Workplace hazards

I have DRA elbow.

'Tis the season for administering the Developmental Reading Assesments. This means lots of independent work for the other kids while I sit with them one at a time and listen to them read, take running records, discuss the book and ask comprehension questions.

I sit sideways to my table in those little mini chairs, knees up by my ears, pencil in my left hand on the table, while I face the student who is reading to me and have my right hand in my lap. I'm resting on my left elbow as I check off miscues and make notes about the reading strategies they use.

And I've been resting on my elbow so much that it is swollen and sore. Do you think worker's comp covers DRA elbow? No? I didn't think so either! hehehe!

In other news, I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but there's been a flurry of field trip planning in the last week and, including this week, we now have one field trip a week until the end of the school year. ONE. TRIP. A. WEEK. That's insane!

This week we went to go see Alligator Pie - a live theatre production based on the poems of Dennis Lee. Next week we're walking over to the high school to see the theatre department's production of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Not to mention that we're showing the movie How To Eat Fried Worms as the wrap-up to our worm unit AND it's Sports Day on Friday. The week after that we're taking the bus (oh. my. good. heavens - PUBLIC TRANSIT with 42 six, seven, and eight year olds?!?!?! What were we THINKING?) to the Vancouver Museum to do the Pioneer Vancouver program. The week after that is Beach Day - a full day of play at Stanley Park's Second Beach. And, just cause we're suckers for punishment, the third-to-last day of school we're braving public transit AGAIN to go to Science World to play, explore, discover and do a workshop all about soil and worms.

Oh man, I'm exhausted already just thinking about it!

Cause I'm anal like that

Yesterday I put up a bulletin board with some fabulous stories my kidlets had written. As soon as I was finished, I realized that the stories slowly get higher and higher as they go along the row. They're not level. It bothered me last night, but I was in a hurry to leave so didn't do anything about it. But it's been grating at my eyeballs all day today, and even though it's 6:16pm and I am hungry and tired and have work to do at home and I am so SO sick of being here today, I am going to stay and fix it. I will measure down from the top of the board, make a faint pencil line to line them all up to, pull all the staples out, and REDO the bulletin board so that it's level.

I am a sick, sick woman.

Even when life doesn't go as I'd planned

Oh how I try for this to be true...

I’d rather stand on the edge of a cliff
And hang my toes over a bit,
And then jump when they dare me,
Even if it scares me,
And I get hurt.
I’d rather build my wings on the way down,
Do my best not to fall to the ground
and then laugh at my mistakes
‘cause they're only lessons I’ll learn.

I’d rather burn with desire deep in my soul,
And love like a fire that’s out of control,
and laugh and dance and fall and chance and kiss
I’d rather live my whole life with a sense of abandon,
Squeeze every drop out, no matter what happens.
And not wonder what I've missed...

I’d rather risk.

Well I guess I could just play it safe
and forget about love, hope and faith,
with my eye on the shore line,
keeping my boat tied and staying home...
Oh, but I’ll never discover new land
by keeping my feet on the sand
No I’d rather set sail
and get carried away by the storm.

I’d rather burn with desire deep in my soul,
And love like a fire that’s out of control,
and laugh and dance and fall and chance and kiss
I’d rather live my whole life with a sense of abandon,
Squeeze every drop out, no matter what happens.
And not wonder what I've missed...

I’d rather risk.

~ Words and music by Paul Brandt

It's me! On YouTube!

(With sound this time. Heh.) My friend Jon put together this little montage of our Coke and Mentos experiment gone wrong. It's way condensed (there was over 6 minutes of footage, and even that wasn't the whole thing!) and so, so funny. Enjoy!

Spreadin' the love

Leespea writes one of the best 'teacher blogs' around. Her stories about her squirrels, as she calls them, are hysterical, and her dedication to and love love LOVE of her job is phenomenal! She's always got a positive take on life.

Recently she's given not one, but TWO shoutouts to me on her blog... she's been pilin' on the blog love and passing out the warm fuzzies left right and center. So a huge thank you to her, and now it's time to pay it forward! So here ya go... I'm passing on the "I Love You This Much" award to these ten bloggers (only ten???). These women and this gent make me laugh, make me think, challenge me, entertain me, inspire me, encourage me, pray for me or wish me well, and are just all-round awesome people. If you haven't seen their blogs yet, go check them out and say hello! And friends, if I haven't met you already, hopefully one day I will get to! Thank you for being you!


1. Sarah IS Sarah Cool
2. Anne is A Little Bit Crazy (hehe)
3. Jean's life is A Slice of the Epic
4. Katrina writes Notes on a Napkin
5. Melissa, who's Part of Everything
6. Africa Bleu's life - full of Pith, Marrow, and Coffee Spoons
7. Slush of Slush Turtle
8. Heather's always got One More Last Word
9. Shelli is The Singing Banker
10. Denney the Beatnik Poet

Leespea gets one, too, of course! :)

First Camping Trip of the Year: SUCCESS! (part 2)

Missed part one? Go here!

I last left off with us being totally safe and obedient of all signage around the lodge "ruins." *ahem* For some reason we decided it would be a good idea to scale the wall on the way back instead of using the path. Um, yeah. Oh well, we made it out safe and sound.

Danger? What danger?

Trudy and Laurie had left from the park to go visit one of Laurie's friends, so the rest of us headed back to our camp. Two more of Jon and Reg's friends were there, and we quickly got back to our silliness on the beach. I learned all about a number of different skills that were possible involving fire, pop bottles, and rocks: chicken farts, exploding pop bottles in the fire, and the "happy birthday sausage." That last one is what happens when you're trying to roast a piece of sausage over the fire and the fire burns through your stick, thus dropping the sausage on the ground and leaving a still-burning piece of stick lodged in the meat. It looks just like a wee little birthday candle!

But most fun of all was the diet coke and mentos experiment. Oh yes! You've all seen it on YouTube, no? Put a pack of mentos into a bottle of coke and BOOM! Holy foamy Coke geyser, Batman! Jon tried his first and it was spectacular!

Reg had another plan. He wanted to put the mentos in the bottle then quickly screw on the cap, throw it in the air, and let the pressure that had built up in the bottle and the shock of the bottle hitting the ground work together to create a spectacular explosion of coke and foam and awesomeness. We devised a plan, interviewed Reg, got the cameras rolling (two videos and me on the rapid fire setting), and went for it! IN went the mentos. ON went the cap. UP went the bottle. DOWN came the bottle. "DUCK!" yelled the people....

and BOUNCE! went the bottle.

Reg and Coda the dog ran after it to try it again. UP! DOWN! DUCK! ...

BOING!

And again! UP! DOWN! DUCK! ...

BOING!

This carried of for quite some time. Eventually Reg tried throwing it against something hard. A large driftwood log. It bounced right back at him, nearly taking him out.

And so commenced the "pelt it with rocks" strategy... which also didn't work. But boy, did they try! Eventually the "throw it against something hard" strategy and the "pelt it with rocks" strategy were combined.

Also to no avail. Enter Peter to assist.

Still no luck. That coke bottle - now scratched, dented, and the label almost totally torn off - WOULD JUST NOT BREAK.

We pretty much all had tears streaming down our faces from laughing so hard. At least, I did! It was hysterical. Eventually the bottle was put out of its misery. One large rock pummeled down at close range finally busted that thing open.

VICTORY!

Hmm... not so hysterical reading about it? Trust me, it was FUNNY!


That evening we did some more exploring. Jon took me through the craziest little path through the bushes to the top of the waterfall... it was only about three feet tall so we had to kinda crouch walk. It felt like we were travelling through an enchanted thicket and would arrive out the other side in some kind of fairy tale! The river on top was gorgeous - grooves and deep holes carved in the rock by the flowing river with a view out to the ocean. Very cool! Back at camp, we enjoyed some more campfiring, conversationning, and playing with fire before heading to bed. Note: Camp fuel on the fire makes for spectacular fireballs, and there IS a way to put a plastic pop bottle in the flames and not have it melt. Check.

The next morning we went back up the magical mystical path to the river above the falls and played with Coda the dog for a bit before packing up (in the rain!) and heading back to civilization to clean up and catch the ferry home. (Why, oh why did I have SO! MUCH! STUFF!?!)

The weekend was definitely a big highlight of my last few months. It was SO nice to just get away and relax - no worries, no work, no chores, no errands, just play, play, play. And I was so happy to meet some really great people! Peter and Bronwyn, Reg and Faa, and Jon - they were all so much fun! And of course, Trudy and Laurie - there's ALWAYS fun and fantasticity where they're involved!

Here's to friends, here's to camping, here's to God's awesome creation!

Full photo set here.

I carried a watermelon?!?

Oy vey, do dumb things come out of my mouth. Or, more accurately, just a LOT of things come out of my mouth. I basically talked Dooce's ear off. Go me.

So yes, I really did go meet Heather and Jon Armstrong tonight down at Granville Island tonight. I stood in line for over an hour - but that's ok - there lots of cool people in the lineup to talk to. First impression: wow, are they ever tall! And beautiful. They were super laid back, despite having been there for two and a half hours talking to dozens of strangers. Hmm... I'm trying to remember what we chatted about. What they were going to do in Vancouver, how great blogging is for meeting cool people (Anne, Jean, and Sarah, I told her about our Chicago weekend, etc), and random chit chat about Chuck, Coco, and Leta (dog, dog, daughter, in that order). But mostly I just randomly talked at her.

Hehehe, I'm such a geek! :)

First Camping Trip of the Year: SUCCESS! (part 1)

I can't even remember the last time I had this much fun on a camping trip. Surely you know me by now: I'm all for finding wacky ways of having fun and always up for an adventure. This weekend was both, and in a variety of ways!

When I told my friend Jon that my plans for camping this long weekend seemed to be falling through, he saved the day and invited me and my eager-to-go-camping friends to head over to the island and join him and some of his friends for the weekend. Score! This long weekend wasn't gonna be a bust after all!

So off we headed - my friends Trudy, Laurie, and I - braving the ferries of insanity, and arrived in Victoria around 10am on Saturday. We headed downtown for some sightseeing, ridiculously overpriced sandwiches, a free concert on the lawn of the Legislative buildings, wandering around in the beautiful Beacon Hill Park (which would have been made more complete with a stop off to pet some baby goats at the petting zoo... but not for three bucks! Baby goats should be FREE to pet, darnit! Aw well, you can't have everything, I suppose!) and some time goofing around with slurpies and cameras on Mount Douglas, high above the city.

After a day of chillaxing in the crazy hot weather (uh, mental note: wear SUNSCREEN. My nose and forehead look rather reptilian right now. "Hello, I'm Hillary, and my NOSE IS FLAKING OFF." Cuuuute.), Jon picked up his friends Reg and Faa from the ferry and we set off for the beach. Two cars and a set of walkie talkies between us made for an amusing drive, even though we DID forget all the fruit and veggies we had JUST BOUGHT in Jon's fridge. D'OH

A short walk down a forested path led us to a long stretch of rocky beach strewn with logs pounded smooth by the sea and sparsely dotted with tents and campfires. We walked down the beach far enough to be away from other people and set up camp, clearing away the large rocks to make a somewhat flat place for our tents and gathering driftwood for the spectacular campfire that would burn for three days straight.

I woke up early-ish the next morning and headed out to sit by the water for a while. It was a sunny morning, though the wind was still cool. It was so, so refreshing to just sit, listening to the waves rolling the stones back and forth underneath them, and to look out across the water to the mountains on the other side. I cracked my Bible open to the Psalms and reminded myself of God's presence and God's character.

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
___let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
___and extol him with music and song.
For the LORD is the great God,
___the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
___and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
___and his hands formed the dry land...
Psalm 95:1-5

As most people were still not up, I decided to go for a walk to the waterfalls back down the beach a ways. I'd seen pictures before, but in the morning sun, they were spectacular. They weren't very high, but the greenery of the forest behind them against the grey-black stones of the beach and blue sky, and the sunlight catching the mist as the water fell to the ground... it took my breath away. I only wish the photos I took could do it justice.

Once everyone got up, we had breakfast and set out to do some serious playing. We (and by "we" I mean "the others") built a wall to protect the fire from the wind. We contemplated why a lone carpenter ant would continue to try to walk INTO the fire (perhaps the same reason a monkey would eat a screw?). And then we set up our kites. Loop-de-loops, dive-bombs, kite crashes, and bull kelp for tails kept us amused for quite some time.

We went into town for lunch and then headed up to Sooke Potholes - a park that follows a river along narrow, rushing channels and large, calm pools. We saw a deer, flocks of tiny blue butterflies (flocks? What do you call a group of butterflies???), and I even caught a frog - but not before the poor froggie tried numerous times to kamikaze suicide jump out of my grasp! Sorry little froggie!!!! We sunned ourselves on the rocks and participated in some general tomfoolery which may or may not have included splashing people with freezing cold river water and poking each other with sticks. The hike was beautiful, but I think the most interesting part of the afternoon was heading up to the site of what was to become the Deer Trail Resort.

Twenty years ago or so, a developer decided he wanted to build a resort way up the canyon and high above the river. Construction began, but the area just wasn't suited to that kind of construction and the developer went bankrupt, leaving a half-completed chateau high up in the hills. The spectacular stone chimneys and fireplaces are still there, as are stairs, arches and walls of what would have been a beautiful structure. The large wooden beams have since rotted away or been taken out, but the stone remains. The whole site looks like the ruins of a castle!

Of course there are danger signs all around and it's fenced off with barbed wire... but that didn't exactly stop us, especially considering there's one section of fence you can just walk around, follow a trail along the back of the site, and voila! You're inside! What's life without a little bit of adventure, anyway? Ummm... I mean... we were TOTALLY SAFE and obeyed ALL SIGNS. Yup. Uh-huh. That's what we did...

Part two to follow. Full photo set here.

It's official. I am the biggest nerd in the whole wide world.

Why, you say? Because I'm thinking of heading down to Granville Island tomorrow evening for a meet-and-greet with DOOCE, the Utah blogger who has officially arrived as "queen of the blogosphere."

Yes. I really did just admit I'm going out of my way to go meet. a. famous. blogger. BUT she's a famous blogger who ranks Vancouver as the "coolest place she's ever been." BOOYEAH!

Um, I'm going to go hang my head in shame now...

Tales from the cave

We're beginning a new unit at school. Part of the grade 2 curriculum is to compare and contrast how life was in the late 1800s to what life is like now. There's a perfect chapter book called "Matt and Jenny" that follows the adventures of, you guessed it, Matt and Jenny, as they find themselves transported back to the Vancouver of 1886. Before I began reading the book today, we did the math to find out how many years ago that was, and then I asked the kids what they thought life was like a-waaay back then, just to see what they'd say. The results were hilarious!

What do you think toys were like in 1886?
- they didn't HAVE toys back then, Miss Hillary!
- sticks and rocks
- toys made of mud

What do you think transportation was like in 1886?
- they rode goats! (J. - seriously! That was the first thing out of their mouths! What IS it with goats???)
- they didn't have cars back then.
- no, they rode motorcycles!

What do you think school was like in 1886?
- in a cave!
- they went to the beach and instead of paper they wrote with sticks in the sand
- in a building with walls and no roof
- they didn't have to go to school! There was nothing to learn
- ... I wish *I* lived in those olden days!

Oh, how those rugrats crack me up!

Say WHAT?

I don't travel on the ferries to and from Vancouver Island all that much, but I do it enough to know the standard announcements that they make:

"Would all passengers please return to their vehicles for boarding."
"Would the driver of a such-and-such car, licence blahbitty blah blah please return to the vehicle deck."
"Attention passengers. The ship's whistle will now sound." [Which, by the way, even when I *know* it's coming, still makes me jump right out of my skin.]

Etc. Etc. Etc. You know, the mundane "get buisness done" type of announcements.

Well this was the long weekend, aka WEEKEND OF FERRY INSANITY.

First there were the lineups. Even reservations were crazy, but we made it on. I was a walk-on passenger on the way home, and there was even a one sail wait for WALK-ONS. Insanity, I tell you. Insanity! The lineup wound back and forth throught the entrance area and then began winding its way out into the parking lot. We were aiming for the 6pm ferry. Ha! Not likely. We weren't even sure we'd get the 7.

And then there was transportation. Um, an over 200-person lineup for a transit bus that holds max 60 people? Yeeeeeah. I ended up splitting a cab with two other people who thankfully and awesomely lived really close to me. Hooray!

But back to the announcements. The more people you have, the more the chance of wacky things happening, I guess, and the more craziness you have to put out over the PA.

"Just a message to the people playing with a green frisbee in the parking lot. Your frisbee just hit a car. Your game is now over."

Them ferry people. They don't let anyone have any fun! heh. And what was that? Threat? Statement of fact? Did the ferry gods confiscate the frisbee and just wanted to let them know? A not-so-subtle way of asking them to stop? Whatever. It made us laugh!

"Please may we have your attention for an important announcement. We have reached maximum capacity in the cafeteria on this sailing. If there are people who are finished their meals, not eating, or PLAYING CARDS, please vacate the cafeteria to make room for other patrons."

Yes, those italics, caps, and bolding are necessary to convey the force of the words and the disgust behind them. Let me see... finished eating? OK. Not eating? OK. I think that covers playing cards. I pity whoever it was that was sitting down for a little game of gin rummy. Trying to have some fun, then SHAMED OUT OF YOUR SEATS by the ferry announcers. Hehehe!

But the best one was as we were walking off. "Would the passenger who left a package of fresh meat please return to the info desk to pick it up? I repeat, please come pick up your fresh meat. We. don't. want. it."

I don't even know what to say about that one. Freeeesh meat! It was an interesting ride, that's for sure.

Of course in between the moments of ferry insanity was the WEEKEND OF TOTAL AWESOMENESS. More details to come!

a BOO HISS and a WOO HOO

BOO HISS. I got my letter yesterday. The one telling me that my five years at my awesome school is now over. I'd be crying about it if I wasn't so irked at a few aspects of how it all came down. Oh don't worry. There will be plenty of tears to come. More on this later. I don't really want to talk about it.

WOO HOO. Make that a double WOO!!!!! HOO!!!!! With superfluous exclamation points!!!!! And bold lettters!!! This weekend is a long weekend, and I'm going away for the first official camping trip of the year. Some friends and some friends of friends and I are all going to head off to a little known beach, pitch our tents, and have ourselves some serious fun. No campground, no other people (I hope!)... and, er, no bathrooms, but hey, that's what the forest is for... right? I'm excited to be outside, I'm excited to get to fall alseep listening to the ocean, I'm excited to just relax, I'm excited to find some goofy shenanigans to busy ourselves with, I'm excited to have some early morning time with God at the water's edge, I'm excited to get some great photos, and I'm excited to meet some awesome new people (here's lookin' at you!).

Our location is secret. If I told you, I'd HAVE to kill you. Well, ok, maybe not, but still. Too bad! I'm keeping this one to myself! :) But here's a few photos of the beach (photos link back to the people who took them. And yes, Melissa, I fully expect an email later on telling me that you found out what beach. Ready? GO! *grin*). I'll post photos of my own in the next few days.

The cookies are baked, the tent is hauled out of storage, and I'm off! Have a great weekend!

Boot Camp!

I've succumbed to the insanity once again and have been going to boot camp three days a week for the last four weeks or so now. It's a different one than I did last year - more of a circuit thing with all kinds of different equipment - medicine balls, resistance bands, skipping ropes, agility ladders... tire innards filled with sand that we haul around whilst running stairs or doing wind sprints.

Yeah. BOOT. CAMP. It's intense.

BUT, as I've done many times before (like this and this, for example), what I do is take something that I'm doing in my own life and incorporate it into the classroom. In this case, I'm running "PRIII-MA-RY! BOOT! CAMP!" for my kids in gym this month. We have stations like jumping jacks and push ups, and coordination stations where they throw a ball against a wall and try to catch it, co-operation stations where they have to work together to pass a ball from side to side... all kinds of good stuff! After each station we all circle up and do a group activity together for a minute or so. Today I had them squat down like they were sitting in a chair and then run in place really fast. Every now and then I'd yell "LIE DOWN!" "GET UP!" or other random directions.

They L-O-V-E-D it! The giggles, the squeals! It was SO much fun! I had a big hand drum I took into the gym with me, and at the end of each station, as my "stop" signal, I'd bang it: BOOM BA-DA BOOM BOOM! and the kids would all shout back in the same rhythm, "PRI-MA-RY BOOT CAMP!"

They get to yell, they get to move, and *I* get to tire them out! Man, even I was breaking a sweat today!

But I tell you, these kids are SO funny trying to do these exercises. Balls flying everywhere, skipping ropes tripping them up, and the push up station. OOOOH the push up station. Ever watched a 7 year old try to do a push up?

There's the butt in air version, the lie on the ground and lift your shoulders in the air version, the kneel on all fours and just dip your chin to the ground version... all of which are hilarious and so, so cute.

Gotta keep doing boot camp, if only for comic relief!

It's all downhill from here

Stopped at stoplight on my way to tutoring last night, I was fiddling with my hair when I saw a curious sight. One hair seemed to be really, really blonde. This is strange, as I am definitely NOT a blonde. Highlights, maybe, but this was even lighter than that. So I isolated it and yanked it out. To my horror, I found that it was NOT just really blonde.

It was grey.

GREY!!!

I had found my first grey hair. It's inevitable, I suppose, but right then, sitting in my car at Clark and King Ed, a little part of me died inside.

*sob*
*giggle!*

Banging my head on my desk

"He/She's not the boss."

Oh, if I had a dime for every time I've said those words this year. Today, I felt like if I had to say them one. more. time. my head was going to explode.

"Miiiyuss Hiiillaryyyy [in tattletale tone], so-and-so said I'm not allowed to play freeze tag with them at recess!"
He's not the boss. Of course you can play.

Miiiyuss Hiiillaryyyy, so-and-so's not letting me play with the lego!"
She's not the boss. You don't have to ask permission.

"Miiiyuss Hiiillaryyyy, so-and-so keeps telling me to be quiet!"
To so-and-so: You're not the boss!

A student gets up from the carpet and goes to sit at his desk.
Where are you going?
"So-and-so said that was three [his last chance] and told me to go back to my desk."
Come back and sit down, please. To so-and-so: Are you the boss?

You're not the boss. He's not the boss. She's not the boss.

And don't even get me started on "It's not a race."

GAH!

Un-beLIEVEable

As much as my class is frustrating at times, I cannot believe how much I have enjoyed this year of teaching as compared to other years. (No, no, it's not over yet, but we ARE coming down the home stretch!) I never thought I'd be a primary girl, but turns out I am! I love it! It's more concrete, I feel more comfortable, I'm not overwhelmed to the cusp of burnout with all the marking...

I love all that I've learned about teaching this year, and have been saying how much I'm looking forward to finally getting to do the same job again next year. For once, I won't have to change. For once I get to take all the mistakes I've made and the learning I've done this year and apply it next year. With five years seniority and people with less under me at my school now, things should be fairly stable for next year.

Should being the operative word. Turns out that's not so much the case.

The principal called me into her office yesterday to talk about something. As soon as she asked me to take a seat, I had flashbacks to last year. When she bagan with, "We've been looking at staffing for next year..." I knew what was coming and my heart sunk like a ton of bricks. If everything remains as it is, I will be surplussed at the end of this year. This means that, while I still have a job, I won't be at my school and I will be doing whatever job is given to me, basically. Could be intermediate, could be prep, could be two different jobs at two different schools... anything. And most likely I'll be subbing full time till something comes up. How does this happen? Well it turns out that the person who is more junior to me was surplussed last year from a different job, and so now is protected from being surplussed for three years. They just move to the next junior person. Hi, hello, how are you doing?

'Member last year? I just finished posting about how much I was loving my job one Friday afternoon when the principal called me down to tell me the same freakin' thing?

Nothing is official yet, but there are even fewer options to potentially avoid being surplussed available to me than there were last year. Last year there were a few: take a K class, move to French Immersion, and the surprise option of my friend changing districts and freeing up the class I have now... Not so this year. There might be one job available in French, but it's back in intermediate, and not only am I not confident enough in my French to teach in intermediate, I don't want to go back to the upper grades. Not only that, every book, every resource that I've bought over the last five years would be completely useless, as they're all in English. I've invested waaaay too much money (seriously. It's obsene.) to move to French now. No way.

The thing is, I SO love my school. I've been there for five years now. Five years of getting to know people, of developing relationships, of knowing every kid in the school from when I used to teach them all music. Five years of the most wonderful people I could ever want to work with - and I really don't say that lightly. I have been SO blessed this year to have the teaching partners that I have. They are amazing - their support, expertise, encouragement, ideas, generosity, and friendship... they have blown me away. Our school is special (heh, and I'm not just biased!). Everyone who comes to work there (new staff, employees on call, volunteers, etc) comments on what a warm, freindly school it is and on how great the kids are. We have our challenges, of course, but I so love this place.

I don't think I'm even really processing the idea of leaving yet. I guess I'll wait till it's official, but even thinking about it makes me so, so, incredibly sad. And frustrated, too. Five years of doing soemthing different every. single. year. There are NO guarantees I'll get the grade I want next year. It'll be starting all over YET AGAIN, but this time not only with the job but in a whole new community. I don't know if I can do it. The thought of it exhausts me to no end.

Talk about a kick in the gut when I'm down.

UGH.

Suh-wamped!

Seriously. How do I allow my life to get so insane? Staff meetings, tutoring, dance lessons, housework, Bible study, boot camp, running, working late, seminars, computer shtuff... arg!

On the other hand, I'm finally getting caught up on some of the photos I've been needing to upload, sort, and *shock!* will maybe even post a few soon! I've also finished adding the rest of my "teaching tales" to the archives now we've got our own little secret club going on here (sheesh). A few more stories that I never got around to finishing are now up.

And also? Babies! Babies everywhere!!! There are currently four... no, wait... five? teachers from my school off on mat leave, and at least one more who's pregnant. And an old boyfriend who I'm still friends with - he and his wife just had a baby girl. Two more good friends are expecting - one with baby #2, one with baby #3. AND one of my very best friends just had her first one week ago today! Baby Moses! I got to go visit them in the hospital and hold the wee bundle of pure sweetness when he was only 15 hours old. I want one!!! :) (Well, I want a few other things first, but you know what I mean!)

Oh yeah, and along the lines of boy-stuff? Seriously. I'm open to suggestions. Heh!

Hmm. I suppose I should go eat, seeing as it's nearly 9:00. I'm hoping to get some fun pics up soon! Like, later tonight. Cause that will be WAY more fun than housework!

*grin!*

Happy Earth Day!

What??? Earth Day was two weeks ago, you say? Well not according to my bulletin board, it's not. My kidlets did a big huge writing project a few days before the real Earth Day, but because I'm not as quick on my feet as I'd like to be, I didn't start it in time for them to get if finished by the actual day. But that's ok, it was all done by the Friday after Earth Day.

As with all projects they work really hard on, I promised them that I'd put their writing up on the bulletin board outside our classroom, and they were excited about it being showcased. I didn't get to it on Friday, as I was at a workshop at the board all day. I had no time to take down the current bulletin board and put up the new one. Monday was an after school staff meeting. Tuesday I was dealing with this work situation till late. Wednesday I had to leave early to go tutoring. Turns out I was away on Thursday and Friday of last week, too. Yesterday was another meeting, so today... finally today, I got a chance to put up the Earth Day projects.

Two full weeks after Earth Day.

No problemo. The title accross the bulletin board? "EVERY Day Is Earth Day For Div. 21!"

Heh. What're ya gonna do? I tried, I really did!

Chasing Worms and other random things

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I read some children's book that had something to do with chasing nightcrawlers. Big, fat, juicy worms. I'd heard of them, but I'd never seen them. Oh, I'd seen the regular ol' earthworms - usually dried up on the sidewalk from a sunny day after the rain. And just recently I've become slightly fascinated with the red wiggler worms we have in our class worm bin/composter. But those guys are tiny.

Nothing prepared me for the sight I saw last night around 10pm when my friend Trudy and I left her house to get a movie. It had been raining most of the day, and was still drizzling a little bit. We noticed on the sidewalk that there were these weird stick things coming out of the grass. Immediately we realized that they were worms, but good golly, these were the biggest worms I'd ever seen in my life. And there were DOZENS of them.

So we did what anybody would do... we poked them! And Zzzzip! They disappeared into the grass. But FAST! Holy smokes those things move quickly.

Well, that just became in invitation to try to catch them. After some girly squealing about "Ewww! They're sliiiimy! Eeeeek!" we set out trying to pick them up. Well, Trudy tried to pick them up. I just poked them to watch how fast they'd zip into their little holes. I can handle holding hte little ones, but worms this big? Holy heebie jeebies, batman!

It was then we noticed in the damp, cropped grass and the glow of the streetlight that they were EVERYWHERE! Hundreds of them - all over the top of the grass, all over the sidewalk, all over EVERYWHERE. The fattest, longest, quickest squirmy wormies I'd ever seen!

Trudy commented that it was little like a sci-fi movie, and that very likely she'd have nightmares. Invasion of the Killer Nightcrawlers, anyone? Worms, multiplying all over the grass, poking their little wormie heads up, waving them around, sensing out their next victim! Run! Run for your liiiives!

Ahem.

Trudy decided she needed something better to grip, so I gave her a Safeway receipt. "Cause if I squish too hard, I won't get worm juice all over my fingers!" She got one, but only cause I think she pulled it in half.

Ummm... or maybe he was just really short. Heh.

We did eventually get our movie - Lars and the Real Girl. Oh my word, hilarious and sweet and so very, very aaaaawkwaaaaard - but not until we'd hunted worms for at LEAST 20 minutes. In the rain. Soaked jeans and backs. Most likely more than one passerby who thought we were slightly crazy.

And then we ate mass quantities of chocolate peanut butter cup fudge ice cream with topped with strawberries and bananas.

Life is good. :)

Commenting

The change to private for my blogeroonie here is requiring a few adjustments (one being that ME NO LIKEY!). Another is in commenting. If you have a google/blogger account, just email me with the email associated with it and I'll send you an invite under your own account. Then you can comment and it shows up as you.

If you're using the account *I* created, I just realized there's no way of knowing who you are cause there are multiple users. You may like it that way. No problemo. But if you don't want your name to show up as "Invited Reader," then just under the comment box, choose the "Name/URL" button and you can enter your name and (surprise!) your URL if you have one.

Voila? Voila!

Private *UPDATED*

I'm taking things private for a while till some stuff gets sorted out. 99.9% of you are welcome to view my blog. But there are certain things - like my life - I'm just no longer comforatable with certain people having access to. And it's no-one who's told me directly that they read my blog, just so that's clear, nor is it strangers.

Email me at bygrace253 at yahoo dot ca (or preferably my other addy if you have it) if you'd like me to email you an invitation. Don't be shy! If you read even occasionally - and even if you never comment (it's you I'm most sad about potentially losing!) - send me an email and I'll send you back an invitiation to continue reading. It'll be easy, I promise! Emailing back may take a few days, but I will.

Things may be wacky on here for a few days while I get things sorted out, so if you're reading this on a feeder and it doesn't show up when you click through, don't worry. Just email me.

*UPDATE* - Sorry, but there's a time limit on this. I need to hear from you by Thursday at midnight if you want to get an invite to my blog. It's a pain, I know. Sorry.

The showdown

I've been dealing with these shenanigans for months. I've tried to be nice. I've tried to deal with it. Wednesday was the last straw. No more Ms Nice Girl. The showdown has begun...

I've written about this situation here a few times before, but let me give you a rundown.

My car has been misbehaving. It's different than the ol' Beastmobile misbehaviour. That was just quirky and stuff I just let go, resigned to the fact that some things just didn't work. This is the "expensive" kind of misbehaving.

July. She was overheating. I gave her a new water pump.

November. She was overheating again. I gave her a new water pump, fan, and computer.

End of December. What a hottie. Dang car just wouldn't keep cool. Oh, and she vented her frustration by billowing large clouds of white smoke out its tailpipe and chugging along like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on drugs. Everyone thought she was asking me for a new head gasket, but she behaved just enough that her doctor wasn't convinced. So she got another new water pump, fan, computer, and a few other tweaks, bells, and whistles.


Beginning of January. Nope. She's definitely asking for a new head gasket. Poor baby. So, being the good car momma I am, I gave her one.


March. She's been leaking for a while. I've had her fixed once, but to no avail. So I took her to the leak specialist, who fixed her up good and dried her all out.


Beginning of April. As evidenced by my friend's wet bum after five minutes of sitting in my backseat, the car was not completely dry. In fact, you know the sound of squeesing a soaking wet sponge? Weeellll, that's about the sound that my back seat made when you pressed on it. So I have my car a trip to the drier. Complimentary, thank goodness, but still a pain to have to take in. My patience with her was running low.

Last Wednesday. All is running well. All is dry and happy. All is cleaned, vaccuumed, spic and span. The only gentle request was for some gas - which I was happy to provide. Excpet I was running late for bootcamp. So I pushed the envelope a little. She's usually quite good to me that way. I went from bootcamp to work, again pressed for time. And then from work to tutoring accross the city. Then to Bible study. Gak! Below the red! Be good to me, girl! Be good to me!

As SOON as I could on the way home from Bible study, I stopped for gas. (And no, I didn't run out of gas, thankyouverymuch!) Reached down to pull the little lever to open the gas tank.

Nothing.

Huh?

I pulled again. Nothing.

Turns out when they were putting my car back together, they put the little plastic cover that goes over the trunk lever and the gas tank lever on incorrectly, basically incapacitating the gas lever. Soooo, there was no way to open the door to fill the tank. Which was below the red, and had been for two trips accross the city already. I still had to get home. And back to the shop in the morning. Accross the city again.

Hmmm.

Here's a tip. Don't EVER ask gas station attendants to help you with anything other than pumping gas. I asked if maybe he had a jimmy stick or whatever that might pop the gas cover open. Instead he took a metal rod and pried the door open jsut enought that it stuck out from the body of the car. "Well, I opened it a little bit!" Uh, no buddy. You bent the door to my gas tank. Grrr!

So, gas-less and driving on a prayer, I drove home. And then to the shop. Again. They fixed it up and gave me $20 of liquid gold (hooray!), but then ol' Civvie and I had a wee little talk.

A showdown, if you will.

Eyeball to headlight, I told her straight.

"Look. I've been taking good care of you. And for the most part you've been taking good care of me. But these shenanigans of continually breaking on me? They've got to stop. Right. Now."

She stared me down without saying a word. I couldn't tell if she was hearing me or just waiting till my little rant was done.

I told her she'd better behave or she'd be sorry, but I think my threats fell on deaf mirrors, as I heard her mocking me silently as I walked away. Then today, almost as payback, her brakes have begun to squeal.

Oy.

Any readers out there thought this story was gonna be about a person? Sorry to dissapoint!

Oh the marvels of a quick round of hangman

Wow. What kids will do for 10 minutes of hangman! My class was so rowdy this morning, but at the promise of some hangman action, they worked quietly for nearly an hour straight!

"Miss Hillary, we'll do anything for hangman!" one student told me.

Duly noted!

Teaser...

Hoo boy. You won't believe my last couple of days. Oh there was a showdown in my world, let me tell you. Details to follow...

Happy Earth Day!

Do something kind to the Earth today... and then keep doing it!

Tids and bits - volume ???

Not really sure what volume this is. It's my usual "holy cow I haven't blogged in so long, time to catch up" post. I keep trying to come up with new creative names, but I give up. Tids and Bits it is, I'm just gonna start adding numbers. Let's call this numero uno! :)

So, yeah. Lots going on lately, hence this post is kinda long. I should have included pictures to distract you from this fact. Maybe tomorrow.

First up, one of my very bestest friends, Strudelie-oodle, is back! (er, ok, her name is really Trudy. Her and our friend Becca have all kinds of wierd and wacky names for each other. Becca is Rrrrebecerrrino. Rolled r mandatory. I'm either Hillerbum or Hilla-ree, Hilla-rye, Hilla-roo-rah-ray. That one get's its own song. I feel so special!) Aaaanyhoo... Trudy was in Africa - Niger, to be specific - for six months and she came home nearly a month ago, making all us Vancouverites very very happy! There's been much silliness and rejoicing since her return!

Also, do you remember this? Well, the magazine came last week! Holy shneikie! It really came! I'm famous! :) Well, ok, maybe not, but I'm now officially a published photographer! Woohoo! And man, that picture takes up over half the page! I was shocked! My name's even there... in tiny little letters... hidden in the spine. Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

Next, the weather. I wouldn't be a good Canadian if I didn't talk about the weather. Now seriously, folks. A few weeks back we had crazy insane hail storms for like a week straight. Some areas even got snow. This annoyed a great deal of people. Now come on, don't give me this "Canada (ahem, Canadia) is the land of ice and snow, of course you got hail." This is VANCOUVER. Lotus land. The tropical paradise of the Great White North. We're more like the Great WET North in these parts, but it's TEMPERATE here (what a great selling point! Come live here! It's temperate!). But then, as it always does, it bucked up and got beautiful two weekends ago. Like, nearly 20 degrees beautiful (that's nearly 70F for you American types)! And it was sunny! And glorious! And bees were buzzing and birds were chirping and a choir of angels sang hallelujah. Well, not so much the angels, but was was GORGEOUS!

So Trudy, Laurie, and Becca - who was 39 weeks pregnant at the time - and I went for a hike. Oh yes. We figured we'd stay low to avoid the snow, but alas. There was tons! So off we tromped having a grand ol time. We joked (um, ok, maybe we were a little serious!) that we were going to make sure to stay in cell contact and that one of us should have packed some clean towels. You know. Just in case. The baby has yet to arrive, thank goodness! Delivering a baby wasn't exactly on my list of things to do that day! Eekers!

After the hike, Trudles and I went down to the beach for some yummy Thai takeout, a glorious sunset, and some serious silliness. Marvelling at the flowers, the cherry blossoms, and the balmy weather, we kept shouting, "It's suuummerrrrr!" That is, until we began breathing fire and the aliens blew off our heads. *

Now cut to this past weekend. With visions of our glorious Saturday still fresh in our minds, imagine Trudy's and my surprise to find if dumping with snow on Friday night. D-U-M-P-I-N-G. So naturally, we did what any sane person would do when it snows on APRIL 18. We went out, bought McFlurries, and found a park to frolic in. We built a snowman, had a snowball fight, and ran around catching snowflakes in our mouths. Trudy has a very special and specific technique for this endeavour. As she puts it: "First, look straight up at the sky so that you can see all the flakes swirling around and zooming down towards you. now, pick out a specific flake that's falling. chase the flake and catch it in your mouth! (if you can incorporate jumping and eating noises... all the better!)" Aurmph! Aurmph! Aurmph! Also heard on this snowy, freezing Friday night in April? "It's suuummerrrrr!" Best said with giganto snowflakes on your eyelid.

Seriously. Silliness like this is good for my soul!

In other news, dancing is still trucking along. I'm taking a blues dance class right now from my west coast swing teachers, which is giving me a whole new range of moves and styles to incorporate into my swing. It's great! We learned these crazy dips last Thursday that had me so low my hair was brushing the floor. So awesome! Um, except for the part when I pulled/strained my quad muscle and have been hobbling ever since. But seriously! My hair! On the floor!

Now normally I wouldn't have worried too much about the leg thing, but I've been training since January to run the Vancouver Sun Run - a 10km/6.2 mile race through this gorgeous city. My leg was sore on Friday, but I just thought it was from a good workout. But, er, it was only one leg. It was equally sore on Saturday. I began to wonder if I'd really be able to run the Sun Run, and I was getting really upset. I've been training for this for so long. It's the first race I've ever done, the farthest I've run in my life, and I really, really did NOT want to bail the day before the race. I decided to see how I felt on Sunday morning...

When I woke up, my leg was mostly still a big ball of owie when going down stairs or bending with any weight on it. But no way in heck was I NOT going to do the Sun Run. Off I went in the freezing cold morning (they think it was the coldest Sun Run on record - a wee 4 degrees (39F) in the morning!) to run my little tail off. It was my goal to run the whole way - no walk/run intervals: run the whole time. I really wasn't sure I could do it, as I nearly died on a mini run Thursday afternoon. But I tell you, with over 59,000 other runners, 12 bands playing live music all along the route, and people cheering you on the whole way, the adrenaline and excitement really gets you going! The farthest I've ever run in my life before Sunday was 9km, and that was with walk/run intervals. I ran the whole. darn. thing. AND I finished about 10-15 minutes faster than I thought I would! My official time was one hour and eleven minutes, and I came in 22,747th! hahaha! That's SO hilarious! BUT, I felt like a million bucks at the end. I DID IT! YEAHOO!!! Thankfully my leg didn't bother me, and it's feeling mostly better today, so I'm glad I didn't end my ability to walk for the rest of my LIFE by doing the run. I'm already looking forward to the next race. I think I'm going to head down to Seattle for the Iron Girl - another 10k - in September with a few girlfriends. Gotta beat my time, ya see!

And just cause I'm a sucker for punishment, I finished the Sun Run yesterday (holy cow, was that only yesterday?) and started boot camp this morning. Three days a week, 6:30-7:30am. Work out central, baby. I'm gonna HURT tomorrow.

And with that, I'm off to put away groceries. Yeehaw. If you're still reading, you're my hero! I don't think *I* would be! Ha! You're clearly a better person than I! :)

Ta ta!

_______________
* You're really gonna have to see the photos to make sense of this one. I'll get 'em up soon.

Baby Audrey

One of the things I love about blogging is finding posts - no - finding people like this. Angie and her beautiful family, even through their sadness, shine light and hope through the story of their precious daughter, Audrey. Thank you, Angie, for posting so openly, so beautifully.

So many blog posts, so little time!

It is really starting to annoy me that I have SO many post ideas but just don't have time to sit down and write. I really like sitting down and thinking through a post, tweaking it, getting it jsut right, but that takes so dang LONG that I rarely do it. I jsut don't have time.

For example, this week...

Monday: Work all day, rush off to tutoring, rush off to young adults, do a mini presentation, stay for the evening, out for drinks (and dinner, cause it was nearly 10 and I hadn't eaten yet) till 11:30. Home and work on a power point presentation till about 1.

Tuesday: Work all day, stay till 7:30 prepping , organizing, & planning, come home, do dishes, work on powerpoint, stay up obscenely late again doing something, I forget what. Probably the powerpoint.

Wednesday: Pro-D day - Underestimate how long it would take to get downtown for the conference/goal setting day. Rush into friend's visitor parking at the last minute and get to park for free. (SCORE!) Work all day. Go for run along sea wall. Ok, attempt run along sea wall with nearly 10 pound backpack (purse, coat, clothing, dress boots, litre of water). Dumb community center had no lockers. Walk back. Go to tutoring. Jump dead battery. Drive around for 20 mins to charge it. Stop to buy dessert for dinner & Bible study. Go to Bible study. Come home around 11:15. Finish poweroint. Go to bed past one for the third night in a row. (See that time stamp? That's when I STARTED writing. Why am I blogging now? Cause I'm WIRED)

Up for Thursday? Work all day, including behviour roundtable discussion and earthquke drill. Rush off to Summer school meeting after school. Either go back to work to clean/plan or go home to laundry and more powerpoint/movie maker. Dance lesson at 8:30, will probably stay for the dance till 11 or so.

Friday? Work till noon, go for the run I should have done today, stay till 5:30/6. Either go to wedding shower or drive to Abbotsford (an hour away) for a meeting/info night (related to all these powerpoints!).

Saturday, for the love of all things Holy, SLEEP IN.

Sheesh.

No WONDER I'm so bleeding tired.

Out damn spot!

Tamagotchis.

Some people hate them. Some people (like most of my students) love them. Me, I'm kind of ambivalent. As long as the kids aren't playing with them during class time and they stay in backpacks until recess and lunch, I don't really care if the kids have them at school. I kinda don't get the digital pet thing - play with it, feed it, watch it grow - but whatever.

Well, Amanda* is a grade one girl in my class who has one of these things. I'm cracking down on the class time fiddling these days, and I had to take it away from her just before lunch yesterday. I told her she could have it back at the end of the day. She wanted it for lunch time, but I said no, she could have it at the end of the day.

At the end of the day, I made sure the whole class was aware of the Tamagotchi policy: if you are playing with it during class time, it will go live in my desk until Friday. If I take it away Monday, it lives there till Friday. If I take it away Thursday, it lives there till Friday. (I had the urge to use the Italian term "capiche?" but methinks the six and seven year old ESL kids that comprise my entire calss probably wouldn't get that reference, hey?)

Well, guess who had her Tama-whatzit out again today? I swooped in and took it. "You can have it back on Friday." Amanda didn't argue - she knew the drill. But at home time, she looked up and asked me, "Miss Hillary? Will you take my Tamagotchi to your home tonight and feed it?"

"No, I'm sorry, Amada. I'm not going to take it home. It will stay in my desk until tomorrow at home time."

"But if you don't feed it, it will die! And it will poo. You have to clean it up."

I reiterated that it would stay on my desk, and Amanda went home.

So now, it's twenty after four, I'm working on my supply order for next year (OH, there is SUCH a rant brewing there, but it's best I bite my tongue on that one. *takes a moment to seethe*), and the Tamagotchi just started beeping.

I ignored it, and it stopped. For about five minutes.

It beeped again.

I cast a sideways glance at it, thinking of poor Amanda asking me to take her butterfly pet home to feed it. "But if you don't feed it, it will die!"

I picked the thing up and tried to puch a few buttons to see if I could feed the thing. Ugh. I should have paid more attention when she was talking about it at show and tell. I don't know how to work the dumb thing.

And so here I sit, feeling guilty I'm gonna kill a six year old's little pet butterfly. I don't want that digital blood on my hands!

GAK! It beeped again, and now there's a little skull and crossbones on it. I think it's dead!

Ummmmm, good thing there's a reset button. I'll have to show her how to use that one tomorrow...

_________________
* name has been changed

So sleeeeeepy

What is with me these days? Seriously! I'm out like a light by nine o'clock and can't get anything done. Like blogging. Or dishes. Gah! There's a backlog in both areas!

And so dear bloggie friends, this is all ya get. I've got to go to work. Or maybe back to bed.

No! To work!

*yawn*

Oh and also:

Good news: I finally got back into training for the Sun Run (10km/6.2mi race on April 20) and ran 9km in just over an hour (holy crap! I ran for AN HOUR!) (And yes, I'm ok with being a turtle)

Bad news: MY LEGS REALLY HURT!!!!

The end.

PUMPED!

After this past weekend and the comps, I was wondering if there was really any point in me competing. Not cause I didn't think I could ever get anywhere (ok, well, kinda), but more just becuase I'm not committed to really practicing and improving so that I can win comps. I just like dancing fo rthe fun of it, and there are so many good dancers out there that are better than me. I'm SOOO not a competitive person. It was fun, but I wasn't sure I'd do it again.

Then my friend JR (hi JR!) sent me the scores from this weekend's comps, and guess what??? I nearly made semis! The called back 21 dancers out of 73, and I nearly made it! I was 29th of 73. Wahoo! Ok, so that doesn't sound too impressive, but at Sea to Sky in October I was a waaaaay down at the bottom. 39th of 50, I believe. Nowhere close.

Basically, the judges give you a call back/yes (1), a maybe (2) or a no (3). There were three judges at Sea to Sky, and they all gave me no's. There were four judges at Easter Swing, and I got two yesses and two no's. Score!

Kinda makes me wanna keep competing now! Hooray! Now, when's the next dance event???

Seattle Easter Swing

From 2pm to 2am Friday. From 9am to 4am Saturday. From 9am to 6pm then 10:30pm to midnight Sunday. Two competitions. COuntless performances. One midnight breakfast. Lots of friends. Hours and hours and hours of dancing. Two very sore feet. One fantastic weekend!

I competed in two categories this time around - Jack and Jill (unknown music and random partners) and strictly swing (unkown music but you choose your partner). They were both fun, and extra exhilirating when I was dancing in front of the 'home crowd' and they were yelling and cheering and screaming my name! So fun! I didn't place or even make finals, but who cares! It was a blast!

There was large group of my friends who went down, so it was great to hang with them all weekend, too.

I danced with eight of the pros, which, while fun, is still intimidating. "Gak! He's a pro! Don't screw up, don't screw up! AK! I screwed up! Oh shoot! Oh shoot!" Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

There was one dance, however, that stood out. I was sitting at my table with some friends taking a breather for a while, when a tall handsome stranger swooped down, sat beside me, and said, "Hello. I'm Jason. What's your name?" Stunned, I answered him. With a smile, he asked for a dance: "Hillary, I would love to dance with you." Uhhh, OK! He escorted me out onto the floor, hand on the small of my back, and asked where I was from. He was from South Carolina. Ah, that southern charm!

He was really good, but never once threw me a move I couldn't handle. We played with the music, hit all the breaks, and had a FANTASTIC dance. The thanked me, gave me a hug, and escorted me back of the floor. "Now, where did I take you from?" He complimented my dancing and waved goodbye.

The next day, he saw me in the hall and waved. "Thanks again for the great dance last night."

Ok, um, *swoon!*

Later on Saturday night, I was watching one of the pro category dances, and there he was! Holy crap! He was one of the pros!!! Heh, no WONDER he was so good! But the charm! Wow!

Videos were a big fat ol' no no in the ballroom, unfortunaltey, and there weren't even photos allowed during the comps, but they had a great photographer there who I bought some photos from. Hehe, here's me!

This is my friend Chris and I in the Strictly Swing comps.

Below is the Jack and Jill competion. I didn't know this partner. (Anne - this is the shirt I bought when I was shopping with you. I think of you every time I wear it! :) )

They had a "dollar dance" to raise money for a charity - put in some money and dance with a pro. I danced with six of them. Here I'm not having any fun at ALL dancing with Robert Cordoba. Woohoo!

Worth watching

Be sure to have a kleenex handy.

One Two Three and I'm off!

Three things.

One: Happy first day of spring!!! Yes, I know it's almost over. Happy first day of spring anyway! :)

Two: Ho-lee. I was checking statcounter this morning and saw a H-U-G-E spike in hits today. What the? Like as in, six or seven times what I get in a day, all by 11am. What? Turns out that a spring photo I posted last year turns up in google images when you search for first day of spring, and HUNDREDS of people have flocked to my blog today. Crazy! It was a popular image, apparently. (Too bad I can't take credit for it!) Heh. Go to google and try it. It's a yellow flower, blue background, and it says "Think spring." Or, you know, if you have a life, feel free to skip it. Apparently I don't today.

Three: SQUUUEEEEEE!!! In 8 hours I am off to Seattle for three solid days of DANCING!!! Yessirree bob, it's another fantabulous dance convention! Like October's, but BIGGER! And BETTER! Aaaaand, I'm not packed, not showered, haven't emptied my memory cards, still need to do the dishes, and ooooh, I dunno, maybe SLEEP a bit? Heaven knows I won't be doing much sleeping while I'm there!

Lookout feet, here I come!!!!

I'm hoping to get some good video of me dancing now that I actually have a camera with sound on the video. If they're not banned. Hmmm...

YEAHOOOOO!

Won't You Be My Neighbour

From the minute he opened up his door, put on that red, zip-up sweater and 'inside shoes' to when the trolley took you into the land of Make Believe, to the never-changing goodbye routine, Mr Rogers was one of my favourite TV characters. Only he wasn't a character. Sure, maybe he didn't wear the sweaters in real life (or maybe he did?), but he was the same warm, welcoming, caring man in real life, too.

I'd love every moment of that show. I still remember the house - the little mezzanine he came in on, the closet, the bench, the traffic light as you'd go into the kitchen with the blue shelves and table. Mr Rogers would take us on little field trips around the neighbourhood and introduce us to all his friends. Mr. McFeely was a regular, and one of my favourites. "Speedy delivery!" And then of course there was the trolley into the Neighbourhood of Make Believe... Do you remember the puppets? King Friday, Queen Saturday, Prince Tuesday? What about Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Striped Tiger, or Bob Dog? Lady Elaine Fairchild? X the Owl?

The show holds so much nostalgia for me. I'm only 29, and yet it seems a throwback to a simpler time. I guess that would just be the time of childhood, but I think it's more than that. Kids shows are so different now. Fast, animated (don't get me wrong, I love cartoons), with weird dancing creatures from who knows what kind of planet. Some just reflect a change in times, a change in technology, but still, all those old shows - Mr Rogers, Mr Dressup, Sesame Street, Fred Penner's Place... they were somehow different. Educational. Caring. Not marketed to death.

I was so sad when I heard that Mr Rogers had passed away. That was five years ago - wow, time flies. Today, March 20, would have been his 80th birthday, and Mr McFeely is calling on everyone to wear their favourite sweater in honour of his birthday. Don't have a favourite zip-up cardigan? Then just make an extra effort to do something neighbourly today.

After all, it's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood.

_________________________
Click here for a touching tribute.

I thought a break was supposed to help STOP things like this

I'm spring cleaning yesterday and today. Windows open, get the dust out, bring the fresh in, dust out the cobwebs from the corners, organize the pile(s!) of papers everywhere, down and dirty type spring cleaning.

I just walked to the storage room/hall closet, got the vacuum out, and brought it to the living room - about 12 steps round trip.

I walked back to the storage room to get the broom and brought it out to the kitchen. Maybe 10 steps round trip?

Then I walked back to the storage room to get the vacuum. Yes, the vacuum I just brought to the living room.

I looked left, looked right, racked my brain as to why the vacuum wasn't there. Who could I have lent it to? Did Becca still have it? Did I leave it up at the place I was volunteering last month? (er, yeah, I don't vacuum that often) Gah! Where's my vacuum?

I walked back out to the living room to call Becca and see if she had it.

And tripped over the hose.

Oh! There's my vacuum!

Mama mia!

I ain't Irish, but you can kiss me anyway!

Taken last year in Chicago. And nope, this picture isn't fixed!

The reason I am the way I am *updated with photo*

If you've ever read my list of 100 things about me, you may have noticed #85: "When friends who have known me a while meet my dad, they always go, “AHHH! Now I understand!” "

Well, let me introduce you to my dad, via an email he sent me tonight. Him and my mom are preparing to go on a cruise in a few days...


Hi honey !

We are running around stuffing undies in bags so I guess that means we're really off (off what I'm not quite sure)

It's Sunday aft and we leave Tues morning but this is one more thing off my plate.

Just wanted you to have our "details" so you will know where to scrape up our drippings if we get squished by a giant alien with purple eyes and fed to it's six headed suckling spawn …. *

Some times I just don't know ! <<...>>

I'll include them here and in an attached werd doc fer convenience …

Any Q's call we'll be in n out tonight n tomorrow

Love Dad


Yeppers. That's me dad. He's the bestest dad a daughter could ever want - full of wisdom and love, and would do (and has done) anything for us.

He's just a little bit of a wacko.

*grin*

Weaving a web of lies

Alternatively, "Easter celebrations in Miss Hillary's classroom."

The Easter Bunny paid our class a visit today. He left footprints, fur, a note, and some treats hidden all over the room - one little pink packet of chocolate eggs for everyone. (No way in heck was the Easter bunny going to leave random eggs strewn about for children to collect. That would have resulted in the biggest pushing shoving crying fiasco ever!) The kids, the little scientists, tried to catch me faking the visit, but no way no how. I had an explanation for everything.

A little background. The room I'm in was Mrs S's room for many years, and most of my kids were in her class last year. Come Easter time, the kids were very excited to tell me the Mrs S's pet bunny Scooter in fact WAS the Easter bunny. She brought him to school last year, took him to another classroom, put him in a little pen, and yet still he escaped and left a note and treats for the kids.

"Woooow!" I told them. "You're so lucky to know the Easter Bunny's real name! Not many people know that, you know!"

So of course, today, the note was signed "Love, the Easter Bunny (Scooter)" After the kids were finished their little Easter hunt, we were talking about it back on the carpet.

"You know, Mrs S emailed me last night to tell me that Scooter had escaped. He must have come back to 'his' old class to leave the treats for you!"

- No way! You're faking! That writing is all fancy [I... er, Scooter, had written the note in cursive] and Scooter's writing was messy!

Well what do you think Easter Bunnies DO all year? They make Easter Eggs and they learn to write in fancy printing to leave pretty notes. Scooter was just a young little Easter Bunny last year. He's much older now and has been practicing his printing all year long! He's gotten much better now!"

- Yeah! We learn stuff at school, so does the Easter Bunny.
- Hey! He goes to Easter Bunny school!

- But Scooter is only little, how did he write that note so high up?

Bunnies can jump really high!

- Hey, yeah! First he jumped here [a small shelf] then he jumped here [a child's chair] then up here [onto my chair] and then he wrote the note!

- These footprints aren't real! You just used flour! [icing sugar, actually. Darnit! They were paying attention to ingredient names when we baked bread earlier this week!]
- Yeah, it's the same as Santa's footprints!

No, that's not flour! Those are bunny prints! Santa and the Easter Bunny share the same magic, so that's probably why their footprints look the same!

- Ooooh! Maybe the Easter Bunny hopped all the way to the North Pole and got some magic from Santa at his workshop!

Yep! That's probably what happened!

- Wait! This bunny fur isn't real! It's the same as the cotton balls we used to make our bunny box tails yesterday!

Nooo! It's different! I bought that fluff because it looks just like real bunny fur! It really is close, isn't it?!

- But Scooter was BROWN, and this fluff is white!

Oh, yes, but in the winter time, bunnies grow extra fur under their normal fur to help keep them warm. Lots of animals do that. Now, because Spring is coming and it's getting warmer, they lose all that fur. That's what all that white fluff is - it's warm cozy wintertime bunny fur!

- But Scooter lives in Mrs S's house! It's warm there all the time, so he doesn't need the extra fur!

Yeah, but bunnies still do that, it's just what they do.

- But then he'd be hot.
- Maybe Mrs S has a special fan to keep the bunny cool, then she'd be freezing.

Haha! She WOULD be!

- But...
- Isn't...
- Why...

[I cut them all off.] Tell you what! Mrs S is going to come and visit after Spring Break, why don't you ask HER about the Easter Bunny. Ok, boys and girls, it's time for Calendar. [and time for me to stop being the reason you're going to need extensive therapy when you're older!]

Guess I'd better point Mrs S to this post so we're on the same page when she gets bombarded with questions about bunny school and Scooter's special fan, hey? Tee hee hee!

Hooray for Spring Break! It's officially started!

Fun with nutrition *Updated*

There's just something about FOOD that makes learning fun! You may remember last year's McDonald's experiment. HOO BOY that was nast-ay. We're not getting nearly that gross this year. With the little ones it's all about learning to classify the food groups... which resulted in my effective, yet somewhat creepy teachable moment in the lunchroom today: "Woooow! Look! Our lunch has all four food groups in it! Everybody point to your grain product! Point to your meat! Where's your vegetables? Uh oh! Lenny, where are your veggies? Ok, everybody point to your milk product! Hooray! All four food groups! This must be a healthy lunch!" [This must be a scary greasy mystery meat 'chicken burger' whose stench makes me wanna hurl. And this, folks, is why TEACHERS, not hollywood types should get Oscars.]

But I digress.

We've rocketed our way through fruits and vegetables, grain products, and meat and alternates. Milk products is next and by hook or by crook, I'm fitting it (and Easter, and St Patrick's Day, and the rest of the sexual abuse prevention kit, and a spring time art activity) in by Friday. GAK!

But oh what fun we've been having! For the fruits and veggies group, we read the book "Stone Soup." Everybody brought in their favourite veggie, cut it up, and we made soup from a stone, learning that sharing makes all things so much better. (aw!!) They LOVED cutting the vegetables... but hated the soup! Only one kid ate it. Monique,* one of my little know-it-all grade ones [who, when other kids were giving words like "ball" and "box" for words that started with the letter B, came up with "blush" and "beauty"] suggested, "You know, it probably would have tasted better if you had used chicken stock." Right.

So. Stone Soup. They all loved it, and learned a lot about vegetables from it. Er, too bad they didn't learn that vegetables taste GOOD. Better luck next year.

For grain products, I hijacked my friend's bread maker and today we made bread! They were SO excited to put all the ingredients in, see the dough rise, and then eat the fresh, hot bread, complete with butter and honey. Mmmm! The whole hallway smelled of fresh bread all afternoon! (Better than the cabbage smell that filled it when we were making our soup last week. Er, sorry guys!)

We intro'd meat and alternates today, but I'm not really sure what to do for that one. "Here kids! Let's sample a pork chop and some ground chuck!" Er, no. It's ok, we don't have a lot of time, anyway. Maybe I'll think of something for next year.

But milk? Oh THIS one is going to be fan-tastic! I was just gonna give them all ice cream as a treat till I learned this super-stupendous fact: Did you know (you probably did, cause you're already smartie mcsmartiepantses, but I'm learning all this as I go and it's SO FUN!) that you can MAKE ice cream simply by putting a cream/sugar/vanilla mix into a small ziplock, putting the small ziplock into a large ziplock with ice, and shaking it for 5 minutes?!?!?! Can we say, most awesome activity EVER? (even if only for the fact that 5 solid minutes of shaking a heavy bag will tire out my overly-hyped up orangutans? That's gotta be the best part!)

Now the question is, do we do that on Thursday, which will be tricky to be ready for, or on Friday, when we've also got our classroom Easter Egg hunt planned? (Heh. Maybe we should talk about "foods to limit" on Friday, too. "Ok, kids, now chocolate and candy are foods to limit. AND THERE'S OODLES OF IT HIDDEN ALL OVER THE CLASSROOM! GO FIND IT!"

*** UPDATE ***

Um, DUH!!! Clearly I missed the glaringly OBVIOUS. Seriously. Hip hip HOORAY for AfricaBleu for pointing it out to me. Meats & Alternatves + Easter + "Gee, what on earth am I going to do for an Easter activity" = DYE EASTER EGGS!!!! What? Seriously? I didn't think of that??? I was even at school yesterday wondering how he heck to make paper Easter eggs for art and reading the nutrition booklet thingy that was weirdly obsessed with talking about eggs instead of other meats/alternatives. And yet I didn't connect the two. Riiiiight. HOO-RAY for AfricaBleu.

See? That's why I love you people! You save my LIFE.

Friday can not come soon enough

I'm ready. The kids are ready. Even the cherry blossoms, crocusses, and tulips are ready. It's time for spring. More specifically, it's time for spring BREAK. Ho-lee. I'm hangin' in there by a thread, I tell ya. The kids are nutty, I'm overtired and out of patience, and everyone's getting on everyone's nerves. Last week was IN-SANE, and this week's shaping up to be the same. Good thing it's chocolate sale time and I can hoover back a box of chocoalte covered almonds or minty meltaways after school every day. (Um, did I just admit that? Yes, Yes, I believe I did.)

Three and a half more days.

I! Can! Do! It!

I hope...

I'm a big ball of random

Coming up to Easter time, there are a lot of chocoalte bunnies around. Every time I see one THIS SONG rolls through my head. I thought of finding the video on YouTube to share with you (cause I'm generous like that!) and found that there was quite the controversy with this song. They made it, took out a line ("I don't love my mom or my dad, just the bunny") and then apparently still got flack, so made a "New and improved" version. And then YouTube commenters are all up in arms: "What, you change evil a bit and then it's ok? It's still idolatry!" Wha?

Anyhoo.

The mostly original version:


The New and Improved version (and can I say... I LOVE JEAN CLAUDE!)



Well, I'm off to eat the bunny....

(um, no really. My mom gave me a dark lindt bunny on Tuesday. I'm having his ears for breakfast.Hence why I was thinking of this song...)