Check out Asil Designs Jewelry!

So I love jewelry, something that costs my hubby more than we'd care to admit sometimes, but last summer I stumbled across a former local artist who's relocated but still has her things available online. If you get a chance, check out some of her beautiful handmade jewelry for sale. Also, stop by her blog for updates on new pieces and contests!

New Business Venture!

I survived my first year teaching! I marked my last exam on Friday and entered all the marks and comments in, and I transfer them first thing Monday morning! I have to be at school all next week however I'm not entirely sure why or what I'll be doing, but I'm pretty much done! Which leads me to summer ventures!

Rich and I have a few small things planned over the summer, but for the most part he's going to try to get a bunch of overtime. I thought about getting a regular job, but I'd like to have my first teacher summer as a real summer. I did want to do something though, so as of this week I am a Pampered Chef Consultant!

If you don't know about Pampered Chef they sell fabulous kitchen, baking and entertaining tools. I have been purchasing their stuff for years, and I even had a Pampered Chef Bridal shower when I was getting married.

In order to start up my business I may be specifically asking some of my friends and family to hold a party in their home to help me get started. It's like a Tupperware party, you just invite some friends, some snacky food, a few ingredients and I do the rest. I bring all the supplies to whip you up a fabulous dessert or snack to show some of the products, and then while you party I can take orders for anyone who wants to purchase.

If I don't ask you, but you do want to have a party, please let me know! I am available most days this summer to do shows, and will travel to shows as well! If you want to have a catalogue show where you get the discounts of a hostess without having a party in your home, that's doable too. And every host gets 10% off their purchases for an entire year! There are tons of other perks to having a show - free product and half price items, discounts and specials.

If you are interesting in checking out the product before you book a party, I will be having a debut party - my "coming out" party at my house probably on Friday, July 4th. Stay tuned for more details, but please email me at jaclyn@carrtunes.ca if you'd like any info about attending my show, hosting a show or becoming a consultant yourself!

March Break

I wrote this March Break, but for some reason it didn't get posted....weird.

I love March Break! I have a stack of work to do for school, but I decided (after a lot of encouragement from Rich) to not do most of it. I have some marking to do, and I can put a lot of that off until after the break, but I have to do some prep for next week. Luckily, I have a meeting outside the school on Thursday, and Good Friday is Friday, so I'm only actually in the classroom for 3 days next week which is cool. It means I have to be a lot more prepared because of my day away, but then I should have a relaxing Easter I hope!

Most of the break has been spent with family, friends, and my cross stitch! I bought one in Disney when we were there for our honeymoon. We chose it together and wanted to make it into a pillow or something. It's Mickey and Minnie sitting on a bench looking at a sunset with Pluto at their feet and it's the backs of them. It's pretty intense actually - a kazillion types of red for shading and things like that. The last 3 days I've plopped myself in front of the tv, popped in some Family Ties (a much heavier sitcom than I remember) and I needlepointed it up! It's been lovely! Today I'm off to visit a friend, do some work and then off to band tonight. We had a death in the family last week, and as sad a time as it was, it was wonderful to reconnect with some family I haven't seen in years.

So I've learned to love teenagers and their quirky ways lately. Yes it's frustrating when they only listen to half of your lesson, but at other times it's hilarious. The week before the break I was hauled in to the VP's office and asked what I taught in Civics the previous day. I explained I'd covered the Canadian Constitution, the Rights and Responsibilities of citizens, examples of violations of that both within school and outside of school. There was one example of a student suspected of having drugs, and the Principal had asked the student to empty their pockets. We discussed how this could be a violation of certain rights - Freedom of unreasonable search and seizure. We also discussed how the education act sort of circumvents all that, and how any suspicion on behalf of the admin basically makes a fully legal search. School safety is above all. Anyway the kids seemed to understand, however when I was talking to the VP she expressed that someone did not.

Apparently, a student of mine was suspected of passing drugs in an earlier class. He wasn't, but they thought he was, so he was taken to the office. The VP told him to empty his pockets and he responded "no". He was almost suspended for refusing, but he stood there and said "Mrs. Robinson says I don't have to....it's violating my rights and freedoms". I burst out laughing when she told me. I was half proud of him for remembering some of the lesson, but also found it funny he remembered the part that benefited him most.

I didn't get in trouble, but was asked to reiterate that part of the lesson just to be sure they all understood.

I love my job! For all those who gives teachers a hard time for all their time off, if you really add up the hours most of them work, most work the equivalent to a 40 hour work week all year long, with all the home work necessary - marking, prep, all that stuff. It definitely gets easier as you go, but in your first 5 years, you work far more than 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Most weeks I put in 70 hours or so. I am not complaining at all - I truly love my job, and it's worth it. I do love the breaks though!

Hope everyone who is enjoying March Break is having as great a week as I am!

Back to prep!

Two funny stories....

Well, they made me giggle anyway.

For Christmas, my brother Ian got Rich a bluetooth headset to go with his cell phone. He works at Best Buy and gets them cheap, so after Christmas I went in and picked up one for myself. They are great - probably giving me cancer of some sort I'm sure, but keep my hands free nonetheless. So when the headset is turned on near the phone, you can't use the actual phone to talk into. So one day, Gary and I head over to where Rich's car is at work to switch cars (long story). Gary and I get there, and I call Rich to tell him I'm there. I flip open my phone and dial, and it connects but I can't hear anything. So I hang up and try again. Same thing. Then my phone rings, I answer it, and there's no one there. I try one more time to call Rich. As it's dialing, I see the little icon that says the bluetooth function is on, and my headset is close enough that it's connecting. I realize it's got to be in my purse or pocket. Gary and I start frantically searching, and I started yelling "wait....I'm looking for you!!" Finally Gary says "Stop!" and we stop. He listens. Then he opens my purse and says "Richard....if you are in here can you please say something?" We hear a tiny voice say "Hello?" We burst out laughing - I could barely talk when I finally found the headset I was laughing so hard. It sounds silly, but Gary and I had a great time looking for my missing husband in my purse.

Second fun story. Yesterday Rich came to school with me to teach a few classes. He talked to 2 careers classes about his job, and then taught my friend's safety/first aid portion of her foods class. This was during my prep so I got to watch the First Aid. Throughout the lesson he referred to elevating and dressing wounds, injuries, burns etc. After saying to dress the wound so many times, one student put up her hand and asked "Do you mean salad dressing?" To which I burst out laughing (not recommended to laugh at your students). She was totally serious. Rich said to her in a nice voice "wow....you don't dye your hair at all do you?" (she was blonde) to which she replied "What??"

So funny.

10 school days till March Break!

Blogging and Bruxy, School and Friends

I wonder if blogging is finished? Out of the long list of blogs I used to check most haven't been updated in more than a year. There are a few who blog and I still read and enjoy them, but it seems the blogging world has moved into the Facebook world. I wonder what will be next?

Sunday after church we went to lunch and we were sitting there waiting to order and the big table right beside ours had a guy who looked a lot like Bruxy Cavey. Rich and I have been to the Meeting House and really enjoyed it, and have also listened to his podcasts (Rich more than me) and Rich has read his book. We both really enjoy his stuff. There was a little girl with him that looked about the right age for his daughter. So Rich is super excited, waits till he's done eating and then went over and asked if he was Bruxy. Sure enough it was. I went over then and we said how much we enjoyed his podcasts. Rich says to him "we're sort of fans". So he starts laughing and says how they were all giving him a hard time today about being "famous" and preaching to people who he's never met and on and on. The guy who'd been sitting with him he said, would have been sure he'd given us $20 to come up and say hi. So he was super nice, we left and went back to our meal. Before he left he came over to our table and shook our hands again and said he'd probably run into us again next time he has a Sunday off. Too funny.

School is winding down for the semester. Performance exams yesterday and today, EQAO testing in Math, culminating activities in English. I'm a bit behind in my marking again but this time it's not too bad - I have a few days to get caught up. I have to go for an ear test on Wednesday that the board pays for for it's music teachers. I'm actually looking forward to that and protecting my ears. I'm lucky they made it mandatory this year - the year I started, so hopefully the one semester of damage I've done won't be too bad! I still have my one section next semester, so we're praying something else opens up.

Friends. I've started to try to redefine my definition of friends. Unfortunately, this means that those I thought were friends I am often understanding now are acquaintances. The ones who called me for help with moving, or something like that, but are never available for dinner. The ones that said a ton of times, "we'd love to have you over" and never did. Sometimes we had them over, some never accepted the invitation, some we never asked. I don't think I know what a friend is. I think I know how to be one to someone else pretty well, but in many cases I'm not sure what it means to have one.

LHOTP

Can I just say that I love when Almanzo finally figures out he loves Laura?

Winding down, or up, for Christmas!

So I have almost survived first semester. I am incredibly drained, and yesterday it was finally showing. Other teachers kept asking me if I was ok. I have been looking for jobs for next semester as starting second semester most of you know I have no job. Teachers kept saying something would turn up, and I was hopeful, but had to start looking. The only way to get a new job is to have a recommendation from your Principal and Vice-Principal, so I asked this week if I could use them as references. They both said yes, and I told the Principal although I want to stay, I need to be realistic about my chances so I need to start looking. She said "yes definitely, look". I was hoping she'd hint that I didn't need to look so I was bummed, but looking.

Yesterday I was leaving school and I got paged to the office. The Principal had let me know she would probably call me down Thursday to set up my evaluation for January. I said sure no problem, so I wasn't surprised when I was called down. I sat down and she said she'd spoken to the board and they have allowed her to offer another section of music, which means they have an opening! I don't know whether it's contract or LTO, but it's work, and it's another music class! So starting Feb 2nd I'll be teaching grade 9 music. I don't know if anything else will open up, but it's more likely it will open up for me now that I'll be at the school. So I'm incredibly thankful and excited, and a bit rejuvenated to do my last day of school!!

Tonight Rich and I are off to see White Christmas in Toronto at the Hummingbird Centre or whatever it's called now. We got free tickets and I am pumped! Hope everyone is having a good last day of school before Christmas!

Gary's blog

I don't know if anyone reads my blog but this is something I should have posted a long time ago and kept forgetting. My brother Gary has a new blog. He only posts videos he finds that are usually funny, sometimes just really interesting. Sometimes you have to watch it all to see what the funny part is, but usually they are very worth it. He has a funny sense of humour so if you are bored and need a laugh check out:

http://garysvideoblog.blogspot.com/

13 more school days till Christmas (I don't have school tomorrow - board meeting instead woohoo!)!

Christmas

I'm siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick. I hate it. I've felt drained all week but Friday when I was driving home it hurt to swallow, my throat was burning, and I was feeling even more drained. I got home and napped, and then Rich and Gary and I went off to the movies. I felt lousy but I hoped it may perk me up. We saw Enchanted. Rich said if they had plucked a movie right out of my brain this would have been it. It was great. I highly recommend it to little kids and big kids. There is a dragon that is a big scary for little ones, but it was great other than that.

The opening and closing of the movie was narrated by Julie Andrews, who has to be my all time favorite actress. I knew as soon as she started speaking that I would love this movie. There was singing and dancing to the ultimate level of cheese, and it was great. I was pleasantly surprised with Amy Adam's voice too, and the fact she did her own singing. I was also thrilled when the door opened and the woman playing Patrick Demspey's girlfriend was none other than Idina Menzel (who interestingly did not sing). For those who don't know, she played Maureen in Rent, and Elphaba in Wicked. It was one of the most fun movies I've seen in a long time - definitely a buyer when it comes out.

Being sick Rich rented me some movies to make me feel better. We watched The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause last night, which was ok - better than the second one but still no where near the first. We also watched Shrek the Third, and right now I'm watching Ratatouille - I didn't make it through it last night with Gary and Rich. Next on the list while I plan out my day tomorrow (so not going in to school) is Hairspray, and then when Rich and Gary get home from church Amazing Grace.

On another note, we didn't have a tree this year. Ours finally died last year (after 28 years) and my parents had offered us ours starting next Christmas. I didn't see a lot of a point in buying one for one year only, so we were just going to go without. Also, we are off to Kingston for Christmas day this year, so we figured we'd do without. Rich knows how much I love Christmas and Christmas decorations so he decided to surprise me. Tuesday afternoon I came home from school to see Christmas lights everywhere, a little ceramic light up village complete with a giant music store, stocking holders, garland, stockings, Christmas candles, and best of all, a tree. It's one of those white ones that are only a spiral of lights. We can use it downstairs or outside next year, but for this year it's in the living room with garland and candy canes on it. He's fantastic.

So in the lovely light of my Christmas lights, with my stuffy nose, aches, pains and fevers, I settle in to rest. Hope everyone's start to their Christmas season has been as nice as ours.

Anniversary Weekend'O'Fun

This past weekend Rich and I went away. Other than our honeymoon, pretty much every vacation we've taken has been to my parent's place in Kingston, so this was a nice change of pace. As soon I got home from school on Friday we got packed up and ready to go. We left and drove to Port Perry, to the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at called The Sanctuary. It was a lovely little B&B and we got settled in and then went for dinner. After a leisurely, late dinner we went back and jumped into the hot tub to finish off the first day of our relaxing weekend.

Saturday we got up and had a great breakfast (well, I did, Rich had his smoothie as he's still on a very restricted diet). We then got on the road to head off to Rich's anniversary surprise I had planned. A few kms down the road Rich whips the car over to the side, jumps out and runs over to the other side of the road so he can take a picture of a cow that is reasonably close. We are such city people! We continue on our way and about 20 minutes later we are at the Salem Alpaca farm which is owned and operated by family members of mine. Rich has always thought Llamas and Alpacas were funny, so we thought we'd check them out. They are actually quite cute! Some of them were pretty friendly and we enjoyed our time with them. There was a store there that sold alpaca paraphernalia and it turns out their hair is hypoallergenic and is 8 times warmer than sheep's wool. We got a blanket and mitts and slippers and they are all so warm!

The rest of Saturday we toured around a few of the little towns and picked up some little things. Saturday evening we napped, read, watched a movie, did the hot tub, and then off to bed. Sunday was a leisurely breakfast and then we hit the road to head home. Once home, Rich went for a nap and I did some work. We went for dinner and rented a movie that evening. It was a wonderfully relaxing, and MUCH needed weekend - more for me and us than for Rich really, but he enjoyed it as well. We're hoping to make the B&B thing an annual event. I still can't decide if I like that or a hotel better.

Check out the Alpaca's!

This is Rich getting up close and personal with a male alpaca and a female alpaca just hanging out.

Weekend'O'Fun

So I have had a very busy weekend. Thursday I signed out of school early, drove home, changed, loaded the car, and headed off to Huntsville for my OMEA conference. I've never been up there and wasn't sure how lost I could get myself but the drive up there was uneventful. I checked into the hotel, and then went over to my room, which was in one of the condo like units. I couldn't get the door open because like a dork I was trying to open the wrong one so I went back to the front desk. As I'm driving up I see someone I think I know, that I used to work with at Bell, but I think, what are the odds? So I go in, find out I'm a dork, and go check into my room. I then head over to the conference and register, and then head off to bed.

Friday morning I went to the dining room for what turned out to be a ridiculously expensive breakfast, but when I walked in the girl asked if I was there for the Bell breakfast. Doesn't it turn out to be a bunch of managers I used to work with. So I spoke to a few and caught up, though by the time I left most hadn't arrived yet. So the guy I thought I saw, I did see. Too funny.

The conference started with the keynote address which was great. During that ceremony I received my award, and then it was off to workshops. I saw a few friends from last year and it was fantastic to catch up with them. The 3 workshops I went to were amazing. I loved all of them. I learned so much in such a short amount of time. They had a great vendor display too with all sorts of music and music education paraphernalia and I ran into a cousin of mine who works for Cosmo music which was cool - great to catch up. Friday evening a bunch of us went to Kelsey's for dinner, and then back to the hotel to sleep.

Due to the outrageously expensive breakfast the day before, Saturday morning I opted for a granola bar Rich had packed me in my little goodie bag he made me. I went right to my first workshop which surprisingly sucked. The guy had some good points but really logical. It should have been geared to non-music teachers teaching music. It wasn't even the content that disappointed me it was the delivery. The guy had a 4 page handout which he distributed, then he had the exact same points on powerpoint, which he then read. It only took 30 minutes instead of the full time which was about an hour and 45 minutes. The other three workshops were fabulous again like the 3 the day before. We wrapped up the day with 3 of us from OISE and a friend of one of the other girls who's in teacher's college now going out for dinner. Then it was back home.

I had a pretty bad headache most of the day but as I was driving staring at headlights it was getting worse. I finally pulled off the highway in Barrie and slept for a bit to try to alleviate the pain. I continued on my way and made it home sometime around 10 I think? I'm not quite sure what time it was. Today it was back to Toronto for my friend Karyn's engagement party. It was a nice morning, and then since I was in Toronto already and my parents were in Scarborough I zipped over to see them.

Now I am overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do, yet here I sit blogging.

Tomorrow is our 2nd wedding anniversary. This year it was my turn to plan it, and we are doing something uber cheesy. Rich really likes llamas, and I have a great aunt who owns an el packa farm so we are going to visit them and feed and pet them and stuff. Should be a giggle. For now, I have a ton of work to do as I'm away at a board meeting on Wednesday, so I have to plan for another supply teacher. Tomorrow is mini-report card day, so I'll be there bright and early. I have a feeling our big anniversary activity tomorrow will be napping. Luckily, I have the best hubby in the world, and he won't mind napping at all.

Work and Anniversary

Life just seems to get busier the closer we get to Christmas. I am having a hard time keeping up with the commitments I have let alone have time for new ones. Marking and prep is never ending. Prepping for supply teachers is so frustrating. It's hardly worth the hassle. I don't always have a choice though when it comes to missing days. Sometimes there are things at the board that are mandatory, so a supply is definitely needed.

This week is busy. I have to have my entire week prepared by Wednesday evening, as Thursday right after I'm done teaching (I have a 4th period prep so I'm done by 1:11, but normally can't leave then) I'm driving home, will dump the stuff in my car, reload, and I'm off to Huntsville for my conference. I'm looking forward to the conference, but not the 4 hour drive by myself. Then I'm there until Saturday around 4. Once I'm done, I drive home, and hopefully will have time to stop by Jen's housewarming party. Then Sunday it's back to Toronto (maybe with a stop in Welland before that to drop off Gary) for my friend's engagement party. Then Sunday evening there is a bit of a shindig happening at a friend's place. So because of the busy weekend I need to be ready for Monday as well before I go. So much to do!

On another note, our 2nd anniversary is 1 week today. My present arrived today and Rich said I could have it early. For those of you who don't know, I am a Friend's fanatic, and I love People magazines. For our anniversary Rich got me a 6 month subscription to People but the subscription name is under "Ms. Chanandler Bong". He rocks.

Thanksgiving and updates

So the band has officially left for Florida and I am definitely not on the trip. I'm fine with that, but it meant a ton of work left for me here over Thanksgiving.

I'm still doing work almost every night - marking and prep and such, and then the weekends I try and catch up on anything I'm behind on and make a desperate attempt to get ahead on stuff. This hasn't worked so far, but I still but in my 12 - 14 hour days on the weekends trying. Eventually I'm sure I'll find a balance between work and life. I hope I figure it out soon!

My lovely husband volunteered us to make Thanksgiving dinner for his family. This was a major problem in that 1) I never have time to sit let alone entertain and 2) I've never made a turkey before. The latter was my biggest concern. After many, many calls to my Mom (who started answering the phone "gobble gobble!" after the 10th or so call) and with lots of help from Rich I survived. I made a sour cream apple pie and triple chocolate cake, along with cranberry sauce from scratch on Friday night. Saturday I stumbled through making stuffing from scratch, and getting the turkey into the oven. From then on, other than the gravy, it was pretty easy. It came out great (as I have proudly displayed below!) and it all went well. Sunday was off to church where I sang for the first time and then back home to do marking. By Monday night I was able to relax, so Rich and I went on a date which was great.

My weekends are already so booked I only have 1 weekend off between now and Christmas. Most things seemed to be falling on the first weekend of November. This is our anniversary weekend normally but we're going to try to celebrate the weekend after. One main reason is the OMEA conference. Every year there is the Ontario Music Educators Association conference where there are tons of workshops and presenters and I've really wanted to go the past few years, but it's a $300 conference plus accommodations. I figured in the next few years I would go but decided not to go this year because we couldn't really afford it. I received an email from my music associate teacher I worked with last year. He was emailing to let me know I won the OMEA pre-service (now new teacher) award and scholarship. I am super excited. It's a small scholarship with a plaque, free admission to the conference and some publicity things. I'm pretty excited about it, mostly so I can go to the conference. It's also a huge affirmation that I am in the right field, to receive an award from a committee of veteran music teachers. Doesn't look too shabby on a resume either so I'm excited.

So I'm thankful for many things this Thanksgiving, but mostly for the love and support of Rich. I'm also thankful for the healing that has taken place with him so far, but still praying for a full recovery soon.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and if you had half as much to be thankful for as I did, you are truly blessed.

Changes

So I meant to blog last week and say that school was going well, and now I was going to Florida, along with Rich and Gary who were coming as chaperone's. We were looking forward to it but there was a bit of stress involved on all of our parts for different reasons. I found out Tuesday that I'm not going (and apparently that's for real this time). I don't really care anymore, I just want a definitive answer. There will be other trips, and I don't know if this one would have been the best one to make my "debut" on as a teacher.

I am sick. It sucks. I'm putting all my energy into fighting it off and so far it's working, but I'm exhausted. I'm in bed by 9:30 every night, often before, and my day usually includes a nap in the afternoon. To top it all off as of today I get a new class! This is great news, as it means at least for this semester I'm working full time. The third section is an LTO which means it's temporary, not permanent contract like my other two sections, but it's more work, more experience and more money, all of which are great. It's a grade 9 math, so now I'm teaching grade 10 music, grade 10 english, and grade 9 math, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd periods. It means during the 5 minute break between classes I am always running to another class. It's so busy. If I could change only one thing this year it would be to teach all my courses in one room. Oh well. I'm sure that will come.

Well off to school. Congratulations to all the babies and families with new babies! I wish I could visit but I don't want to get anyone sick!

Today

I broke up my first fight today. I am very tired. That's not why, but I just am. I am still figuring out what the best way to organize all my marks and stuff is and even that seems tiring these days. Oh well, I love my job and love most of the weird stuff that comes along with it. Off to bed. I wish there were more hours in the night.

Oddly enough I had a hard time sleeping last night. I went to another bedroom to watch tv. I saw this morning on facebook that a bunch of my friends had the same problem last night. I hope that's not the case tonight!

First Week of School

For many people out there, parents and students alike, another school year has started. Many seem excited to go back, many are sad to go back. I was excited and nervous. The start of last week marked the first week of what I hope is a long teaching career.

The first week presented many challenges. There are some that I know are going to be ongoing. It's not the ideal situation, but really, what is? I'm sure I'll figure out what to do. I'm teaching 2 periods a day, and tomorrow I have an extra class that I'm supplying for which is great because it's extra cash.

So here is what happened last week in a nutshell:
First day of school - forgot my lunch. Got to Fruitland Rd, realized this, and then was so frazzled I turned back to get it and then was running a bit late. Got there just in time for the 8am staff meeting. School itself was great.
On the way home - car broke down in Grimsby. It just stopped. I was going 120 on the QEW in the left lane and it just completely stopped. Sat and cried and waited for a tow truck who $50 later (and what I discovered was a crappy roadside assistance package) took me to my mechanic. School is over at 2:30, I got home after 6. Had time to eat, change, check email, and head up to the church for nightly stuff.

Wednesday - walked out the door without my lunch, remembered before I got to the car, got it. It's because I've been making it at night I keep forgetting it in the morning. Was disgustingly sweaty on the way home because Rich's car doesn't have air conditioning.
Wednesday morning - Internet and phone went down at home. Rich tried to fix it, waited for me to get home.
Wednesday 4th period - Rich called to give me the diagnosis on the car. Timing belt snapped, took out the head and the head gasket (I didn't even know it had both of those), the battery, and many other important and several things on the top of the engine. Quote was massive. Again, I cried. Luckily, my wonderful husband had solutions ready for me to choose from when he called. We still had no internet or phone.
Wednesday after work - call Cogeco, they can't get a service guy out until MONDAY. I am dying without internet.

Thursday - forgot my lunch, realized in St. Catharine's. Getting exceedingly frustrated with a particular situation that could present itself all year and I have no idea how to fix it yet. If you want to know I'll gladly discuss it offline.
After school - drove ON TO a median on the way home from school because I went a new way home and wasn't paying nearly enough attention in the rental car that my lovely mechanic provided free of charge for us (with air conditioning). Picked up Gary in Welland, headed home.
Thursday night - Band practice. I played much better than I did at the read through session, but still not great. Oh well, I'll get better. Got invited out to Jack Astors with some of the bandie's. Couldn't go, but appreciated the invite nonetheless.
Still no internet or phone.

Friday - Did take my lunch - remembered before I left the house yaaaayy! Found out during the day I am not going to Florida after all. The reason is not a good one. Very frustrating. Still not sure if I should point out the lousy logic in it, or just ignore it. Might be too soon in my career to say anything. I'm bummed I'm not going, more bummed because of the reason. Again, willing to fill people in, but not on here.
Friday afternoon - left my lunch bag at the school in the fridge. Didn't realize till this morning. Again, no internet and phone.

Saturday was the church garage sale and picnic. Rich bought a Darth Vader mask. Him and Gary took turns wearing it. Still no internet and phone. Shocker.

Sunday was a long day. Rehearsal in the morning, church, lunch with new friends after church, home for a nap, drive Gary back to Welland, visit Rich's mom who isn't feeling well, went home, finished prep, went to bed. Still no internet.

Today we have internet and phone! Yaaaaaayyy! I also got my car back today yaaaaaaayyy! Rich is making me spaghetti dinner and then going back to resting. He's still off work but slowly getting better which is great.

So far, I love my job. It's hard. Lots of people don't realize how much work after school is done - especially when it comes to new teachers - I didn't realize how much even. That's not a complaint, I really do love it, and the option to leave school before 3 and do the work at home is great. I am looking forward to the coming year to see how it pans out! Hope everyone else had a first week of school!

Anger!

Just a quick note to all that our internet and thus our home phone are out until Monday sometime. If you need us please call our respective cell phones.

Anger~!

Quick blog....

Quick first day of school blog....

So I am in my "drying phase" getting ready for school for the first day of school. Rich is TOTALLY stressing out that I'm blogging right now.

I just wanted to say I have the best hubby in the world. He got up this morning with me and made me breakfast to send me on my way.

I also have the best puppy in the world. Rich wanted to put a piece of banana in her breakfast and she kept sticking her nose in there, so he made her sit and stay and wait till he dropped it in. He dropped it in and went back to making his breakfast. She started whining a few minutes later and we couldn't really figure out why but both noticed about the same time. Rich hadn't told her it was ok to eat her breakfast again, so there she sat, waiting for the "ok" that releases her. She was so good! I was so proud of her.

Thanks for helping me today schnooks. Love you.

Bicycles

You know what makes me mad? People who ride bicycles. Not all of course, but the ones who "share the road". I'll explain. If you are riding a bike on the road like you are supposed to, you are to follow the rules of the road right? Right. But unfortunately, I have seen very, very few people on bikes who actually do this. They don't stop at lights, stop signs, for pedestrians, anything. What drives me completely up the wall is the dude (be it a male or female dude) on the bike who at a red light will pass all the cars and make his way up to the front of the light, and sometimes even run the light. So now I've had to go around bike guy once, which I don't mind at all. If he's riding safely and I can pass him safely, great. If though, I pass him, stop at a light, and then he passes me because he doesn't feel like stopping for the light, and then I have to pass him again, then I'm mad. I've passed the same person on a bike 4 times on one stretch of road. So frustrating. So for those of you who ride bikes, especially for exercise or environmental reasons, more power to you. For those of you who I have to pass time and time again because you are picking and choosing which laws you follow and which you don't, to you I say grrrrrrrrrr. If you are one and the same, sorry, but grrrrrrrr will apply to you too.

School approaches!

So I am officially done work! Yesterday was a reasonably relaxing day and my kid went home early which was nice. I didn't get to leave as early as she did but I did still make it home over an hour before I normally do which was nice. I had a pretty relaxing evening playing cards with Rich, but I was so tired I almost passed out at the table, and didn't kick his butt the way I normally do. I was in bed I think before 10, although I'm not sure what time it was really. As a result, I was up by 7am this morning. I didn't mind too much - I need to stay used to getting up early. It's nice to be done and get back to prepping. I've done a pretty good job at procrastinating from that all day today. Some days I am really into it - I sat for 10 hours one day last week and did prep. Some days, like today, I feel much less motivated, so I tried to do some other productive things on my computer - reorganizing things to make them more efficient to hopefully make my job easier in the fall. We'll see.

Rich and I are slowly getting our little home together. We have inherited some great furniture from friends and family lately which has helped. Each week we seem to make some sort of progress getting organized, largely thanks to Rich being off. He gets spurts of energy sometimes and reorganizes something. Today is a bad day for him. Some are better than others. Right now he's scheduled to go back to work on the 30th and sees the doctor again Monday. I don't see that happening to be honest. The meds he's on are really helping, but he can't really do his job on them, so I'm not sure what will happen. We'll see!

I was thinking I would need to be in the school every day next week but I wasn't exactly sure what I'd be doing. Being new, there is still so much I don't know. There is a fine line between asking questions that will help me, and looking like an idiot for asking too much. Luckily I do know one of the other new teachers so we can help each other out hopefully. Anyway I got a letter from the new Principal this week saying due to the asbestos removal being behind schedule we can only get into the school on Thursday next week. This solved my problem completely. I have Monday/Tuesday to prep, Wednesday I'm in Welland at the New Teacher Induction Orientation, Thursday at the school, and then the weekend to prep. I'm looking forward to the 4th but I'm also very nervous. I'm worrying about everything from getting stuck in traffic, to screwing something up, to wearing the wrong thing, to getting there and having someone say "oh we were wrong....we don't need you to teach this year". Silly irrational worries, yet I have them. Oh well. It will be an adventure!

Well I'm off to try to do something productive! Tomorrow is full of things so I won't get anything done. It's our last official Sunday at Freeway, and although I'm sure we'll still see people and be back there, it will be weird not to go every Sunday. Like I said though, on to new adventures!

Goodbyes

This definitely seems to be the week of goodbyes. Lots of my friends have been at funerals this week to say goodbye to loved ones. It's odd that they say deaths usually come in threes but I think I've heard of 5 within the last 2 weeks. Rich and I just got home from a funeral. One of Rich's very good friends and former work partner's Mom passed away very suddenly on Monday, at the age of 58. She was healthy and spunky, a very sweet woman who although Rich and I didn't know her well, we both really liked her. It came as a shock and Darren was one of the medics who responded to the 911 call which would have been more difficult than I can imagine. Please keep their family in your prayers. The funeral was a good one as far as funerals go. The funeral home set up a nice power point presentation of Janet and her life. There was some singing, praying, reading, and then I was on to sing. I surprisingly made it through without crying, and I only choked up on one note which was nice. I didn't want my screw ups to take away from the hopefully comforting words of the song. Darren gave a great tribute to his Mom, and his sister Melissa wrote one that the pastor read. A friend gave another one, and finally Darren's mother in law also gave a great tribute. Darren sang O Danny Boy, and after a short word from the pastor it was all done. It was a pretty emotionally draining experience. I'm glad to be home for the evening spending some time with Rich.

On a funny side note, Darren's sister is named Melissa. Darren's wife is named Melissa. Darren's wife's brother is named Darren. Very confusing.

Another sad thing we had to do today was say goodbye to a good friend. Kevin has been living with us for the last 6 or 7 weeks and it's been a joy to have him in our home. I really feel like I am losing a brother. It's not always easy living with 2 boys, but it has been fun. We had a great evening with him and another good friend last night - Rich whipped up some meatloaf and mashed potatoes (because really, who needs vegetables when you have meat?) and garlic bread of course, and I made a lemon meringue pie and a sour cream apple pie for dessert which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. We played a video game and then when it was just the three of us we played Phase 10 which Rich is now hooked on (thanks Kaelyn and Adrian). I of course kicked the boys butts and then we headed off to bed. Rich and Kevin had pie for breakfast this morning and then I had to say goodbye to Kevin again. I think every day I've seen him this past week I've cried. Needless to say Kev, you are loved and will be missed and are welcome here anytime. You may have to share the bed with Gary, but you are welcome just the same.

Summer Chops

So I haven't done a ton this week off but I had plans last night that the closer they got the more nervous I got. I was invited by a couple different people to attend the "Summer Chops" jam session at Meadowlands Corps. I figured this would be good to do for a few reasons:
1) I really love playing and have really missed it.
2) If I'm going to teach music I'd like to actually practice what I preach and encourage kids to play as much as possible.
3) I have to go to Kitchener in a couple weeks and do the same type of thing - a read through session - where I play through some new music from a music store and then I let the dept head know what I like and he buys that for the fall (which by the way is so cool to me - it actually feels like I have a grown up job!) and I wanted to be at least warmed up for that.

So I dropped of Rich at his Mom's for a visit and I headed over to the church to play. There were around 50 people there - it was one large band. I didn't realize in advance what kinds of people were going to be there. There were some great musicians that I was fully embarrassed would be hearing me after my ummm "break" from playing over the last while. It was on the way there Rich and I figured out my "break" lasted 4 years. I was completely out of shape. I did do a bit of practicing in the week leading up to it but nothing too heavy, just making sure I remembered how to play! They pulled out some crazy hard music. It was great. The worst part was lots of it was still in manuscript form (handwritten instead of computer generated - stuff scratched out all over the place - so hard to read at times) and that was challenging.

At every new section in a band piece there is often a letter. This makes it easier than saying "start at bar 45" and everyone counting - you can just say letter C for example. At one point we had a piece that went all the way up to section Z. We did at least one piece that was 5 pages long, and one piece that the recording is over 7 minutes long. The rehearsal went from 7:30pm till about 10:05 with a 5 minute break or so. I played pitifully but my lips actually held up until about 9:58 which wasn't too bad for my first night out.

I had a lot of fun. In band situations I'd rather be one of the worst people in the band than the best. If you are the best in the band it usually means you're bored, so I am fully ok with being the worst for now. Hopefully I'll end up improving with some much needed practice, but as long as I always enjoy playing that's what's important. It was a nice night to see some old friends and family and just enjoy the music that God has blessed us with...even the crappy sounds coming out of my cornet.

Long Weekend and Chewie

I have to say I really missed reading everyone's blogs over the weekend. I kept checking my little bloglines page to see what was new and there was almost nothing all weekend! I'm glad everyone is back and blogging again! I'm also glad there was such great weather for all of you who were away. We really missed everyone and hope to come another year.

Both of us are going a bit stir crazy now. I feel bad for Rich as I have been able to sneak out and see a few good friends who have helped my sanity some, but Rich is still going nuts. We have watched some of the weirdest movies lately. We did have company last night when my aunt and uncle came over which was super nice. They are incredibly generous and have given us some fabulous things over the years, books, meals, furniture they are replacing, but the most generous thing in my opinion is Chewie.

Most of you know I love my Chewie. She's nuts, but I love her. She turned two on Saturday and my aunt and uncle brought her a birthday present in the form of a squeaky toy with a rope in it. She promptly tore a hole in it within two minutes. Now she is a big dog, but she is sweet. She has her moments where she isn't and we are working on that, but for the most part she is a good dog.

She had one of these moments where she isn't so sweet a few weeks ago. Rich was sitting on the floor brushing her. I don't know if she enjoys that, but she lets us do it. She tries to bite the brush periodically but doesn't wiggle or go for our hands or anything. So she's on the floor, Rich is in on the floor, and I think Kevin was in the chair. Chewie was gazing out the sliding doors when she spotted it: a squirrel. She loves them. She does not love them in her yard. As she usually does when she sees one, she launches herself into the sliding doors and hits the door with her front paws while standing upright on her back legs. This time though, she launched herself OFF of Rich's leg. Below are two pictures. One is Chewie just as she woke up from sleeping in the hallway, legs in the air, sprawled out, looking totally sweet and vulnerable. The other is a picture of what she did to him a few days after it happened, with my hand so you can see how big it is.

Hope everyone is having a great summer. I'm off to prep for a while as I still have a TON to do before Sept and school starts in less than a month!

More Summer Fun....

I should be getting ready for work but there are way too many things to check online first. Thank you to everyone who has been so understanding about us pulling out of the camping trip this weekend. We are really bummed to not be going. This is the first year we've both had the weekend off, had someone to watch Chewie, weren't moving, etc. so this sucks! I'll hopefully make it up there for a bit on Sunday.

I am really looking forward to my time off this coming week! Rich was only supposed to be around the Wed/Thurs but because he's off sick I'll have company a lot more. We are both going a bit stir crazy looking at the walls all the time - him a lot more than me obviously.

This week work has been up and down. The kid I am working with is a good kid, but she's demanding. I am super helpful and accommodating, but I get so frustrated with the lack of manners and respect I see from a lot of the kids. We went to Wild Water Kingdom on Wednesday with them and it was pretty fun. I've never been there and I only went on one slide but I forgot how fun they were. The frustrating part of the day was my camper wanted to be carried everywhere. She's 16 and very small, and has had knee surgery I think several months ago, and wears braces normally. She had them off for the day and I knew carrying would be a possibility as her knees would get tired a lot faster. My frustration came in when she wanted to be carried the moment we got off the bus, for no other reason than she didn't like the feel of the grass on her feet. I had a lot of help from other counselors who know how bad my back is, but even carrying her the short time I did has made my back quite tight. Hopefully it'll loosen up in the pool today.

Rich gets bursts of energy in the morning and he cleans or reorganizes something and then he's exhausted and coughs more. Silly boy. On the upside, the kitchen looks great! Thanks schnooks!

Finally, Chewie will be 2 on Saturday. I have a couple pics of her I want to put up. Super cute. Also I want to put up a pic of something she did to Rich. Because of the heat it's a lot harder to walk her - both of us and her - so we try to find ways to exercise her in the house. I discovered a great one: Hide and Seek. She lies at the top of the stairs by our bedroom and I tel her to stay. Then I go hide, and yell "Chewie come!" She flies down the stairs and hunts around till she finds me, gives me a lick and jumps around all excited. If I hide in the basement that's two flights of stairs down and up. After about 4 or 5 "hides" the other night she was exhausted. It was great.

Off to get ready for work. Hope everyone has a fantastic time camping this weekend. If you aren't camping, let us know and come visit!

Summer

So my summer is not turning out even remotely as planned. In May I was all geared up to work 20 between June and July from 9 - 4, and then spend the rest of my time doing prep for the fall and doing some little day trips with Rich - touring parts of Southern Ontario that are on my list to see.

This is not what happened at all. Instead of 9 - 4 with an hour lunch for 20 days, I am working anywhere from 8 to 5:30 pm, at least 7 hours a day (but usually more), with no breaks. NO BREAKS! How is that even legal? Anyway it's hard work, always having to be engaged and paying attention, no down time, and it's all for very little pay. That gets frustrating.

The upside of my job is I get to do some fun things - for example this week I got to go to the Jays game which was actually really good. So far this summer I've been to Ontario Place, African Lion Safari, the Jays game, Adventure Village at Confederation Park, and later this summer I'll be back at Ontario Place or the ROM, MarineLand and Wild Waterworks. So that has definitely helped break up my work weeks.

The worst part of the summer so far is Rich is still sick. After the fourth visit to the doctor they still don't know what is wrong. He coughs to the point of not breathing and is exhausted and in pain all the time. They think maybe whooping cough but because of a doc's mistake they can't test for it. So frustrating. He's off work until August 30th now. This is financially stressful for us which of course makes it harder for him to get better. We've had to back out of lots of fun things we had planned which is sad, and when we are off together Rich doesn't have the energy to do anything.

He's almost through all the movies we have here so if anyone has any they can lend us to help him with his stir craziness let us know! In the meantime, keep us in your thoughts and prayers, there are going to be some rough weeks ahead!

Different Abilities

So I finished my second week at work and this was my first week working with one of the campers I'll be with this summer. She was an 8 year old girl with cerebral palsy who is confined to a wheelchair pretty much all the time. Intellectually she is on par with or superior to her peers, but physically she needs a lot of assistance. She's incredibly independent so it was a pretty easy week for me other than bathroom times and getting ready for water games.

I had the opportunity to do a lot of observing this week. Kids really are good at heart I think. I discovered pretty early on that my kid was really good at explaining why she was in a wheelchair, and was willing to tell other kids. When kids would ask my why she was in a wheelchair I would say to go ask her. They would ask and she would explain. On the last day of camp one of the kids asked on the soccer field. She explained, and as she did, the group of kids grew, and the questions kept coming. The rest of the staff was trying to get the kids into the soccer game but I was thrilled to just let them talk. It's so encouraging to see the acceptance they had for one another, and the willingness to help and include.

Kids are afraid of people who are different. Adults can handle the fear in a few ways:
1) Show fear yourself and unknowingly continue prejudices.
2) Exclude those who are different - ignore the "problem" and teach kids to do the same.
3) Fear is dispelled by information. Teach why the person is different. So many kids think that disabilities or differences are "catching". When they are assured it's not, and they see adults treating all people with value and dignity, they in turn will follow suit. Actions really do speak louder than words. Remember that - always.

On a completely separate note, my sweet hubby is sick still. He seems to be getting worse instead of better, the cough is terrible, and I am getting increasingly worried. Hope he gets better soon! Love you schnooks.

One more Ivan story....

So I really like the fact that with blogging I have an online journal of things that have happened through our life. One more story Rich wanted me to post about Ivan - it's one of our favorites:

Rich and I had been dating about 2.5 months and I was up from Toronto visiting for the weekend. Rich had a cadet thing to do and so he was going to be gone a lot of the weekend but I saw him in the evenings. So on Saturday Rich is gone, and I'm in the shower. I heard what I thought was the phone ringing so I hurry and jump out of the shower. As soon as the water is off I realize it's not the phone, but the fire alarm. I grab a big housecoat, throw it on and run out of the bathroom. I've never lived in an apartment so I wasn't sure what to do, but I knew I had to do 2 things. One, get me out, two, get the cats out.

Rich had the cats before he had me, and I was pretty sure if I let them die in the raging fire he would break up with me. I grabbed my backpack and dumped it out all over the guest room bed. I ran and grabbed Sheba, and shoved her in the bag. Now Sheba loves everyone, and as long as she's with someone she's happy, and she loves to be in bags, boxes, etc. So she's happy in the backpack and I go to get Ivan. Ivan is backing into a closet with a look on his face that I'm sure is telling me "not a chance...you are NOT putting me in that bag". I can't reach him so I figure I'll get her out first. I run out of the building and throw Sheba in my car, lock it, and run back into the burning building to get Ivan. I'm crying by this time, worried about Ivan.

I've said before I don't like cats, but Ivan was different. He was so full of himself and so above everyone it was hilarious. I really wanted him to like me, and I knew shoving him in a bag was going to set us back in the whole liking me thing. I ran back into the apartment and I'm begging Ivan to come out of the closet to me. Then the alarm stops. It was a test. They forgot to put signs up warning people it was just a test of the system. I'm shaking because of the adrenaline and I go back to the car to get Sheba. We go back into the apartment, I put her down and start to cry again.

Rich chooses this moment to walk in the door. I'm in a housecoat still, my hair is dripping and partly frozen as it's December, Sheba is still in the backpack, and Ivan is looking thoroughly unimpressed with me. Rich gives me a hug and tries to find out what's wrong as I'm bawling. He finally gets the story out of me and starts to shake he's laughing so hard.

So that is my story about how I attempted to rescue Rich's cats from a "burning building". I think I was pretty courageous - I didn't know it was a test! Ivan and I did eventually become friends, and he's the only cat I really loved.

Ivan

Most of you know before Rich had me he had two cats: Ivan and Sheba. Ivan he's had for quite a few years, Sheba for about 4. Before Ivan was with Rich he was a stray, and Rich took him home on a "trial run" from the vet. The woman he got Ivan from at the vet is still working there and has been a big help with advice over the years. When Ivan was on his trial, Rich was sleeping and he heard a flitting around in his bedroom. He woke to see a bat circling overhead in his room. Rich is petrified of bats. Ivan leaped to his rescue, and killed the bat. From then on, Ivan was his.

Ivan was given meds last week for a urinary tract infection and he seemed to be doing better. The vet called yesterday with more news from his test results. Ivan has cancer. We could spend a bunch of money putting him through uncomfortable testing to find out what kind it is, only to have to put him down, all the while he is in pain. We made the difficult decision last night to have Ivan put down asap to minimize his pain. We made this decision around 1am, and I called the vet this morning. On the way to work, I took Ivan up to the vet. He got out of his kitty carrier, and although he normally cries a lot in the car, he was quite calm as he got on my lap and lay down. This morning I saw Ivan and Chewie, lying reasonably close together, facing each other, not terrorizing each other. This has never happened. At 9:45 this morning Ivan was put down.

It was one of the hardest things I've done. A lot of you know I am a dog person all the way. I hated cats. I hated cats until I met Ivan. He had more personality than any cat I've seen and I really did love him. I know we did the best thing for him but we miss him.

Rich always said he would keep him forever. Some of you know we've been looking for a home for Ivan and Sheba as Rich's allergies have really been bothering him and we thought they could get more attention elsewhere. It seems God allowed Rich to keep his promise and we kept him right till the end. We love you Ivan and we'll miss you. I'm sure in kitty heaven you are being indignant and turning your nose up at the other cats.

Weekend

So this past weekend was pretty busy for us. Friday I was at the high school I'll be at next year and picked up a whole stack of books and things to go through. Friday night I sat in a very boring First Aid/CPR training class with a bunch of kids who waited for their Mom's to pick them up at the end of the night. I felt SO old. Rich brought me in a chocolate milk and Timbits for the class which was super sweet.

Saturday was more First Aid/CPR. Rich visited for a while and intimidated the trainer which was fun. Saturday night we were off to my friend Karyn's hot tub ice cream birthday party. We look forward to it every year but last year we weren't able to go as I was sitting in the ER about the time they were cracking open the ice cream. The night was lots of fun, got to see lots of people who I hadn't seen in a while. On the way out we had just got in the car and Rich hadn't even put the key in when Karyn's 20 year old neighbor backed into out car quite fast. It scared me and we both tensed up and as a result our backs are both icky again. It was just one of those sucky things but it all seems to be working out ok. The kid was very apologetic.

Sunday was a really good day. Sunday morning we hit Meadowlands for church and scored a gift basket. Always fun getting presents at church. Then we went on a fabulous picnic in Gage Park with two fabulous people (thanks Jen and Natasha)! We had such a nice time and went home for a nice nap. In the evening we were off to Frwy and from there went up to Kelsey's with more fabulous people (thanks Nick, Melissa, Kevin and Miranda - that's tasty!) and then off to see Evan Almighty with Kevin and Miranda. It was such a fun evening.

Today has been exhausting and I officially start my new job tomorrow. I'm working a lot more than I had wanted to this summer but it's good we'll have some money coming in - it's been so long since I've had a paycheck this will be nice!

Off to go through school prep!

I did it!

As of today I am officially registered with the Ontario College of Teachers! I am searchable and everything! So exciting!

Past week...

So today has been a sad day. Many of you know we have been praying for a paramedic that Rich worked with named Georgia. Georgia died this morning. She was 25 and had stage 4 lung cancer and had never smoked a day in her life. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family today. I know this will make for a difficult Father's Day in the years to come for her family.

I feel sort of bad sharing happy news in the same post, but I had a couple pieces of good news on Friday. Some of you know I am working for an exchange company in June and July and I started this week. So far it has been awful - not at all what we were told. The fantastic Susan managed to get me an interview with the city to work one on one with some Special Needs students. I had the interview and was hired Friday and I start June 26th. This means I won't have to do the July session with the company I am doing the contract for now. It means a lot more work this summer, which is a double edged sword. On one hand, it's more money. On the other hand I have no summer anymore.

The best piece of news I got on Friday was from the Principal of the school I'll be teaching at next year. He called to offer me another section which means I'll be teaching English next year as well as music, and I'm 1/3 of the way to a full time contract!

So the week has had it's ups and downs, but I'm reminded of how lucky I am to have Rich, my family, the friends I have, and although I'm a borderline hypochondriac, my health.

Bad Day

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right? That's today. I'm going back to bed. Hopefully when I wake up today will be done.

Excited!

So for those who don't know yet I am DONE SCHOOL!!!! I finished my Bachelor of Education on May 31st. I had a spectacular year, I haven't enjoyed school this much before. I also don't think I have grown as much in the past as I have this past year. I learned a lot about myself, about the way people learn, about the education system, and about relationships. It really has been my favorite year so far, but I was very eager to finish as it wrapped up. Thursday I got to have a final lunch with the class I spent the most time with (8 hours every Thursday, in the same classroom, with no windows) and the class I enjoyed the most. Yesterday I went back into Toronto to go to the ACI Musis Banquet - this was the first school I was placed at and the kids asked that the four student teachers return for the banquet. It was great to see them all.

Finding a job right now is hard, as very few people are hiring it seems. I was aggressively looking for jobs in 7 different boards, and every day was sending out resumes, cover letters, emails etc. I was already getting tired of it and a little anxious I wouldn't find anything. Most people start off supply teaching for a few years and although you are in a classroom with kids that way, unfortunately it usually turns into glorified babysitting.

In April I had an interview to be on the Eligible to Hire list for the Niagara Board, and although I didn't feel great about my interview I got on the list. All that meant was I could look at Niagara's postings and apply for jobs. The other frustrating thing about the process is the Principal's get so inundated with resumes they rarely respond unless they want you for an interview. Just before the long weekend on the advice of a teacher I was working with at OP I applied for a position teaching Music at a school in Niagara Falls. I was hesitant because it was only for one class, and I was worried about not being able to cover my gas. She explained that often once you have a job they fill you up pretty quickly, so it could turn into full time or almost full time. So I applied, and during the weekend the Principal contacted me to come in for an interview. The Principal turned out to be the man who was the V.P. at my high school the year I graduated. I don't think he remembered me but it was nice to be able to have that connection.

The interview went not too bad. Some questions I answered really well, some were ok, but there were a ton of people being interviewed for this job so I wasn't holding out a lot of hope. I got a call this Tuesday that I received the contract! It's super exciting, and contracts, even little ones are hard to come by. I am very blessed that not only did I get the contract I get to start in music! So far I am going to be teaching grade 10 instrumental music which is great as this year I've taught all high school grades a bit, but I've taught 5 grade 10 classes full time and I love grade 10.

Thanks to all who were hoping and praying for me. I am incredibly excited to start at the school next year. The drive isn't too bad, nice and relaxing as it's against traffic. This summer I am teaching ESL in June and July and looking forward to that as well.

On a completely separate note, can I just say that Friends is one of the best shows ever. It always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I've seen the show.

Air Conditioning

We now have air conditioning. I am so happy.

Waiting....

I am not good at waiting. By nature I am a pessimistic person. Most people don't believe that - they think I am pretty happy. I am happy, but I always think the worst case scenario is the most probable scenario. When I have to wait, I think about all the things that could go wrong. I wish I didn't do that. I'm going to try to stop.

Caught!

Chewie loves the cats. The cats hate her. Yesterday we heard a clanging in the bathroom which we attributed to Chewie's collar hitting the tub. Upon investigation, this is what we found:




























Despite the pictures, Ivan won.

Grad question - help!

So the job search is on. It's frustrating I have to admit. The odds in Hamilton are incredibly low. They seem to be hiring less than the boards who on their website say they aren't hiring this year. I would love to work here - I'm getting spoiled with my 2km drive to school right now. Because of what I am teaching I get there close to when school starts and leave shortly after. I've never done that before. Normally you're there quite a bit before and after school, but it's just the nature of my current placement. 2 weeks yesterday and I will be done.

I have a dilemma. Should I go to my grad? Here is my current pro and con list. I need advice!!
Reasons to not go to grad:
Costs money. Both to graduate, and just to get there and back.
I only get 2 tickets, and have to apply for extras.
To get the 1 extra I want so my parents can come, I have to go to U of T (more $$), stand in line for an entire day, and HOPE I'll get one.
It'll cost $$ for Mom and Dad to come down.
They are usually boring.
If I don't get extra tickets Rich will have to hang around alone in TO for the whole day.
I have to be there in the morning quite early, grad isn't till 2:30pm.
I went to my undergrad ceremony. I wonder if it's a been there done that kind of thing?
Not everyone is going.

Reasons to go to grad:
I feel like if I don't go I might regret it.
I worked much harder on this degree than the first one. Much more proud of this one.
That's all I can think of.

I know it seems like with all that I shouldn't go. I still don't know. Rich made a good point. He said if I go, I will probably wish I hadn't. If I don't go, I will probably wish I had.

On a completely separate note, I love Chewie. Not just because of the normal reasons. I love her because she doesn't wake us up to go outside in the middle of the night (unless we are in Kingston for some reason). I can sleep for 10 hours and she's good. She waits patiently till we get up, then crashes into the back door to let us know she has to go. Now sometimes she'll jump on Rich and lick him but I think that's more to drive him nuts than just because she has to pee. For all her craziness she's a good dog.

Off to school.

Phone call

I had a very encouraging phone call last night. I'm so bad at phone calls. I think it stems from the years of working on the phones talking to customers. I knew exactly what to say to them, and now in a regular conversation I sound like an idiot, so I stick to email usually.

Thank you for the call, it meant a lot to me. I know how busy you are and it means a lot you'd take time out of your schedule for that! It reminded me to get better at calling people and encouraging them.

Adventures in puppydom.

Today we bathed the dog. She did not enjoy it. Can't say it was a riot for us either, but it was definitely an adventure!

Week off and Job Searching

So Rich and I have been on vacation this week. I have another placement starting next week which runs until the end of May which will complete my program, but they give us a week off between classes and placement. Rich booked this week for vacation so we were hoping to have a fun week off. So far, other than a few people coming over, it's been pretty boring. Rich had a pretty painful MRI procedure on Tuesday which has prevented us from doing much, but we've relaxed a lot which is nice.

So now that school is almost done the job search begins. I had an interview on the 19th with the Niagara Board for their eligible to hire list. I got a letter Monday saying that I am on the list which is great. It doesn't mean I have a job, it just means as postings go up for that board I can apply to the principal's of the individual schools. I also should have an interview in Hamilton at some point at the last school I was at - the principal said he would sit down with me sometime in May, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed something works out!

I did get a job teaching ESL in June and July, but not sure what I'm doing from August on. There aren't a lot of jobs right now, keep hoping for me!

End of school

So today was my last official day of classes. I wasn't sure whether to go in or not but I'm very glad I did. I am registered to take an additional qualification course starting Tuesday and so I was able to pick up the text books for that. I also visited my favorite prof who made me feel a LOT better about my interview yesterday. I thought it went pretty pitifully, but after talking to Janet for a bit I feel like maybe it wasn't so bad. She has done a lot of hiring for different boards so she is familiar with the system and the way it works. We'll see!

So now other than a conference on Monday and starting my online course Rich and I are on vacation (which is quickly filling up!) and I am looking forward to watching some fun movies!

Oh and I blogged about the possibility of this happening a long time ago. It finally happened on Wednesday...it's gone :-(

Are you too busy?

Although I hate getting up early to commute to Toronto for school one thing that brightens my morning are the buskers. There is a great violin player at Union who sometimes works with an accordion player. There is also a guy at Spadina Station quite often playing guitar and singing. They make me happy and I often wish I had more time to listen. We don't have a lot of $$ but I gave Mr. Violin some at Christmas and hope to at the end of school as well if I see him this week.

This article is a long read, but worth it. Are you too busy to stop and enjoy the music?

Done

I'm done homework. At least till the next course starts April 24. But for now, I'm done.

Homework

It never seems to stop. I have had more homework over the last two weeks than I think I have all year. I am so sick of it. The most frustrating is the stuff that isn't overly useful (at least I don't see the use in it now) to my development as a teacher. Some I absolutely get, although ti doesn't make it less tedious.

I'm tired of the GoTrain too. 7 more days!

More birthday surprises.

So in the past Rich has attempted to surprise me for my birthday and has not succeeded. He normally gives hints that he thinks are no big deal but I figure out the whole surprise. This time, he did REALLY well. Jen picked me up just after noon and we left for Toronto. We chatted on the way there and one of the things we talked about was Rich's surprise attempts in the past. We got to the theater, and were heading for our seats. There were two people on the end of the row and we were the next two seats. I looked down at them and did a double take. One was Rich. He had got up at 5:30 in the morning and gone to work or so I thought. He actually went to his Mom's, then took a bus, train, and subway to the theater. Rich hates Toronto I was so proud of him.

The musical was incredible. Rich's favorite so far, and it was right up there for me. We left after picking up some souvenirs and got on the highway. After a bit of an adventurous drive we headed towards Montana's in Ancaster for dinner and a movie. We got to the restaurant and I saw our friend Susan from church. I said hi, and then looked to her left, and there was Melissa, a friend of ours. Then Darren...I realized they were there to eat with us - Rich had pulled off another surprise! So it ended up that I had a birthday dinner with Susan, Melissa, Darren, Kaelyn, Adrian, Carolyn, Jen, Karyn, Brendan, Jen and Sarah. Kevin was there when we got there and was sweet enough to try and get us a table, and then went to his other commitment.

Thank you to everyone, it was a great night. Thank you most of all to Rich. I love you, and you are the best present I've ever had.

Back to school....

So today was my last day teaching. It's frustrating. It takes a few days to get comfortable with the kids and the staff, and once you settle into a pattern you are thinking ok this is what I want to do with my life this is great. Then after 4 weeks they yank it away! I have to go back to school for 3 more weeks and then I have another 4 week placement. I do like my time in my classes, but once you get to actually teach, you just want to keep doing that.

My evaluation went very well, and I got another great letter of recommendation, so to celebrate we rented a couple movies. While we were standing there waiting to check out, who should walk in but Fred Eisenberger, the mayor of Hamilton. He's quite nice. Turns out Rich coached both his kids in waterpolo, and he was there to pick up his son so they chatted a bit. Now we're snuggled in watching movies and in about 17 hours I will be waiting for the curtain to go up on We Will Rock You!

Birthday

So yesterday was my birthday. I had a fun day at school with the kids and teachers. A few of the teachers signed a card for me (one of them said death is immanent, carpe diem - depressing huh?), and then the kids sang to my in my fourth period class. School was pretty fun.

Before school Rich got up and made me pancakes and gave me my gift. He had got me tickets to see We Will Rock You on Saturday in Toronto! I am going with the fabulous Jen, and I am really looking forward to it. He always gets me the best gifts! Before I left he said there was one more surprise that would be waiting when I got home, and as he was working I had to call him before I went in the house so he could hear my reaction.

When I got home we were on the phone and he opened the door. Rich was able to get a vacation day which was great, and he had also gone out to Welland to pick up Gary to spend the evening with us! We had some steak, and then went back to Welland with Gary, and saw Wild Hogs while we were there. So funny. Loved it.

Dropped off Gary, and then came home the scenic route. We had banana strawberry milkshakes at home while watching the American Idol results show and an episode of House. All in all it was a really nice birthday.

Two sleeps till We Will Rock You!

We survived!

Most of you who read this and who have known us for a while know that friends of ours, Darren and Melissa, had triplets in October. They also have a three year old, Liam. So yesterday, being St. Patrick's Day, Darren was playing in a band at a pub, and Melissa was going to try to join him, so she asked Rich and I to babysit. Rich was a bit worried that the two of us wouldn't be able to handle so many babies alone, so we recruited child care worker extraordinaire, Natasha, to help out.

We were just about to leave for their house after a roast beef dinner with Nick and Natasha, and Rich started "feeling sick". At least that's what he says. I think he chickened out!! He really wasn't doing well, so off Tash and I went. Melissa went to get ready in peace while we handled the munchkins. James was sleeping, and Paul, Jessica and Liam needed to sleep. Natasha left to get Liam ready for bed, and rescued me when two of the babies were crying at once and took one till I could get the other settled. I have to say I think we did pretty well. By 9pm , all four kids were sleeping. Around 10ish we woke up Jessica and James and fed them and changed them, then once Jessica was down I got Paul and fed him while Natasha finished up with James. Then we had a bit of a disaster.

We were out of diapers. Paul had his diaper off, and Natasha was standing with him while I was scouring the place for diapers. I found tons, all too small. Then Natasha took a turn, and again, came up empty handed. I took one more shot at it and found one diaper in a diaper bag. I handed it over to Natasha who was standing at the change table with a half naked Paul. She reached for the diaper, but not before Paul decided to pee on her. It was hilarious (largely because he didn't pee on me). Made my night.

Anyway we got Paul down, and again 4 kids were sleeping. Not bad! I don't know how Melissa does it day in and day out, so often on her own, I certainly couldn't. Such cuties though, and we had fun. Thanks Natasha, not many friends would be peed on for me!

March Break

I love March Break! I'm in the middle of my second practicum at a school in Hamilton and it's been very interesting. I'm teaching a different subject, but also a completely different type of student than I did last time. It's been challenging, but fun. I have two more weeks to go - one of them is literacy week, getting the grade 10's ready to write the literacy test on the 29th.

As Rich stated on his blog we were in Kingston visiting my family for a few days. We celebrated Rich and my birthday's, along with Easter as all of us but Gary were together. Mom made an awesome birthday dessert that I can't wait to get my hands on, called Banoffee pie. So good. Anyway the really cool part of the week is I got to shadow my Mom for a day in court.

The first part of the day we spent in remand court, which was mostly a bunch of date setting. The rest of the day with the exception of a very brief stint in the video bail court we were in the guilty plea court. The judge is someone that goes to Rotary with my Dad, and they have a good relationship. He really likes Mom and has a lot of personality. I saw a few guys get fined, some get put on probation, some get taken to jail, some get let off and their record cleared (rare). I've never been in a court room before, it was definitely a new experience. You have to bow to the judge when you come in, and if you make eye contact he'll usually nod back.

Dad and Rich joined us at the very end of the day, and the court clerk asked if we wanted to meet the judge. Mom didn't want to disturb him but the rest of us said yes. He was very funny and kind. He let me ask a bunch of questions and said he'd love to visit a class some day when I was teaching Civics or something. He is one of the few judges in this court that use a laptop while he's on the bench. I asked if he played solitaire while he was up there. I totally would. It's surprising how many people had been there many, many times before, and how many seemed to know exactly where they were going.

Anyway it was eye opening and a great experience. The judge said I was welcome in his courtroom anytime (which was a kind thing to say, although it is a public court!). We are home now, and relaxing our vacation away. Hope everyone else is having a great March Break!

Life goes on....

So I am still sick. It has been hanging on longer than normal which is really frustrating considering all I have to get done. Today I'm having a reasonably relaxing day. It's my hubby's birthday so we're doing some vegging before heading off to church tonight.

One fun thing this week, I have discovered Facebook. So fun! I've been able to chat with bunches of people from high school which is fun.

The next week should be quite a busy one. Only four days of school before March Break (yaaaayy) but lots to cram in. The kids in the HWDSB had a half day on Friday and the staff had a PD Day in the afternoon, but Friday was a sort of a write off because so few kids show up on the half days apparently. Now in the next four days we have to fit in 6 days of teaching. Should be fun! I still love teaching, and I'm learning a lot teaching the level I am right now - very different than my last school. I'm glad I've been able to see the two ends of the spectrum.

Better go make up some Elf Punch for Rich and Gary. I can't have any cause it has pop in it. Lent. Grrrrrr.

Sick

I am sick. I feel lousy. My throat is sore and I'm all stuffy and my ears are plugged and I'm all achy. I am missing practicum today for the first time. We can miss up to three days off of the three months combined, and I know people who took all three days in the first one just for a vacation or something. I'm SO glad I didn't take any.

Tomorrow is the first day I'm really teaching whole classes (when they aren't watching a movie or something), so I'm glad it was today and not tomorrow.

I miss pop. Lent is too long. I'm thinking we shorten it to a week.

Back to bed.

I should be getting ready....

I am so tired. It's 5 after 6am, I've been up since 5:30 and I'm tired. The last couple days I've had less sleep than I am used to, just due to assignments. I started at my new school on Monday and I'm in Hamilton this time (yaaaaayy!) but it's not my strongest subject, so I actually felt physically ill I was so nervous - and it was just observation! No teaching! I was there Monday/Tuesday, and then back to U of T for the rest of this week. I start teaching in the Hammer almost full time (2/3rds of the teacher's classes at least) on Monday, and I don't stop till I leave. Rich has been great putting up with all my stress - thanks sweetie!

Wednesday was a heavy homework day, with the exception of a glasses shopping excursion with a fabulous lady who helped me pick out some nice one. I had a great time - you are the best - thank you!

Thursday was rough. I had very little sleep on Wednesday, up at 5:15am, and not back in bed till midnight. Bout 5 hours sleep last night which in undergrad I would have been thrilled with, but I'm needing more sleep these days. I CAN'T get sick and miss my placement. Had fun at pub night, but had to do more homework because of a disaster that occured with a group at school on Wednesday night.

This weekend the busyness continues. Driving to Welland to get Gary, back home, put packages together for the Independent School's conference in Toronto Saturday, do that, and then as soon as I get home Saturday I need to start prep for Monday. Sunday should be fun with Sarah's bday party, the baby shower for Aubrey and church, but still should be prepping all weekend so it'll be in the back of my mind.

I gave up pop for lent. It sucks.

So anyway I'm tired. Really physically tired today. I have to leave very soon for school and I'm still sitting here blogging........

Response to Blogging Blog

Thank you for your responses everyone! I'll answer back since some of you asked:

Why I blog - I like to document what is going on in our lives and like some of you I would not really get down to journaling. I've tried a few times, but it's never lasted long - this has, so this works for me. I also like to get people's opinions on things sometimes and I find this should be a good way to do it.

Ok some pros and cons I've discovered so far to blogging:

Pro's:
1) It's helped me get to know people better - I can play catch up and it's like I've known them for longer.
2) I like that I can learn some basic info about people and it serves for a good ice breaker when I actually see them. I'm not good a starting conversations, but this way I have an opener.
3) Gives me a way to vent.
4) Gives me a way to journal with pictures.

Con's:
1) Causes people to feel left out.
2) I wonder if people don't make the effort to contact each other because of the blogs, or if they contact people more because if there was no blogging, we just wouldn't have time.
3) To the blogger, lack of comments can translate to lack of readers.

I've been frustrated with blogging as of late. I find that some people comment on some blogs only, and seem to ignore others (and I have been guilty of most or all things I am mentioning at one time or another). Why is that? Are the people who you aren't commenting on not important to you? You disagree with what they have said? I have asked direct questions at times to try and get advice or people's opinion on things. I see comments on blogs around me, but not mine, so I wonder if it's even being read?

Anyway I haven't decided whether it's ultimately good or bad for a community. It has it's good points and bad, I haven't decided which weighs more at this point.

I check blogs almost obsessively, so I do read all of yours, thanks for checking out mine!

Blogging

Why do people blog? What's the point? Is it to keep in touch? Keep updated? Show you care? Rant? Respond to people?

I've watched the comments on people's blogs, lack of comments on other people's blogs, watched who comments on who's and I wonder why? What prompts some people to comment on some blogs and not on others? Is it the topic? Is it a way to show your love or appreciation for someone? Do we think about how our comments or lack of comments impact other people? Does it impact us?

I think blogging can be great. I also think it can make us lazy. Instead of contacting someone to tell them you are thinking of them, or you miss them, we just comment on their blog. Even worse, we sometimes assume they somehow know you are reading their blog. How did we find out about each other before blogging? Did we care but it was too inconvenient to find out?

Why do you blog? Why do you comment? Is blogging good or bad for a community?

Chewie's Snow Day (and ours too)

So stress is mounting while we trudge through February. I only have 16 days of classes left between now and June, but there is lots of placement time. Because we go on our next practicum soon all the profs want major assignment in by the end of next week. This is on top of all our readings and stuff, but the biggest stress is board applications. In order to apply for jobs we have to have all our stuff uploaded and ready to fire off to the boards. Not really a big deal but if there is one teeny, tiny grammar or spelling mistake or formatting mistake they throw out your application. So lots to think about, my time management skills are getting some refining. This lousy weather has turned out to be a good thing for me!

Chewie on the other hand, loves the snow. She's been romping around getting buried in it, trying to catch it when we toss it at her. She absolutely loves it. It's fun to watch and although a lot of the pics aren't perfect I posted them so you can see how much fun she has!

Hopefully everyone else is all cozy and inside, keep Rich in your prayers he's driving around in this mess all day helping other people crazy enough to be out.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Favorite Lady

Most of you will think this is a strange post but I just have to say how much I love this woman. She is one of my hero's, having done so many incredible things with her life and being such a supporter of children's literacy. She is one of the classiest and most humble human beings which is a novelty in today's entertainment world. She's being awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actor's Guild tonight and I am looking forward to seeing it. I have to say if I could meet anyone, this is who I would choose.

Stuff

Couple things I've wanted to blog about this week.
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There was an article in the New York Times by Tom Moore a grade 10 history teacher in the Bronx talking about how teachers being portrayed in the movies as superhero's is damaging. A snippet from his article I found very interesting:

"While no one believes that hospitals are really like “ER” or that doctors are anything like “House,” no one blames doctors for the failure of the health care system. From No Child Left Behind to City Hall, teachers are accused of being incompetent and under qualified, while their appeals for better and safer workplaces are systematically ignored.
Every day teachers are blamed for what the system they’re just a part of doesn’t provide: safe, adequately staffed schools with the highest expectations for all students. But that’s not something one maverick teacher, no matter how idealistic, perky or self-sacrificing, can accomplish."

This is not to say teachers are blameless, but it's interesting to see the difference in how different careers are portrayed in the media. I'm a sucker for a good teaching movie (Dead Poets Society, Mr. Holland's Opus, To Sir With Love, and even Dangerous Minds on a slow day), but it can be damaging to both new teachers striving to be incredible, and to the public.
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We still have cable! I'm not sure why, but we do! Yaaaaaaaayyy!
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Because we still have cable, while I've been off this week I've watched more tv than I normally do during the school week. I watched Oprah and she did a show on working Mom's vs. stay at home Mom's and the whole thing was intriguing. There was one camp that worked because they wanted to, one camp that were completely against working mothers. There was a woman who'd raised her children as a working Mom and regretted the decision. There was a woman who'd raised her kids as a stay at home Mom who wished she worked.

The main question of the day was "Can women have it all?". I think this is assuming money is not an issue. Many families need to have two working parents to support their families, but what of the ones that could survive off one income? Can those women have it all? What does having it all mean? Does where you work make a difference? For example, I worked with women who worked because they had decided to - didn't necessarily need to, but we worked in a place that didn't understand the concept of being a parent, where if your child was sick you couldn't always come to work. They were not supportive of that. So can that woman ever have it all? What if she had a supportive boss?

Rich and I have talked about ideally what we would like to do when we have kids. Teaching is such a great profession for working parents - especially once your kids are in school full time, but what about the first 6 or 7 years of their life. We are in a unique situation where we may be able to swing both of us working in some capacity but always having a parent at home, but what if that changes. Rich has said he's perfectly happy to be a stay at home dad if that's what we decide to do, but I don't know if I would be ok with that. I may want to stay home.

Anyway the show really ended by saying having it all is still having a life of compromise, but some people don't consider that having it all. I have huge respect for good parents of all kinds - whether they both work, one of the works, or they have a ton of money and neither of them work. I've seen good kids come out of all those parenting situations, and bad kids come out of all of them as well. Interesting things to ponder.
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So I still can't move too much. My back seems to be getting worse not better. I attempted to go back to school yesterday and had weird sensations radiating into my extremities which was a little concerning, so I went back to the doctor. She gave me some meds which I hope will help, but she doesn't want me doing anything for a few days which is both nice and frustrating. Nice to have the validation that I'm really in pain and doing the right thing, but frustrating every time I'm alone and need something, or the dog has to go out. Oh well.
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From April 30 - May 30 I have to do a self selected Internship for the final component of my degree. I was a bit worried about finding one myself, but Wednesday I got mine all settled. I'm going to a Hamilton high school to work with the Special Education department which should be interesting. At the same time I'll be doing an online Additional Qualification course which will give my a bit of certification in SpecEd. Glad it's all settled - the teacher I will be working with seems cool.
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Off to do some homework. Only 25 days of actual classes left! Can't wait!

Stuff

I liked the question last night at church about God's will for your life. How do you know? We'd love to just get an email from him - it'd be so much better than wondering. I wish it was easier to know. There was really only one person in our group who knew for sure God's will for her life. I think I'm on the right track now, but what about all those other decisions? Deciding your career and ministry is one thing, but what about when to buy a new car, house, have kids, get new underwear? Well, I have to admit I don't normally pray about buying new underwear.

It's nice to be in a community where you have friends to talk to and share with. I feel like that is just starting to happen for us. I realized last night that this weekend we saw at least 14 friends from Frwy outside of church. I'm still insecure about the status of my friendships with people but I am blessed to have that many new friends.

My back seems to be getting worse not better, no matter how much I rest it. Every once and a while I think I'm doing ok and then I bend down to get something and realize I am still not better. Yesterday I took some pain killers before brunch, and then by the time we got to church I was in an increasing amount of excruciating pain and realized I hadn't taken anything since 10:30am. Pernell rescued me with some Advil - thanks Pman! It helped but it reminded me how pain killers mask the pain, not heal. I'm very concerned about school. I've missed 2 days, and 2 conferences, and I think I may miss tomorrow too. So frustrating.

Rich had the funniest dream last night. It was quite involved but it ended with him being beheaded (he was in Japan and was a Samurai) and his beheaded head yelled "that doesn't make Jesus happy!" I love it. My fabulous husband convinced me to get a massage for my back today. Hope it helps.

And finally:

In the rest room, 3 guys were standing side-by-side using the urinals.
The 1st guy finished, zipped up and started washing and literally scrubbing his hands clear up to his elbows .he used about 20 paper towels before he finished. He turned to the other two men and commented, "I graduated from McMaster and they taught us to be sanitary."
The next guy finished, zipped up and quickly,wet the tips of his fingers, grabbed one paper towel and commented, "I graduated from Waterloo and they taught us to be environmentally conscious."
The last guy zipped up and as he was walking out the door said, "I graduated from the University of Toronto and they taught us not to pee on our hands."

Cable and Stairs

Most of you know I used to work for a cable company and when I quit to go back to school one of the money saving avenues we pursued was the cancellation of the cable that we had. I grew up without cable and since being married and having cable I've been catching up! I love my tv. When we cancelled they stopped our billing but the cable continued for free. I knew eventually they'd do an audit and turn it off, but I was hoping that wouldn't happen until I was finished school and we could turn it back on.

Tuesday afternoon there was a knock at the door. Cable guy. He offered to keep it on for a lower rate for a few months (marketing tactic I knew they'd try). I asked if I could talk to my husband first and he said he'd be back in two days. I'm assuming that is today. I still have cable, but I know the bad man is coming to turn it off and I am sad. I am going to miss a few shows in particular, but most I can live without. We'll both miss Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - if you haven't seen it check it out, it's fabulous. There are others I will miss but that one in particular. We have a good set of rabbit ears so we'll see what that picks up.

The reason I am thinking about this more today is I am home watching tv. My school schedule is actually pretty good compared to those in the elementary or Catholic stream, but Thursdays are brutal. I'm there from 8 to almost 5, in the same room, with the same people. It's such a long day. My back always hurts by the end of the day as the chairs aren't great. I threw my back out before we got married and was off work for 3 months, and it hasn't been the same since, but since my surgery in May it'd been much better.

Lying on the couch last night doing some reading I pushed up and adjusted how I was lying and wrenched my back. It hurt. Bad. When Rich got home he gave me some Tylenol 3 which makes me stupid. We went to bed and I figured a good night of rest and I'd be fine - it'd be tough to sit in those chairs all day but I'd be ok.

I got up just after 6am today, and started downstairs and Chewie came flying down behind me, hit me, and knocked me down the rest of the stairs (about 8 0r so I think). I ended up at the bottom in a lot of pain. Needless to say I did not go to school. Between the long day of class, the commute there and back on the GoTrain, TTC, and car, and the intensely heavy backpack, there was no way I was going to make it in. So now I'm lying on the couch doing the ice and drugs routine and hoping I can make it to class tomorrow. Natasha has been a fabulous help as usual and she's visiting later tonight so I'm not watching my snowy tv alone.

Time for more ice. Hope everyone is doing better than I am!

Honeymoon Pictures

School is back in and I have more classes than last semester so between school and homework I haven't had much time to do anything but I did finally get our honeymoon pictures uploaded! I didn't upload every single one but this is a pretty good range - starts with Disneyworld (Epcot, Animal Kingdom, MGM, and Magic Kingdom in that order) and then has the cruise.

If you want to see our photo album click here - you have to create a user name and password but it's free and so far I don't get annoying emails as you can choose that as a preference. It works to view it in safari but I'm having trouble getting it to work in Firefox - might just be me though!

Hopefully I'll get the wedding photos done next so there aren't 2000 to try and look through.

Winkflash is my new favorite site for uploading photos - no limit and you can share the albums!

Holidays and the Coming Year

This Christmas was different. I wasn't with my parents for the first time so that made for some new events but it was the first Christmas Rich and I have been able to be at home together, at least until he went to work. Then I met up with Jen and Melissa, two fabulous ladies, to see The Holiday.

We then left for Kingston and started our vacation there on the 27th and returned home January 1st. We attended a New Years party there with a bunch of young couples from the Kingston corps, and my parents. I've never seen a party break up so quickly. By 12:10 the place had almost cleared out. We were there till after 1am I think, which for my Dad who is normally in bed at 10pm is quite a feat! It was a fun evening and we introduced Whoonu to a whole new group of people. Jan 1st is my youngest brother Ian's birthday, and this year was his 18th, so we stayed to celebrate with him before we headed home, stopping off to see my Aunt and Uncle and Chewie's brother on our way. Now we are home, and it's great to be back. We're doing some vegging and reorganizing of things. The 27+ year old tree is in the garbage finally and the decorations are away.

As I am sure is the case with most newly married couples, we seem to be contemplating a lot of changes for the future. Some are huge, some are small. Some are normal, some are crazy. Some are exciting, some are petrifying. Some I can share, some I can't. All include a lot of prayer and patience. I am not great at either, but I am especially bad at the latter.

I am not really making resolutions this year, but sort of goals. I know they seem like the same thing, but so many people (including myself) break resolutions by Jan 3rd, so I think having goals written down somewhere will be more effective for me. There are goals for every facet of my life, and I pray I'll have the strength to accomplish some of them.
So my prayer this year is I'll be a better person. Better in my faith, a better musician, a better friend, a better teacher, a better student, a better pet-owner, a better cook, a better housekeeper, a better eater, a better private person, a better sister (and in-law), a better daughter (and in-law), and a better wife.

Happy New Year to all, and I hope 2007 brings you all your hearts desires!

Babies and Puppies

Triplets are a lot of babies. I used to think it'd be fun to have that many at once. Not anymore. Yesterday I went over to Darren and Melissa's (Rich's work partner) and while the boys were working I took a shift helping out Melissa with the babies. By the time I got home at 6:30 I was exhausted. I have no idea how she does it. The kids are closing in on three months old and are so cute. They don't do a ton more than eat, sleep, poop, throw up, coo, and smile. You'd think that'd be no problem but no. They eat every 3 - 4 hours, but often you get done one and the next one is ready, and it's almost never ending, cause it can take quite a while to feed them. On top of that they have a three year old, Liam. At one point Melissa took Liam outside to burn off some energy and have some Mommy time. I looked around and realized I was alone with three babies! I survived. I wore clothes that could get baby throw up on them, and they did bless me with that, but one, James, didn't throw up on me. He threw up DOWN my shirt. So much fun.

Because of being out for so long yesterday Chewie was cooped up for quite a while. She was a bit crate crazy last night and flew around slamming into doors (it was amusing) while she ran. This morning I was lying in bed, Rich was at work, and she jumped up and curled up on the end of the bed. She waits until we are about to get up and we call her up to the head of the bed for some cuddling. So I pat by the pillow and call her up and she jumps on my hands. I pet her and then pet her paws and stopped. I felt something on her paws. Something not normally there. I don't have my glasses on or contacts in so my eyes are now an inch from her paws......candy canes.

I saw a whole one in the hall in it's wrapper so I thought ok it's no big deal she can't get the wrappers off it was probably a fluke one. Then I got downstairs. There were wrappers on the floor. Everywhere. Rich bought 24 candy canes, no one has eaten any yet, and I can only find 17. I called the vet and they said just keep an eye on her she may get the runs (great) and then to give her pepto bismal if she does. She just had a lot of pure sugar. Now she's buzzed. It's so much fun to have a buzzed 90lbs German shepherd. So I'm going to push the baking back further on the counter...she's got a sweet tooth now.

Hope everyone is having fun getting ready for Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas Continues

School is officially done for the holiday! It's really interesting how your perception of things can shift. I still love classes, but after getting to teach for a while I really miss it.

This was a busy week. Tuesday I had class for the last time. We originally had a lesson plan due in History which also had a group component and we could hand it in any time before the 15th. The prof extended the due date till the 21st which in my opinion was not good. I was going to be at the school for the last time on the 15th and wanted to be completely done. It's nice he gave us the extension but I was afraid my group would want to get together after the 15th. Luckily we split it up in such a way I won't have to go back into the city. Tuesday night we had another great small group meeting!

Wednesday Rich and I drove to Scarborough Towncenter, parked the car and took the subway to U of T for the Professional Preparation Conference that OISE puts on. (OISE = Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.) The first two sessions were good and Rich contentedly played game boy while I frantically took notes. From there we went back to the car and went to Markham Station for dinner. They make a good breakfast and serve it all day, but we made the mistake of getting real food which was awful, from an equally bad waitress. From there we went to the school I did my placement at to see their Christmas concert. We got there early enough we had front row center seats. It was so nice to see the kids again. I got lots of hugs, lots of "we miss you!" and the funniest comment was "Do you remember how I did on my interval test? He hasn't handed them back yet." It was so funny. The kids did great and Dave (the dept head) acknowledged both of us (myself and the other student teacher) in the concert and the kids all stamped and hooted and hollered for us. So much fun. I can't wait to have my own department.

Thursday was back for more of the conference which was an entire day of wasted time. Then off to Theology Pub at Jack Astors which was fun.

Friday another wasted day at the conference which prompted me to write a letter to the organizers. Still waiting for a response.

Yesterday I finished my Christmas shopping and celebrated the end of the school season by watching some movies and wrapping presents. I do have a bit of homework but not much. I should be able to get it all done before Rich is done work on Thursday and then we can have a relaxing Christmas holiday.

I got my second placement and it's in Hamilton! It's the second closest public school to our place and sounds like my AT (associate teacher) is going to be very supportive. I just have to figure out my internship now. We have to self select our final placement and it doesn't necessarily have to be in a school. I have an idea for what I'd like to do and hopefully I can get to work on that this week.

Well off to get some lunch! Hope everyone is ready for Christmas! 8 sleeps!

Weekend Update

Busy weekend. I hung out with one of my favorite people, Deanna, in Toronto and got home later than normal. Friday night I honestly have no idea what we did. It seems like so long ago.

Saturday Rich and I went to Westdale to pick up a copy of Lincoln Alexander's biography and get it signed by him. He's a hero of Rich's so he was very excited. We then went to Burlington to do a bit of Christmas shopping and then back to Hamilton where Rich had volunteered to do a couple hours on the kettles. It gave me severe flashbacks as I grew up doing kettles...he had no idea what he was getting himself into. We ended up seeing the EMS Chief and Rich's old high school music teacher and many other interesting characters. It was fun till the sun went down and then it was just cold. I made up new words to most Christmas songs..."Oh where is Jen, oh where is Jen...my feet are so-oo frozen" (Oh Christmas Tree).

Saturday night was the fabulous Natasha's birthday party at Carolynn and Marshall's. We had tons of fun, got to know some people a bit better (Miranda rocks) and watched people make really funny comments. Some of the highlights of the evening were:
"She's hot!" "She's FOURTEEN!!!" "Oh."
"You know who else's number is 23?"
"Rita McNeil!"
"You know who else has a mushroom tattoo?"
"Eeeeehhnnnauuuuhnnnn" (the sound of Kevin clearing his throat or the average constipated person).
It was a late night but definitely worth it.

Sunday we did some cleaning around the house and I took Chewie for a nice long walk. Then her trainer Darla came over to give us another session. She also brought her sister who is Rich's current paramedic student. She also brough with her Luther. Now let me explain about Luther. Luther is a Bullmastiff dog who is personal protection and narcotics trained, and is just about the cutest thing in the world. Bullmastiffs are my favorite kind of dog (next to Chewie of course) but I never have known anyone who had one. Chewie has issues with other dogs so she brought Luther to help her learn to ignore dogs. She did so well and made huge improvement in the short time they were there. Luther I believe is over 100lbs, but he likes to sit in your lap. It's hilarious. I posted a few pictures below of both Luther, and Luther and Chewie beside each other doing so well! How could you not love a face like that?

Next it was off to Frwy nice and early to practice for worship team which was fun. I met Oliver (who made me feel even shorter than normal) and got to jam with the usual guys. Lots of fun. Thanks for letting me sing with you! Miranda made me a freaking awesome Pop Shoppe float which was a nice end to the evening.

Finally Gary and I head over to Carolynn and Marshall's to watch the finale of the Amazing Race. The boys won which made me happy. Another classic line to remember from the evening:
"Stop or I'll pee!"

All in all it was a good weekend. A good start to my last week at school yaaayyy!

Also wanted to throw out there, I know it's a weird time to do it but as Rich is on nights I am considering going to see Dreamgirls in the theatre either Christmas or Boxing Day (late shows). If anyone is interested in going and one night is better than the other drop me a line!

Snowtime

I love Christmas. On the other hand, I hate the cold. I don't mind the snow but unfortunately along with snow comes cold. I discovered Friday again that along with rain can come cold.

On the way to school I bought an umbrella at Union Station and went to class. It was my Music C&I (Curriculum and Instruction) class and we were performing for World AIDS Day. There are several buildings at U of T but I'm lucky enough all but one of my classes are in the same building. Every Tuesday and Friday I have to run from one to the other and they are a few blocks apart. Friday the whole class went to the second building to set up. It was painful. Big huge drops of frigid rain that were mostly soaking my jeans and all through my running shoes and socks. Then the brand new umbrella broke and I was just wet everywhere. So there we all were in cold, wet, yucky jeans, shoes, socks and everything else. I was pretty miserable and my jeans took a couple hours sitting in class to dry. So this is one of the many reasons I hate winter.

The tree is up and I love it. It is a Charlie Brown tree but how can you throw out the tree you've had your whole life? There is Christmas Music on radio stations and all the lights are going up everywhere. School is almost over (11 days, and 4 actual days of class and 3 days at a conference) and that makes me feel Christmasy.

Today the snow came and recalling my Friday experience I was not thrilled about it until I took Chewie out in it. We don't have a back fence so she has to be on the leash when we take her out but she ran around in circles sticking her nose into the snow and flipping her head up tossing it around, and eating it. She loves the snow. I had the brilliant idea to take her to a park.

There is a baseball diamond behind Winners on Hwy 8 that is mostly enclosed. We bundled up, grabbed the laser pointer and ball and off we went. We worked a bit on her heel, sit, stay, and turning while walking, and then got down to some play time. She ran and ran and ran. It's not often she has that kind of room to really let loose - it was so much fun to watch. We weren't out for too long but I must say I hate the snow and cold a bit less than I normally do and we're even looking forward to taking her out again.

So we're back home, more hot chocolate in hand, Chewie sleeping soundly after her snowy romp, watching a festive episode of the Family Guy.

21 sleeps till Christmas!

Miscellaneous

It's weird how some things in life go so well when other seem to be falling apart. I realize everyone deals with stress, but your own always seems more serious. I have one major source of stress in my life (and I would guess Rich's as well) that never seems to go away. So frustrating.

Then there's the flip side. Sometimes things are going so incredibly well you wonder if they will come crashing down or if this is the new norm. Right now it's nice to find peace in those things.

Rich and I are still fighting the ends of colds but we are finally on the mend.

Daniel Craig is hooooot! This James Bond film was very good. I'm not a huge Bond fan but I really enjoyed it.

I love Christmas. It is without a doubt my second favorite time of year when I'm in school. Every other time it's my first favorite. (My first favorite during school is that moment when you walk out of your last exam or last class for the year and you are actually done.) Our tree is up. It is on it's last legs. My parents bought this tree I believe the Christmas right before I was born (may have been right after). Either way it's at LEAST 26 years old. It's the tree I grew up with and it's shedding. Little bits of the tree keeps falling off - especially every time Chewie runs by. There are presents under there already - some for us, and some for family. It's just more fun to keep the presents under the tree.

I am making a box. It's an assignment - a pretty dumb one in my opinion. I'm enjoying doing it cause I like crafty things, but it's a silly assignment.

I am looking forward to doing some new things with Frwy friends soon.

Yesterday Gary was in the downstairs washroom and Chewie was in the living room. Ivan, the cat, ran by and Chewie gave chase. As they rounded around the corner to head upstairs Gary opened the door from the washroom and stepped out. He tripped right over Chewie and flipped over her as she ran by, licking him on the way. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

Off to do homework...or maybe do some more procrastinating by wrapping presents.

Sick

We are sick. Rich is sicker than I am. He slept all day yesterday and all tonight. Its 6am and I emailed my profs to say I wasn't coming (I don't think they care but I used to skip so much in my undergrad I just need them to know I'm not skipping - makes me feel better and able to relax so I can get better). I have a cold and feel exhausted no matter how much I sleep, but I couldn't sleep almost at all last night. I was too worried about Rich I kept checking his breathing.

We had a trainer in last week and today to see Chewie. She's usually good but when company comes over and she's excited she does stupid things like jump up and nip. Both very bad things. She doesn't do it to us, just to new people (and Gary for some reason). We got a new collar that is so much more effective than anything we've used before. She's responding very quickly and very well. We learned some interesting things too - like the praise comes entirely from us looking her right in the eye, but when we give her a correction we don't make eye contact at all. This way the correction in her brain comes from the behaviour, and not us - we are just good. She loved the whole thing and learned super fast. We'll keep working with her but we need people to visit and get her all excited. Come visit just give us a 2 minute warning so we can get her leash on her! She's doing so well and we're much more confident after yesterday she will be a well trained dog if we keep working with her. We didn't do as much as we would have liked yesterday - Rich looked gray through the whole thing - but she'll be back next week to work with us more.

Back to bed.

School's Out....

So I'm done my placement. It was terrible leaving. I have learned so much being there and still have so much learning and practicing to do. During my time there I had two grade nine classes, one strings, one band, 3 grade 10 classes, one strings, two band, and one 11/12 split band class. I also sat in on a lot of the 11 and 12 vocal classes, and all the extra curricular ensembles. My three grade 10 classes I think I'd have to say were my favorite.

Grade nines are still trying to figure out the whole high school thing so they aren't really themselves yet. The 10's are in this fun time where they are getting to know themselves a bit better and are more comfortable in their own classes. I only had the strings my last week but they were my last class of the day yesterday and we had a lot of fun. I found the longer I was at the school the more relaxed I was and the more fun the kids had with me.

My two morning grade 10 classes were so much fun. The kids only have any given class every other day so I told my 10's yesterday it was the last class I was going to have with them. I got accosted for hugs from a few of them in the hall yesterday which was nice. They warn you so much about any form of physical contact with the kids at OISE to the point that you forget these kids are human. When they run up and almost knock you over with a hug it's great for reminding you it's ok to hug them back.

My 10 class yesterday morning is one I had mixed feelings about for the first couple weeks. They were more challenging because they had stronger personalities, but they are great kids once you get to know them. I got hugs from some of them too and lots of thank you's, don't leave, stay and work here, one "when are you going to get a baby", and even a letter from one student for me to read when I got home.

My associate teacher, plus two of the other three music teachers (one is out of town) took Michelle (the other student) and I out for breakfast yesterday as it was a late start at school. It was so much fun and a wonderful treat. When we finally left yesterday I thought I was going to be fine but no....why would it be that easy!! I cried and they all found that highly amusing. The teachers all hugged us and off we went. I'll go back for their Christmas concert in December but it will be really hard not seeing them every day.

It's funny, you apply to go to school to be a teacher, and then you finally get a chance to really teach. For a while you are petrified, but then by the end you are thinking well this is what I want to do...I don't want to go back to class, I want to stay and teach. I learned more in those four weeks than I did the 2 months leading up to it. Oh well.

I'm back, and so happy to be back with Rich. Now I have to get back to homework :-(

School Fun

*Changed the kids and other teachers names for both their privacy and protection, and mine!

One of our favorite kids (the other student teacher and myself love him) is on a few of the special ed lists and has some issues. He's a sweet kid. Last week while wandering around helping kids work on a theory sheet I can feel this person behind me. Not see, feel. They were definitely in my space. I took a step forward and spun to have Bob* shaking his paper in front of me to ask a question. He immediately started to talk and I stopped him and said "Bob....next time you need to say something to introduce yourself - don't just stand right behind me and wait - why don't you try that first?". I turned back around. He tapped me on the shoulder and then about 4 inches from me yelled "HI!!!!" and launched into his question. Scared me half to death it was so funny.
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Jim*, one of the drummers was having a hard time reading his music. The teacher asked him if he needed glasses and he replied first that he had them and then that he didn't need them. When he was asked to put them on he grumbled but did. The teacher said to him "what's wrong do you not like how they look?" When he replied no, he said "can you see yourself right now?". The kid tried to look at himself. I was dying laughing. He looked up at his eyebrows (tried to) and tilted his head back. So funny.
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It's sad we're leaving this week - we're just started to really bond with some of the kids. One on the music council mentioned that she needed us to leave our contact info as they wanted to invite us to the Music Banquet at the end of the year which if they remember to would be nice.
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I asked one student what she used to breathe yesterday. She said her nose. Sounds like a perfectly logical answer, unless you are a musician. You use your diaphragm and the kids know this. She had a momentary lapse which was funny.
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During my grade 10 strings class today I was talking about dynamics. I was asking them about what the first dynamic marking was. They answered it was piano (p). I asked what the next one was and one of the girls said it was pp, meaning pianissimo. She meant double p, double piano, pianissimo - any of the above. That's not what she said though. She said Pee Pee. Fits of giggles followed from everyone in the class. How do you continue? They are such good kids. I said "Giggle amongst yourselves for a moment". Just giving them that minute to relax and laugh and they didn't giggle for 10 minutes which some of them would do.
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Craziest thing that is happened so far: I was sitting in the music office with the other student teacher (ST) and one of the teachers (Phil* (Gary that's for you!)) when ST says her birthday is in December. Phil mentions he knows 4 others with the same birthday and she asks who they are. He mentions the first one who had an unusual name. I repeat the name back but include the last name -
He says "Yes how do you know her?"
I said "Her husband is my cousin. "
Him: "Oh ok so you know Tim and Mark his brothers obviously?"
Me: "We grew up together many years ago. I'm related to their wives too (they married sisters)."
Him: "I was closer to Tim growing up....were you at their weddings?"
Me: "Yes".
Him: "I was in Tim's wedding party."
Me: "What!?!"
Him: "I was in Tim and Leanne's wedding party."
Me: "I was in Tim and Leanne's wedding party too."

So 7 years ago we were in the same wedding and had no idea who the other one was. Too funny. This is also the same teacher who knows Pernell. He played piano at Pernell and Margie's wedding. During morning choir yesterday he's telling the kids what their uniform is for group photos as they are being done tomorrow. He said "Black on the bottom and white on the top. Don't be like a guy in my high school and wear black on the top and white on the bottom." They all giggled. He turns to me and says "It was Pernell." Sounds like Pernell!

I am going to miss the kids and the teachers. Don't want to go back to school next week, but I am looking forward to being home with Rich again. Tomorrow is Parent Teacher interviews, then Friday, and then that's it. 2 more sleeps till I'm home!

Stuff

So a busy week as usual. This weekend is my last one home before I come home for good! As much as I love the school and the kids and teachers I am so looking forward to being home in my own bed every night. I know it's easy to get attached to the kids but I didn't think I would be dreading leaving them! They are so much fun! I have my favorites already, and some I am worried about long term. They are lucky they have such fabulous music teachers to support them. Hopefully that makes a difference to some of them.

This week my professor came in to observe my teaching. I didn't think I'd be as nervous as I was. The time I had was condensed from 70 minutes to 30 minutes so we could chat after. That did make it much more difficult, but I got through it. At one point she was there, the other student teacher, my Associate Teacher (who can if he wants to completely stop my career before it even starts), and the Principal.

I was able to get out a bit this week. My aunt and uncle took me out for dinner which was such a nice treat. I got to see Chewie's mom and brother too which is always fun - you get to see some of the similarities and the differences between the three of them. I spent time with Deanna which was great. I miss getting together with her like we did during undergrad! It's been nice to reconnect.

All the school shootings and violence (including recent problems in Toronto) have prompted the board and schools to implement lock down procedures in the schools, including full and partial lockdowns. This is new for many of the schools so we've been there during the educating of the teachers and students. You never really think it will happen....if you focus on it you live in fear and I can't imagine being a good teacher that way.

So one of the most interesting things that happened this week I think was yesterday during the Remembrance Day assembly. I'm standing close to the back of the auditorium and the assembly is moving along, and across the back there are these two kids that come walking towards the back door. No biggie, I figure they are going to the washroom. One of them is dressed in a long black trenchcoat and sort of "goth like" clothing. He had in his hand a large red tote bag. That caught my eye - very bright. I hadn't noticed a huge goth culture in the school so that surprised me a bit, but figured I had just missed it - I'm mostly in one area of the school.

I look back at the stage and then I hear these two boys. I am about to shoot them the "teacher look" I am trying to perfect (so not even close yet) just to get the to keep quiet while they leave the auditorium. It was then I actually saw the boys. One looked a bit stoned maybe and didn't really seem out of place. The other though, looked me right in the eyes. It scared me right to my core. I looked at Michelle (the other student teacher) and she had seen the same thing. We went to a teacher from the dept and just asked if we should do anything - they were wandering around the hall. He immediately got two more teachers to go check it out. Turns out the kid that creeped us right out did not belong to the school. The other one did.

He may have just been a friend of someone, a brother maybe, an ex-student. Why was he there? I never found out. It was a good reality check for me though. Reminded me that although we hope teaching is a reasonably safe profession it may not always be. I wonder how I will handle an emergency situation. One thing that bothered me is no matter how "teachery" I feel and how in control and professional I may seem at times, these two kids (like 98% of the kids in the school) were both much bigger than me. I would never need to use my physical self in my teaching - it's not like it was 100 years ago when kids still were disciplined using corporal punishment. I do wonder though if I could stop them from doing anything if necessary, to myself or students. Hopefully I will never have to find out.

One thing it did do is remind me not to ignore my instincts.

So the weekend is progressing and so far has been reasonably relaxing. Gary is down and I was able to get a teeny tiny bit of Christmas shopping done today. Now we are off to Carolynn and Marshall's for some euchre! Looking forward to that and being rushed out the door so ending my blog now.

One more week!

Anniversary Weekend'O'Fun!

So most of you know by now Rich and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday. It was such a lovely weekend!

Friday was a short day for the kids at school so I was home after making a stop or two by 2 o'clock for a change. We puttered around the house for a bit and while Rich napped I got caught up on my tv I had taped previously in the week.

Friday evening we went to Lo Presti at Maxwell's on Jackson St which is where we had our reception. We've only gone a few times just the two of us and we had our usual gazebo which was nice. As the dinner was a gift we were able to go all out. I had soup, steak diane with fettuccine alfredo, and for dessert Rich had arranged ahead of time for us to have an item not on the menu - banana's foster. Yummmyy. Then he ordered chocolate covered strawberries to go. Also not on the menu. The food was fabulous as usual. We went home and watched a movie together and snuggled. Rich is a good snuggler. He doesn't mind cuddling with most people so give him a try sometime!

Saturday we did a bit of running around, Rich went to the chiropractor, we wandered around Blessings and then hit Montana's for lunch and my usual baked chicken penne. The afternoon was relaxing and we napped in preparation for Wicked! Off to Toronto. There were two T-shirts I saw that I really wanted from the show and Rich had said he'd pick one for me as an anniversary gift, so when we got there I showed him the two I wanted and went to our seats. The seats were great, and the show was fabulous. Highly recommend it to anyone!

We were home pretty late and went almost immediately to bed, but not before getting my first anniversary present as it was past midnight. Rich showed me the shirt he picked for me. I love it! It sparkles a bit! We were just about to go to bed and he went to the closet and pulled out the other shirt! I love my hubby. He said it was supposed to be a Christmas gift but he couldn't wait. Love it love it love it. So cool. So off to bed.

Sunday was our actual anniversary and we were off to an art show. Rich saw a guy drawing on the street one day and stopped to see what he was drawing. It was all pictures of Hamilton architecture and scenes - all very nice. Turns out the guy works for the City of Hamilton and was showing his stuff at an art show, so we checked it out - very cool. This also was the day of the puppies. Just before going into the art show there was a woman with two dogs, one of which was a German Shepherd puppy about 12 weeks old, so we got down and played with her for a few minutes. Her name was Meadow. So cute. Later that day we saw a boxer cross puppy who was adorable also that we played with. We also saw a Neapolitan mastiff. I LOVE Mastiffs and I really want one. This one was 160lbs of mushy cuteness that I got to pet. Rich asked the guy if we could say hi and the guy got the dog out of his truck so we could.

We also went to see Rich's partner Darren and his wife Melissa and the triplets. So freaking cute. I got to feed Jessica and held her for a few hours. They are all about 6lbs 4oz now and 3 weeks old. So much fun. The evening we spent at home together until I had to drive back into Toronto :-(

Now Rich is probably reading this thinking I skipped the most important part of the day, but I just saved it for last. Rich took me on a picnic. Not just any picnic. He took me to Princess Point which is where we had our wedding photos taken. How sweet is that! We took a blanket and lunch and the camera, and headed down by the water so we could lean against a tree. It was quiet and secluded (largely because it's November), but it was actually quite nice. We had a nice meal and talked and cuddled. It was wonderful. Then, about the same time, the cold and pain set into our bums. We were both trying to think of how to tell the other we wanted to go cause we were getting cold and uncomfortable but didn't want to break the lovely afternoon. So funny. After a few minutes of squirming uncomfortably, we were both saying "so ummm this has been nice....let's go?" It was such a fun afternoon but so funny that we are now at a point where romance has it's place, but after a point, it's just not worth the frozen bums. It was actually a fun way to end the picnic as we laughed about it all the way back to the car, where we could sit comfortably.

All in all it was a fabulous first wedding anniversary. I know we will have many to come, but this one was special. We've both had long term relationships with yearly anniversaries, both celebrated big events with others, but this was the first event that was OURS. And it's the only time we will have a first wedding anniversary. My only regret is I had to leave so soon.

I love you Rich, thank you for a wonderful weekend.

Forgot to add this to my "Stuff" blog from yesterday....

I am on speakerphone talking to Chewie. This is her talking back.

Stuff

So much has happened this week! Thank you for everyone understanding my lack of commenting on blogs - by the time I get to those I'm usually so tired I don't have any intelligent thoughts yet, but I still am reading them!

Rich and I had a rough beginning of the week. We were waiting for some news that could have been very bad - almost like waiting for medical test results (just not medical) all day. When Rich finally called me with news Monday evening I broke down at school (in the office - not in front of the kids) which really worried me. The teachers were so cool though and everything turned out well, but it was not fun to go through and even worse for Rich.

I have a friend who's trying to turn me into an opera singer. We're developing my head voice and for anyone who understands turns out I am a Subret (no idea how it's spelled) and can sing a high C (the high high one). So much fun.

I had a hot tubbing date with Karyn on Wednesday and Thursday came back to Hamilton to surprise Rich for pub night. This was stupid. We had fun but I was so exhausted I could hardly drive back to Toronto that night.

Today was a super short day for the kids cause of commencement so I was home before 2pm which was great! I have been teaching theory to two grade 10 classes and gave one of them a quiz today (they hated that). I needed to see how effective the lesson had been though. I discovered the theory face this week. You teach. You ask questions. They stare blankly back at you. They nod they understand. They probably don't. It's quite funny and very frustrating but I'm learning how to get them out of that. The quiz went well. I was teaching intervals which is one of the more difficult concepts at this age (so the other teachers tell me) because it's kind of abstract but most of them got perfect which was exciting for me. The kids are so good and well behaved for the most part. We took them to Wicked on Wednesday and they were so well behaved. It was so much fun!

So today starts Rich and my "Anniversary Weekend'O'Fun!" Tonight we are off to Lo Presti at Maxwell's which is in our opinion the best in the city. Tomorrow we'll hit an Art show, then off to see Wicked in Toronto (yaaaaaaaaayyyy). Sunday is our actual 1st wedding anniversary and we are going on a picnic. Sometime during the weekend I think we will get up to see Rich's partner Darren and his family with the new babies.

So I took Rich's car back to Toronto last night so he could get mine in for an oil change. There is a little mechanic right behind our place so Rich took it there as it so convenient - not our regular mechanic though. When he went to pick it up he had to ask for a work order which he said sort of set off alarm bells for him. He got in the car and the change oil light was still on. So he takes it up to Beech Goodyear our regular mechanic on Upper James. Love that guy. Anyways he tells them what happened and they said he probably just forgot to reset the sensor and that'd check it for us. So they check it and it's new oil, but it's too full. They drain a bit for us, and then Rich asks for them to check the filter. It's black. So now he's mad. So they change it for us and it was $16 for all that. He takes the old filter and comes back down to the first guy. He shows a guy the filter, and he agrees it obviously wasn't done as they don't use those kind of filters. He approaches the mechanic that did my car and the guy lies through his teeth. So guy number one gave us our money back. So Rich got his $32 back. We won't be going back there. So frustrating.

Off to get Rich up from his nap. Not sure if we'll be out Sunday as it's the actual anniversary, but I miss everyone and looking forward to seeing everyone when Practicum is over if not sooner!

Sick

I am sick. I think I ate something at Theology Pub last night that didn't agree with me. I had not missed any school yet and yesterday I left early with a wicked headache. I was able to come home and spend some time with Rich and relax before pub night. I was feeling better by the time we were there but I don't know what it was that upset me.

I was up at 4:30 feeling awful. Took some Advil and tried to feel better. I only had 2 hours of class today and then a bunch of us were going to go for brunch after class. I had a group presentation today too that I had to go for. I didn't go.

I have never bailed on a group like that before I feel terrible. I also am worried about my grade as well. It was only worth 10% but still, I'm not sure if I will be able to make it up. I'm waiting to hear from my prof still. I emailed and asked her not to penalize the group for me being sick. I hope they all forgive me! I took gravol and slept till 11, and I'm still feeling queasy so I'm curled up at home trying to feel better.

Rich isn't feeling well either but he's stuck at work.

For those of you missing out on Theology Pub you should check it out - it's great! I get so much out of it usually. Very challenging and thought provoking.

Sunday begins the 4 weeks of placement. I am so looking forward to it but I'm very nervous. What if I don't know enough or musically I'm not developed enough? What if the other girl who is doing it with me is so much better (with her BMu and Masters degree) that I don't measure up?

Back to my couch.

There's no place like home....

I am in Toronto. I just finished my first observation day and I am exhausted. I hardly did anything that I feel would cause this exhaustion but I think it was more the adrenaline and excitement and the late night.

The school is awesome. The music department has over 600 kids in - how incredible is that? I did get to do a tiny bit of teaching today. One kid was struggling playing the trumpet - he couldn't even make a sound on it, just air. So one of the teachers (who are all great by the way) asked if I wanted to give it a shot. So we worked for about 10 minutes and lo and behold - a sound! He did great once he got that initial sound and we worked on 3 notes or so. My instructions were "get him to make ANY sound....please!" so I think they were happy with what we accomplished.

The crappy part of this is being away from Rich. It really sucks. It sucks being away from my home too. I can't just go get the book I forgot in the other room - it's 100km away. I feel very disjointed being away. Pray I get through this next month without going completely bonkers!

So I have to mention a fabulous person. She absolutely rocks. She is helping us out with Chewie while I am in school with walking her on Rich's long days (which could be a very annoying task - especially on days like today). She came over for a crash course in Chewie yesterday before I left and she was such a big help. She made me stay on task getting packed and ready to go, getting a bit of tidying done first, and then the most fabulous thing, was she offered to pick up some things for me that were seriously stressing me out. She gave me a bit of extra time to do some homework and spend time with Rich while she did an errand for me. So thank you so much! You are a true friend and Rich and I appreciate you more than you know.

The Rise and Fall of Film Noir

In support of my little brother Gary, who rocks, I wanted to post links to his award winning videos he did at school with a buddy last year (award winning...seriously!)

The series is called The Rise and Fall of Film Noir

And you can see the episodes here:

Episode One - The Pilot
Episode Two - The Dragon Cometh (Meet Peter and Gary)
Episode Three - Super Sweet Eighties Music Video
Episode Four - Keep It In The Family (Part One)
Episode Five - Keep It In The Family (Part Two)
Episode Six - Sons of Mothaz (Music Video Mother's Day Tribute)
Episode Seven - Ask Not What Your School Can Do For You
Episode Eight - Got Game?
Episode Nine - Finale (Gary and Pete look back and give their thank yous)
Gag Reel

That's all of them! And I feel the need to add, contrary to what the films may indicate in certain spots, both boys are straight. Seriously.

Wicked

WICKED IS IN 24 DAYS!!!!! I am so excited. I also just saw that the school I will doing my placement in is offering tickets to Wicked for the kids. How perfect is this school for me!
Yaaaaaaaaaayyy for hubby who is taking me. SECOND ROW Wooooohooooooo!

School Continues...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

When I did my undergrad I didn't study really. I slacked off, didn't do the readings, and really wasted a lot of time. I regret that. I got ok marks but I always had that excuse if I didn't do well I could say I didn't really study or hadn't put any work into it so it was no big deal. When I started school this time I've been lucky enough to just focus on school. I have been doing ALL my readings, all my homework has been done well before the night before, and I've really tried hard to manage my time well. My fear was, what if I put all this work in and I still just did ok?

We got our first paper back this week and I was worried. I flipped to his comments and..... wooohooo 90%! So the crappy part of all this is when you get hired your undergrad marks actually help determine your pay scale, but your B.Ed. has NO bearing on that! Oh well. It was encouraging to say the least.

Another thing that happened this week was that we got our placements for our first practicum. Most of you know I commute to Toronto 3 days a week (which is exhausting and expensive). We were really looking forward to practicum cause it meant 4 - 5 weeks of no commute, I was supposed to do it in Hamilton. Apparently the teacher I was supposed be with went emergency mat leave, so they had to find another place for me. I did get what looks like a great school. Big music department with at least 3 full time music faculty which is crazy. Because of the whole situation I am moving in with my grandparents for a month. It's great I can do that, but I am really upset about it. I don't want to leave Rich, he's a huge support for me. I am super excited and very nervous about placement. The school looks incredible, and looks from their website to be very much the type of program I'd like to run someday.

Off to do homework. Happy Turkey weekend!

School Shootings

I am upset. I just saw on the news about another school shooting in Pennsylvania. This time it was at an Amish school, and at least 2 children died. They said on the news this is the third school shooting of this kind within ONE WEEK in the US. Then of course Canada has it's own share with the Dawson College shooting. Why does this keep happening?

The Dawson College shooting happened before my first week of school. It took until last Thursday for us to finally discuss it, and that was because someone finally asked why we haven't discussed it. All the shootings have been weighing quite heavily on myself and other students in my classes. I don't want to get to the point that when I'm getting dressed for school when I'm teaching and thinking, "oops I forgot my bullet proof vest!".

I hope and pray it stops soon, although I don't think it will. I think most of the shootings have been in high schools, which makes it all the more scary for me. I know the schools have great policies in place for trauma response, but I never want to experience that. What are the chances of that? School is supposed to be a place where you can learn with no fear. Will that ever happen again?

Two side notes
First, As tragic as the shooting in Pennsylvania was today I did have to smile inside when I heard that they called 911 from the school. I know that Amish societies do use phones for certain things, especially emergencies, however it still seems kind of off they'd be using phones! Glad they do though.

Second, Rachel and Nathan were engaged yesterday and Rich and I missed it being in Kingston visiting my family for the weekend. Congratulations to you both and have fun planning! You are adorable and I hope you have a long and happy life together!

This Week

This week has been pretty good. I am almost recovered from my headcold. School is going well - it's fascinating how much there is to learn and how interesting it is!

Spent some time with Sarah and Natasha this week, and then we had the first theology pub of the season which was fun - it was nice to have some good food and good conversation with some awesome people.

Rich and I went to a formal party for a paramedic who retired this year (first one to retire from active duty at 65 in Hamilton) which was fun. I got to wear my new dress and shoes and we had lots of fun dancing.

Saturday morning was off to breakfast with Jon and Lindsay, and then off to get Gary from St Catherines. We've had a nice time hanging with him, and we got to see my aunt and uncle last night who were awesome enough to bring us up some furniture they no longer needed. Only thing left that we need is a table!

Tonight was Frwy and the nursery. So exhausting tonight. I was tired to begin with and had a headache when we went in. That was gone by the end, but the kids had a rough night with the new format I think. Still getting used to being separated from older siblings. They were fun though, and as always, a great form of birth control!

2 weeks of school down, bunches to go, but looking forward to it!

Rich

I have the best husband in the whole world. It's so much fun living with your best friend. Love you Rich.

The Weekend Continues....

Normally Rich works on the Mondays right after the weekend he has off, but due to some shift changes, he's off today, and as I have no school, our weekend has continued a bit.

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday I came home from school and went right to bed. I had a nice nap and then got up and tackled my homework. I had a headcold that was brewing but at that point I was hoping it would stop at a sore throat.

Saturday we cleaned up a bit in prep for our fabulous company that night. Unfortunately the head cold had taken over. I cried for half the afternoon and Rich got me all tucked in for an afternoon nap and went off to a small overtime shift. He came home with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. I have the best husband in the whole world.

Kevin graced us with his presence for dinner and we had a great time with him. He's such a great guy and it was fun to learn more about him (and he distracted me from my cold!). Anyone who hasn't had him over yet you are missing out!

Sunday I was still feeling pretty lousy and vegged for a bit. Rich went outside and again showed his growing proficiency with tools! He built his BBQ - and in front of an audience no less! Some of the kids from the neighbourhood came to watch. One of them asked Rich where our other car was. He said "my wife's car is over in that lot". One of the kids said "oh...the silver grand am right?" These kids are in SK and Gr 2. So observant! I brought Chewie out to meet them and she licked them all over and drank in all the attention.

Off to Freeway where I gave a pitiful attempt at singing. My ears and nose were plugged so it didn't go as well as planned but it was fun singing with Kevin in spite of how I was feeling. The guys were great to put up with me.

We were about to go home and get me tucked in but at the last minute got an invitation to go watch the Amazing Race at Carolynn and Marshall's along with Natasha. They are so much fun and it was great to spend some time with them.

Today we organized the basement and did a bit more unpacking, got the books on the bookshelves etc. I organzied the cd's and got them away, and my ingenious husband decided to put up a sensor light we had in the laundry room. So often when you go into the laundry room your hands are full, and this way the light comes on. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. He was getting great with tools, but electrical? I wasn't sure. Less than 10 minutes later he'd drilled holes, got the light up, confirmed it was working, and had it cleaned up! I am so proud of him! Shelving, BBQ, Motion Sensor Lights - all in one week! I am so proud.

So for those who have asked how school is going - it's a ton of work, but fabulous. For those who asked how we are settling into our new place - very well - come check it out! In the few short weeks we've been here, we already feel like this is home more than we ever did in the Dundas house. Thanks again to everyone who helped us move in!

Tools and Schools

So I went to school yesterday for the first real class! Wooohoooo! I was nervous. What if I wasn't right for the program, not prepared enough, dressed wrong....I felt like I was in high school I was so self concious. I had my Music and History classes that I have twice a week all year. They are my Cirriculum and Instruction courses. It was good to talk to some students and find out some of them had the same cheesy interests that I have (like musical theater) and some were as nervous as I was to start.

I have a question to pose to my fellow musicians and all those out there who like music:

What is Music?

We got into a debate. If someone is making noise that can be perceived as music, is it music if there is no intent to create music? What about children making noise/singing? Does it have to be structured? It was so nice to talk to people about these things. I actually left feeling more intelligent. I have felt very stunted intellectually since I graduated and I think this is really what I needed to motivate me to study on my own.

When I got home from all our running around Rich went downstairs to build me shelves for our dvd collection. For those of you who know Rich this is not a small feat. He is tool challenged for the most part. Since we've been here though he has been doing so well. He went to Home Depot (his new favorite store), picked up all the things he'd need. He came home and built me 3 6' LEVEL shelves for my dvd's right where I wanted them. I was so proud of him. You will have to come over and gush at what a spectacular job he did!

He bought me a new dress. I love it. Sooooooooo pretty. It's red. I've never had a red dress. I'm a bit afraid to wear it.

One last question for the girls.....well.....or the guys. Can any of you do hair? Like up dos or pretty blow dry type things? I am looking for some assistance on Friday the 22....or whatever that Friday is.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Weight Watchers

So most of you know Rich and I have been doing Weight Watchers. I haven't been too diligent in the last couple weeks with my point tracking which is bad. I have lost about 10 lbs to date and have been holding at that. Rich has lost close to 30 which makes me jealous. I know others out there who are reading are also doing the program. I have a sweet tooth. Well....a whole mouthful of them. That makes dieting hard. So Rich suggested for those out there who are trying to shed a few, that I post some of my yummy desserts I've used lately to satisfy my sweet cravings. Basically one point = about 50 calories or so. Hope anyone who tries them doesn't hate them - I'm not a fabulous cook yet but I'm learning!

Self Layering Jell0 (not the recipe that's on the boxes now)
1 package Jello - any flavour
1/4 cup boiling water
1/3 cups cold water plus as many ice cubes as it takes to make 1 1/4 cups ice plus water
1/2 cup cool whip
Blend with blender the boiling water and jello for about 30 seconds on low. Add the cold water and ice cubes, stir until they are mostly dissolved. Add 1/2 cup cool whip and blend again for about 30 seconds. Pour immediately into small glasses - makes 4 servings, put tsp of cool whip on top before you serve. These are refreshing and yummy and are 1 point each.

Mini Banana Creme Pies
8 small dessert cups or tin tart shell molds
1 and 1/4 graham cracker crumbs
2 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tbsp + melted margarine (some days I need more, some days I don't)
1 package instant banana pudding mix prepared last (use skim milk to make a bit healthier)
1 large banana
lemon juice (optional)
Cool whip (optional)

Mix graham crumbs and powdered sugar, add melted butted and mix. Press into bottom and up sides of tart shells or dessert dishes to make crust. Use as much or as little melted butter as you want, less is healthier. Slice banana so there is a few slices for each cup. Dip in lemon juice to keep from browning. Prepare pudding according to directions on package and before letting it set immediately pour into dessert cups. Plop Cool Whip or whipping cream on the top before serving. These are about 3 points per serving. None of the measurements are super exact - play with them to suit your taste!

We also found making your own popsicles out of favorite fruit juices is only about 1 point compared to a glass of juice for 3 or 4.

Other things we do are just pudding with some sliced fruit, or jello with cool whip.

Another thing we do my friend introduced us to. Chapman's makes some great frozen yogurt - I don't like yogurt generally, frozen or otherwise but theirs tastes like ice cream. 1/2 cup of their frozen yogurt on a sugar cone with a mini Hersheys kiss in the bottom (stops leaks and makes it taste like a drumstick at the end) is 3 points.

The same friend took a package of Thinsation cookies and made mini ice cream sandwhiches for 3 points. Yummy.

Finally, my favorite already prepared treat when I need chocolate is Hershey's Chocolate Sticks. They come in milk chocolate, mint, dark and caramel (my fav) and it's only 1 point a stick.

I'll post more as I come up with them and would love to hear any that are out there! Good luck dieters!

Orientation

So I officially feel like a student! I had my orientation yesterday at U of T. I forgot what it was like to do that commute. The morning I actually don't mind too much. And Nick I think I'll be taking a later train than you normally. My classes don't start till 8:30am and my orientation yesterday was at 8:30 sort of. I ended up getting there at 8am and wandering around to see if I knew where everything was. I picked up my package and was part of the first assembly. I ended up in a room with a few hundred other students where they gave us their initial "you all rock for getting in, thank you for giving us your thousands of dollars, yaaayy teaching rah rah rah" speech. It was actually not too bad. From there I had lots of running around to do to get my library card, student card, gotrain form etc. Then we had a meeting with our cohort.

So I'd never really heard anyone use the word cohort until Freeway, and then U of T uses it all the time. So basically we have 2 classes that are our teachable subjects (Music and History for me), then 1 elective, and 3 core course (Teaching Education Seminar, Sociology, and Psychology). Everyone takes the core couses. They split all of us up though into these small groups of 30 people or so and teach the core courses from a perspective that interests you - we had to apply to get into these. So I'm in the arts one which is cool. It's the one I wanted. The prof is actually pretty cool, most of the teachers I've met so far seem great.

Basically it was very yaaaaayyy teaching and lots of encouragement. I left with a backpack full of pamphlets, Ministry books, a coursebook that is a kazillion pages long, and many other papers.

We are pretty much unpacked which is great. Ivan is peeing everywhere because he's mad at us and I am so ready to kill him. We'd love to have company so stop in sometime and check out the place!

Off to do a bit more unpacking. Yaaaayyy school!

Moving and other things

So this was a loooooooooooong weekend for us in so many ways. Thursday was Rich's last shift before the weekend and I took him to work for 5:30. As a result we were pretty tired when I picked him up and we headed out to Jon and Lindsays wedding rehersal. Then off to get his tux fitted and then to the rehersal dinner. We stopped by the new place with a carload of stuff and then went almost immediately to bed exhausted. I think I had maybe 3 hours of sleep. I kept thinking of all the things we had to accomplish.

At 4am Chewie and Ivan decided to have a fight. On top of us. So we got up. We started to clear out the bedroom and get ready for the move. At 7:30 Rich left to get the Uhaul truck and I left to take Chewie to the boarding place. I went in and paid and then got her from the car. She kept looking back and whining at me as I walked out. It was heartbreaking. I knew she'd be fine but I was a wreck! Then I got a call from Rich with a hiccup. Uhaul screwed up our reservation. They had us down for September 30th. So after arguing with Uhaul Rich used his persuasive powers (and "irateness") to get us a truck. I started to clean the basement with the help of Emily and Niles, while the muscle was upstairs loading.

Pernell was there with his hurt back and was such a huge help with the vaccuuming, moving, tools etc. He brought with him Nathan, who came back from Sarnia early to help us out cause he rocks, Paul who helped with the vaccuuming and moving as well, and Kevin, our resident Mexican, who was huge muscle and has offered to help me with my Mac stuff (wooohhoooo!). Rich's sister Kerrie who is freakishly strong was also there, and has been there for all our moves. John was there as well before he went to work nights which was awesome. Laura Church was a huuuuuge help to me as well. She let me use her minions and helped me with all the cleaning after she helped the guys with the truck.

On the other end we had Natasha to assist Laura in the unpacking which was such a huge help. She also did some running around for us too. My friend Dave stopped by to help Rich with the manly things - dishwasher, washer, dryer, my pantry which I love, stuff like that. Then later that night Nick and Mark stopped by to help us and check out the place. Finally, Jon and Lindsay came to see the new place and chat. To everyone who helped, thank you so much! I appreciate it more than you can possibly know and I know Rich does too.

We were up quite late and we knew our weekend wasn't close to being over. Saturday morning we were up bright and early. We had so much to do in prep for the wedding, and then we were out till about 2am that night. Sunday we were up nice and early to start unpacking and go shopping. After a very expensive trip we had Karyn and Brendan helping out with building stuff. Later, John and Kelly came for a visit, and my parents stopped by to check out the place on the way back from dropping Gary off at Niagara College. He starts tomorrow wooohooo Gary.

So it was a super long weekend and we're exhausted. Rich is off to work nights and I am here to unpack. It's a slow process as I try and find places to put everything.

So for any of you who made it to the bottom of this long blog check out the link at the top for the boarding place I took Chewie to. They have pet "villa's" that are ridiculously priced and come with tv's and beds for your pet. Chewie did NOT get that, but I can't believe some people do pay that. It's nuts.

Back to unpacking.

Backs and Backpacks

I hurt my back again. Some of you may remember I was off work for 3 months last year about this time with a back strain. It was not fun at all. Lots of physio, chiropractic care, massage therapy and tylenol 3's, along with some rest, and by just after Christmas I was back to work full time. Well, I did it again. Not painting this time, moving. I think I overdid it. It's just such bad timing. I moved things on Friday, Saturday, Monday, and today, lifted both items and people, and did more than I should have. I was feeling ok though, so I figured I was good. I was still lifting less than I used to. Apparently I have turned into a wuss. Rich is back to work tomorrow and Thursday so now the rest of the packing is my responsibility. Pray it gets better quickly. I have taken some advil, stretched and iced, hopefully that will be enough.

So before I realized I'd hurt my back today (I thought I was sick to my stomach - same thing happened last time), Rich and I took Chewie for a walk to get her nails clipped. We use a gentle leader to walk her which loops over her snout to give us a bit more control of her head. She can still bark, lick, eat, bite, and do all the normal dog things with this on - it's a great tool for training. The other thing we use to walk her is a backpack. For those of you who don't know a ton about dogs, Shepherd's are working dogs and like having a job to do. They also need a ton of exercise. The backpack looks like saddle bags and it's purpose is 2 fold. One, is to give her a job to do. The second is it's more work for her, so it's more tiring. A 45 minute walk with a backpack filled with 10% of her body weight feels like a 90 minute walk, so shes more rested and calm.

So Rich and I are walking her today down Old Ancaster Rd toward Govenor's Rd and across the road is a 4x4 who had stopped and yelled across the road at us. Across the 2 lanes of traffic they tell us what a pretty dog she is (we actually hear this a lot) and asked where we got the backpack. We gave them the website and they proceeded to ask us questions for another 5 minutes or so through the traffic. When they were done they did a Uturn and went back up the hill. We were walking down the hill, so they must have been going up, saw us, made a uturn to go down to find us, then went back up. So crazy what some people will stop for. Most people stop us to ask if there is beer in the backpack. Sorry, just water.

3 more sleeps till the move!

Stuff

So this weekend has felt long. Maybe because I haven't had the regular work week or just because it's been full. I'm getting ready to head off to bed soon and looking forward to a good sleep.

So far since I've been "unemployed" I've been very busy. Last Friday we went up to Alliston to visit my grandparents (Mom's parents) and my aunt and uncle who brought up Chewie's brother Mickey. Along with their other dog Didi they played and played and were exhausted. It was great to see. They both have the same floppy ear and their tongue hangs out the same side. It was fun to see Marma and Poppa and spend some time with them without the whole family around.

Saturday we were off to Toronto to see Spamalot (awesome) with my parents. Chewie came too and we left her with my other grandparents (Dad's parents) for the evening.

Sunday was busy packing and then took a break to go to church. Monday, Tuesday Rich worked, and I think I may have packed a bit, and did a ton of running around. Wednesday, Thursday we had Chewie out a lot, and went to Ikea (wooohoooo love Ikea) and signed our lease, picked up our keys (yaaaayy!). We can start moving stuff in which is great. Friday I went to help Natasha pack and ended up helping Kevin with his futon. Then off the Jeffersons to hang with Madi and Eden for a few hours. Lots of fun. Haven't babysat in a LONG time so this was fun - trying to remember what it was like! Today I helped Natasha finish packing and moving. It was a quick, easy move, which is always good. I hope ours is that quick.

Now it's only 6 days till our move. Getting close. We have such a busy week ahead. Rich is working Sunday, Monday night from 7pm-4am, Wed, Thurs days, and then the move is Friday. Wednesday night I'm off to the back to school party at the cafe, and then Thursday we have a wedding rehersal. Rich is the best man so we have to go. So don't have time! Saturday we have the wedding and we have to drive the bride and groom back to their hotel so we will be out super late. Hopefully we can get a good amount of unpacking done Sunday.

Thank you to everyone who has said they are helping. It's such a huge help you have no idea how much we appreciate it.

Feel productive and like I accomplished something helping Natasha pack today and seeing her place getting cleared out. I feel like I should be done moving now! 6 more days. 6 more sleeps and then in the new place yaaayyy!

What to do with a wedding dress

Question for all you crafty people:

I'm looking for things to do with my wedding dress. I've read pillows, photo album covers, purses, christening dresses, and quilts. I can't see selling it and I'm not sentimental enough to need to keep it all together but I would like to keep it in some more practical form. (I also think I can only convince to move it once, next time I think he'll hide it on me.) Looking for any suggestions you have - there's a lot of dress to use!

I have 2 sewing machines at my disposal to use now (although I hardly remember how to use them) so all ideas are welcome!

Thanks!

Finished

Well I am done. It's been a very stressful week for me so I haven't posted. But now a major chunk of stress was relieved so I am able to post.

Anyone who reads my blog knows I am going back to school and had applied to reduce to part time hours at work. I was approved a few weeks ago and as recent as last Friday I was sitting with scheduling at my supervisors prompting to hammer out my vacation and schedule for the coming year. Most of you also know Rich and I are moving on the first of September due to reasons beyond our control. I tried to get the 1st off, no go. I said I'd call in personal - gave them plenty of advance notice, and take the day unpaid. That started a downward spiral that shocked me.

From that point on my supervisor and his superiors began to harrass me about both my move, my attendance, my voice, and many other unfounded things. Rich and I had discussed the possibility of me resigning in the fall (like in October) but hadn't made a decision yet. Then all this happened and I realized they were trying to get rid of me. I stuck it out until yesterday.

The icing on the cake is that I was hauled in yesterday and my part time status was revoked. They said I would have to stay full time. I knew for sure they were trying to get me out. I was forced to sit through the same questions with different people repeatedly, all of them knowing I am having difficulties with my voice again. Rich and I talked and we made a decision. I spoke to the labour board who said I have a good case for constructive dismissal - being forced to quit due to pressure/harrassment and being made uncomfortable. It's the worst working environment I've ever been in. Most people know I hated my job, but this was unbearable.

I drafted my letter of resignation and took it into HR this morning at 9am, and started work. I put my end date as August 31st (two weeks). By 10:30 I had been hauled in and told my offer of resignation was accepted, and that I didn't need to come in any further, but I would be paid in full until the 31st with benefits and complimentary services. I believe they knew they'd forced me out and didn't want me telling anyone else what they'd done to me. I also had such a bad feeling about all this I fully expected to get fired (without grounds mind you - they've never even so much as written me up or given me an official verbal warning for anything) so I cleaned out my drawer. I had almost nothing to take today, and off I went.

Everyone was a bit shocked. It was kinda funny to watch actually. The supervisors looked smug until they heard people saying "make sure you go to the labour board" and things like that. I also took in an extra copy of my 4 page letter of resignation and dropped it on a friends desk. I'm sure it will circulate quite quickly. I'll see some of them again, some I won't, some I don't want to.

So it's weird. I am home now - officially unemployed. This will ensure we have a fabulous move of course, I have no excuse but to be super prepared, and we'll save some gas money over the next few weeks. I almost feel like I was fired, I am upset I knew they wanted me out. It's awkward. But I know I resigned, and why, and they can think what they want that makes them sleep better at night. I did get a few good shots in at them while I was there. In one conversation my supervisor suggested Rich move on his own, and I told him I thought that was inappropriate. I said "You'd never ask your wife to pack up your house and home and move all by herself". He said "no but I've had to ask her to do things without me because of my job before because I have to prioritize". So I calmly said "well I prioritize differently, I have chosen to prioritize my marriage above my job". He looked a bit stunned. Woohoo go me! So I do feel weird, but God knows what's best for me right?

Hope all is well with everyone. 3 days till Spamalot!

Shiny new Mac and Chicken

So I got my Mac. I love it. It is SO easy to use and so pretty. I love it.

Packing is going pretty well. We have 30 boxes done, but its been a bit stalled since the arrival of my mac yesterday.

Tomorrow I am going to have a good day. Doing fun things with Natasha and fun things with just me. Looking forward to it.

My chicken. It is so cool. I made my first roast chicken a few weeks ago and I am very proud of it. I took pictures cause no one was there to gush. I finally have the pic uploaded so I can post now.

Off to explore my Mac!

Moving, Ipods and the Lamp

Yesterday was a busy day. I had to get up early and wait for the delivery of our washing machine which we won't use until we move. The guys put it in the living room. I think they were a bit confused as to why, but they did.

Then the delivery guy came with the replacement Ipod that we'd sent away to be repaired. It was a Christmas gift from Rich but as I was getting a free one with my Mac if they were able to fix it he could have his own. They sent a brand new one.

Then we found out we got our number one choice for a house! It's a townhouse in Stoney Creek that is larger than where we are now. Very cool. We called and they told us we were accepted. Then came the drafting of the email to the old landlord to tell them we were leaving. They were cool, and as long as we get our August rent back we should be good.

On that note, we have to be out Friday, September 1st. If there is anyone at all that can help us move we would appreciate it so much. Two of our friends that normally are able to help can't, we're worried about being out on time. I promise to be super organized so it's an easy move, and we will have pizza or some other kind of food and alcohol for those who need an incentive! Thanks to anyone who can lend a hand, we would appreciate it so much.

And finally, the lamp. When we were in our apartments up on the mountain I was working on wedding invitations at Rich's place. I used the glass coffee table and put a table lamp right over top of where I was working, and the cord stretched over from the wall. One morning I came in and Rich was gone to work, and the lamp was broken. I felt bad as I'd left it so the cats must have hit the cord and pulled it off the table. I ran out to buy a replacement identical lamp, and told Rich, who was quite understanding.
We were packing on Monday, and he looked at the lamp. He said "If I tell you something will you promise not to get mad?" I said "no". He said "I broke the lamp". He broke it. And when I called him all apologetic he said NOTHING. I felt SO bad. What a turkey.

Pretty, shiny new computer!

I got a Mac. Well, I ordered a Mac. I ordered it with a guy in California this week, and it went immediately from China to Alaska. Now I am waiting with bated breath!

I got the student discount (yaaaayy thanks for telling me Krista!) and then the free Ipod as well. That has already been shipped. The Airport was shipped the next day (the little wireless router thingy - Chris told me to get it and I listened - thanks Chris!), and the the laptop was shipped yesterday!!! The only piece yet to be shipped is the mouse - the new wireless mouse - it doesn't even have one of those little tails they normally have! And it has a 360 degree scrolly button.

So I'm super excited, hopefully my new toy will be here soon!

Moving

So we're moving. So frustrating! We like our house and Dundas and the chances of staying in Dundas are slim. Also, with me starting school in a month it's a lousy time to move. It would be even lousier if we moved during school, but starting to look now we still could be. Also, we bought a dryer in February and we JUST bought a washing machine. No idea how that's going to work renting another house.

It's been a stressful week. For all those I have neglected to call (Natasha, Talie) and for those who emailed that I have yet to email back (Carolynn), and all those blogs I haven't commented on, I am sorry. I have thank you notes for some of you here also, but have either forgotten them at home, or haven't seen you to give them to you yet and I apologize.

So the packing begins. It will be much harder to find a houset his time with Chewie. Please pray we find one soon, as we'd like to get moved before the school year if possible.

On top of everything that has happened, on the hottest day of the year so far, we had to return the air conditioner we'd borrowed. Packing in 40 degree heat....fun!

Hope everyone is having a better summer than we are, and anyone who is reading this (and especially to my wonderful hubby) thanks for putting up with my complaining.

The end of the mould....we hope

So Thursday Rich and I cleaned all day. We bought a washing machine, and got rid of a bunch things and furniture that were damaged by the mould.

The landlord's were scheduled to come by after 7pm. I have discovered over the last few months that I have a problem with confrontation. I like keeping the peace. Rich is the complete opposite. He just doesn't care. I would say "well what if they say this?" and he'd answer "no" or "so what?" so relaxed it drove me nuts. We were also worried about the dog. They hadn't seen Chewie and although we didn't want to hide the fact we had a dog, she is a bit overwhelming as she's quite big. Rich said I should take the dog for a walk. Have I mentioned how great he is? So off Chewie and I went at 7pm. In a thunderstorm. It was ok until my contacts started swimming so badly I couldn't see. They eventually settled and Chewie and I continued on, completely drenched. It was a great 90 minute walk, we saw a deer with 2 baby deer and a rabbit sitting together at one point - it looked like a scene out of Bambi.

When I got home Rich said they'd only been there for 10 minutes and were very nice. They saw the problem and left. They said if we feel we need to move we can break our lease.
We picked up our laundry at his Mom's who'd finished it off for us after our washer broke (thanks Peggy!). We stopped and ate food we shouldn't have and then went to bed exhausted.
Friday we both worked and then we tackled the rest of the mould. I hate mould. And cobwebs. So gross. But it's done. We worked hard and the place is mould free as far as we can tell. With any luck it won't return and we won't have to move, but if it does, we'll have to seriously consider moving if they aren't willing to fix it. We'll have a building inspector in to see what the problem is next week.

Coming to work today was almost relaxing after the last couple days.

On another note, work approved me for part time status in the Fall. They did it only on the condition I go back to the dept I just finally got out of after 2 years and that I hate. I imagine I'll be there till at least my placement starts at school, and then we'll see.

Back to work....hope everyone has had a more relaxing week than we have had!

Kick us while we're down.....

The landlords got back to us about the mould and tried to pin it on our pets. No amount of pet peeing could cause this problem. It's ridiculous. We found the problem last night, there were two downspouts pouring directly down into crack in the foundation. This is so not our fault. They also tried to say we must have removed the pipe that makes the water flow away from the house. Why in the world would anyone do that? We don't even go to that side of the house.

Anyway just for a good kick me while I'm down, yesterday as Rich was cleaning and doing laundry, the washer broke. Many of you know we didn't have a dryer when we moved in and it was months before we had one and didn't have to hang dry our clothes. It's the landlord's washer so we asked what they wanted us to do with it. They said get rid of it. So we had to buy a washing machine. Grrrrr.

Then the lawnmower broke. It was our (read: Rich's) fault, but it's a cheap repair and we'll pay for that as it was our fault, however it happened yesterday too. In a couple days it'll be as good as new.

Do we move? Do we keep renting? Do we buy? We like this house and moving would be such a huge hassle. Needless to say we've been cleaning like mad today so there is no way they can say there is any evidence of pets anywhere (other than the litter box and 75lb german shepherd).

The couch broke too.

Back to cleaning.

Mould

So over the last couple weeks at night I've been getting a stuffy nose. I figured it was just because I was overtired and it was my body's weird way of telling me to sleep. Last night I was lying on the couch and my throat was sore too. I hate colds. I figured I was getting a cold. I would rather have the flu than a cold. So I tried to ignore it.

We still have boxes packed downstairs and I needed to get something out of one of the boxes. I went downstairs (where I never go) and noticed it was a bit damp feeling. Rich only really goes down to do laundry, but other than that he's never down their either. There is another long room in the basement that other than showing people around we've gone into maybe 4 times since we've moved in. I decided to check that room. Mould. Everywhere. It was disgusting. I have to get rid of my beloved trundle bed that I have been holding on to for 10 years. I don't know what it's ruined. I went back to the main room and started to really look. Behind the boxes against the wall, behind the bookcases, and even on the ceiling, there is mould. Everywhere.

I later discovered Rich hasn't been feeling well either - this must be why. I'm wondering if this is why my voice has been screwy too. I see the specialist next week so I'll ask him about it. I know some of our things are ruined, and I can only pray it's nothing valuble or sentimental.

Rich is off today and he'll start to work on cleaning it. I'll join him after work (though I can't do much still to help....silly recovery) and hopefully we can get it cleaned up so he can enjoy his other day off tomorrow, although I'm not optimistic it's a one day job.

The plus side to all this is we are renting so if we can't clean it it's not our problem financially - except of course the ruined stuff. Hopefully it'll all be fixed soon. Wish us luck - especially Rich.

Escaped Felon

Here we are in Kingston and I am up way too early. Chewie could hear people up and getting ready for work so I got up so Rich could sleep without listening to her whine. We just came in from a rousing game of Frisbee in the yard and she's panting beside me.

After work we got the car loaded up and headed off to Eden's birthday party which we were late for. I didn't get off work right on time and it took me almost until the party started to get home. We did get there in time to see all the cool presents and the great flower pot cakes Krista had done, and then we headed back out.

The drive to Kingston is so incredibly boring that we bought and "If" book last time and we were working our way through that. Things like "If you could have a dinner party with any four people from history who would be there?" Rich thought my answer was weird. (I think Hitler, Marilyn Monroe, Jesus, and Johnny Carson would make for a fascinating evening don't you?)

One of the questions was about lying, and I told Rich a lie I'd told my parents when I was about 19. His response "You HAVE to tell them!". Great. So we get here and I tell them. I'd come home to Niagara Falls for the weekend - one of my first weekends home from university in Toronto. I'd just got my license and there was a party I wanted to go to. Now I don't drink, and so that wasn't a big deal, but Mom and Dad let me use the car (I think for one of the first times). Off I went, and at the end of the night, around 2am, I drove home a couple friends. I dropped off Chara first, then Stacey. As I dropped off Stacey and backed out of the driveway, I heard a thump. There was a car across the road at the end of her hill driveway I didn't notice. So like any responsible teenager who has just commit a "hit", I "ran". Drove home thinking no one would ever know what happened.

The next morning on our way home from church Mom called to ask if we were almost home. Dad told her we were, to which she replied "the cops are on their way over....they want to talk to Jaci". Great. So now I'm freaking out. We get there and park, the cops get there and park, and start asking questions. All I could think was deny deny deny! And I did. They took my license info in case, and said they were questioning everyone at Stacey's that day and taking everyone's info. I asked if it was ok to go back to Toronto for school, and they said yes they'd contact me if I was going to be charged. All day I freaked out. My parents assured me it'd be ok cause I didn't do anything wrong.

So last night I came clean. Told them everything. To which my Mom replied "we know". What do you mean we know? She said I'd been so petrified they just pretended they didn't know for my sake. It's nice to know that Mom and Dad still love a felon like me - and knew I was a felon all along.

We know. I should have told them years ago. Too funny.

Off to start our relaxing weekend in Kingston....hopefully with a nap!

Timing sucks

So I posted that we were going to look at a house. This is dangerous. We loved it. It was a 2 story with a finished basement in Dundas. Huge yard (big enough for my hot tub I want!), 4 bedrooms upstairs all with hardwood flooring, a nice washroom with 2 sinks in the vanity. The main floor was a large living room, very nice entry way, kitchen, walk in pantry, and 1.5 bath. The basement was fun. It had a large laundry room with storage and big deep freeze they were leaving. Also a finished rec room with a wood burning stove and a bar. Then behind there was another room that could have been for another bedroom, an office, storage, or whatever. There was a 4 car driveway and a garage. We loved it. It looked so much smaller from the outside. Rich asked their asking price. Originally they asked 389,000. I almost choked on my water. They had dropped to 354,900 but were eager to sell and were willing to come down.

So we left depressed with Rich telling them it was "a bit" (try a ton) out of our price range but we'd call them by Thursday. Then we headed off to the cafe to watch a movie and have a coffee. On the table in front of us is a Real Estate Magazine. So we flipped through it getting more and more depressed. It's not that we can't afford a house, it's just with me going back to school we can't for one more year. I feel like everything is on hold while I get this done and that is frustrating. Needless to say, we won't be going house shopping for "fun" again!

The other thing that I couldn't believe happened was I got a call yesterday from Hamilton Police Services offering me a chance to interview for a part time communications job - basically for police dispatch. Great job, one I was trying for back in Feb. Figures they'd call now when I can't go. I was honest and let them know about the school thing but if they were still interested in me I would love to interview. She said to apply again when I was done school.

Just poopy timing for everything. Cest la vie.

Looking forward to Kingston this weekend. Should be nice to get away for the last time in what looks like may be a long while. We'll stop at Eden's 2nd birthday party on the way which should be fun.

Back to work. Hope everyone is having a good week!

House Shopping

So most of you know I'm going back to school in the fall. This will result in a major decrease to our income (hopefully followed by an increase if I get a job!).

My Ipod broke. We went to Futureshop yesterday to try and get it replaced there first, they said to call Apple. We aren't sure what happened but we will be sending it to Apple to see if we can get it fixed. In the mean time I will be getting a second one free with my Mac I'm going to by soon.

On the way home from Futureshop we saw a sign at the end of our street for a house for sale. It is a 5 minute walk from our house now (which we are renting). We drove to have a look and it looked nice. I said to Rich "I wonder how much they are selling it for". Doesn't he grab his phone and make an appointment for us to see the house tonight.

Are we going to see the house still? Yes
Do we have the money to get a house right now? Sort of.
If I go back to school (which I am for sure) would we be able to afford a house? Noooooo
Will we end up liking the house? Probably.
Is it in an area we would love to own a home? Yes
Will it thoroughly depress us to look at a house that we will probably like and not buy? Yes. It will. We've done it before.
So why are we looking? Glutton for punishment? I don't know. Sadly, I am looking forward to seeing the place. Maybe it'll end up being some disgustingly cheap hidden gem of a place.

In the mean time I will count down the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and even seconds until I start school. This is exciting for 2 reasons:
1) I'm just looking forward to going back and pursuing something worthwhile.
2) School = waaaaaaaaaaaaay less working at a job I don't like!

Big Brother is on again. They need to backdoor Will or Boogie.

Back to work.

Chicken and other things....

I made my first roasted chicken last night. I will post a pic later but I was quite proud of myself. Yes I took pictures. Rich wasn't there for me to show and it looks great as far as I am concerned.

So I'm beginning my third week back at work and this is my long week, 4 days on last week, a day off, and then starting yesterday I work 6 days in a row. I'm looking forward to Thursday. My last day in the long stretch, then Eden's birthday party, and then Rich and I will head off to Kingston and that will probably be the last trip until Christmas.

So yesterday at work I had some good and bad things happen. Earlier this week my boss told me there was no guarantee I would get the part time status that I wanted to go back to school. I'd work Sat/Sun every week and go to school Mon-Fri. They offer this to many students so I didn't think there would be an issue. The reason I needed to know right away about the approval was because I could only book my weekend vacation once my part time status had been approved. So anyway the supervisor meets with his boss Friday while I off, and he would leave me a voicemail with the response.

Saturday I get to work, no voicemail. And guess who's on vacation for a week now. So no answer yet. Very frustrating. Then I look and the brilliant people in scheduling still have me on disability, and the 2 supervisors I would talk to to get this fixed are both on vaca next week as well.

Now one good thing that has happened is I was finally put on the team I've been helping out for months now. This job I like a lot more - I talk to techs instead of customers. So much better. The downside to this is because I'm the newest on the team my schedule will get a lot worse. Later hours and probably most of the weekends. The upside though is I'm more apt to work overtime before my shift than after, so this will make that more doable.

I didn't make it to the Goodyear's for their bbq yesterday. Chewie was really antsy and the weekends when I'm on days and Rich is on nights is the worst. Another piece of our home decor was eaten yesterday, so I figured I'd get out and play with her so she burned off some energy.

Still healing slowly. Not all better yet.

Back to work.

PS. I love Big Brother. Love Kaysar, Janelle, Howie and Marcellas.

Question for everyone:

If your bills were going to stay virtually the same, but your income was going to decrease, and your time you had available to work would significantly decrease, what would you do for some extra cash?

Think flexible, independent, and not necessarily a huge amount of money. Just something extra you can do for some extra cash that doesn't tie you down too much.

If anyone can think of anything please comment! I'm not trying to sell anything, just hoping I can get some outside advice from friends.

Thanks!