20 years!

Today is 20 years since I graduated from high school, 42 years since my mom and dad got married, and 15 years since I graduated with my BA. I always like May 30th. It just sounds like a good day!

We only have about 5 of each class left until the end of the school year. Can I get an "Oh Yeah!" - "Oh Yeah!" Don't get me wrong, I love my job but the end of the year is just the best thing ever! Everything starts to wind down. I have less marking and I get things done around my house.

I finished painting my scrapbook room last night and then got the underlay down for the flooring. I am hoping to lay the floor tonight while Aaron is umpiring. Saturday is grad so I won't be able to do anything then but on Sunday I want to head down to Home Depot and maybe Ikea to look for the cabinetry. I know exactly what I want so hopefully it won't be too hard. Installing it might be interesting but hopefully I can enlist the help of Dave. It will be so nice to get the room done so I can use it again. I have been itching to scrapbook more but with all my supplies in boxes in the family room and spare bedroom, it makes it a little difficult. With my luck, I will just get the room the way I want it and Aaron will get one of the admin. jobs he has applied for. LOL I am going to use orange gerber daisies as accents in the room. I think it will look so cool against the blue.

The kids have been driving me crazy with their cell phones lately! They are texting each other during class and phones are ringing during class time. The saddest part is that most of the calls are coming from parents. What is wrong with these people? I have posted signs outside my class room that say "Cell Phone Free Zone" "Use it, and you WILL lose it!" Not that it seems to be making much of a difference.

3 weeks and counting

That's right folks! Only 3 weeks of classes left and then school is done for another year! Can I get an "Oh Yeah!!!!" Not that I don't love my job, I really do, but there is something so exciting and exhillerating about the end of the school year. After the May long weekend things just seem to move so fast and the light at the end of the tunnel gets really bright!

Tomorrow night, my leadership girls and I are hosting a "Girls' Night Sleepover" - hopefully. Ticket sales haven't gone as well as we had hoped. If we don't sell 25 tickets by the end of lunch today, we are going to postpone the event until next year. We don't want to waste the time of our community members, especially on a Friday night. The sad part is, we have all these great events and activities planned - it will be such a fun night!

Arden has her first sport's day tomorrow, as long as it doesn't rain. I was able to get the morning off so I will get to play Mommy. Look out scrapbookers, this momma is going to take a tonne of photos!

Got some marking done in the last few days so things are starting to look up!

Is fear a factor for you?

We did our annual Fear Factor event this week at school. It was AWESOME!!!!!! We began with 10 contestants - a boy and a girl from each grade - and gradually they were eliminated. The first day was bobbing for bananas in mud with worms in it. The second day involved spinning a wheel with ingredients that then were mixed into a "shake" - head cheese, worms, oysters, jalapeno peppers, etc - the third day was singing in front of the school and today, the final, was a relay. Part of the relay was a slip-n-slide covered with cut up fish, vinegar, oil, ketchup, dog food, beans, etc. It was really!!! gross, but of course the kids loved it. The grade 10 girls won the event. We gave an iPod Nano as the prize so it was totally worth it. It was a great week weather-wise so we were able to do everything outside. Clean up was a bit long, and disgusting today but everyone had a blast. It was a great, and positive way to end the week.

I'm looking forward to painting my craft room this weekend and hopefully putting in the floor next week. It is a four day long weekend so maybe I will actually get some marking done as well.

A sad day.

Today I feel nothing but sadness. It has been a year since my mom died. I was already feeling very blue and then I found out that two of my students lost their mother to cancer last night. Crying...that's all I feel like doing. They are such amazing kids and a great family. My students are very private and I didn't even know that their mom was sick. I lost my father when I was a teenager so I understand how important parents are. One of the kids is graduating this year - and now her mom won't get to see that happen - overwhelming sadness...

Wanted: my voice back

I woke up this morning with no voice. I didn't really feel that bad but now I am starting to feel a little flu-like. Tomorrow is sccrapbooking day with the girls so I don't want to be sick. I really want to get Courtney and Taylor's grad scrapbooks done tomorrow so I can start working on my own scrapbooking again.

Bill didn't show up last night to finish the dry wall in my scrap room. I don't want to get pissy with him because he is doing me a big favour but I wish he would have just called. I tried calling him but he had his phone set to message - I think he was avoiding my call. I really wanted to paint my room this weekend and next week so that I could maybe do the floors and get the cabinets over the May long weekend.

Sunday is Mother's Day. It has been almost a year since Mom died. I really miss her. When good stuff happens - like Arden swimming - I feel like I don't have anyone to call to brag to. This is when I miss her the most. I feel sad.

I need motivation!

Well, it's Wednesday and I am still as overwhelmed as last week. Time to get off my keester and do something about it. My goal for the day is to get one assignment marked for my grade 11's. I think that once I get one thing done I will get the wheels in motion and hopefully be able to keep them going.

I am looking forward to tomorrow - and not just because it's Thursday! My brother is coming to do the last step in drywalling my scrapbook room. That means I might actually be able to paint this weekend! YEAH! Saturday is scrapbook day with the girls and Sunday is Mother's Day but I figure I can probably do the drywall primer on Saturday night if all goes well. I was reading on my friend's blog that she just got the shelves I want from Ikea so I might have to pop by her house and check them out. I would really like to have the room done before school gets out - it may be wishful thinking.

The wedding this past weekend was very interesting - to say the least. First time I have ever heard the pastor say "the wife, as the weaker partner in the marriage..." Yep, I couldn't believe it either. He also read a passage from Corinthian that talks about the man being subservient to God and the woman being subservient to man. I have been to weddings at churches that believe this before but usually they tame it down for a wedding with a mixed audience - not in this case. You could actually see the groom's side of the church stiffen when the pastor was speaking. I told Aaron we have a different Bible at our house - LOL. He had actually gotten stuck on subservient and hadn't heard the weaker part. I know there are groups that believe this but it is just shocking to actually hear it out loud.

The wedding was on Whidbey Island in Washington. It was in Oak Harbour. I would really like to go back to Whidbey. It looks like there are lots of neat places to visit. I even managed to find a scrapbook store that was having an amazing sale for National Scrapbook Day. I even won a prize in their prize draw - that was cool!

Well, best be off to actually get that marking done - I am such a procrastinator!

It's Thursday!

I love Thursdays! It is a beautiful day today and it is starting to feel more like spring/summer every day. We have already cut the lawn twice and I am hoping to tackle the gardens today.

Arden has been taking private swimming lessons for a couple of weeks and she is doing AMAZING! She was so excited when she came home yesterday because she swam the whole length of the pool wearing a life jacket and then swam 10m without the life jacket! I really would like her to feel confident swimming in the lake this summer.

We are off to a wedding in Oak Harbour this weekend. It should be interesting. It is Aaron Silvis, the son of one of Aaron's umpire buddies, Bill, who is getting married. It is a Western themed wedding so we are not too sure what to expect. I love going to weddings but after having been in New York for a week I would really like to be staying home this weekend.

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately. Mostly work related. The sad part is I sit at home at night and watch stupid television instead of getting some marking or planning done. I just keep digging my own holes and then complain about getting out of them. Being a procrastinator really sucks sometimes.

Our dates for going to Great Britain are confirmed. We leave on July the 10th. We didn't get the tour we wanted but it is pretty close. We will be going to Scotland first - Glasgow, Isle of Skye, and Edinburgh, and then down to London. I am disappointed that we won't be going to Stratford or Oxford but that is because there are only 4 kids and me so we have to join another group. It will still be a great experience.

I am going to try really hard to check off some things on my "to do" list in the next couple of days. Maybe then I can feel "whelmed" - LOL

We're back!

New York was AMAZING!!!! We had such a good time. There was so much to see, I can't wait to go back one day. The weather was awesome - I even got a sun burn when we went to the Statue of Liberty island.

While we were there we; visited Rockefeller Centre and went to "The Top of the Rock", Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, World Trade Centre site, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, saw Trump Tower, Park Avenue, Times Square, Broadway, Macy's, Saks, rode the Subway, saw Rent - 10th anniversary of its Broadway opening, and we went to two Yankees games. Not once did I feel afraid or uncomfortable.

The whole trip was awesome. We had some great meals as well. My favourite was the lunch we had at a café in Little Italy. We ate at delis - there are a lot of them - I had an amazing bagel with Nova (Nova Scotia salmon). We also ate hot dogs from a street vendor.

We didn't do a lot of shopping other than for souvenirs which was fine with me. I was more into the experiences. I did buy a couple of purses off the street - designer knock-offs and some great jewelery from a designer named Laila Rowe.

Aaron got lots of Yankees gear. He was in heaven!

I am getting my film developed tonight so I can't wait to see the photos. I mostly took photos without either of us in them. The buildings were so amazing I just couldn't stop taking pictures. I can't wait to scrapbook them!