painted for Ronel and am going to send it to him for our anniversary. After we were done with our ceramics, some of us were done earlier than others, we walked around the village and checked out some of the stores - there is some neat stuff up there! When we were all done, we headed back to the B&B for some more free time & to get ready for dinner. Dinner was at the Keg in the Village which was lovely. Our waiter, Graeme, did an awesome job and was very knowledgeable about celiac disease and quite willingly checked on any menu item that I was questioning. Dinner was yummy and having the time to just hang out and talk with everyone was also fun. After dinner we loaded back into the vans and once again headed to the B&B. Once we got back, most of the girls went into the hot tub (that is outside on the deck!) and then jumped into the sauna afterwards. Those of us that didn't go into the hot tub, sat in the guest living room and played games. A group of us had a lot of fun and played games until early in the morning and we got to watch the snowflakes begin to fall about 1am. The next morning when I got up, there was white everywhere! By breakfast the snow was gone from the roads but still on the trees and it was so pretty. After a savory breakfast of Eggs Benedict we packed up the vans and said goodbye to Jackie and headed into the Village for some shopping and sightseeing before we headed back home. We wandered around the village and checked out a lot of the stores and while most of us didn't buy anything, we all had fun. We then drove to Squamish and had lunch at White Spot before heading back to Delta and going our separate ways. The retreat was a great time and I know that I got to know some of my coworkers better and also got to get to know Matt (my team member - we work with the gr 2 & 3's together) a bit better and get to know how we can work to be the best team we can be.

Overall it was a great weekend and I look forward to seeing what changes come out of this weekend!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Leslie and here are my responses.

Jobs I've Had In My Life:
1. Babysitter (that was my full-time job during high school - I could have been booked 7 nights a week if I wanted to!)
2. Telemarketer (HATED IT)
3. Customer Service Rep for Panagopoulos Pizza
4. Children's Ministry Intern at my church
5. Childcare Worker
6. Teacher at an orphanage/school in Haiti
7. Childcare Worker (again - same place as #5)
8. Administrative Assistant/Mademoiselle Finance (& a million other odd jobs including loving on the kids! (that was my favourite!)) at an orphanage in Haiti
9. Childcare Worker (yes, again at the same place - I think I am listening this time though and have NO plans on leaving anytime in the near future!)

Places I Have Lived:
1. Alberta
2. BC (in about a dozen different cities)
3. Haiti
4. BC again
5. Haiti again
6. BC (AGAIN!)

TV Shows I Like to Watch:
1. Cop/Detective shows - Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, Bones, Crossing Jordan, etc
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Gilmore Girls
4. America's Next Top Model

Places I've Been To:
1. Canada - BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
2. US - Washington, Oregon, California, Florida
3. Haiti
** I agree with Leslie - if airports count, my list changes, atleast the amount of cities visited does**


Fave Foods: I am going to divide this into pre-gluten free and post-gf as they are two totally different lists! (and the majority of the pre-gf are no longer an option!)
PRE-Gluten Free
1. Lasagna (but really any pasta)
2. Pizza (Chicken Club or my personal creation - ham, pineapple, bacon, shrimp with a sweet & sour tropical sauce! YUMMY)
3. Nachos - Theresa style - loaded with veggies, chicken & cheese and baked to perfection!
4. Popcorn
5. my mother-in-law's Haitian Pates (drooling......)
6. Haitian bread toasted with Haitian peanut butter!
7. Garlic bread

Post-GF
1. Chicken Breasts
2. Nachos!! (YEAH)
3. Mexican Street Tacos
4. Popcorn
5. Avocados - anyway really! I just LOVE them
6. Rice (this one could be on the pre list as well, but was sort of neglected because of all the other options!)
7. the GF waffles that I had at our B&B this weekend! (Oh, they tasted like "real" waffles!) with whipping cream & strawberries!


Books I've Especially Appreciated (Lately):
1. Poisonwood Bible (but it is not a lately!)
2. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (again not lately but OH SO GOOD!)
Honestly - I can't tell you the last book I read which is so sad cause I am such a book lover!

Things I Enjoy:
1. Spending time with friends
2. Working with kids!
- when I get to see them really understanding something we've learned in chapel or morning devotions.
- I also LOVE seeing them excited about learning things.
3. Talking to my husband (can't wait till it's face to face again!)
4. Stamping - making cards
5.Blogging - both writing on my own blog & also keeping in touch with others through their blogs
6. Digital scrapbooking
7. Photography
8. Talking (for those of you who really know me - I know this may seem obvious and some of you will think it should be #1, but, this is my list and I do enjoy conversations with those I care about!)
- to my husband,
- to my friends,
- to my close girlfriends -especially those really great heart to heart conversations that just knit a bond that is hard to break!

I tag Renee & Val

Staff Retreat

We have finally arrived at the 2007 Staff Retreat and all of my co-workers & I are excited! This year we are heading to Whistler, BC. This will be my first ever trip to Whistler (which more than a few of my co-workers find to be appalling!)

What really excites me about this retreat is that the bed & breakfast that we are staying at is used to having celiacs stay with them and they make their own gluten free muffins, cookies & other goodies. I am so excited! The fact that they are in Whistler and are frequented by people with celiac disease makes me think that their food will taste good! We also have reservations for lunch & dinners at restaurants that already know in advance that I will require a little more work in getting a meal I can eat and they are all more than willing to accommodate whatever needs I have.

There is some free time & also a "surprise activity" on Friday and so we all are excited to see what that is. Also, the fact that this will give me some "off work" time to get to know Matt, (who is my team member - Matt & I work together with the grade 2 & 3's ) I have gotten to know him a little over the summer when he was volunteering at the church but don't know him that well. We get along really well and hopefully this weekend will just make working together all that much better! The funny thing (to me) is that Matt is just a couple months older than my niece!

I am sure that I will have lots of photos & stories when I get back Saturday night!

I'm hooked

So I have gotten hooked on a new game - Flood It. A friend at work has it on her page and I asked her what it was, and she was telling me about it. I found it and added it to my iGoogle page and now I am hooked! After many many tries, I actually won, in 25 rounds which is the max. Since then, I have also won it in 22 rounds. It is hard though and also a lot of fun!