slacking off

Hello all....
Sadly, I've been a huge slacker the past couple of months and have neglected my blog entirely! I allowed Education Week, Open House, field trips, EQAO and report cards to get in the way! Very disappointing!:(

I'm happy to say that I have a new job for next year. I'm back to teaching grade five, which is nice, although I would have liked to do grade three for another year. My new boss is apparently very supportive of her teachers, which means I hopefully won't have any parents attacking me like I did this year!! We'll just have to wait and see!!

I'm really looking forward to the summer. Nothing planned yet, but probably a trip out west and a trip to Ottawa with Chris. Mostly I'm looking forward to sleeping in and relaxing!!

Hope everyone is doing well out there.

Here we go again...

Well, it's yet another Open House at school tonight. This means that parents can come in and walk about the school and see what their child is doing. The purpose is really for the students to share their work with their parents, but parents see it as another interview night where they can find out how their child is doing and ask the teacher questions for an hour.

My fingers are crossed that the horrible parent who reamed me out on the real interview night doesn't show up. I certainly don't plan on being her personal punching bag tonight, and I may get nasty in front of a lot of other parents if she says anything unpleasant to me.

Wish me luck!

Help!

I feel like I've been punched in the stomach right now. Lately it seems like any time I get stressed, I get physically ill. And I've been under major stress lately.
It's so stupid, but I don't know how to keep it under control. Yoga? Exercise? Meditation? Any ideas?

The one crappy comment

Why is it that you can have 100 people say something nice to you, and yet it's the one nasty comment you hear that actually sticks with you?

This week was parent/teacher interview week, and all of my interviews went extremely well....except for one. There was one parent who came in ready for attack and proceeded to use the time to take repeated verbal stabs at me, basically calling me a bad teacher, and saying I wasn't doing enough for her daughter.

Even though all the other parents were great, she's the one that I keep thinking about.

I'm doing my best to forget about it. I would hate for someone that horrible to ruin my entire weekend. Instead, I'm going to think about good things, like kittens, fluffy clouds, and cheese.

Yes, that should do it. If all else fails, I think Chris has a bottle of wine and some raspberry Sour Puss at his place that may help me feel better, as well!

snow sculptures

Last week, right before I got sick, Chris and I made a couple of snow sculptures in Brampton. I'll put the pictures of mine first, since mine wasn't nearly as good as his!

This is my dragon from the front. It's kind of hard to see, but you can see the face if you look really closely.

Again, not so easy to see, but you kind of get the idea of his body size.

I was very proud of him at the time.

And this is Chris's masterpiece. My sculpture was behind his, so I didn't even see the front of his until mine was finished. He totally put me to shame.

Apparently he based it on a bunch of statues he'd seen in Japan.

Snow is definitely his medium.

And finally, here I am with a few new friends that I made that day. These ducks were actually stepping on my feet. I've never had them that close before, which is probably why I look a tad nervous in the picture.

It was an awesome day.

not exactly what you'd call romance

This weekend my boyfriend decided to be wonderful and booked us a room at an extremely nice (read: expensive) hotel. I went and ruined the whole weekend by being sick the entire time. It's not exactly romantic when you're throwing up every half hour.

I feel bad.

the definition of "weird"

I was chatting with a friend of mine today and we were talking about someone we both know and how weird this person is. And the more we talked about it, the more I realized that I'm also extremely weird. And the more I thought about that, the more I realized that my friend is ALSO pretty strange when it comes right down to it. (Admit it, if you're reading this blog, you must be pretty atypical yourself!)

So now I'm wondering. Is weird the new normal? Is everyone so unusual that people who DON'T exhibit eccentricities and odd behaviours are now the weird ones?

winter blues

10 reasons why I hate winter

1. It's bloody cold. I don't care if we live in Canada, I can't get used to -30 degrees!

2. Dressing in layers means I run out of clothes too quickly. It also means more laundry.

3. My students take 20 minutes just to get ready to go outside.

4. When it's this cold, my students don't go outside for recess. (This is much worse than #3!)

5. Outdoor sports aren't as much fun as they are in summer.

6. Too many illnesses!

7. Brushing the snow off my car.

8. My car takes 30 minutes to warm up.

9. My arthritis acts up.

10. People are too negative and miserable this time of year.

Flavor of "Love"

So I've tuned in to several episodes of Flavor of Love and Flavor of Love 2, and I still don't quite understand the show. I understand that it's a romance experiment and that he's trying to find someone to love (and we all know that reality TV is the way to go when looking for a meaningful relationship!), but what I don't understand is: Why on earth do these women want to be with this guy? Flavor Flav is more annoying than Urkel!! And what's with the helmet he wears all the time? He looks like one of the water buffaloes!

I guess if the girls are doing it for fame (and if they are, then they must be pretty damn good actresses, because they seem to really be into this guy), then it makes some sense. Otherwise, I'm stumped.

I'm also trying to understand why, when the show bugs me so much, I keep watching it. Another mystery, another time, I suppose.

Happy new year!

Happy new year, everyone!

My holidays were low-key this year, but relaxing. I didn't take any major trips, but I did hang out with several friends whom I hadn't seen in ages. Some, I hadn't seen in years. You know those friends that you can go for long periods of time without seeing, but then when you do hang out, it's like you've just seen them yesterday? That's what it was like.

This was taken on Christmas Eve. If you look closely, you can see a box of Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits beside my feet. That's right, they're back in Canada!! How exciting is that? My friend (the girl with dark hair in this picture) gave me two boxes for Christmas! Is she the best friend ever, or what?



I went to the Ontario Science Centre during my time off, as well. If you've never been, GO! There are a million cool things to do and see there. I usually take my students on field trips there, but it was much more fun not having to worry about watching a group of kids!

I made a shoe while I was there. At first, I was trying to make some moccasins, but it turned into a sandal with a bunny on it. Much harder to do than it looks!!






I spent a lot of time in Brampton during my holidays. Not the coolest city, but filled with cool people. Here's a picture of me with one of the coolest people Brampton has to offer.

Well, this was the week of Back to School, part 2, and I have to say, it was eerily calm. I guess I was expecting my students to be as hyper as they were in December, and they weren't. I've been pleased, but on guard, waiting for the other shoe to drop.