Kneebay Studios

Refocus

2012-01-21T15:12:00.002-07:00

I've come to realize I take more from the blogosphere than I give. Sigh.

So in honor of giving back, I'm thinking about begining another blog, and you know... updating it more often that I do this one.

I've recently been asked to work on a comittee in my school district to develop an early literacy framework, it actually seems kind of exciting, but really.... me? I'm a high school band teacher, turned 4/5 classroom teacher, morphed into a vice principal.... not exactly a leading expert on 4 and 5 year olds, and teaching kids to read.

I thought it might be niffty to chronicle my learnings, and maybe develop a network to field questions and what not.

I was all ready to start, I even click "new blog" on blogger.... and then realized What the heck am I going to name this thing???? So back to the drawing board I go, if anyone has any suggesstions I'd love to hear them!

This one time I Cried while watching Richard Simmons....

2011-10-30T15:49:00.001-06:00

and I decided it was time to change my life....

Yeah, true story.

I made up some crazy goals for myself, and started on my journey to becoming less of a person. And well.... didn't really go anywhere. At least not in the way I felt so inspired to do way back un July. I've got some really impressive excuses, moved, worked, etc. But really who cares. No one.

I'm a pretty awesome gal. I'm creative, fun to be around, fairly intelligent, and I like to think I am pretty intune to the needs of the people around me. So if I've made these goals for myself, and am ummmm... not doing anything to meet them, no one cares. Because it doesn't really directly affect them, now if my goal were to be less bitchy or make cookies for everyone around me I would have some people holding me accountable for sure. But a goal as selfish as becoming a more healthy, smaller person, I've got no one. That and the (wonderful) skinny people around me would feel really bad saying something negative to me about my habits, we live in a hyper sensitive world, and I live and work amongst some amazing people who would never want to hurt me, even if it were in an attempt to keep me on track.

I guess if I really wanted to change I would right? I don't know... I'm finding it hard to balance it all, my work, my relationships, my commute, my household duties, my marriage, and a healthy balanced lifestyle.

So perhaps it is time to revise the goal getting, to make things more realistic, and attainable. Slow is fast right? At least when we are talking about deep rooted life changes.

Okay my original goals:

Stage one from now until Sept. 1st.

1. Drink 4 L of water a day.
2. Add at least 3 servings of vegetables to lunch and supper meals
3. at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day

Stage 2 from Sept 1st until March 1st.
1. cut out all junk food
2. eat breakfast everyday
3. food journal

Stage 3 From March 1st until goal weight
1. add toning workout to morning routine
2. swim at least once a week
3. take the stairs... all the time, everywhere
4. anything else I need to add as I go.

Looking again at these I'm not doing too bad, just have fallen off track in the last few weeks.

Stage One I should have built into my every day practice by Sept. 1st., I'll be honest I'm still not there with any of these and this is the part that seems to be the most discouraging for me. I have made huge strides in the junk food, and breakfast departments though, and drink at least 2l of water per day. I have also increased the amount of veggies I eat in a week dramatically.

My New Stage one (still a goal of March 1st)
1. 30 mins of physical activity each day (how can I do this @ school?)
2. Journal Food and Water, aiming for 1600 cal per day, 4 L of water (Iphone app?)
3. Eat Breakfast every morning, and start each day with a glass of lemon water. (how can I make smoothie making simpler?)

Okay I'm feeling better now, and I think adding the the journalling will help me with the accountability I've felt has been lacking, i'm also hoping that by adding physical activity I will have more energy.... a

Nothing like a fall walk

2011-09-24T10:51:00.001-06:00

What an awesome way to spend a Saturday morning, wandering around our river banks with my wonderful husband, taking pictures of the amazing fall sights. It is such a pirvledge to live in such a peaceful serene natural setting, and it is so unfortunate most people who live here do not see what I see.

And so begins another school year

2011-09-18T14:36:00.001-06:00

Wowsers!

I headed back to work on Aug. 15th, and don't really fell like I've had a moment to breathe since. I really am the vice principal this year.... yikes.

Last year I kinda floated through on my "hi I'm the newbie" wave. Yeah that wave has defintitely found shore and I am really starting to see what this job truely entails. I still love it. Phewf. I love being able to not only work to enrich the lives of kids, but now to work with teachers and parents to reach even more kids is truely fulfilling. I am one of those lucky people who get up each morning excited to see what the day will bring, and although very rarely does it bring sunshine, roses and appreciation of all I do all day, even the worst days are still worth it all. Because usually if I am having a moment, perhaps after a difficult conversation, or while fighting with technology (it will always win it seems), or wrestling the BUGET... I can always take a step back, take a deep breath, and go for a little walk through the halls of the school, and then always one of the amazing children who I have the priveledge to teach will find me, and somehow in their own special way remind me why I do it.

I cannot wait to see where these kids end up. Who they end up being, and I can't wait to live in a world where they are the leaders, because if they can do for the world what they do for me. It will be a much better place :)

Moving and healthy living strategies.... Wha what?

2011-08-04T11:48:00.000-06:00

Okay so I had a minor break down watching Richard Simmons on Ellen early last month and decided I needed to make some pretty drastic changes in my life. Now the need for these changes and the overwhelming desire to actually make them are still there what I did not factor in during my melt down was moving. Yeah that's right let's make what seemed like rather simple life changes just a few to start and give lots of time to get into the swing of things AND freakin' move! I was crazy to add this to my plate but I am known for my craziness so who knows maybe I'll be blogging in a month about how silly I was to worry about all this.

So here is how I'm doing....

Goal #1 drink 4L of water a day.

I'm holding off on implementing this one until I go back to work next week for two reasons I would never have thought of until we moved out here. Reason one, our drinking water is super gross like I can't drink it gross. So while we wait for our water cooler I've been drinking water bottles and well they are a little expensive. Which brings me to reason number two, two words septic tank. We now have one and holy crap (no pun intended) I do not need to be putting 4L of water in it each day. So yes back to work will help this and I'm considering cutting down to 3L once I get a chance to research a bit on the internet.... Which we also don't really have.

Goal #2 add 30 mins of physical activity a day

I'm up to three to four days a week, and to be honest most of my "physical" activity is moving shit. It counts right? I have taken a few walks around our new community. I'm going to keep working on this oh oh oh I also got a zumba game for the wii now to find the wii!

And finally Goal #3 adding three servings of veggies to lunch and supper.

Yeah. This is an off an on goal I have been eating more veggies. So that is good. Three servings at lunch will be easy peazy at school. And I've got to work at adding a salad at EVERY supper. I think when I begin to food journal this will get better.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Moving in

2011-07-19T19:28:00.001-06:00

We got the keys to our new place yesterday and have been crazy busy moving all our furniture and other crap into the new diggs. I have to say there are a lot of things about this house I remembered totally wrong. My kitchen that I worried constantly over being too small is just right yeah my massive table may end up being slightly overwhelming in the eating area but it will fit, and will not be in the way.

My master bedroom in enormous. Well for me it is, and it has a door. We've been living in a loft for three years things like doors and privacy are not too familiar.

Our second bedroom will be the perfect guestroom/office, and our living room feels like it was made for our furniture.

Now there are some things I remembered totally wrong that are not working for me right now.... Our stair case. Yikes. It is very narrow. It is kinda creaky. It kinda scares me. I remembered it as one solid s.o.b. that I wouldn't ever have to worry about. Oops.

Also our deck, I knew it wasn't super and that the people who we bought the joint from had used plywood instead of boards to do the top of the deck. What I failed to remember was how badly it was in need of a paint job. Guess what my summer project is gonna be?

All in all so far a good move, but a I can't wait to be done unpacking!

Posted on the run from my iPhone

Time for a change...

2011-07-13T09:26:00.000-06:00

Maybe it's the stress of moving, maybe the time for reflection seeing as it was my 31st birthday yesterday... either way here I am watching a rerun of the Ellen Show, avoiding packing those last few boxes, and crying my eyes out listening to...... Richard Simmons.

What is wrong with me????

Well it's no secret I'm horribly overweight. I am very comfortable in my body, and make no excuses for being as big as I am. I don't move enough, and I eat crap. I have for a long while, and voila that epic combination leads to me 31, and 290lbs. I'm only 5'2.... yeah... not cool.

Now I'm a fairly intelligent person, I have a few university degrees, I am entrusted to lead a school full of educators, and children, people come to me for advice... how the hell could I have let this happen to me? and more importantly how on earth is it that I cannot gain control over this, over me, my body?

Well as I wipe my tears I am realizing that today I have been inspired.... or hit rock bottom, you be the judge. Richard Simmons was talking to me.... yeah thats right Richard Simmons is the person who has inspired me today.... who knew? Not I thats for sure.

So here we go I'm going to take control of my self, I've decided today this is my body, and I will be in control of what goes into it, and how I use it. I am done abusing myself with food and lack of activity.

Now being a teacher, I know the only way to achieve a goal that seems impossible is to have a plan. A reasonable plan, and take it one step, one pound at a time. This is going to be a long journey, but i am ready.

I'm going to do this in stages.

Stage one from now until Sept. 1st.

1. Drink 4 L of water a day.
2. Add at least 3 servings of vegetables to lunch and supper meals
3. at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day

Stage 2 from Sept 1st until March 1st.
1. cut out all junk food
2. eat breakfast everyday
3. food journal

Stage 3 From March 1st until goal weight
1. add toning workout to morning routine
2. swim at least once a week
3. take the stairs... all the time, everywhere
4. anything else I need to add as I go.

This is it. I am in control.

Packing...ugh

2011-07-07T16:42:00.000-06:00

Okay so this has been the busiest week of vacation I could possibly imagine. We finalized the sale of our house last week (woot woot). And the purchase of our new one (super woot!). And the timeline here is crazy tight. Next friday we are officially homeless. yeah.... in 8 days I gots to be outta my house...Ahhhhhhhhhh!

So I got straight to work this week packing my little brains out. and I will admit I've got most of it done, well I think, my house is in complete disarray, there is crap everywhere, we definitely need a few more trips to the dump.... even though we travelled to the dump several times before we listed I can't believe how much junk we have and would give my right arm for a dumpster on my driveway right now (is it wrong that that has been a long time dream of mine???)

Anyways we also had our washer die last week, you know cause it was so sad we were leaving it.... bah.... so our new one came in on tuesday and as we were travelling up a hill to pick it up our truck gave up.... yeah thats right it just decided it was done, and so was I... so we bought a new truck (yay) we were planning on getting a new one soon but not this soon, and of course the only truck on the lot that met my husbands very intricate needs had been scratched on the lot and is in getting repaired. so we are truckless until Friday. I have a months worth of laundry to do.... and no way of getting my washer until tomorrow??? Yeah stress I don't need right now. Deep breath..... in .... and.... out..... phew!

Thank god my mom and dad are coming up tomorrow, together we will pick up our truck, our washer, and get to work. My dad and I will do dump runs to help get rid of the rest of our crap, my mom will help out with the laundry, mom will help me get over my packing hump, and hopefully help me finish packing this house up!

Next week is filled with appointments, and crossed fingers that uhaul will actually have the truck i reserved.... they totally will now that I know everyone out in the interweb is crossing their fingers along with me... Then loading up the truck, and saying good bye to this place!

The Last Day of School!

2011-06-30T17:51:00.000-06:00

Well I've officially made it through my very first year as the vice principal of a school. Wow! I cannot believe how far I've come in just one school year. As I left my office this afternoon all I could think about was how it felt walking into it in August, sitting behind that intimidating desk, not knowing what I didn't know. I thought about meeting my staff for the first time, people I have come to appreciate and admire for their various talents over the year timidly (well some not so timidly) popping their heads in to my office to introduce themselves, and check me out.

Here are the things I've learned about myself that I hope I will remember after the summer is through the move is over, and I'm heading back into that office that doesn't quite yet feel like mine.

I love the teaching profession, I am consistently amazed how educators pour their heart and soul into their classrooms quietly and efficiently to make huge differences in kids lives. I am so lucky to work with a group of people who are so passionate about their work.
People who do not spend their time in schools, don't get schools. There are very few exceptions to this.
The further away from a classroom you job takes you (in the education field at least) the more time you should spend in one.
The moment a child "learns to read" that moment when it all just clicks, is one of the most miraculous moments in western society.
There is nothing more effective than a high functioning, trusting, well balanced team

Now that I know all the things I didn't before, all the things that would have been nice to know... but i wasn't ready to know, I can't wait until next year :)

Venting on Facebook

2011-05-22T06:55:00.001-06:00

I have a new pet peeve.

People who use Facebook statuses to openly vent about their neighbors. I get venting about universal subjects like traffic, poor service, on going bouts of crappy weather, but neighbors, that really gets to me.

And yes I'd you scour my status history there is one update that does in fact complain about my neighbor so I'm part of the problem I will admit. Here is what I learned from this.... If your neighbors drive you batty you have two avenues to drive you to ultimate neighbor happiness.

1) Move

The less simple of the two as it involves one of the most stressful processes a person can go through, and most likely you will settle into your new home only to find out your new neighbors aren't up to you rigorous standards either.

2) Relationship

That's right it all comes down to relationships. In today's busy society more and more people don't take the time to get to know their neighbors. We also happen to live in a town where most people work shift work so establishing a relationship is hard. But usually when a person gets to know you it becomes less likely they will do things to annoy you.

Thinking through the last three years in this house I can see that building a relationship with my neighbor has been hard.... He doesn't speak to me, don't really know why just never has. From living next to him I see he works a lot of night shifts so I'm assuming the few times we do cross paths outdoors he is in a semi conscious state either just coming from or longing to get to bed.

I do a few simple things that have over the past few years have helped us move from him glaring at me and writing nasty letters. To nodding and smiling when we do see each other.

I started at Christmas. A $3 box of on sale chocolates (last year I even regifted a box from school) and a Christmas card goes a long way.

And then I started to look at things from his perspective, and started to let some of it go. Are we besties? No. Do I enjoy living next to him? No not really. But not because he isn't a nice person or what not we just have very differing views on women and their purpose on this earth. I can't change that.

I've worked to make my home as peaceful as possible for me. My neighbor and I aren't hosting each other at dinner parties, but we do coincide peacefully. And I don't complain about him on face book

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Family Mission Statement

2011-05-11T20:09:00.000-06:00

So I'm working on bringing The Leader in Me into my school next fall, for those of you who have no idea what that is....

Basically it is teaching the 7 habits of highly effective people to little kids, creating a school culture of leadership, and creating students who are happy, successful, and proud of the leader they are. Super awesomeness.

So being the type of person who tends to jump into things I'm passionate about head first... I've become a bit of a Covey fanatic and have been embedding the language of the 7 habits into my life at home. A few weeks ago my husband and I worked together (synergized) to create a family mission statement.

I will be perfectly honest and say as we scoured the internet for ideas as to where to begin it was really hard to find examples of family mission statements that were not religiously based. We eventually just started talking about our mutual goals, and our wishes for what big ideas we want our future kids to take from growing up in our family.... and here's what we came up with.

Kneebay Family Mission Statement

In our Family we strive to make a positive impact as we grow. We are committed to improving our relationship with each other, our community, and our world. We will do so with love, meaningful communication and humor.

Mothers Day Turkey Burgers...

2011-05-08T18:14:00.000-06:00

in honour of My Momma... who loves turkey burgers

1 pack ground turkey breast

dash of salt and pepper

palm full of tarragon

small palm of nutmeg

tsp of minced garlic

Garnished with romaine, cheddar, fried mushrooms, and cucumber dill dressing

Yum

An Ode to My Dining Room

2011-04-25T14:57:00.000-06:00

Dining Room

Once merely an extension of the living room now bold, defined, independent .

Big girl table real wood, not from ikea, future site of many family meals.

Surrounded, and clothed in my favourite things... rocks, wicker, red, chocolate, and white bright light.

Dining room to be proud of, to live in, to eat, to gather, to make me smile.

Oh and not to forget Ms. Lily, her dining space got a little update too... new place, new mat, and a little art work... well thats not going to stay a little doggy art piece is on my to do list.

Super awesome day

2011-03-20T18:17:00.000-06:00

I love spring, I am sooooo thankful the days are getting longer, and I'm feeling refreshed, more energized, and happy all over. don't get me wrong the house selling stress is still getting to me (and we haven't even listed the house!) But with spring officially here everything seems achievable, hard work... but achievable!

Today we took a little bit of a break and I helped my husband work, got groceries, and relaxed together. it has been really nice to be together, and talk and reassure ourselves that even though with the new mortgage laws here in Canada which lowered the amount we could spend on a house just enough to cut us from 50-100 possibilities to 5-10 possibilities we should still look at buying a real house.

Our early evening has been spent like this...

Chillin' with Lily

Sewing Patches on his new uniform... yes I taught him how to sew today

We took these...

And this...

And made delicious Peep hot chocolate :)

She wanted some too...

My Goodness this is Harder Than it Seemed

2011-03-13T11:42:00.000-06:00

Okay so getting a house ready to sell sucks. Yep. Sucks.

All of a sudden three years of hard work renovating, and remodelling seem like nothing. There is soooooooo much to do, and nothing we've done already is good enough. Well seems good enough. All those little finishing touches are the new Bain of my existence... things that should take 5 mins maybe 10 if we run into an issue are taking an entire afternoon, and wearing me out. Changing the light fixtures in our hallways, and kitchen has proven to be a daunting task, all the wiring is so brittle when we try to strip it it just breaks off.. alas...

Getting my dear wonderful husband motivated to move copious amounts of crap is like trying to motivate one of my former students to practice long division. and to make things feel even more pressing the housing market has gone crazy here and everything we have had our eyes on to buy has sold some houses are selling within hours of being listed.... yeah fun.... I can only hope that our house falls into that category. And that for some strange reason houses in our buying price range become sorely unpopular around the time we sell... ha ha ha

One thing I can say is as we are getting things looking better around here it is actually starting to look amazing. My bedroom is light and airy, and romantic, my family room is lofty, and spacious, and vibrant.

This will all be worth it in the end, right?

Men are from Mars....

2011-02-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

okay so I've just finished the relationship classic Men are From mars Women are from Venus, my book club has chosen it as the selection for the month.... you know cause February is Valentines month... and you know... relationship strengthening around valentines is always a good thing.

Seeing my husband and I have only been married 3 years I actually am feeling this book is quite timely. Getting some insight into how the man's brian works has been helpful, and I can actually say our communication seems to be improving. The most important little thing I learned from the book was to phrase questions with words like "would" and "will" instead of "can" and "could" and just how literal most men take things, I also enjoyed reading the 101 little things you can do to win bonus points with a woman list... I read it... aloud... yeah I'm that cool. It was nice to have it written.. by a man no less, that the little things count just as much as the big things... and a whole bunch of little feels worth more to me and one big thing. He's getting it.

New Years thoughts, plans, goals, dreams, etc

2011-01-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

Okay so now that the splendour of the holidays has worn off I think its time to actually set some goals for myself this year.

In 2011 I will:

1) Eat in more/ eat out less
2) Read a ton of books :)
3) Get better at keeping my cool when my husband doesn't agree with my obviously awesome ideas
4) Wear a skirt at least once a week, they make me happy
5) Drink more water and less iced tea (well sweetened iced tea)
6) Make things... iPad case for example
7) Sell my house
8) Buy a real house with a real basement
9) tend my garden not just plant it
10) Do something awesome for myself each week I'm worth it
11) weigh less, play more, move move move

Thats my game plan, not very succinct but I know where I'm headed, and I've got some big moves ahead (ha ha literal moves), I'm listing my house after Easter, and will be in our new place by summer. Yay summer on my new back deck :)

Boxing day

2010-12-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh Christmas is done today is one of my favorite days of the year in canada boxing day kinda like black Friday but not. I went out into the crowds today to pick up a few Christmas ornaments for next year, and a few clothes to add to my vice principal wardrobe we're back at home relaxing and enjoying our Christmas gifts.....yeah my mom and dad got me an iPad! Yipee although I will admit it is way easier to post to my blog on my iPhone or MacBook yeah I'm officially an apple geek. I lost my heart to Steve jobs. Don't tel my husband ha ha

Christmas Thoughts....

2010-12-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

A not so unexpected part of my new role this year has been hearing new peoples perspectives, and deep rooted values. Both on my staff, and also within my new group of administrative colleagues. It has been interesting seeing what people choose to back, and how they go about expressing their deep felt opinions.

One thing that took me by surprise was peoples feelings about our annual winter concert.... aka Christmas concert. the fact that in recent years due to the huge swing in our population and in general respect for those who do not celebrate Christmas we as a community have changed the name of our event to encourage more participation and togetherness. I was amazed how offended some of our staff was that we changed their concert. sigh.

This coupled with countless Facebook statuses talking about the "true meaning of the season" have lead me to think. What is the true meaning of the season to me?

I am not a christian, (gasp I know) I believe in a higher power, I believe in deep spirituality, my true beliefs lean very close to that of our Canadian aboriginal people, but I am very sceptical of the bible, and of most organized religion. At the end of the day I believe it is important that people believe in something and when religion and faith are concerned to each their own, and everyones beliefs are of equal importance, and weight in my eyes, just because I may not understand it, doesn't mean its not right.

So, if I don't believe in Christmas (or at least the "true" story of it and don't get me started on the holes in that one) why do I celebrate it? and what is the meaning of Christmas to me? and.... should I really call it Christmas?

Lets start with why do I celebrate Christmas because it's easy. I celebrate Christmas because I live in northern Canada, where at this time of year it is cold, snowy, dark ,and bleak. without a celebration of lights, and giving I cannot even imagine how one would make it through these conditions. The shortest day of the year has just past us, and I was excited about it, excited for those precious hours of daylight, and even more excited for the darkness, to see the glimmering Christmas light displays, the twinkling frost dancing in the street lights. The darkness becomes inviting, crisp, alive. Almost every culture or religion has some sort of December celebration and it is not hard to see why when faced with extreme December weather, and darkness. I celebrate Christmas to have something to look forward to.

I've had two sleepless nights this week because I was so excited to see my family who are on their way north to me right now. I have been decorating and creating beautiful things for my house, baking, dog training, filling my dark evenings with friends, my little family, love, and laughter. Without the Christmas backdrop for these celebrations I am doubtful they would have happened. This is what Christmas means to me, it is the coming together and experiencing this deep love of friends family, and my community.

So is this type of celebration truly worthy of being called Christmas? Well technically no, I suppose as I do not take this time to rejoice for the birth of a saviour. But... and it's a big but, I do spend this time celebrating the creation of family, the spirit of community, the beauty of light, and the love with in our human race and really, isn't that the true heart of christianity?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

2010-12-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Hey hey I'm back, I started a new job in September and my learning curve has been all consuming. But I'm on Christmas vacation now and have really missed blog posting. I've been decorating for Christmas like crazy because my family is all coming to my place for Christmas this year. I love Christmas and this is the first time ever I have been able to convince my family to come to me instead of enduring the 5 hour drive to be with them.

Usually I put up a tree and go crazy wrapping gifts with tons of curling ribbon, and bows. But this year since I will actually have an audience I've actually spent the time to decorate the rest of the house... okay living and dining room I'm not too crazy. Yet.

I made these nifty popsicle stick snowflakes

I made this awesome "Elf" like snowflake display

I love my tree, every year it gets better and better

Tree, and window

My tiny reindeer helper

So cute!

and so proud of her tree

I participated in my first baking exchange, so many yummy goodies in my house right now!

The mantle, I love love love those snowman heads.... or "decapitated snowmen" as m husband says

My Christmas Table... that little snowlady was a gift from a former student, she makes me smile and think of her

Another shot of my table

Needless to say Christmas time is here in my home. I cannot wait to see my family, and really begin to enjoy the season!

Thankful

2010-10-10T07:54:00.000-06:00

I found out earlier yesterday that one of my closest friends growing up, and now lost her dad on Thursday. It has left me feeling numb. Her father is the same age as mine, he was a smoker mine not so much but my dad has his own set of issues. They are both computer pioneers they both have wonderful families who mean the world to them. They both have son inlaws who look up to them like they were their own.

Two men, fairly similar in nature.... One is no longer with us and although it may be the most selfish thoughtless thing I say today...... I'm so thankful my dad is the one who is.

Go hug your parents this thanksgiving weekend, squeeze them little too tight, they won't mind.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

2010-10-04T20:03:00.002-06:00

On organization

2010-07-31T14:49:00.000-06:00

My thoughts....

Keeping in mind I am the queen of disorganized...

I am about to have a organizational break down....

I hate this.

There I said it, I feel better. I hate that there is a room in my home that I feel I have lost control of.... okay there are actually two. But today I'm focusing on one. The room I call my yellow room.

I have high hopes for my yellow room. One day it will be home to a futon, my large dresser, a closet full of my clothes, and my elliptical machine. it will be on most occasions my big ass closet room. Because very girl should have her very own dressing room.... it also is right next to my laundry so I think it will make more organizational sense to not have to schlep all my clothes up stairs.... and perhaps more of them will see their homes in my drawers.

Before my dream closet room can be a reality several things have to happen.

1. I need to go though the crap that has amassed there over the last three years.... it is not pretty... not "hoarders" esque but getting there... think clean sweep (for those of you who are reality tv pioneers).

2. I need to put the last coat of paint on the walls (yes I did in fact put the first coat on in 2009.. whats your point?)

3. I need to apply the cute poppy wall decals I bought for the occasion in 2009 as well.

4. I need to move the filing cabinet out of the closet, and into my husbands office..... okay he needs to do this....

5. I need to remove the carpet from both the closets, and decide what to do with the closet doors.

6. I need to put the new laminate flooring down.

7. I need to move back in the three pieces of furniture mentioned above, and hang some curtains.

8. I need to organize and hang my wardrobe in the closets/ put away in dresser.

9. Sit on futon and revel in the awesomeness of my new room.

Okay maybe this isn't too bad... I've already gone through the mass of fabric... aka everything from clothes to sheets to decorative pillows, on the folded out futon, i'm now in the process of laundering it.

I think husband man and I can deal with the rest of it when he gets home #1 is really the only thing on the list that is really really getting me down. I can do it... I can do it... right???

Thoughts for a first year teacher

2010-07-29T22:24:00.000-06:00

I had the pleasure of chatting with the young man who will be replacing me in my classroom this fall today. He was pretty nervous about stepping into a classroom for the first time. It was interesting trying to put myself back into that head space.... and I will admit I'm really happy I'm not there anymore (well... I am just not as a teacher anymore).

Heres the gist of what I was trying to tell him... I don't know if I was this eloquent... or perhaps I was more so.

You're wasting your time doing a whole lot of planning if you don't know who you are planning for. This man and many new teachers pride themselves on having their first six months planned before even walking into the classroom. This is wonderful is you are planning on teaching robot children... but for the most part getting to know what excites and engages your particular group of kids will make the quality of your instruction improve. KNOW WHO YOU TEACH I have been wanting to scream this into the classrooms of several teachers for a few years now.... yes even seasons veterans fall into this planning trap.

I'm not saying you shouldn't familiarize yourself with the curriculum you are going to be teaching... but knowing the standard, and knowing how to approach it with your class are two different things. For example, one of the concepts we teach in grade 4 is simple machines. One year I had a large group of girly girls in my class and of course the boys... to engage them I taught these concepts looking at the simple machines used in medieval times, incorporating a fairy tale unit in language arts, castle drawing in art, etc. not only did this appeal greatly to my class, it made planning for my other subjects much easier too!

I;ve always cringed in late august as my colleagues raced around the school ensuring they had all their textbooks in the class, and all their photocopying for the month ready to go as they get ready for that first day.... anyone who needs a text book on the first day of school..... well.... I have no words for how wrong I think that is. How dehumanizing, not children in front of us but information receptacles.

The most important thing about teaching are the students... know who is in your class, really know them as people, as students, and as children and you will have a great year.

Summer Confessional

2010-07-28T09:16:00.000-06:00

Confessions of a newly minted 30 year old...

****
My dog barks. Like uncontrollably... and a lot. and I don't really care. Well I care, and it's embarrassing when we're out in public, and she's having a small heart attack as someone walks by. But.... if I'm at home, watching daytime talk shows, and the construction crew comes out to wander around the site they have created on my green belt in front of my house, Lily jumps into the window, and barks until a) she tires out, or b) they leave. Usually it's a) then she gets over her little self, and watches for the rest of the day, or until they take out something noisy and she has a little bark fit again. No big deal... but for some people it is... like my neighbours, who wrote me a note, about her.... oh well.

****
I never truly unpack. I always leave a few things in every suitcase, back pack, purse, when I come home. Just a reminder of the awesome time I had, that I never wanted to end. I love coming home, but unpacking makes things so final, so I leave a little something for next time. I have double bought many things though because of this habit.

****
I find the new "it" career for SAHM's annoying.. the mommy/photographer.... if people weren't reading my blog I'm sure now I'll get a rash of annoyed comments but... I find this is the avon lady of the 2000's anyone with a computer, and a DSLR is now a photographer with a web site, and a facebook fan page... and an entirely fake community of mommy blogging, picture taking, photo "inspiring" photographer wannabes. Now not to say there aren't a few really good photographers in the bunch, but the whole "I learned how to use the manual settings on my nikon D700... and can photo shop while my kids nap... isn't this the most perfect career..." bit is a little too much to take from all these photo moms at once. (Shelen I still love you, and you are actually talented).

****
I don't care if my house is clean. I care if people know it isn't.... but for the most part I have laundry strewn from one end of the hall to the other. dirty dishes in the sink, or on the counter... dog toys everywhere. I super clean when we have company... but other than that I'm okay with my mess. I don't like a dirty house, I'm actually pretty obsessive about disinfecting things with vinegar, and using natural cleansers to keep my house clean.... but it is never truly tidy.

****
I am starting to become more sedentary. I live about 4 1/2 hours away from the nearest city. And I used to drive down to it all the time, without much thought. Then my family moved 8 hrs away and we visited their city instead... but now adays I don't want to go. I like my home, I'd like to spend my time making it better. not on the highway.

egg shaping

2010-07-26T13:42:00.000-06:00

okay so I ordered a whole bunch of bento stuff from japan in June.... Yay, so many cute things to make my lunches make me smile. (on a side note i really hope my new staff doesn't think I'm crazy when they see my lunches).

One of the things i ordered were egg molds, they are nifty plastic things that make your hard boiled eggs into the shape of cars, fish, bunnies... etc. I promptly put these in the bento cupboard and they were not even really thought of until today... I decided to try them. I looked up a few tutorials online, and voila! I had a tasty fish shaped egg for lunch, and have a few leftover in my fridge for later....

Virginia is for lovers

2010-07-16T12:34:00.000-06:00

and teachers....

I'm off tomorrow to Charlottesville Virginia for the second year of a differentiated instruction conference put on by the University of Virginia Curry school of education. The main attraction here is the fact that the conference is put on by Carol Ann Tomlinson and her grad students (past and present). I had an amazing time last year, and am giddy to find out that Jay McTighe (Understanding by Design guru) will be there as well this year. Eeeeeeeeep! I'm trying to get my excitement out now so as not to look like a twelve year old at a Justin Beiber concert when I finally get to his sessions.

I'm finding it odd picking my sessions to go to this year, as I'm in transition... I am really excited about a few session, but really will I ever use them?? and will I be able to translate the information while working with teachers next year?

I guess we'll find out!

For now I'm packing packing packing, and snuggling with my lilster I'm gonna miss her.

one more post

2010-07-15T13:54:00.000-06:00

Isn't she pretty?

It almost makes me want to go back to school....

And this awesome glass water bottle, doesn't help

But the cute former furball next to her makes me want to stay home

Summer lovin'

2010-07-15T11:03:00.000-06:00

Havin' a blast!!!

I really am! My husband and I just got home from a quick trip to the big city. We live in a somewhat remote northern town, so the 5 hour drive is not only necessary sometimes but totally worth it!

This particular trip was with purpose, my husband was appointed a provincial peace officer and is now a civil enforcement bailiff. Operation Repo will now become my life ha ha ha. So we had to head south to go to the prvinical courts to pick up his badge... and now I am a badge widow.... he has been like a little boy with a dollar store sheriff badge for two days now, and I don't think it will get any better. It's cute, i'm okay with it.

So that whole thing took about 15 mins, so I guess we had to shop the rest of the time we were there it only makes sense right?

I got a few things on my "things I need to make the move into viceprincipaldom" list a wicked matt & nat hand bag that can double as my new school bag (aka big enough to carry my lunch, and a few files is needed), a glass water bottle ( I don't like the taste of stainless steel). And of course a few new clothes. I started working on stepping up my wardrobe a notch last fall, and thank god I did as now i really have to "bring it" I have learned over the past year a few way to jazz up a t'shirt so it can pass as professional... I'm not ready to let go.

Anyways I also got to go to a few thrift stores (our thrift store in town is ummmmm an experience and I don't go anymore). I got the prettiest canister set for my counter, and husband man got a new vest, all in all we were happy thrifters.

And lily.... well she got a hair cut.. note hair cut did not affect her personality... still barking.... still gangsta.

She is awfully cute though...

30

2010-07-12T11:58:00.000-06:00

30 seconds ago I began this blog post

30 minutes ago I ate my fourth blueberry muffin of the morning.... knowing full well I really do not need 4 muffins but they are so good

30 days ago I was knee deep in year end school crap not able to see the light at the end of the June Hell tunnel

30 months ago I had just finished my second last masters class... just finished unpacking my last box in our "new" house, and had just gotten used to the fact I was married

30 years ago... I was born!!!

Ack!

I'm thirty.

30

the number doesn't bug me... its just wried to be the age I compared everything to when I first graduated. I remember being in my first year teaching thinking "when I'm 30 I'll......" fill in blank with:

1. Still have my awesome lime green beetle (check)
2. Have figured out how to balance teaching and life (check)
3. Still be cool (ummm well I think i"m cool)
4. Have my own place (check)
5. and a dog (check)
6. will have accomplished great things (yeah I know how specific could I get.. I think i've done some pretty cool things)
7. will have road tripped throughout Canada (well I had to plane trip it because I sillily married a non teacher and he doesn't have vacation time)

So now it is time to set some wicked assed goals for the time I'm 40.

1. rock a hair style... don't care what it is but I've got to do better than the pony I've been rocking this decade.

2. Be a principal. or a university professor... or both

3. Have at least one hand made thing (my hands) in each room of my home

4. volunteer

5. still be the kind of person who could own a beetle.. even if you may not

6. Have a rockin garden

7. take good care of yourself.. you are exceptional.

Is it wrong??

2010-07-08T10:08:00.001-06:00

That I like Rachael Ray a little bit less after I heard her refer to Elizabeth Hasselback as " her good friend"?

I don't know how it is I dislike someone I've never met do much. I don't even watch the view all that often..... But from the episode I catch here and there I can't stand her.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

My Garden

2010-07-07T17:00:00.000-06:00

I love my garden, in my garden i have raised beds of vegetables, beds of ever blooming perennials, pots and pots and pots of annuals adding colour and tranquility to my yard..... okay well someday this will be true... i have BIG dreams for my garden.

Every year I add a little something something to it, and someday (probably the summer before we sell this place with my luck!) it will be everything I want it to be. but for now I have these little bits of my dream

Yes someday these amazing delphiniums will cover my gas meter

so pretty, a mix of flowers and ferns

I also love the pots and pots of annuals I'm starting to grow.... every year some lucky person sells me their old potting pots on their garage sale

Speaking of garage sale pots... I'm still in love with this one :)

How to spend a summer....

2010-07-07T14:30:00.000-06:00

Well I've been footloose and fancy free for a week now, and yes I'm crying a little inside as my 6 week break is now down to 5.

So far I've gone on a weekend road trip to visit my family, and attended one of my cousins weddings. It was a good Christian affair, which was an interesting experience for me as my religious beliefs sway more toward eastern and aboriginal philosophy. There was a lot of praying.... a lot of scripture quoted, and a LOT of eye rolling from my dads family who are also not over the top Christians. I personally was just so incredibly happy to see that there truly is someone for everyone, and my cousin definitely found the girl of his dreams. AMEN!

SO today I finally signed the contract for my new job, so I think its finally safe to shout it from the rooftops..... Next Fall (well mid august) I will be a vice principal! yippee! Someone actually put me in charge ha ha ha!

I'm so excited to have the opportunity to work with a great group of teachers, and ea's and kids to really make a great school even better. I've been excited, scared, nail bitingly anxious, giddy, and now I'm ready to start planning.... but I don't really know what I'm planning for.... so for now I'm just going to try to keep my sanity, and enjoy my freedom... because starting August 16th it will be gone, my admin cell phone lays quite on my dining room table... for now!

Crafting by blogs early light

2010-06-26T05:08:00.000-06:00

Okay well it's early early here this morning, I've just made some pretty big changes for myself, so of course I'm up at the crack of dawn contemplating what the heck I've just gotten myself into.

I accepted a new job for the coming school year, not teaching. Very weird. Very very very odd. incredibly different. I'm excited, and happy, and challenged, and scared, and wondering why oh why I couldn't just leave well enough alone (ha ha).

Of course big changes mean little sleep in my world, at least until they sink in, so here I am 5 am at my desk, working on my year end gifts. I got up and thought to myself, well as long as I'm fretting away here might as well do something useful, but I haven't moved a light back into my office area.... so I am crafting by the light cast off my screen this morning. and slowly I'm becoming more sure of myself and this big decision I made!

The Last Few Days of School

2010-06-24T21:33:00.000-06:00

Ahhhhh the last week of school is a special one for all teachers and students I'm sure. We are soooooo close to endless days of summer bliss, I can taste it.... this week has been interesting for me, my EA and I have been overly organized and somehow magically have a lot of our end of the year stuff done, so this year I've been able to sit back and enjoy this last little bit of time with my class. This year has been my favourite year teaching so far. I've had an amazingly kind, sweet, generous, adventurous, honest, gentle group of students. We have grown so much together, and I'm really sad to see them leave. I'm in the process of getting our class movie put together, and am getting ferklempt as i see how much they have grown this year, and how far they have come. I'm contemplating some BIG changes next year and its times like these that make me wonder what I might be missing out on!

thank goodness for dogs to distract me while trying to write report cards... blogs are equally good distractions

2010-06-17T22:05:00.000-06:00

Why are you typing when you could be petting me???

Do you see the cuteness here?? Come on people!

Guilt free chocolate craving ender

2010-06-14T18:58:00.001-06:00

I came home today and had a serious hankering for rainbow cake.... but it's hot... and I'm sleepy... so needless to say my sweet tooth did not win that fight.

I did however make a batch of these awesome chocolately cookies that are somesort of adaptation of a weight watchers recipe the original are one point cookies but i have no idea if mine would make that cut... I'm thinking no.

First you start with some chocolate chips ( I went for mint chocolate mmmmm). I'm thinking 1/4 of a cup was about what I put in (not big on measuring). Pop those into a bowl and into the microwave for a minute and a half... maybe two minutes and the hard part is over :)

While waiting for the chips, put away the extras and take out some fiber one cerial.... the uber bran kind... kinda looks like little turds... yep those are the ones.

Mix the two together.

Makes an awesome messy mixture

The just plop 12 spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper... pop these babies into the freezer for a few minutes to firm up, and store them in the fridge... almost guiltless totally easy snacking :)

Upcycled gifting

2010-06-13T14:04:00.000-06:00

As I've been ranting about lately year end is upon us! (honestly such a good feeling to know it is almost over).... Part of year end is handing out little tokens of thanks to all those awesome people in the school who work all year to make my life easier.... you know the ladies in the library who will find me a class set of books at a moments notice, the secretaries who field endless phone calls, etc, the admin team who stick up for me no matter what, and who are still offended by things that happened to me years ago (that i've long since gotten over), and of course my amazing EA with out whom my classroom would be a dissmal array of crusty old art projects, lunches, and used chewed pencils. Seriously I don't know what I'd do without these ladies, and of course a few little things for my bff's on staff too because you know they give me things... like petunias.

Now as I mentioned in my last post I'm trying to save money... and even when i'm not I'm cheap.... so up cycling is not only a cool trend.... it's something I've been doing since before it was hip. Cause I'm rad like that. Here is my up cycled gift of the year....

Niffty scrap book style art pieces! I've used all my old cardboard cereal boxes as canvases and Scrap pieces of paper from other projects, I'm loving some of the results so far.

I need to add something to middle of these flowers... maybe paint... maybe glitter... I'm still on the search for the best idea. I love how simple and creative these are and I can make something to fit everyones personality, instead of trying to do a same gift for everyone kinda deal. I have some pictures of lily "helping" I'll add later

Two weeks... two days...

2010-06-12T21:18:00.000-06:00

And I am free! I am very very very much looking forward to summer vacation this year. Mind you I think I'm pretty excited about it every year. June is this crazy month that seems to drag and fly by all at once, My vacation seems worlds away... yet I feel like I don't have enough time to get all my work done.

This weekend has been pretty fabulous so far, Husband man and I went garage saleing this morning there is not thrift store in town so garage sales here are impressive, we scored a little desk that I'm going to refinish as a tv stand for our bedroom, and a little yellow plant pot that made me smile. I'm going to head out next weekend I'm still in search of a tall dresser to refinish for my living room (to hold all my electronic crap, and some vintage linens to sew onto some sheers cause I saw it on someones blog and they looked so pretty, I just know my family room needs them.

Anyways we went into my husbands office for a bit then we came home, I attacked our monster lawn, and planted flowers.

I'm trying to save some money this summer, and of all the things that make me smile I have to agree with my husband.... I probably could live without spending money on flowers that are just going to die in the fall.... so I gave myself a very very limited budget for planting this summer, and only bought a few petunias, a lavender plant, and some strawberries (in hopes they won't die in our frigid winter, and I'll actually have strawberries for years to come (super smile).

Two awesome things happened on the plant front 1) one of my wonderful friends at work gave me her left over petunias doubling my petunia count. 2) my lobelia from last year seeded its self in all of my planters woo hoo that means I have two different kinds of plants!

After planting all my planters, and my front bed things are looking very nice. But I did find another pot, and am thinking I should look for a few more to replace a garden bed I'm trying to seed over with grass. So I am thinking I'm gong to buy a few marigolds, and pansys for those.... and some veggies to put in another bed I have.... because our growing season isn't long enough to grow veggies from seed (boo).

Where did my street go???

2010-06-08T18:55:00.001-06:00

This is what I cane home too. I have only one question. Where did my street go?

I really wish the city would have had the courtesy to let us know ahead of time. Thank goodness I wasn't environmentally friendly today and I drove to work. As you can see getting my car out of this would be impossible.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Waking up....

2010-06-02T16:41:00.001-06:00

So this morning my husband left at 4 am to go do some training. I got up around the same time to pee and then went back to bed as any other sane person would do..... I then fell into a deep DEEP sleep. Deeper than I have had for a long time deeper than is proably normal. So at 6:57 my alarm starts to play. Now personally I prefer to wake to music. That horrendous buzzing sound alarm clocks make makes my cranky and I'm not a great morning person to begin with. Anyhow I digress that lady antebellum song need you now was playing.... You know " it's a quarter after one I'm all alone and I need you now....." to this my ( being sprung from a deep sleep) self says fuck how could I have slept in THAT much! Why hasn't the school called me????ohmygod how could I have done this???

And then I clue in although it is 1:15 in the song...... It is still infact 6:57 in my bedroom.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

two posts, one day, this was too good to forget to put up tomorrow

2010-05-24T20:08:00.000-06:00

so tonight we're watching mega tv... like more than one family should ever watch... in my defence I am going on the elliptical trainer during commercials. anyways its Chuck, last law and order ever (yikes), dancing with the stars and the batchelorette (I promise myself every season that I will quit.. but then they bring back a character from the past season and well i have so much invested in them already... damn you ABC!)

any how I just think the world should see my family... and how they operate.... and make sure there is always room for me (ha ha ha). I've learned not to get up to exercise or I loose my spot on the couch

Long weekends are a teaser

2010-05-24T15:55:00.000-06:00

Okay so the very best thing about being a teacher is summer vacation. Yes I am heart warmed by all the learning that takes place in my classroom each year, and yes I am energized by those light bulb moments with my students, and even yes making learning exciting and creative does excite me in ways most other humans don't get. But... and its a big but..... I could not do what I do, and probably would have quit a long time ago if it weren't for summer vacation.. ahhhhh 7 weeks of pure bliss.

This is not a post about how much teachers deserve those days off (and how much they deserve to be paid for them... thank god I am!) if you wish to hear my very strong thoughts on this let me know but consider yourself warned.

This is a post about my hatred of may long weekend. Yes thats right I said it, I'm sitting here loving my Monday off, enjoying the extra day to relax, rejuvenate, and reenergize with my husband and doggy. Watching daytime tv, learning html (so I can begin my own blog design), doing laundry, dreaming of being outdoors, blog surfing, playing with my camera, and tidying as I snack the day away I feel a twinge of anger that it isn't summer yet.

Standing between me and seven weeks of this are 6 weeks of school, one more round of reporting, cleaning up my classroom for the summer, stacks of c.u.m. files, field trips, final exams, and awards to be given out. This little break before hand is a tease, showing me all the things that could be mine.... in time my pretty.

So until July I will schlep into school each morning... I'll be whiney as I pour my coffee, but as soon as my class comes in the door I'll get over it... until 3:30 when I will begin to long for summer holidays again.

Annnnnnnd here are some random photos of the roses I got on thursday (my principal loves me!.... well and everyone else who was at the recognition banquet).

Buns, bathroom, steam mop heaven

2010-05-23T21:33:00.000-06:00

What and awesomely productive day I've had! thanks to some icky weather, I was encouraged to complete a few more items off my spring cleaning list today.. woo hoo!

I started with some laundry... laundry is the ultimate in lazy chore.. 5 minutes of work.... and hour of sitting... ten minutes work... repeat. gotta love it. Soon though I was distracted by my new steam mop. I love this thing, sooooo easy to use and really only one small draw back, (icky wet solid clumps left behind... anyone who has ever used a swiffer wetjet knows what I'm talking about) anyhow not a big deal just a quick wipe at the end, waaaaaay better than my usual hands-and-knees floor washing routine with better results... so I steam mopped the family room which still has no furniture in it yet, someday I'll con my husband into moving the couches back in. until then I sigh and can at least look at the glimmering floors!

Then I moved into the kitchen and quickly cleaned it up back to its two weeks ago super clean splendour. Easy peezy. Then to the eating area where I cleaned the microwave, and organized my cook books (and finally let go of the free with my new blender brochure/cook book).

Then on to the china cabinet, where I took everything out, washed the baby down, and organized and replaced it all in a neat orderly fashion. so pretty.

Then I must have went crazy because I decided to attack my bathroom... yeah thats right I actually got the urge to completely reorganize and deep clean my bathroom. It is sparkling, everything is in its place, everything has a place!!! So exciting. Oh and again my steam mop became my new best friend ahhh the power of steam.

And to top it all off.....

I made buns tonight.... like actually baked them from scratch... sooooooooo good!

wanderings

2010-05-15T14:10:00.000-06:00

May Burn out

2010-05-15T10:34:00.000-06:00

Ahhhh May has finally arrived, snow has melted and warm looooong days are stretched out in front of me for as far as the foreseeable future can offer. Everything about May should be good, in theory. Here is the problem with May, I live up north. Which to most of you makes not for an excuse, but alas it is. You see up here in May the days start becoming ridiculously long. Like sun rising at 4 am and setting around 11pm kinda long. This plays with your sleeping patterns like crazy which is painful to deal with, but you whine to your coworkers, contemplate how tacky it really would be to put tin foil up in your windows, make lists of the great things about summer, and move on.

Now here in lies my biggest problem.... 10 year olds can't do this. 10 year olds with messed up sleeping patterns are angry, hyperactive, loud little people. Every year my classroom drastically changes with the calendar... my sweet little angels that have finally figured out all our routines, and goings on in our class transform from April 30 to May 1st..... it catches me off guard every time. I wonder how these awesome kids could have taken such an interesting turn around... I wonder why they can't see how tired I am... I get whiney.... and then it hits me! We are going through the same sleepless end of spring. Oh solstice will my energy last until you get here?

Okay now I know I shouldn't be complaining... i mean overall I have a pretty sweet job, I get to spend my days with a large group of amazingly talented 10 year olds... and the vacation time is awesome.... but May just kills me, every time.

So now to end this post on a positive note my amazing list of Summertime Awesomeness...

1. Spending time outside (yay fresh air)
2. Riding my bike to work!
3. Flowers
4. Butterflies
5. Being able to let the dog out and leave to door open for her to let herself in
6. Warm breezes
7. Reading outside
8. Sunshine
9. sooo close to summer vacay
10. My birthday!
11. Waking to bird chirping (mind you it's at 4 am...)
12. enjoying the awesome trail system
13. Drinks on the patio
14. Nature walks
15. Wearing skirts
16. Gardens
17. Fresh veggies
18. Fruit salads
19. Family moving closer!

Moving

2010-05-01T11:22:00.000-06:00

Okay so my husband has been moving offices for a month and a half now...... well really we did one big move of all the stuff he needed to operate a month and a half ago.... then procrastinated (despite all of my encouraging reminders/nagging) for a month and a half until this week when it was do or die.

So we did. and now I'm feeling like I'm about to die..... soooooo much dust. I was vaccuming the old office today (as my final act of love and support in that office) and the dust billowing around my vaccum was so plentiful I actually stopped (more than once) to make sure it wasn't smoke. Oh the grossness. So we had a good chat about office cleanliness, and how maybe just maybe his asthma might have gotten better over the last month and a half due to the fact he was in a shiney new clean office.... DUH!

Alas why is it that I have to be the one with common sense in the relationship? I remember once upon a time when I dreamed of my perfect man, he was the one with common sense so I could be the artistic flightly one... sadly I know now no such man exists. Well no such man whom I can tollerate enough to live with. So I will continue being the one who is sensible, and dream of the day when I can let go of that side of myself. le sigh

The Nightmare that is laying your own flooring....

2010-04-09T23:32:00.001-06:00

So I mentioned in my last post me parents came up for a week of fun and exciting home renovations. Thats right my husband is handy as can be but usually to busy (or lazy) to give up an entire week to help me figure out the intricacies of laminate flooring, so my dad came to my rescue.

It has been one interesting week. First I had to do a little explaining about the metric system to my dad who didn't have a clue what a millimetre was which I am still a little amazed about, my dads a pretty smart guy who knew he was stuck in the imperial system. Once we finally got the measurements settled we began cutting the first row. Very exciting, oh did I mention I have some sort of crazy virus and was in the middle of feverish cold sweats the whole time fun fun. So we began setting the flooring down, but is wouldn't lock in no matter how much we tried to hammer it into place.... damn.

So we took a break, I took some advil, dad took another look at the directions, and we discussed (argued) about how to proceed. Finally a breakthrough.... instruction 5. Always lay flooring left to right.... this doesn't mean from one side to the room to the other, but infact from one side of the row to the other DUH! Well with this newfound knowledge we set back to popping in the flooring and voila! got most of the family room one on tuesday. We also realized the my husband and I had a lot more flooring than we thought and we had enough to move into our entryway and hall way (Bonus!). So over the rest of the week we have painfully worked through the last few rows and dispite our hard work my parents decided to stay one more day to get things done right.

Oh oh oh oh I forgot the best part of the demo.... so we took up the old crusty carpet from my hallway and removed the ucky underlay only to find..... the original 1978 trailer carpet was left underneath (classy) and even better.... it was glued down! My amazing dad was able to pry off the nasty 70's floral patterned carpet (in lovely shades of orange green, red and brown) leaving behind this horrible black foam underlay that is only a few centimetres thick... and of course is crumbling after years of abuse, so between the four people and two dogs wandering up and down the main hallway ( and only path to the bathroom) there is black crap everywhere in my house, and I mean everywhere!

Well finally after a week ( we thought we could do it in a weekend!) the floor is starting to look finished, infact my dad is working on the last few pieces of flooring right now my new floors look fabulous! It definitely did not feel worth it a few days ago but now as I glance down my sparkling laminate hallway, that actually looks bigger, and brighter I can definitely say its all been worth it. For about $1200 we got some fabulous floor installed, and we did about 700 sq feet totally worth it.

Now to start buying boxes of flooring for my guest bedrooms, and my kitchen/living room someday all my renos will be done.

How much do I love my parents???

2010-04-04T17:47:00.000-06:00

I cannot even put into words how awesome my mom and dad are. Not only are they amazing role models for marriage, but also as people. My dad is one of the most kind people I know, he would do anything and I mean ANYTHING for someone he loves, he is loyal, hard working, and has always had high expectations of me. I love him so much, and as I grow older I appreciate all his knowledge, and how hard working he is. My mom has spent he adult life ensuring that my brother and I are safe and secure. She is caring to a fault.

They have come up to visit for spring break, and my dad is helping us put in laminate flooring in our family room, and my mom has been a cooking and cleaning machine. Every time my parents come to my home, they make is better than before they came. I am so very thankful that I have these two amazing people in my life who are always willing to give give give, even when sometimes I feel I don't deserve it.

I had amazing plans to help dad with flooring by day, mom with cleaning by night, and look after a friends dogs, I've come down with a yucky virus, and am pretty useless, and my mom and dad keep on trucking working as if I'm there helping out... they are truly amazing. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Into a groove

2010-03-28T15:55:00.000-06:00

My husband and I have fallen into a not so great groove lately, a groove of working working working, and not taking care of ourselves or our home. I posted a while ago about my own motivation and how I wanted to make a change.

Well, changes are being made, slowly, surely..... some that I wasn't even thinking of, but once you make one little change, its like a snow ball and they all come tumbling in line one after the other.... so here's a break down of my new lifestyle.

Yesterday we cleaned (woo hoo) You will notice my spring cleaning list has diminished due to our hard work, by cleaning we also organized our stuff, and have been getting rid of tons and tons of stuff we don't need/don't use which if you haven't done it lately, makes you feel like ten pounds lighter, and 5 years younger.

So then as we were breaking from our cleanse we watched a touch of tv, and started talking about the "appropriate" amount of tv we should watch, we actually agreed on 1 hour a day, giving us more time to talk, read, clean, and take care of ourselves (and hopefully our relationship too)

With this new extra time we have (because we do watch waaaaay too much tv) we are able to start cooking better for ourselves. And eating better I'm hoping will lead to more energy, which will lead to more activity... especially in the summer. So fingers crossed I'm hoping the husband is actually on board here because I am so ready to make a change, I need to increase my quality of life, and I"m ready to do it now.

Report cards

2010-03-23T20:27:00.001-06:00

So it is official my second term report cards are done. Report cards are what I feel are my biggest weakness as a teacher I find it so hard to put into words the things I see in my students. I find it especially hard to write it in a way that parents will understand. I am amazed talking to my collegues how many of them use teacher lingo in report cards how many parents are versed enouh to read through that?

Or maybe I'm wrong perhaps parents are looking for educationese to prove teachers are accountable.

Oh well I will carry on getting a little better each semeser, and relish in the fact that for another term I am done!

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Keeping up the momentum

2010-03-15T22:15:00.000-06:00

So tonight in my new found motivated glory.....

I finished 2 loads of laundry! Thank god for fresh underwear! I was down to one good pair left.... and its report card week I don't need the threat of uncomfy undies hanging over my head.

I also almost finished (just have to hand stitch the last few centimetres) 2 baby taggie blankets, one for my great niece (yeah I have one of those... my husbands family is ummm interesting).... and one for a friends baby. They are so cute and such pretty spring green!

Last night I also fixed my duvet cover.

Do you have a duvet? How do you keep it in te right shape? mine always bunches at my feet, and off to one side. I end up with no inside blanket and all cover... usually freezing my butt off all night long. SO last night I took matters into my own hands. I have safety pinned my duvet to the inside of the cover and tada no more shifting, and by pinning it to the inside seam the pins can't even be felt. woo hoo no more waking up in the middle of the night frozen!

Just Putting It Out There...

2010-03-14T15:40:00.000-06:00

So sometimes just writing things down is enough to make some changes. I like how by writing about something makes me see it in different light, My husband and i had a great talk last night about how i've been feeling and things I would like to get done.... He agreed with me that I haven't seemed my "go-getter" self lately and that he has been missing my "bossiness" ummm I mean encouragement. we talked about how I don't like always having to play that role, and we made our spring cleaning list..... so instead of bossy we're organized!

Today we took 3 thats right 3 loads of crap to the dump, and got our garage almost to an acceptable level of tidiness, I still have an awesome summer garage clean/organize planned I'll be taking lots of before and after shots but sadly, my garage was even too gross for public before shots.... so sad.

Anyways three loads to the dump..... and finally there is enough room in my garage for some of the crap that has been building up in the house, which i am hoping to sell in a garage sale this summer. So we can work to send it out there, and ta da part of my issues will be solved.

As for my fabulous spring cleaning list, I'm picking one thing a day to complete this week. Next weekend I'm hoping I can swipe a bunch of things off the list, and then next week finish it off.

It's a little start, but it's a start. Now to get motivated to start changing my lifestyle a little, and I'd be one awesome girl

Baby Steps

Motivation

2010-03-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling very unmotivated lately. Well I should probably refine that statement, I'm feeling very unmotivated at home lately. At work I'm a go getter, motivation is definitely not lacking when i"m in my classroom, if anything i'm a little overloaded there.

At home I become a lazy lethargic lump (woo hoo alliteration). I have a million and one projects I'd love to cross off my to-do list, and yet every weekend I fall into the same routine.

Wake up, let the dog out, get back into bed, spend a couple hours waiting/prodding husband man to get up.... get coffee, go to his office, spend time on internet finding awesome projects to complete, add to to-do list, help husband out, miss daylight in windowless office, whine that we aren't at home where at least i could be doing something (even though if we were at home I probably wouldn't), go home.... Let dog out to play, do minimal tidying.. gathering up garbage, dishes, one load of laundry, go process serving, sit in truck, worry about the well being of the man I love, read, random iphone stuff, sudoku... go home, let dog out, sit exhausted (from what you ask... I have no idea.. monotony?) infront of the tv.... go to bed.... sunday morning repeat.

Don't get me wrong I love my husband, and really do enjoy spending time with him, I just wish there was a way we could spend time at home..... but I know for now this may not be a reality due to being a small business owner etc.

And to be completely honest with myself here, on the rare occasion I finally do decide to stay home to "get stuff done" I don't. I sit... I read.... I take a bath.... I do more dishes.... one more load of laundry.....

I want to do all sorts of things, but I just don't have the gumption to even get started.... or i get started, and my project just sits somewhere waiting for me to complete. I have a set of really pretty canvases with their backgrounds painted waiting for me to modge podge some scrapbook stuff onto them to give as gifts, I have two baby blankets cut out and ready to pin some ribbon on so I can sew them to give as gifts... hopefully while they are still babies!

I just wish i could figure out why I can't seem to get going on these things... and why when I finally get myself started I peter out and end up not finishing anything.... what is my mental block here?

Oscar Pool Looser

2010-03-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

So it is that time of year again, when my school has it's annual oscar pool. Our awards ceremmony was today, and i took home the LOOSER prize! Woo Hoo... I got 5 correct. yep 5.
How did you do it? I know you are wondering.... what was my strategey to command such amazing Oscar greatness.

Are you ready

I went with the "pick avatar" approach... I figured it would either sweep or bomb... either way I could win something. ta da

Here I am today $25 keg gift card in hand... yummy yummy steak for supper tonight

Open Letter To The U of S Music Department

2010-03-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

Just recently I found out I’ve been nominated for a teaching award. It came as a surprise as I work in a school where the admin team is very anti-single one teacher out award. Which I tend to agree with as it tends to have teachers working against each other instead of together, which is always better.... anyhow not the point I will rant about that another day.

It got me thinking back to my university career, as anyone who went to university with me would probably not have guessed how good of a teacher I would end up turning out to be. I’m not saying this to sound conceited in-fact I’ve debated even putting that sentence in as I’m really uncomfortable saying it, but it is true... I’ve been nominated for an award... so it must be right?

I went to university to become a music teacher, being a musician I choose a school that got me an education degree, and a music degree, and I would spend the vast majority of my time doing what I wanted... being a musician. My university career was spent with a great group of peers who saw me as a mediocre musician but fun to be around. And a group of professors who spent their time trying to tell me I wasn’t a musician, and therefore would never make it as a music teacher. This is my open letter to those professors.

Dear Faculty of U of S Music Department circa 2003,

I am writing this letter to thank you. Thank you for not working your hardest to make me the musician I so desperately wanted you to. Thank you for hitting the end of the road with me, and for letting me know in no uncertain terms verbally, in writing, and through my transcript that I would never be successful as a musician.

I am not a musician, in fact the mental anguish I was put through for 5 years took almost all the joy out of playing my trumpet for me, and so I haven’t really played in the last three ( I still do one hell of a job on Remembrance Day, I know this too will pass).

I am a teacher! I have been teaching now for 7 years and my heart still sings with joy every morning as I unlock my classroom door. I taught high school band and do you know what? My first year I was nominated for an award because of my amazing teaching abilities. Just one year after you had decided to place me unfairly for my final teaching practicum giving me no experience in front of a high school band my entire university career. I choose to leave the band room, I did not burn out as I’m sure you would tell future grads, as you told me. I choose to teacher something else. Why would I do this? Because I am a teacher.

I have spent my life since university igniting the flame of learning in all the students who pass through my door. I tirelessly plan for students who do not get it the first time, who may not appreciate what I have to tell them, students who you would just fail, and remove form your program. I do not fail my students, nor do I extinguish their flame, it is not my place to tell them what they can and can’t do, it is my job to find out what they are passionate about and give them any skill I can to make that passion a reality. I am a teacher.

I spend my days smiling and laughing establishing real relationships with the people around me, I am not in competition with anyone, we work together as one cohesive unit, like no symphony ever could. Why you ask? Because my colleagues and I did not compete for our chairs, nor are we ever threatened to be moved down a spot as we are all equals, there is not first or second grade 5 teacher, just a teacher.

I live in a world you will never understand because all those years ago you never let me forget that I am not a musician, I am a teacher. For this I thank you.

Teachers convention

2010-02-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

So I've been tracking my stats and apperanrly nobody, and I mean nooooooo- body actually reads this thing. This did not surprise me in the least as you ( and by you I really mean me cause I am aware I am the only one reading this) can see I have one token follower. And that's about it. I'm okay with that I'm not a writer and never intended this space to be anything more than an experimet to get me writing more so I can be a better writing teacher.

Speaking of teaching I'm sitting right now at teachers convention. This is perhaps my favourite te of year. A te to relax and unwind and be inspired to do better. Because really in any job in life that is what keeps us going.... Doing better, being better.

So here I am sitting in a huge room at a conference center waiting for a session called 123 magic for teachers. Will it truely lead to magic in my classroom? Only time will tell. One thing I can say for sure is this week filled with good weather, good ideas, great people, and good shopping will definnitly serve to recharge my teaching batteries and rejuvinate me to be the best perso. For myself, my family, my friends, and my classroom for the rest of the year.

So incase anyone does ever read this.... Don't speak negativly about teachers going to professional events like teachers convention. Think about what spending a few days at a convention does for you... Don't you want the person who spends their days with your children to feel that amazing overload of ideas, creativity, and passion too? Personally I would be up in arms if they didn't.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Crafty!

2010-02-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

I am one of those people who wishes to be crafty... I love craftiess, I have taken briefforays into craftiness in the past, I've made scrapbooksfor friends, and those nifftylittle post it note thingamadoogies. In a pinch i can create just aboutanythng i need in my classroom. I've been told time and time again I'm creative.

So now is the time, i'm about to spend several days at my parents house... long sotry but they don't live there yet... and do not have much there in terms of entertainment.... Soooooo I'm going to bring along my new mac book, and my new xyron wishblade and settle in for several evenings of craftiness. I have two projects I'd like to complete.

Embelished canvas/paper word art

Basicall i painted some canvases with one colour, I'm going to cut out an inspirational word in large font on the wishblade... then use an embelishment or two to prettify it all, slap on some modge podge and call it a day.

A 3d butterfly mixed media piece. I have a friend having a little girland is doingherroom in butterflies... I've been inspired and i hope it turns out somewhat like my vision.... we'll see!

anyways so far I'm loving my wishblade... it's liek a cricut but it runs through your computer, and basically can cut aything you can imagine.... much more cost effective that all those cartridges the cricut requires you to buy. I"m hoping it will prove it's salt thisweek cutting out tons and tons of butterflies. I will keep you posted.

P.S. I appologize for the crappy typing, I'm using the office computer, and the keyboard SUCKS!

Tiny Ten

2010-02-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

These questions have been stolen... shamelessly.... from http://www.thatunreliablegirl.com/ an awesome blog of note as of late.

Now she uses this idea as a weekly feature, interviewing amazing creative talent...... now I'm guessing I'm not on her list of up coming interviews (ha ha) so I thought I would pretend and answer them anyway!

1. Favourite Colour?

Orange, the colour of joy I've been told. At one point my bedroom was bright creamsicle orange.... it's since then been muted to a terracotta, and is now baby blue. I love the mood orange puts me in, summery, sun kissed, fresh, and smiling... who doesn't want that?

2. Favourite Camera? (obviously this weeks interview was a photographer)

I will always have a soft spot for a pentax K 1000.... ahhh my first love. I think anyone who took a school photography course in the 90's learned how to use one of these. I miss easy manual cameras, I'm not technologically savvy enough to use my Cannon Rebel in the same way.

3. Favourite Artist/Designer/ Photographer?

Oh so many to mention. I have been scamming free desktop backgrounds from Sarah at totally severe, I have high hopes for her, as I love her style... and through reading her blog I know I like her (well at least her internet persona)

4. Favourite time of Year?

Fall, I love the fall, I live to colours, the not too hot not too cold (but definite chilly enough to wear a cozy sweater) temperatures, I'm refreshed after the summer, everything feels new and fresh it's not too dark out yet, and not light at 4 am. I can still ride my bike to school, I am missing my bike!

5. Dream Shoot? (again this was a photographer... I'm changing this to dream job... to suit my needs today :)

I would love a job where I got to teach part of the time, teach teachers/future teachers part of the time, and got to take classes myself part of the time.... this is very similar to what I am doing now, I'd just like to increase the teaching of adults, and get to take classes as part of my "professional" time, not my personal time.

6. Dream Weekend?

Small cabin in the woods, wood burning fireplace with roaring fire (that magically needs no tending), My little family (husband/dog) and I curled up reading books, playing scrabble and cards, eating yummy home made soups and buns, taking long walks in the forrest leaves crunching beneath our feet, comfiest bed ever with extra cuddly blankets. Long steamy lavender scented bubble baths. Just a slow quiet, peaceful weekend of togetherness.

7. What couldn't you live without?

Books, and song. I love to read, dance and sing. My life has been forever changed by music, and I was led to music by the books I read during my childhood (see the never ending cycle here?).

I can loose myself in a good book, and spend a whole day curled up in my favourite chair reading and it only feel like minutes. How can people live without being able to have that feeling? (and yes sometimes I wish I could get lost like that in sport... ahhh how awesome would that be??? )

I also can honestly say there are a few notes in the world that as soon as I sing them I can literally feel my entire body relax. I'm sure energy experts could explain how the vibrations of the frequency are affecting my innards, but I could care less about the physics of it, all I know is there is a small list of songs I know i can sing and instantly feel like the world is getting better.... even if it felt like it never could, music is the best antidepressant in the world!

8.Proudest Achievement?

Actually this is a recent one, this year a few of the staff members at my school nominated my for an excellence in teaching award. The real pride in this comes from the fact that these staff members are ones who are in just about every classroom in our school, and have been for years, and they have never nominated someone... it made me feel pretty special, and very proud, as teaching is my way of life.

9. Biggest dream?

To be nationally recognized as a educator, and a differentiated instruction speaker.

10. 2010 in 10 words of less.

A year of tremendous growth, both personally, and professionally!

Nervous Excitement... or just Good old....

2010-02-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

So remember waaaaaaay back when I was asked to do a pD session for another school?? Well the time has come and the day is coming up, Tuesday to be exact. I'm getting so excited and nervous to work with this group of teachers, will they be chatty? will they be bitter? will they be excited??? I have no idea.... so I"m hoping for polite, and accommodating.

I have tomorrow off to finish my last minute preparations, and to work on cleaning my house (ugh my least favourite thing). The Tuesday morning I go off to school, hee hee it feels like the first day all over again.

When designing my PD i tried to take all the things i like about presentations and incorporate them... some talk, some listening, some writing/drawing, lots of sharing. No role playing, I hate role playing as an adult, as a kid it would have been my favourite, but as an adult I'm a little more shy, and reserved, and unless i know the group of people really well acting in front of them is not my forte.... which sounds pretty foolish as I type it because basically delivering this presentation is basically like acting in front of a whole bunch of folks I don't know..... but it's different.. really... I swear.

How technologically advanced am I??

2010-02-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Technologically advanced enough to do this....

Di St Gabe

View more presentations from Garette Tebay.

Flexibility

2010-02-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years I've come to realize that one of mybiggest stremgths is my flexibility. I feared for a whilethat what I was seeing as flexible was really me being taken advantage of, but I've come to realize of the past few weeks that no, I'm just able to adapt to changes in my routine better than most, and when something really isn't going to work for me, I will stick up for myself, or my students, or collegues.

For example: this morning I cecked my facebook page before settling in to work on my powerpoint for my big presentation next week. I had a private message from our school secratary letting me knw they wil be replacing the flooring in my classroom over our teachers convention break next week.... umm yeah thats right I have two and a half days to pack upeverything in my classroom that is on the floor.... fun times!

My initial thought was.. ummm... no thanks I like my stinky germ infested carpet...... it keeps the noise level down.... I have a huge class this year remember???? But aftera moment I realized that this is going to happen if I like it or not, changed my day plan a touch... insert a science movie, and some Olympic viewing to work on our timing skills (by the way I have a few students who could become future Olympic timers... just saying). Over the course of the day between myself and my EA we got most of the room packs, and a lot moved to a safe place. All while maintaining a curricular momentum wth my class.... yeah I'm really proud.

I don't think many other teachers could do that.... maybe I'm wrong??? Most of my collegues would mope like me for a bit and then resign themselves to having to come in over the break to pack in a frenzy before the flooring dudes do their thing. And actually in the end it is kinda nice to have my classroom cleaned out this time of year... its like June... only not as good, because I have to go back to work March 1st.

Ode to February

2010-02-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

Oh little month, exactly four weeks long
How can you feel like an epic journey?

I only teach 14 days
And yet you feel like a years worth of effort packed in

You are lighter, and friendlier that dark cold January
Yet here I am loathing you too

Oh little month, exactly four weeks long
How can you feel like an epic journey?

Through the ice and snow I can survive
I was not expecting to have to carry 26 10 year olds

26 children all day long
Voices increasing in volume

each

painful

hour

Oh little month, only 4 weeks long
How can you feel like an epic journey?

Committed

2010-02-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

So I went back to work today. Morning= goodness afternoon= Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Lost my voice uncontrolable coughing fits sooooo not pretty.

Lesson learned: sub plans aren't that bad. Stay home until you are actually better

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Still sick. But not contagious !

2010-02-01T12:29:00.001-07:00

Uhhhh yeah I'm still sick. Yesterday I woke up and couldn't swallow like at all... I became spitty mcspittinigton because I just couldn't figure out what to do with my own saliva yeah gross I know I lived it.

So I bit the bullet and actually went to the emercency room (as we have no walk in clinics in town). Now the emerge as it is called is a much fabled place where I live there are tales of people who have camped put in the waiting room etc etc. So I went prepared iPhone in hand extra advil in my purse husband all coffeed up we were ready.

We walk in and they take me into a little nurses room to do a preadmitance checkeroo. I walk back into the waiting room scan the classic hospital decor for the hubs and he's nowhere to be found arrrgh he's left me. The I look out the window and see him getting out of the car where he had forgotten his coffee phewf I'm not trapped in here alone I think scanning the room again for a place to sit I'm impressed thinking that there aren't too many people there. Husband finally comes to see me and just as be sits down I'm called in to wait for the doctor IN the emergency room.

Husband quickly escapes to the car claiming he will get h1n1 if he stays any longer. A few moments later a doctor comes by looks at my throat writes a prescription, tells me I'll be contagious for 24 more hours and that was that. 20 mins in and out. And alas I'm home sick today bored bored bored

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

One more reason I love my job

2010-01-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Where I teach all the grade 5's learn about electricity, and get to build simple electrical circuits in science class. I can still remember the first time i taught this unit... me standing in front of the class talking about the amount of voltage int he batteries we would be using and how it is completely safe to touch this particular circuit because there is not enough power to hurt a human..... all the while freaking out i was going to electrocuted by a AA battery... ahhh how far have i come, this year I had dripping wet fingers and was holding a circuit together for a group (and I lived to tell the tale).

The best best best part about teaching kids about electricity is simply watching them connect that first circuit... its like they have never seen light before, the shrieks of delight begin with the first sign of success, then the room seems to fill with "Look Miss!!!" there is nothing in the world more motivation than pure childhood wonder.

If all ended with just that one circuit I would leave the school at the end of the day and be walking on clouds, but then the experiment calls for students to investigate conductors, and insulators, digging through their desks to find things to add to their circuit to try to figure out what materials will allow electricity to flow through them.... what a roller coaster, easers bring sadness, scissors delight, the desk top is an abysmal failure but the legs light up again. I leave on this day feeling like I could teach forever!

Reno's

2010-01-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

Okay so we have been SLOWLY working on renovating our house since we bought it two years ago.... of course buying a house when we did we paid top dollar ofr it and now have lost a ton of equity.... sooooo the original (use our equity to make the necessary renovations) plan never really did come to fruition. Amazingly our financeshave finally figured themselves out, and we've been saving fools for the last several months and we now have the reno nest egg we probably should have saved for in the first place.

I'm so excited I've been living in my house dreaming of all the wonderful things we're going to do wih it... my dream kitchen sadly was introduced and discontinued (thanks Ikea) but we will finally be able to tackle these huge progects thatwill not only make our house awesome... but finally let us see some increased value (woot woot).

Anyone who has ever talked to me about my house knowshow much I whine and complainabout it... we came soooooo close to selling it a few months ago I was willing to take a loss on it just the get the hell out. The sad part is that it is actually a pretty awesome house.... with AMAZING potential... but after two years it sucks living with potential... I lost my patence with what COULD be... I want it all....

Soooo here is the list of awesome things my house already has:

it is located right across from the greenbelt/major trail system in our city (super duper awesome views, andrec opprotunities :)
it is huge... 1800sq feet, on one level
it is quirky, an older home with an addition... lots of neat little custom things about it, cool little hide outs... if we ever have kids I think there are a few places they could hide and never be found
I can walk/ride to work and not have to wake upmuch earlier than if I drove
the yard is big enough for lily, but not big enough to be a pain to care for

Now the list of things we're fixing to make the house better:

new laminate flooring almost though out.. being old and quirky there are a few places that will have to be carpeted due to unevenness, but I'm okay with that.... I think it's important to break up the laminate a bit
New siding right now we're thinking red with river rock accents, we have chocolate brown eves troughs, and shingles... I think it will look rustic.. maybe I'm wrong though
New windows (woo hoo no frosty windows next year) okay this is the thing i'mmost excited about new fresh windows
We are replacing our front 70's bow window with garden doors and putting in anew patio and rock garden in the front yard.... so i can sit outside look over the trails and read allllllll summer long :) :)
Last but not least is the new kitchen I have been drooling over newikea cabinets since we lived in the condo... this summer we are knocking out the wall that divides our kitchen and our livingroom/ dining room and having one big open space in the front of our house..... soooooo pretty I cna't wait.

There are a few thing about our house that in my "money isnoobject" fantasies we could also change... but these will never happen

add abasement... sigh... life without a basement sucks
2 bathrooms. Who knew this luxury would become a requirment
a real closet in my master bedroom.... I have though figured out how we are going to convert our spare room into a spare room/ my personal dressing room of awesomeness hopfully this will be done in early spring..

We are in the middle of a good weather spell which is making me wish for spring.... and get excited for what spring is going to bring for us!

New Table!!!

2010-01-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm so excited!! We're getting a new dining/kitchen table and slowly but surely my ikea furniture os being repurposed... (the old table is now my computer desk, and the chairs are being distributed amongst the house as side chairs/bed side tables)

Now the only thing more exciting than new furniture... is new furniture that was a good deal! One thing I have learned through our dining room table shopping fiasco is that furniture stores are so incredibly over priced it's not even funny. We went to every furniture store in our home town (that would be 5... not too many but hey it's not a large town) except one, then we decided to look around at my parents seeing as they live in a much much larger city.... every where we looked they want $700 plus for crap that within a few years of daily use would need to be replaced.... I know society has made that dark shift to disposable but I never really truly realized how far reaching this was. Furniture should not be made with the intent it will be disposed of in a few years! There I've said it... and I firmly believe it. What has happened to us... or is it just me, I grew up in a family where furniture is passed down from generation to generation. My bedroom set once belonged to my great Grandmother. The vast majority of the furniture in our home we have been given to us (thanks mom, grandma, aunties, cousins), or we've purchased knowing some day it will be sitting in someones basement as a family room/playroom fixture. When I shop for furniture I am looking for something that will stand the test of some time... not survive the apocalypse or anything... just good quality.

So after our exhaustive search we came home and wandered into the one furniture store we had not tried before we left, and Ta da! they were selling of their floor samples.... and the one I actually liked (okay maybe I fell in love with the piece of furniture and threatened to leave my husband if he didn't let us get it) had a few chips in the edge... which are barely noticeable and is scratch free!!! So for a reasonable price we got an awesome solid wood (I want to say maple) table and 6 (yes 6) actually comfy chairs.... also solid wood with enough reinforcements to make my dad proud!

The delievery peeps are on their way and I'm elated. I will take pics when we have installed is in our diningroom!!! Wish me luck

oh and until then... here are the coolest sticky notes in the world..... ever

Me??? Give PD???? And get paid for it!

2010-01-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

Okay I got my first request to give PD at a school... well the first school that requested and offered to pay! Woo hoo!!! I'm so excited I love love love working with teachers, and have for a long time wanted to work with university students, to me this is a really great first step.... if I can teach people already teaching eventually the coordinators at the local college will see I should be teaching their students too right??? Well between this helping to get my name out there, and my shameless self promotion I'll make it work.

Anyways I'm so excited about this firstly because it's on a topic I am truly passionate about.... Differentiated instruction... I spent part of my summer learning about DI from the master Carol Ann Tomlinson. I was pretty impressed with how many DI strategies I was already using in my Classroom and how many things were easy to tweak to make sooooo much better for my students. And seriously some of these ideas are super simple, for example instead of my whole class doing the same reading response for their silent reading through the week, we work together at mastering the 6 or 7 responses I usually use and then the kids CHOOSE which one they would like to do that week. That simple act of having a choice has increased their time on task in silent reading incredibly, not to mention the quality of their reading responses, and I didn't really have to do much extra.... just make a couple of cards, and find a pocket chart to post what the kids were doing each week.

I can't wait to share these ideas, and the whole philosophy with a group of educators (and the money would be super nice too... I have been walking on air all day sooo exciting!!

Happy New Year.... plus a few days

2010-01-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

Oh wow, what a vacation

We had an amazing time with my folks, and shopping sopping shopping, we definitely stimulated the economy this year. Between a few new items for the business, and our insurance shopping it was a fun trip.

My personal favourite items, would have to be my new DSi, oh yeah I'm as technologically advanced as my students, and some new really pretty christmas ornaments from crate & barrel, definitely an impulse buy, but my tree is covered in army and navy cheapo ornaments/teacher gifts so I think I am worth a few 50% off crate and barrel boxing day specials.

We also got a new duvet and duvet cover from Ikea, it was something I agonized over to the point of annoying my husband so much he did threaten to leave the store without me. I ended up picking a pretty floral print (something I swore I would never have in my bedroom) but I love it so much, it completely ties my chocolate brown wall in with my baby blue ones, without making my room too dark an dingy woo hoo! I will take some picks and post them later.

Okay thus ends my most material blog post ever.... look forward to the up coming... "we came home to frozen crap.. literally" post

Sick

2010-01-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Ugh I'm sick. I am not the type of person who takes to being sick all that well. I'm on the go so much when I get sick I come to a screeching hault. Yesterday I was at a PD session I left the house with a really sore throat but thought to myself "I'm not doing the teaching today I'll make it through". Well it turned out I was right, just barley.

I spent the day at an awesome session on weaving fine arts into social studies. It was fantabulous I can't wait to use these ideas in my class. But at about 11o'clock I got the chills after lunch I couldn't take my jacket off I was so cold. Then the fever set in and as my body froze my head began to burn. I was lightheaded and whoosy the rest of the afternoon.

Now the most embarassing part of this tale was my walk out of the school ALL of the TEACHERS and ADMINISTATORS in the city were. Picture me dizzy dizzy wandering down theong school corridor. I'm proped up against the wall lest I loose my balance, red faced contemplating asking someone to hold my hand because I could be going down at any moment. All the while I'm thinking I swear I wasn't drinking at lunch!

Any how I got home at 3:30 went to bed and slept until 7 got up attempted to swallow something for supper hung out with husband man and went back to bed. I woke up like clock work every 4 hours to take some advil. Now today I'm finding it hard to take it easy. My mind is alert but my body will not cooperate. So I am enjoying a day with my puppy and my tv.

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-25T16:31:00.001-07:00

Okay so I can only hope that everyone had a Christmas even half as wonderful as mine. We woke up this morning and exchanged gifts the reactions were everything you could hope for.
My parents were ease with the trinkets we chose for them, my little bro ( who is 25 and almost 6 feet tall but I will always call him my little brother) got us some niffty scientific stuff (I got my very own brain cell) and my parents got us our first LCD tv (woot woot). Although we were quite impressed the the thieves did not take our old clunkers.

Christmas is such an important holiday in my family I am ways so amazed how good the good times are in with my peeps. Even my husband who gives off the air of grinchydom had me speechless today.
I am never in doubt of how much I am loved.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Posted on the run from
my iPhonep

On the Road

2009-12-23T12:14:00.001-07:00

Well we are off on the road to my parents for christmas.

I love Christmas time and spending it with my family. I am somewhat thankful my inlaws live all the way across the country and spending Christmas with them has never been a priority with my husband. Christmas with my mom dad husband and little brother is one of the things I look forward to all year long.

Firstly it is about the only time of year my husband actually takes time off work..... Well kind of he does have his office packed up in the back of the truck. He hasn't had too many good Christmases as an adult so i try my best to make things special for him, which isn't too difficult seeing as my family is pretty cool to be around in general Christmas only adds to the fun.

My favourite Christmas tradition my family has is a Christmas light tour. We pack into my parents old van get hot chocolate and drive through town looking at wveryones light displays. Usually we spend more time looking for the ugliest display and hilarity ensues.

Someday I hope my husband will be able to let go of his past and celebrate with me. I guess as the years go on and we begin to create some of our own christmas traditions he will. For now one tradition we do have is the trecherous (sp???) drive to visit my parents haha!

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Christmas shopping

2009-12-19T17:48:00.001-07:00

So now that school is out for the holidays and my time is not filled warping the minds (oops I mean shaping) I'm free to Christmas shop. I will admit I've been picking things up for my mom dad and brother along the way since early november but my husband is a different story.

For those of you reading it's time I come clean..... I have an exceptionally clingy husband. I love him to death but he does spend a lot of time with me. It gets worse in the winter because be drives me everywhere. Why does the man drive me everywhere???? Yes I have a lisence and a cute car but sadly he is conviced it is too small and not safe in the winter. So thus he is my chauffer. I am not usually opposed I get a nice warm vehicle and do not have to warm it up myself not to mention I don't have to drive on icky winter roads. Win win.

Except whe. You are trying to buy the man a Christmas gift. I've tried everything. But finally today I dropped him off at work and headed out on the town. I knew what I was getting the bugger so things should be simple right???? HA!

Picture me in various shopping establishments trying to explain to half asleep over worked empolyees what I was looking for and of course the colour I needed (someeone is particuar) three stores later I was able to procure the gift off husband mans dreams woot woot!

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

My faith in humanity restored

2009-12-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

So at work today I was wandering back to my classroom after recess and a collegue came down the hall towards me and asked where I was going. I told her I was headed back to my class and she scoffed at me and said " no you're not you're comeing with me" So I willingly obliged because she seemed pretty determined. She was also one of the French teachers and in general they always seem determined, must be the accent. Anyhow so back to the office we head.
Once back in the office she asks the secretary to remove something from her desk. Well then I am presented with a beautiful hand madegift card holder stuffed full of different gift cards. I guess they had secretly sent an email out to the school district letting the world know about what had happened to us last week and people sent gift cards etc. to help us replace things that were stolen.

I was and still am amazed. So overwhelmed I started to cry right there. Then of course everyone who was in the office was crying right along with me.

The pople I work with are incredible. I have worked in several schools and have always felt like part of a team. At the school I am at now though I feel like part of a huge family. I am so thankful to have a group of people to spend my days with who I am proud to know.

Posted on the run from
my iPhone

Merry second last day of school

2009-12-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

From Lily aka ....... Olive the other reindeer

Pardon the bad lighting.....and note her antlers around her neck :)

Crap

2009-12-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

So I was cleaning up after my friendly neighborhood burglars on the weekend and I came across somexof my papers I wrote while doing my masters degree a few years ago. First I had a cry thinking about the fact that these people were actually consideing taking my hard work, I quickly got over it but am still amazed at why anyone would want a box full of my research on the use of student created rubrics in the classroom. The. I found a set of reflective papers I wrote on one of the texts we read. Wow. I was a really good writer once. Like really good I realized that althtough I am hapazardly adhearing to my self imposed challenge of writing more this year, I certianly am not writing well. For goodness sake I only have one follower...... That's just sad. So here it is my promise to myself.....I will write bettter because I can.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Perpetual bad har day.... and it's end

2009-12-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Click Here For Funny Pictures &
Funny Bad Hair Day Pictures

Okay so this is about how I've been feeling these past few weeks. Our Christmas season started off with a bang late in Novemember when my husbands office was broken into, thieves carried off with his computer, video cameras, and a TON of his business finacial information, including all of his receivables from thatweek, and his cheque book. We had a rip roaring good time closing all of our accounts, and almost actually catching the ingrates when they attempted to cash one of his cheques (which they had kindly written to themselves) at a local cheque cashing/loan store. It was a real bummer, but we were over it, and were moving on with anew found confidence, and the feeling of a clean slate. We were fresh.

Then.... the unimaginable happened. We were driving home after a LONG day of work onThursday and there was a pick up backed in to the driveway of our house. As we pulled in a woman in the truck put her hands over her face to cover herself, and I noticed the lights on inside our home. Thats right someone was in our home. We called 911 who told us to get the hell out of there, so we went on up the street a ways and turned around. During this time the lowlifes decided to make a break for it (so they were slightly smarter that I gave them credit for) my PI husband decided to take after them to see if we couldfind them, but alas we were too late. So we got turned around again heading back to our house and the RCMP actually beat us home (wow impressive response time!) So yeah now we are in the midst of cleaning up after another robbery. Thistime it is muchmore personal.

My home has been invaded. I feel awkward in my own home, was he standing here? Why did he try to take this? Why didn't he try to take that? Should I wash this surface? Is there enough bleach in the world to make my home feel clean again? Sometimes I laugh about it, because it is an amazing coincidence (and no the two incedents are not related great huh?) . Some times I see something fro mthe pile thatwe found beside our front door of things they were about to take, but didn't because we caught them. I'll see a trivial piece of something and tears will stream from my eyes. It's aconstant war between my rational self, who says "it's only things, they can be replaced" and my emotional self who is mourning the memories held in those things.

I canbe thankful thatthese people did only take electronic things, which really can be replaced, I wish they had had the heart to leave the sd cards from my cameras, but I guess if they had hearts they wouldn't be scavenging through my home for valuables. They also took my engagement ring which really makes me feel empty when I think about it. My husband worked so hard to get me that ring, and the memories of the trip we were on when he proposed are some of the sweetest I hold. Just the faint glint of the diamond on the ring would make me smile thinking of the brilliant July sun that summer that beat down on us as we hiked/fished/famers marketed our way through BC and Washington.

My only hope is that where ever my items end up they are able to spread to someoen even a tenth of the joy the memories around them have created for me. Thankfully those memories cannot be taken.

I'm not spending enough time at home

2009-12-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

okay so with Christmas, and my husbands business taking off like crazy, I have not had a lot of time at home lately, my basic daily schedule looks a lot like this

6:04 alarm goes off, hit snooze
6:13 alarm goes off again hit snooze
6:22 alarm goes off, and i have to pee, get up, let dog out go pee, let dog in
6:30 begin calling to Husband to wake up, finish tooth brushing etc.
6:40 give Husband final wake up call, get dressed, grab lunch (no bentos for me this month)
7:00 in the truck, on the way to tim hortons
7:30 through the timmy's drive thru and on the way to work
7:32 in classroom, begin preparations for mayhem to follow
8:58 bell rings, mayhem begins
3:30 bell rings mayhem is near an end
4:00 slowly tiptoeing through the emergency exit near my classroom and out to the truck
4:15 back in tim hortons drive thru
4:30 on the way downtown to husbands office
4:45 in office tidying, or filing while waiting for an appointment
5:30 appointment shows up
5:35 Husband finished with appointment, now to begin the "in truck" portion of our evening
6:00 Sitting in truck organizing files for the night
6:30 thus begins the evening of process serving aka me sitting in the passenger seat trying to read under the light of what ever street light we might be parked under/playing with my iPhone
8-9 ish arrive home, attempt to play out the dog, and try to eat something healthy, which usually ends up being a big flop cause after that kinda day who wants to cook???

I cannot wait until Christmas vacay! I think my look says it all.....

Interesting apps

2009-12-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

So week one with the iPhone has been awesome I'm a free app addict. My personal favourite right now is the dog whistle app. It has really helped in our attempts to train lily. Let's cross our fingers and hope the iPhone dog whistle is the answer to all my dog training prayers!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday spent workin with the man

2009-11-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

So I spent today working with. Husband man. We organized his office and got his new computer up and running then we headed out of town to serve some papers. I can't believe how dark it is getting,and how quickly it is. Even at 3:30 the sun was low in the sky..... Okay let's see how easy it is for me to post pictures on this thing

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My first iPhone post

2009-11-28T15:53:00.001-07:00

So I got an iPhone yesterday and I am hoping it will help me stay up to date with my blog posts. Wish me luck learning to use this thing. I've already posted a comment on facebook like 4 times instead of just the once......oops! It is an interesting learning curve!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First post in a long time

2009-11-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

okay so it's been a long long time since I've actually posted on here... opps! I have a million excuses for not making the time to write alittle for myself each day, but it all comes down to this school year sucking a little bit. Thankfully the suck seems to have ended and the forecast for the rest of the school year is looking bright.

So to rehash a little of the suck, basically there is a whole new set of expectations/duties/computer programs for the teachers in our school district thisyear, I hate sounding like one of those whiney teachers who can only talk about how much more we as professionals are expected to do compared to the "good old days" I personally don't feel that any of the "new" things we have been mandated to do this year are actually more work, just different work. And well teachers.... the people who are preparing students to cope and survive in a world that is constantly changing.... are in general not so great with change (go figure).

What hasbeen overwhelming is the amount of "new" this year, which has even had me walking home in a stupor a few days. I know the new initiatives the school district is adopting have been well thought out andresearched, and will benefit students in the long run... in hind sight it would have been nice to have staggered the introduction of some of these things.

I know I know you are asking "what are these things???" so here is a list of all the new/slightly different things I can remember being asked to do this year:

A new school district wide reading program (sorry resource... not program)
A new way of tracking student behaviours (much more intensive)
A new grading/reporting computer program
New teacher learning coaches in the schools
A differentiated instruction initiative (which I have a lead role in)
A different format for our long time proffesional learning communities
A new way of doing attendance
Wave 2 of H1N1
Three new and wonderful teachers in my division

Okay I think this may be it... I know I'm missing one big one though... oh well.

The most important thing is I MADE IT! We just got through the first reporting period/parent teacher interviews. And I'm done, and imade it through. I can't wait for someawesome learning/teaching experiences the rest of the year :)

Ten Thoughts of the week

2009-10-25T09:53:00.003-06:00

1o. I didn't realize how dependent I've gotten on my EA, she's like my right arm. I guess you don't realize until their gone hopefully her daughter will be feeling better this week!

9. My dog is slowly but surely becoming trained. She is making great leaps towards not standing in the living room window and letting the world know she hates everyone in it that isn't my husband and I. And damn you if you dare try to walk by her during her proclamation.

8. My school year hasn't begun to fall into a routine yet, there is a lot on new ~~crap~~ professional development on my plate this year and every time I think I'm getting into a rhythm, something new gets piled on, and now report cards are right around the corner, I may never read for enjoyment again.

7. I love the library, our public library has recently been updated and moved to a new facility and it is awesome! I love going into the new calm building and searching through the rows and rows of endless books. Sadly I haven't actually finished a library selection since august, but I still love to go. Oh and I did take out an audio book this time to listen on a trip out of town next weekend, I think due to the lack of long term commitment I should be able to get to the end of that one. Not to mention it's by NPH writing as Barney Stinson so it's got to be hilarious.

6. I love pasta, it's a love hate relationship though, love as in it's tasty goodness tempts my palate, and hate as in its carbohydratey pastaness and my metabolism do not get along so well. I have attempted to solve this through whole wheat goodness, but my husband refuses to make the switch. How can i convince him this is the best thing to do??? Damn men. (P.S. apparently whining about it in blog form works).

5. One of my students has a smelly felt fixation, remember those, the markers that smell like all sorts of good things. every day the little bugger gets into his markers and sniffs them (which personally I have to say no big deal that would have been me at 9 too), but then I have to peer down at him the rest of the day with a big brightly coloured blotch under his nose. It is really hard not to giggle.

4. I've been trying to cut back the sugar and cream in my coffee. So far so good, I'm down from a triple triple to 2 milks, 1 sugar. But I now realize I don't really have a goal here. I don't think I want to be able to drink black coffee, ick! But do I want 2 milk? Is 1 little sugar okay? I only drink one coffee a day usually so its not really going to affect my calorie intake a huge amount if I remove all sugar, or will it?

3. I'm really excited about the possibility of buying a new house. I thought we would be in the place we are in now for a long time. I hate this house.... its not even really a house its some sort of house/modular hybrid, I have no closet in my bedroom it drives me nuts.

2. I was going to post about not taking any pictures in a while, but I think I will be taking some soon of the cool frost on our cars this morning. Some very cool designs have appeared on the windows and metal of the cars, so cool in fact my husband ran inside like a child to drag me outside just not to see, and he was so excited I did, without complaint.

1. The great organization/purge of the kneebay house has begun. I am sooo organizationally challenged I think i might post pictures of my problem areas on here, and see if anyone out there can help.

Lego Dacta

2009-10-21T17:07:00.002-06:00

So every year I use the schools lego dacta kits as a unit end project when I teach simple machines. Usually my class makes a rubric to mark their creations, and it usually involves criteria like the amount of simple machines used, how complex their mechanism is, and how they work in a group. Usually they do a good job, and every year i pull out last years rubric, ad tweak it a bit to match the word choices this years class came up with. This year I decided to see if anyone else has done this, and of course kindly posted it on the internet for me to steal....

What I found is amazing, there is a whole culture of lego dacta competitions, and clubs, and not only did I find a rubric to mark my kids on, but now I totally want to change the way I use these awesome kits next year.

I also decided I needed to ask my kidlettes what they thought they were learning when useing lego dacta... well.... I have learned my lesson, i need to start asking this more often. My class was coming up with stuff I never even dreamed of, and were supporting their ideas, and giving me examples. By ~~playing with lego~~ building lego mechanisms we are learning, team work, how things move, how one moving thing can make another thing move, how to complete a circut, how to share (because all the sets are missing a few pieces ahhh public education), how to read someone else's design, how to design new things, oh the list goes on and on. Yay for learning.

Rethinking

2009-10-18T09:05:00.004-06:00

Okay I went blog hopping this morning and came across this lovely post through links on another blog. This post is for every person who has been profoundly affected by a teacher, for every teacher who has questioned what they do, and lastly for every person who has ever disagreed with me (ha ha) during debates about extrinsic vs. intrinsic reward systems. I do believe this amazing lady has proven me right. Sometimes a sticker or a stamp is worth sooooo much more than that. And for some kids it is the break through you need as a teacher to build confidence and trust, so real learning can occur. The intrinsic rewards will come, but for now if I need those 1 cm round little stickers to gain a students trust/interest/confidence/etc. so be it!

Lily & I hanging out in the once frozen back yard

2009-10-17T17:08:00.002-06:00

Ten interesting thoughts of the week

2009-10-17T14:44:00.002-06:00

10. Why is the computer in my car more complex than the one in my office?

9. Does my dog really understand me, and if so does she make fun of me behind my back? Probably....

8. How can two people and 8lbs of dog destroy a perfectly clean house in one short week?

7. There has got to be a better alternative to the vacuum.... why hasn't it been discovered?

6. Bacon does make everything taste better.

5. I own a lot of purple clothing, and i don't particularly like the colour purple.

4. Why does instant gratification feel so good?

3. Why does my ceiling fan set on the "winter" setting still make my room feel cold?

2. Has my love affair with mechanical pencils gone too far?

1. I think it is finally that time of year to start wearing socks.

An Ode to My Fricken' Car Alarm

2009-10-15T19:42:00.003-06:00

Thank you faithful car protector

for keeping the beetle safe as can be

At first I thought you had scared off a perp

But now I realize you just hate me

Once an hour I hear you beep

never ending, you are the source of such glee

In my cold educed stupor I wandered outside to visit

I locked not once but twice just to see

But alas you chirp on my friend

I'm not sick I'm not sick I'm not sick....

2009-10-14T17:34:00.002-06:00

Okay so I totally am suffering form a nasty cold. I was whining a while back about my eyes hurting, and now I know why they were.... Damn you sinuses.

I am still amazed how I refuse to call in sick as a teacher. I wake up and think I sooooo do not have the energy to go in today, but by the time I drag myself into my classroom to begin to organize things for a substitute teacher, I always always end up staying.

Today I did call in for back-up. I found my microphone for my classrooms "fm" system (aka speaker through which my wireless Brittany Spears style head mic amplifies). After all of my "oops I did it again" jokes wore thin, well on my EA as the 9 year olds in my classroom have no clue that Britney has been around that long, my batteries died. I didn't realize how helpful that little mic was until I lost it. Alas, soooo they are on the charger ready to go tomorrow... I'm thinking I should wear something sparkley to go with my new rocker image.

Thankfully my class ignored my emphysema like cough for most of the day. Although at one point one of my girls did come up to me and say "Ummm would you like a refill on your water bottle, you're coughing A lot Miss..... Like A- Lot!" Now this is an incredibly sweet gesture as it was from a student who 1. was most likely not just offering kindness as a way to get out of my classroom for a few minutes, and 2. probably was not plotting to poison me. I still politely declined the offer cause you know, she COULD have been trying to take me out.

So the question remains, should I go in tomorrow? or should I attempt to recuperate at home? I'm a sucker for those crazy kids so I will probably drag myself back into school. Le sigh

You can tell I don't have kids

2009-10-05T18:26:00.003-06:00

Someone made this remark to me today, innocently while observing my lunch. It is bothering me. I'm not sure why, I'm trying to put a finger on it, but it's not coming clear.

I think it's the implication that I take alot of time preparing my lunches. I have changed my preparation practice this year as I have fallen in love with bento boxes, and the ease of preparation they afford me. Yes it is true I may take a little more time putting my rice in a rice mold (which makes it into a happy little shape, todays rice balls were in the shape of hearts, and stars), but I save time not having to then put my rice in a seperate container, and wash it when I get home in the evening. It may take me a little more time, but over all I think it evens out. I don't have to worry about plastic containers to transport all the bits and pieces of my lunch, where to put said containers in my small kitchen, and of course keeping track of all the lids!

I do know if I ever have kids,they will have bento lunches too, because even if it took more time, they make me smile at lunch time, and I'm 29 so I can only imagine how excited a child could be.

My favorite part

2009-10-02T16:21:00.003-06:00

Of my month, was today. Our school district sets aside time every friday afternoon for teachers to meet, plan, pd, etc within our schools. It is an awesome system I love it! All those things that normally would have to be met about after school, or interesting initiatives we as teachers would have to explore on weekends, or in the summer, we can do during our regular work week. Fab-u-lous.

But the bestest part of all of this is the one friday a month we get to meet with all the other people in the district that teach the same grade, or in my case, most of them. It is a great time where we all get to hear about how other teachers are teaching the exact same stuff, in the COOLEST ways. thankfully the peeps who also teach grade 4 around here are amazingly awesome people who do some awesome things in their classrooms, so I get to steal/adapt all their great ideas for my classroom.

It is a great way for teachers to share what they do, it can be a lonely profession, especially when you are working in a school where you are the only person teaching your grade/subject I love being in a room of people who are all looking for the best way to teach something, and the most interesting ways to assess it.

Makes me feel alive!

Another Sunday Morning

2009-09-27T17:51:00.003-06:00

Well and by morning I mean afternoon, the man and I spent this morning in his office. Have I mentioned how happy I am school is back in???

Anyways after a long morning's work we took a break for lunch in our usual Sunday spot. Had I known when we left the house this morning we would be gone that long I would have packed a picnic for us, but alas I was unaware of exactly how much "catching up" someone had to do at his office. So we picked up two subs at subway and headed to the park we usually drink our Sunday morning coffee in. It was raining off and on today, and I didn't bring my camera, so my photo's aren't as exciting as they could have been seeing as I was using my husbands video camera to capture stills.

I still love fall, and leaves, and pictures of said things. Oh and I did find some Tim Hortons litter to photograph, no it was not mine, and yes I did pick it up after.

Creating a Presentaton

2009-09-25T16:10:00.002-06:00

I have spent this past week stressing about a presentation I had to give the staff in our school today. I still think it is funny that so many teachers are afraid to speak infront of their peers, myself included.

Our school has had a few in house pd sessions this year put on by staff members and they have been fabulous. It is so nice to have access to these awesome experts right in my school, but this week I had to be one!

I have to say I was impressed with my school mates, they are an amazing group of people, and if you are reading this and are lucky enough to have your children enrolled inour school you really really should be thanking the education gods tonight, your kids teachers, EA's, etc. are GREAT! And on top of being good at what they do they were a welcoming, calming, wonderful audience forme this afternoon.

I am really liking presenting to teachers this way, I would love for my job to include more of it, or to eventually be able to work with pre-service teachers (sigh), but for now I will relish my work as it is.

Sunday Mornings

2009-09-20T12:45:00.006-06:00

I love our Sunday morning routine. I think it is the only morning my husband and I can agree, we like what we do. A typical Sunday morning in our house goes a

little something like this. I get up relatively early by my husbands standards, and usually do something to entertain myself until a more reasonable time to wake him up (aka check facebook/read blogs) then we get up and get some tim's and find a place (usually by one of the many rivers in town to drink it. then we do a little (and by little I really really mean little) bit of exploring. I usually take pictures, and he usually grumbles, we walk a bit. Some times we take the dog, sometimes we don't. It's just a nice time to spend together, have a coffee and be us.

It is one routine we seem to have fallen into in our marriage that I am thankful for, and can't wait to be doing 30, 40 years from now.

10 Random Factsof the week

2009-09-19T13:19:00.002-06:00

1. I wore my wedding ring 3 out of 5 work days this week. (I know bad wife.... I take it off to do dishes and forget it on the top of the fridge)

2. Three people commented on my "professional" wardrobe this week, WOO HOO! one of my new school years resolutions is making an impact!

3. I've found myself lamenting about teaching acombined grade class. My principal has me on record saying I don't know how I would teach a straight grade.... but this year I think I could/want to do it.

4. I went to bed a 6pm last night. Yep I was that tired/ I think I'm getting a cold

5. A little part of me cannot wait for winter! I love the veiw from my living room window in the winter.

6. I miss reading, I used to read with my class during silent reading last year, now I'm using the time for conferences, and small group teaching, I miss thatlovely 20 mins of peace. Alas

7. I'm craving vegtable soups.... yep for some people it's chocolate for me it's borscht go figure.

8. my eye balls hurt.... like a weird pressurey pain.... I'm debating whether I should get it checked out.

9. I want to start playing my trumpet again. I haven't touched it sonce last November, and before that the November before....

10. I have comtemplated how I could move into our cities new library.... no one would ever know!

how to clip your own dogs hair...

2009-09-17T16:49:00.003-06:00

all the wrong things to do.....

So I cut Lily's hair last weekend, well I cut half of her hair (as the little thing squirmed too much and lost her patience at the half way point). Now I like doing this because, it's really expensive to get a doggy haircut, and because the few dog groomers in town are not taking any new "clients" at the moment. Not to mention I own psycho dog and well lets face it, do I really need to unleash her (literally) on the world, I think not.

So these factors all bring me to last sunday morning, Lily freshly bathed curled up between my legs, me with scissors in hand, the mats begin to fall, things are going well, no cuts (yes last time I cut the dog... not good) Soft fuzzyness all around on her back, but, and neck. I take a little off her beard and this is when she looses her patience. My sweet loving dog who usually will flip over on her back if you look at her like you may have thought one time you could possibly want to give her a tummy rub, refuses to let me touch her belly. So I being the smart dog owner I am thought... I'm not going to fight with her I'll just leave it like this for the week and we'll do it alll over again next weekend.

BAD IDEA

All week I've been laughing at my dog, she looks hilarious (will post pic if I can get one that truly exudes her funnylookingness). Lily is not too happy about this, and i think has been secretly laughing at me behind my back as I did just get a haircut too. But I've also been fretting about how to cut her underside. I'm a bad dog owner/I have a bad dog and she won't let me brush her, so her underside is icky and really really matted, I'm scared I will cut her. so I've been having dog grooming nightmares, which I'm hoping will be put to an end tomorrow night when i actually take this on.....

Good luck to me!

Expensive Day

2009-09-12T19:16:00.003-06:00

Ugh... so we've been fall cleaning today, I love these days, when my husband and I seem to be on the same page and the cleaning doesn't even seem like a lot of work, we both just do our jobs and poof! Our house seems less cluttered, nicer smelling, and fresh.

All was going well until we started getting ready for a run to the dump. Then the truck wouldn't start and was parked in our one car garage...... no booster cables long enough for this, sooo after a trip to Canadian tire, and the purchase of a "battery charger" thingy ma doogie and several hours of the husband tinkering, we were off to the dump, leaving behind a load of laundry in the washer, and one in the dryer.

Many hours later after dumpage, and a few other errands, and lunch, I go to remove the clothes from the still running dryer (this should have been my first clue....) ta da the element seems to have gone kaput. fun times! So we will be diving into the ever so fun adventures of finding someone to fix an appliance on Monday, until then we are heading back downtown to find a drying rack to deal with the clothes in the dryer... and the washer......

Expensive day!

Classroom Tour

2009-09-10T16:38:00.004-06:00

Soooo I thought I'd post a tour of my classroom for the masses, I'm pretty stoked about the new room, but I still dream of having a little bit larger classroom to fit in all the areas I would like

As you walk in the door, the desks are now in groups,

but until I knew Everyones name I needed their nameplates facing me!

my small group teaching area, and the elmo projector!

Word Wall, it looks so empty!

Kids computer, calendar, and weather graphing area

My whole group teaching area,

with our positive learning environment contract on the chart paper

These photos were taken a week ago and already I can't believe how empty the walls were, and my bulletin boards! They are already filled with vocabulary words, and our class puzzle, learner profiles, and words words words! I may take more pictures throughout the year to see the transformation!

Back to Reality

2009-09-10T16:30:00.002-06:00

Soooo last week was exciting, meeting all my new little young minds, new classroom, a fresh start to get routines in order, a new group of collegues to learn from! All super, still super, but.... UGH this is hard work. I love love, love my class, and am really enjoying implementing the new things I learned this summer in my classroom, I feel empowered, the kids feel empowered, and they are already starting to point out each others strengths which is awesome! But I a few sweeties who are really good at pointing out their own weaknesses, and not in that super constructive I wanna make this better sort of way. Sigh.... we're going to have a bit of a battle to overcome this but I know it will work out.

I have started doing a morning message with my grade 4/5 class! They loooooooove it, I'm loving it! I write 3 or 4 sentences on my easel in my whole group teaching area, they copy them, which is great handwriting practice!! Then there is something to do with the sentences each day, sometimes the students edit all of my "mistakes" sometimes they fill in the blanks, sometimes we revise the sentences as a class to use more powerful words, and complex sentences. I'm hoping later in the year to have some of my keeners actually write the morning messages instead of me, and be able to lead the discussion that follows. All in all I am loving it!