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!