Issues sending flashdata through my site

[eluser]brianatlarge[/eluser]
So during my login process, I'd like to send flashdata back for error reporting (incorrect password, etc...).

So I have a users controller with a login method:

Code:

public function login()
{
// If user is logged in, redirect them to the index
  if($this->session->userdata('user_email')) {
   redirect('');
  } else {
  // If the login form has been submitted, check to see if the login information is correct
   if($this->session->flashdata('error')) {
    $data['error'] = $this->session->flashdata('error');
    load_template('login','login', $data);
   } else {
    if($_POST) {
     $this->load->model('Users_model');
     if($this->Users_model->check_login()) {
      redirect('');
     } else {
      $data['error'] = $this->session->flashdata('error');
      load_template('login','login', $data);
     }
   // If no login information has been sent, display the login form
    } else {
     load_template('login','login');
    }
   }
  }
}

The checklogin method in my model looks like this:

Code:

function check_login() {
   // Check to see if user exists
    $this->db->select('*');
    $this->db->from('users');
    $this->db->where(array('user_email' => $_POST['email']));
    $this->db->join('user_meta', 'user_meta.user_id = users.user_id');
    $query = $this->db->get();
    
    $num_rows = $query->num_rows();
   // If user exists, proceed
    if($num_rows != 0) {
    // Validate the password
     $this->hashed_password = $query->row()->user_password;
     if($this->validate_password($_POST['password'])) {
      $userdata = array(
       'user_email' => $query->row()->user_email,
       'user_firstname' => $query->row()->user_meta_firstname,
       'user_lastname' => $query->row()->user_meta_lastname
      );
      $this->session->set_userdata($userdata);
      return TRUE;
     } else {
      $this->session->set_flashdata('error', 'Incorrect Password!');
      return FALSE;
     }
    } else {
     $this->session->set_flashdata('error', 'User does not exist!');
     return FALSE;
    }
  }

You may have noticed a load_template function. This is a templating helper I made:

Code:

function load_template($template, $page, $data = '') {
     $CI =& get_instance();
if($template == "login") {
         $data['title'] = ucfirst($page);
         $data['header_includes'] = array(
          'css' => 'main_style'
         );
        
         $CI->load->view('includes/header', $data);
         $CI->load->view('includes/start_container', $data);
         if(isset($data['error'])) {
          $CI->load->view('includes/error', $data);
         }
         $CI->load->view($page, $data);
         $CI->load->view('includes/stop_container', $data);
         $CI->load->view('includes/footer', $data);
        }

My error view just echo's what's in the error index.

What happens is if I try to login with a user that doesn't exist, then it redirects back to my login page and loads the error view, but no value is in the error index. If I refresh the page, then the index is populated and shows up like it should.

Why would the error index not have anything in there, and then all of a sudden have the correct data?