Clever little monkey!

I have a grade two and three class again this year. They're very fun (and a little crazy!), and they often make me laugh. Here's a gem from the other day from a student I've nicknamed Sunshine:

Miss Hillary: Ok, please put your books away and come to the carpet for our lesson.

Sunshine: Wow! That went fast!

Miss Hillary: Well, you know what they say, "Time flies when you're having fun!"

Sunshine: Oooh! We should have fun in math!

Miss Hillary: Oh! So you like math, do you?

Sunshine: No! I want us to have fun so it goes by fast!

~~~~~~~~~
In other news random though babbling... getting back into blogging seems weird. I don't know what to write about. This redesign needs tweaking, I think, so random posts like this one don't seem out of place. I know, I know, I just posted about anything and everything before, so why not now? And apparently I need to share how strange this feels for me.

Lots more to share coming up about some crazy, wacky, big-life-changes kinda plans! That is, if I can muster enough energy after my full days at the zoo! :)

Posts, posts, and more posts!

This is what happens when I write posts offline, bit by bit. I have a million posts that I've started but have not had time to finish, and then when I have a bit of free time, I can finish them all off and end up posting them all at once. Then YOU get here and go "AAAAK!" So here's a list - read 'em all now, or read 'em bit by bit. Just scroll down to see them, or click the links to take you straight to post. Adagta? (do you understand?)

1. Snippets of a Desert Life - Insect Invasion!
2. The Little Megaphone That Could
3. Over The Desert And Through The Oasis, To Kalacha Town We Go!
4. Not So Sparkly

Enjoy!

NaBloPoMo

It's coming! National Blog Posting Month! Where all kinda of crazies - ummm... I mean bloggers - take up the challenge to post every day for the whole month of November. Seriously, I keep worrying I'm gonna forget to post on the very first day and then be "out." Somebody remind me or something! hehe!

Also!

I'd love to know which of you are doing it (all of you! you should ALL do it!). I already know about Anne and Jenn, but what of the rest of you? So if you've signed up already, please let me know via the comments and we can give eachother moral support (aka comments! Those are really what kept me going last year!). And if you haven't... what are you still here for? Go sign up!

At least I'm known for something

Recently googled, resulting a hit on my site:

mouth * bigger than anyone

Brought to you by Statcounter

Just cause it amuses me, here are yet more search strings that have brought you, the googling public to my blog...

* tragic love [sigh]
* fat ankles in fancy shoes [double sigh!!]
* crazy stuff on tape [yup]
* dog paxil [really?]
* how popples get into the pouch [duh - you turn them over and stuff them in]
* what to do if my dog ate a slug [I wouldn't worry. That slime'll make it go right through him]
* pictures of mcdonalds in moose jaw [um, who cares?]
* prostitution in avignon, provence [not the right place for that, sikko]
* magic dancer bootcamp [booyeah]
* teach right way to shoot meth [I'm not that kind of teacher!]
* is he in love or crazy [let me know when you've figured it out!]

New!

Sah-WEET! It's done - a brand new shiny blog template (hit refresh if you can't see it)!!!

I've been wanting to change my blog for quite some time. Yes, perhaps I've been a little obsessed with "new" these days. New hair, new seasons, new classes, new outlook. But hey, it's spring - why not, right?

And now, may I point out (just cause I'm tickled that it all came out ok! Humour me in this "Look, ma, I did it!" style announcement :P )...

- New header. Hopefully it's not too huge anymore. And it shouldn't overlap with anything important. Let me know? Thanks to Brad and Paul for teaching me about transparent backgrounds and for tweaking the image.
- New sidebar. Yup, it's officially an orchid theme. My landlords gave me the flowers, and I used them as inspiration! And it's all flipped around and everything! Hee hee! Plus, the sidebar is waaaaay less cluttered now. Check out the photos, the links, the blogroll - they're all up to date
- New drop down menus. Just click the boxes and they'll expand. Faaancy! Thanks to Jenn, from whom I yoinked the code.
- New footer. Scroll down. Waaaay down. It's even pretty way down at the bottom! hehe

Here's the old template and the old sidebar (ew!), just for kicks and giggles. OK, OK, I'll stop now. Thanks for putting up with me! :D

Your input, please! *updated*

Well as you have seen, I've been changing up my blog template lately. I wanted something more springy... My landlords gave me those orchids you see up at the top there yesterday (from their surprise wedding on the weekend! How cool is that???), so I contorted myself in all manner of directions and took a few photos - you should have seen it: I was standing on my counter, one leg bracing a light balanced on the chair, one hand on the camera, one hand on the ceiling so I didn't fall... a studio photographer I am not! hehe! I kinda like the banner, but there's definitely too much white in the template. Springy green as a background? I'd like that, but it looks funny with the orchids. I could keep the banner background white, but a big white box on green looks kinda funny. I could jsut get rid of the borders for the sidebar and the content and have it all white... or something totally different! Suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

*Yep, that header is H-U-G-E, particularly on lower resolution screens. I'll change it, but probably not till the weekend. Till then, um, happy scrolling?

Two weeks

Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. Thank you all for your comments, emails, phone calls, and visits. They have been such an encouragement to me. It always amazes me the care that comes out of the woodwork here in the blogosphere (and even more so in real life!). Thank you for those of you who have been praying for me.

I won't really get into a lot of what was going on with me (and still is, though things are getting better), but suffice it to say that I have been feeling more than a little overwhelmed with work and with a whole bunch of stuff coming at me in my personal life all at once, too. That, paired with just the blah-ness and monotony of February, it got a little much.

I've been up to not a whole lot of exciting stuff the last two weeks*... getting priorities re-established, learning a lot about myself, and trying to develop better habits. I've also learned that I have better friends than I even thought I had (and I already knew they were great!). Thanks especially to Trudy, Bex, Sarah, Brad, and Brian for your extra doses of listening, care, and prayers these past few weeks. A gal couldn't ask for better friends!

So I still have more work than I could possibly do, I'm still working on getting (and keeping!) my priorities straight, working on some character stuff, and I'm still trying to figure out what the heck to do about this lil' ol' heart of mine (in the metaphorical sense... my ACTUAL heart is healthy, as far as I know!).

Blogging will probably be fairly sparse for a while yet, but just thought I'd pop on and say hello. Yes, I'm still here!


* Well, that's not entirely true. I was away last weekend with 6 other friends. We rented a "cabin" (it was gigantic!) right on the water in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island and chilled out there for the weekend. It was glorious. Time spent with good friends, falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the waves, spectacular views, lots of good food and good wine, a few good soaks in the hot tub, long walks on the beach, a crazy dance party, and lots of laughs... I hadn't been that relaxed for a very very long time.

The world didn't end (hehe)

Thanks for your tips about blogger beta! I switched over (after being outsmarted once and for all, grrr! There wasn't going to be any worming my way around it this time, and believe me, I tried!). It doesn't look any different, I think, so that's good. Or bad. Maybe it's time for an overhaul. Though if I use the new "update your template easily" feature, I lose a lot of my own customization. Grrr. Oh well, not gonna deal with it today, I've got more important things to do.

Amusing song lyrics of the day:

Like a blind dog without a bone
I was a gypsy lost in the twilight zone
I hijacked a rainbow and crashed into a pot of gold

Bits and Pieces

Bloggger is getting sneaky. I went to sign in and they're trying to force me to switch over to the new beta-but-not-beta-anymore version. This scares me. Those of you who have done it, have you had any problems with custom stuff in your template and everything? What do you love? What do you hate? I WAS going to post some "Help! How do I NOT switch yet?!?!" comments, cause it looked like there was going to be no choice. But ah-HA! I wormed my way around switching this time. Bah. I don't like change, apparently....

... which leads me to my next point. It's becoming increasingly obvious that I need to get a hair cut, and stat (yeah yeah, "Shut up and DO it, Hillary," I know, I know. I have no regular hairdresser. This apparently is traumatic for me.). But I'm becoming a danger to people on the dance floor. I think some of the regulars that I dance with have adapted some of their moves to avoid getting whipped in the face with my pony tail when I spin around. I don't think that's a good sign!

And about the dancing. Yes, I've raved about it before, but I'm definitely hooked, and L-O-V-I-N-G it. So glad I went for level 3. We're learning all kinds of fancy shmancy stuff. This is evidenced by the names for the new moves, which are getting more and more complicated. Gosh, what was tonight... a neck wrap two hand cross bow side split double back half whip non fat extra shot or-ange mocha frapp-a-chi-noooo ... no, wait... that went wrong somewhere along the line... Who knows WHAT they're called, but they sure are fun! A few of us even went out to a real live dance LAST night, too! Hehe. It was kind of intimidating at first, but super fun! But my FEET hurt tonight, let me tell you.

So the rest of my week was much calmer, after Tuesday's near breakdown. This first year teaching (well, with my own class, anyway) is an interesting beast. It jumps up and tries to gobble me whole sometimes. I'm slowly but surely learning to beat it down. ah-HA! Take THAT! Anyway, thanks for all your kind words, it was much appreciated!

The day after my freakout I left work early and went for a walk along the beach, and took some time just to chill out, watch the sunset down at Kits Beach, and take some time to breathe. Venting, my time at the beach (there's just something about the ocean), and an encouraging conversation with a friend (thank you) definitely helped me get back to "ahhhhh" levels again.

The weekend has been fantasterriffic, too... a swanky launch party for a friend's website on Friday night (oh WAIT till I tell you about his site... SO cool!!!), tons of marking on Saturday, dancing, church, more marking, more dancing... oh yeah, baby! And, as much as I whine about having to prep for a sub, I'm taking my half day lieu day Monday afternoon, so I'm done tomorrow at noon. Gonna go back to the beach, go for a run in the sun, and settle in for some more marking, trying to dig myself out of the pit of behind-ness I seem to have gotten myself in.

*does a little happy dance*

Lookout! Here comes Monday...

Another "you people" post

You people ROCK!!!

I begged and pleaded and twisted a few arms for de-lurking week, and you delivered! Not inlcuding my own, you left a fantastical number of comments over the seven days. Ah-woo-hoo! I even fanangled a few of you to comment for the first time (YAY! Welcome!!!). Hope I didn't leave any bruises! *grin*

You people search for WEIRD things

Well, ok, not YOU people. YOU people all search for normal, understandable things. But SOME people...

All of the phrases below are things people have searched for in the last little while that have landed them on my blog. I'm just including them here cause I think they're funny/interesting/disturbing. Some, yeah, I could see how they got that.Others... yeah, I have NO IDEA. This list is of course void of all the bajillions of versions of my blog's title that people search for (it's a line in a song, so it comes up a lot). Though "tragic love" is often searched for, and they land here. I'm really hopnig that's not indicative of something!!! Anyway, here be the list (with my own commentairies in brackets). Oh, and the weird characters? Those are my doing. I really don't need MORE people finding my site that way.

1. does rachelle love brad [no, I'm pretty sure she loves Nathan]
2. volleyball in the snow [um... noooo... I never made kids play volleyball in the snow]
3. sometimes i just sit and think, sometime i just sit [it's true!]
4. redneck gingerbread trailer [Jon's trailer is so famous even people from the eastern states have been looknig for it. Different people, and multiple times.]
5. quick change dance magic show [Quick change dance magic. That's the kind of dance I'm going to take next. It's very tricky. Too bad it's so quick, you miss all the tricks. And the magic.]
6. chinese @dult entert@inment [sorry buddy, you're not going to find what you're looking for here! Ew!]
7. hillary and candy ho down [who told them about my gingerbread party???]
8. homemade jube jubes [Where? I want some!]
9.. lumpy_goat [uhhhh... AND, this came up LONG before my comment to SarahCool about baby goats. (if you click on one link in this list, click on this one!)]
10. hello hillary crazy [yeah yeah. We get it already]
11. videos of couples m@king l0ve in public [ummm... again, not gonna find what you're looking for, buddy. Double ew.]
12. the famous dingle dangle man dilema [Ah yes. What girl DOESN'T have these? Perhaps that's why they're famous. Though I didn't know the dilemma dingled and dangled.]
13. felted umbilical cord hats [um, ew?]
14. homepage von crazy class [That's SO what I'm going to title my class' webpage if I ever do one]


So folks, keep on keepin' on with google... it provides me with some good chuckles.

National De-lurking Week *updated*

Well, ok, so it's only de-lurking week in my little world, but that outta be enough, right? It's not the first time this has happened - remember NaBloPoMo? I'm apparently really slow on the uptake on all these blogoshpere events (the real one was last week). It's kinda like that geeky kid getting in way too late on all the coolest fads. "Hey guys! Pick me! Pick meee! I've got teased bangs and flourescent bike shorts now! See? I'm cool! ... Right?" ... ahem... a hypothetical situation, of course...

So, what's de-lurking, you ask? It means that for this week, instead of just reading, you post a little hello or other comment in the comment section. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind lurkers. You are jsut as welcome here as commenters. I know that not everybody has something to add to the conversation all the time. But there are waaay more hits on my statcounter than there are comments, and I'm curious as to who y'all are, so for this week, speak up! I promise posts (yay! now your lives are complete! buah ha) if you promise comments! It could be a hello, it could be a draft of your thesis on the mating habits of earthworms, whatever! (um, though maybe not so much the earthworms?)

And, by the way, if you are someone who does comment here, thank you so much (and keep 'em coming!)!!! You're the bestest! It's really the comments that make things fun around here. I've met lots of neat-o folks through it!

And to make matters easy for ya, I'll give you a question to answer. Since it is now snowing AGAIN (what, storm number 15 this season?) I'll ask you this: do you like winter/snow or hate it?

Your comments make me happy, so comment away!

Update: I've replied to all the comments so far, so check'er out :)

Welcome to Amy!

Just a little post to welcome Amy from Amy's Musings. She's the featured blog of the wek this week. Head on over to my sidebar and give her a click for an enjoyable read! Tell her I sent you!

From Amy: Tales from the Anti-June Cleaver, Anti-Soccer Mom. Mom of three great but strange kids contemplates family, life, and the world around her. Erma Bombeck-ish, humorous, occasionally sarcastic, opinionated, but always with an open mind...

My Apologies...

First to my current and previous tenants, 'A' from Red Shoe Diaries and Grace from Life According to Princess Grace (click the thumbnail on the right to visit Grace). I've been a bad landlord (bloglord? heh heh... I like the sound of that!) I promised them both a shout-out and I never got to it. Go show them some love! Leave a comment and tell them Hillary sent you.

The second apology goes to Firefox users. Apparently those of you who use Firefox have had music playing automatically every time my blog loads for the last week or so. I thought I turned that feature off (it's off in Explorer!) but apparently Firefox doesn't recognize the code. Grrr. (And Zen, ya wuss, it's a 30 second clip! ;) ) It's off now.

Happy Birthday to my blog!

My blog is one year old today! One sentence in my first post makes me laugh and laugh... Well, we'll see how often I use it, but why not try! Oh my. If only I'd know how addicted I would get! Hee hee hee...

2005 In Review - Blog Style

I got this idea from Steve... want a review of your year? Go through your archives and copy the first line (or lines) of the first post of every month, and voila! You've got a recap of your year. Click the titles to read the rest of the posts if it strikes your fancy! :-)

January - Staving off boredom
Well, it's been 4 days holed up at home feeling crappy... I've been going insane! (hee hee, my insanity isn't WHY I was holed up, just a by-product)...

February - Happy Birthday to me!
It's my blog, I'm allowed to be shameless! Happy birthday to me, and Happy Groundhog Day to all of you! ...

March - So close!
It is SOOO exciting to see God working in people's hearts! I have a friend who I don't see very often (maybe even once a year, which is ridiculous, because she onle lives a few blocks away), but every time we hang out we end up talking about Christianity...

April - Fill in the blank
I like big ____ and I cannot lie, you other brothers can't deny......Well, you may be thinking "butts" and you'd be right... unless of course, you're listening to this...

May - AAAARG!
Reader, beware. This is a rant. HONESTLY! We can't eat ANYTHING anymore without it being bad for you. All of a sudden EVERYTHING is off limits. Eat more of this, eat less of that. This causes cancer, that will make your hair fall out...

June - Show N Shine
I went to my first classic car show last weekend... how fun! I have a friend who is really into classic cars, and my parents were volunteering at the refreshments booth (as a fundraiser) so my friend and I went together...

July - Questions
Why does God's voice always seem clearer to me after the fact? Over the last year, it seems that only after something happens can I look back and go, "Ah, yes, God was telling me this or that." Is it because I'm not in the practice of hearing his voice? Or have I heard it and chosen not to listen?...

August - Variations on a theme
Sometimes things people say or phrases I hear just stick in my head... then, even months later, a little lightbulb goes on and I realize that they are all related. Hmm... could God be trying to tell me something?...

September - Tick. Tick. Tick.
The hours are quickly sliding away... I'll be walking through those big blue doors in nine and a half hours...

October - What was I THINKING???
Oh wow. I'm shaking my head in disbelief. I actually WORE that?...

November - The aforementionned "cool stuff"
On October 15, I went to a housewarming party at a friend's place. My friend, we'll call her Jane, pulled me aside and told me she had something for me...

December - What's in a name?
Merry Christmas! Not "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" or "Have a good winter vacation." Merry Christmas...

Southern Gal goes North

Share the love! Go check out my blog of the week. Dana is a woman from the South (Alabama?) who is now living in Chicago. She's got a great blog going. Give her a click (on the sidebar under "Welcome to my Tenant") and say hello!

HTML Headaches!

Calling all HTML whizzes!

I'm still tweaking my template (on a tester blog first!), and thought I had finally gotten it right, till a friend told me it was horribly mangled when viewed in Firefox. Anybody care to check out my test site and help me fix my HTML? Apparently the bottom is all messy and the title image is off center. Thanks!

Queen of the Week!

Woohoo! Ellen chose me to be her third "Queen of the Week!"
Go check out my interview here.