Fantastic children

My dear boy ran 5K in 27 minutes.  TWENTY SEVEN.  That's way faster than most of the moms who ran it, and only a couple of minutes longer than some of my middle schoolers who ran 3K.  He's doing cross country every Wednesday, and last week came in 12th overall, and this week came in 9th.  Atta boy.

The day before, they both ran a 1K "fun run".  Willow got a cramp and was super unimpressed that Grant wasn't running with her.  They both got medals, so I think everyone came out ok.

Today I went to pick Willow up at her friend's house, and she was telling me about the walk that they're doing tomorrow at school for Teriyaki.  I was like, Teriyaki is all the way up at the mall, they can't be walking that far.  But she was adamant, so I thought maybe Teriyaki was delivering?  I know they did something like that with Booster Juice last year.  Then she continues to explain, "he lost his leg, you know", and I have to put my hand on her head and turn away because I'm laughing so hard (silently) and also I can't even think what to say to her because I have realized that she is actually talking about Terry Fox.  They're doing the Terry Fox walk tomorrow.

I love that my kids are awesome, and entertaining.

Swinter

So I have mostly recovered from this morning's shockingly sock-and-ice-scraper-inducing weather.  It turned into an absolutely beautiful (October) day.  I have definitely mostly succumbed to a cold, which is annoying as all get-out, but not surprising given how I spend my days.  I got a few good bits of news at work (assistive tech arrived, and mostly works, we should be able to get an excellent communication program for my newest, very special student, and we are getting not one, but [basically] TWO additional EAs [one to come with a soon-to-be-returning student], and have the new schedule almost hammered out (no small feat, I promise you).  Tonight's plans include lying on the couch and drinking tea and neocitran.  In sweats, obviously.

The thing I'm most looking forward to though, is climbing into bed at a reasonable hour and snuggling up under the comforting weight of the now seasonally appropriate quilt+comforter combo.  The comforter is in the dryer as we speak, as it had a mild case of the "has been sitting in a pile in the basement all summer"s.   Extra laundry: worth it in this one case.

Woah.

So this morning I have to wear socks and  use and ice scraper on the car. hello fall. I mean hello late summer. Jerk.  I did manage to scrape I love you and my husband's windshield though, so that's fun!

Fall with dog

Went for a walk with Rollo today. He was so excited to be out, all the new smells. He couldn't even walk in a straight line - he'd sniff along the ground back and forth and then his head would go straight up to catch a whiff of something blowing past. I told him fall will likely be his favourite season. It is mine. 

Super adorbs new babycousin

Right??

Kelly Belly and Jason were here for a family visit. It was also John's 70th (!) birthday. Smith made his grand entrance on May 22nd, so he joins the league of spring babies.  

Blues-ing it up

Went to see the Perpetrators and Ross Neilson.  Good shows!  The Perpetrators sang a fun song about getting robbed, and having to tell the guy he spent all his money on smokes and chicken.  Started the evening out with friends and munchies and drinks, and finished it off with chicken shawarma (when they say garlic sauce, they mean it!)

Now to start planning my birthday extranaganza!

Look at me, still awake!

And in honourable tradition (although TV Guide has much simplified things by making an actual calendar, saving me to process of copy / pasting things, but also making it almost impossible to showcase my favourites...), the season premieres!

September

October

Facebook Privacy Dinosaur

I don't even really know what dinosaurs have to do with Facebook, but apparently they thought that was a good match.

In other news, it's Friday, thank GOD.  I'm really loving my job, but holy heck I'm tired.  Like, falling asleep in the chair in the waiting room at the dentist at 2:30 in the afternoon, tired.  No cavities though.  I'm learning a ton - about proprioception and brushing and joint compressions and heavy work and play therapy and zones of regulation and therabands and sign language.  The differences between OT and PT and what they and SLP (through the ESS and in keeping with the SIP and the DIP) can do for our kids.  And what they can't.  Even when they really want to.

It's Harvest time.  Hubs and a couple of his man-friends have gone to see the shows tonight.  I mainly want to go to bed, but there's supposed to be some wicked Northern Lights action around midnight.  Rollo and I will do our best to stay awake.  The kids are long snoozin. Maybe some sweet paranormal vampire romance novel action will pass the time.  I had to dig out my furry Merrils to take the dog out tonight, so my hopes for one more last gasp Indian Summer type deal are pretty much dashed.  

In 2 weeks, I'll be 35.  I'm fine with that, obviously, but at the same time I kind of feel like it's significant.  It rounds up, right?  I'd like to do something, but I don't know the first thing about planning any kind of event beyond ... like supper at Papa John's, so that's fairly limiting.  Thoughts?

on love and loss

that sounds super dramatic hey?  I was using this great app, Day One, to do a #365grateful daily thing.  I had one for all but probably 10 days since January 1st, and then I restored my phone, and that did not restore, and it is lost, and I am just...indcredibly disappointed.  Should I have backed it up somewhere other than iCloud?  Apparently.  Live and learn.  Life lessons don't really help get shit back though, right?

Anyway.  I have gotten back into the groove of (almost) daily posting, so I'm thinking this is a better, more secure way to do things.  I can't believe it's been 3 years, and really 5, since I was posting.  That's just silly.  The kids are enormous now, 9 and 6.  We have a dog!  Rollo!  Who is also enormous, at almost 8 months of mostly-black German Shepherd Beast Dog.

I'm still at the same school, and have gotten back to Resource.  I'm really excited about the move, but MAN it is busy.  Schedules and emergency response, but when things settle in I'll be helping all over, co-planning and teaching in classes, working with groups of kids, advocating for kids to get the services they need from the district and the province.  Pretty cool.  That said, I have work to do, so this'll have to suffice for my grand re-opening post.

really should start documenting stuff again

Somehow, it is May 2011. There are 5 weeks left of school, my sweet boy is 6 and finishing kindergarten, and is so smart and fantastic that he's surpassing all of my mom and teacher hopes, my little girl is 3 and batshit crazy about 15% of the time, but SO GD WONDERFUL the other 85% that it's totally worth it. I've been married almost 5 years, my sister has an almost-2 year old who's gorgeous and delightful, and I've learned, only because I had to, that I can actually manage to work full time and care for small people by myself, if only for a few days at a time.

What else. My kitchen appliances selection has much improved. We are now rocking a Keurig and a popcorn maker, both of which are awesome.

My kids say and do supercute things, and I've been mostly making note of them on Facebook, but as much as I love the old FB, I also really hate it, so I'd like to get away from relying on it. I can post and host my own stuff, bitches.

This is too overwhelming to do a good post, so I'll close with my 2 favourite things that they tiny ones have done lately.

Kieran, on Mother's Day, unprompted, chose Robert Munsch's "Guess How Much I Love You" for his bedtime story. I cried, but not embarrassingly much. He's great.

Willow, out of the blue in the car the other day says, "mama, when I am a grownup and you are a baby, I will pick you up and carry you around. and I will make myself coffee and drink it all up in my tummy."

so, again

it's been a really long time. lots going on, but no time to sit down and report it all. also I got an iPod touch for Christmas, so most of my free time is dedicated to downloading apps and playing Bejeweled. Sorry.
Kids are lovely, house is good, the man and I are still on speaking terms. No big emergencies or excitements in the last little while, although the boy did fall and smash his face on the deck at the in-laws' place last weekend, and man did it swell! It settled down into a disgusting bruise that made him look very much like he had been in a bar fight. I tried to get him to tell people that he had, but he wasn't up for it. Probably because he doesn't know what that means. Batman doesn't get in bar fights. He's become completely obsessed (to the extent that he's allowed) with the Lego Batman game for the Wii. It's pretty fun, you get to beat everything and everybody up and they break up into lego pieces. We've also been playing Mario Bros a bit. The boy thinks he likes to play, but it's actually almost impossible for him to do most of the things, so not really fun for anyone.
Work is going well. We had a class hamster, but its sibling which was in the another middle level class was (oops) impregnated over the Christmas break, so the 2 were taken home. We got another one, and it escaped. Bastard. I'm thinking of getting a guinea pig, they can't really climb out of stuff. Also they're bigger and I would think more resilient. Maybe. Anyway, now we have these 2 cages attached by a maze of tubes, and no frigging hamster. Sigh. I'm about to the point where I'm just going to decide that this is my classroom, and start getting rid of all the years of other peoples' crap that lives here. Old, old, old textbooks, resources that are completely out of date, pamphlets that have no place being handed out to anyone. Nothing useful, naturally, but a bunch of stuff on shelves and an entire closet, as well as an enclosed shelving unit, absolutely FULL of stuff. As much grief as the French classes give me, I do hope to be back here teaching it again next year, and after that. It's still a very new program, and the kids who are taking it mostly don't want to learn French, so that's tricky. It'll get better. It has gotten slightly better, the kids aren't generally so rude, more good-natured when they say "OH NO FRENCH!" as they pass me in the hall. Good times.
Anyway. The boy has swimming this evening, so I'm heading out so we can all be fed and ready to go! It may be a supper out night, who knows! I'll call the man and see what he thinks. I'm going to try to convince him that he should take the boy swimming, but since he takes him skating, I think that leaves me in charge of swimming. We have to go in the family change room, which I do understand, but we had been going in the women's, because he's just a wee lad. Last week we were complained about, mamas are uncomfortable with these boys in the room with their girls. Well, ladies, I'm sorry that we don't all have the luxury to have same-gendered children to bring swimming. The "family" change room has no benches, leaving you to put your things on the wet floor and fight a losing battle with your child to keep him from sitting on the wet floor, 2 change rooms which are never available, and a toilet which is too high for a child to use. How is any of that family-friendly? There is also a sign on the door that says "no strollers allowed". I do understand that, but it seems ironic, don't you think? Anyway, rest assured there will be a strongly-worded letter heading to the pool folks shortly.
Like I said though, I'm out!

holy cow

this back to work stuff is really cutting into my blogging time. There's lots going on, teaching grad 7 and a little bit of grade 6, the drama that goes along with that, and trust me, there is drama. I was actually a little suprised to find out that there is drama at every grade level. I have duty outside with the primary (k, 1, 2) kids twice a week and it's mostly swing pushing and shoe tying and door opening so they can go pee, but there's a lot of "I wanted to play with Ashley and Carson told Ashley not to play with me because he said I was mean to him yesterday and but I WASN'T mean to him yesterday and but Ashley won't play with me!" and then tears and then me trying to explain that it's not really fun to play with people who don't want to play with you anyway, so why not find something else to do? The grad 6/7 drama is much more direct, girls being bitchy and boys being jerks and wanting to beat each other up type stuff. The usual, you know.

Today the little girl decided she knew how to get out of her crib. She does, sort of, but not really, so her escape was really a matter (I think, I wasn't in there at the time) of her getting a leg up and over and then falling over the rail. It was quite a thump, and I briefly thought, oh, she's thrown her water cup out again (she throws it really hard, and the first couple of times I heard it I thought she had actually jumped out of bed), but then I thought wait, she doesn't have her water cup, so I went in and sure enough, baby's on the floor. I scooped her up, but she was already pretty ticked off at having been put in bed in the first place (naps are for suckers, right?) so she took a few minutes to calm down. le sigh. The boy continues to be generally charming and wonderful, but every now and then I do get the distinct urge to throw him out a window. Or at the very least lock him or myself in a room so that I can escape the crying and whining. I know it's payback, I was a whiny child, but that makes it no less irritating. I'm waiting for the logic to kick in so that when I say things like "if you ____ then _____" and then he does that thing so I do my thing he doesn't completely lose it, or he might even be able to regularly make the decision NOT to do the thing in the first place...but as I've mentioned I'm a teacher, and I'm not seeing a lot of logic and / or planning in any of the students I teach, so I'm not really hopeful it'll happen any time soon. Joys of parenting, yo!

We're in the midst of the whole H1N1 thing, we have a couple of cases at school, so a significant portion of parents are keeping their kids home so they'll be safe. Which would make sense if I thought for a minute that they were also keeping them out of like, WalMart, convenience stores, Sobey's, and all the other places where their kids are about 158 times more likely to catch something than at school, where we're all cleaned and disinfected and looked after in a semi-responsible way. Anyway. It makes teaching easier, except that the 1/4 - 1/3 of my class that is missing won't have learned any of this stuff, which is a giant pain in the ass. We're having a flu shot clinic at school on Wednesday afternoon, and I'm interested to see what that's going to do to the school. I'm really quite annoyed that I can't get the shot myself. I'm also annoyed that like, police officers and PRISONERS are annoyed that they can't get the shot, when people like teachers and pharmacists who are far, FAR more exposed to dirt, germs, and viruses than the average joe, are not being put in any "priority group". Miss Baby girl has to go this weekend and get part 2 of her shot, but apparently Mr Little Man doesn't need a 2nd dose. Let's hope that the powers that be have made that decision based on real data, not just based on the fact that they need more vaccine and don't have enough to give our little people their required part 2.

We went to Bangor for Thanksgiving weekend and did the bulk of our Christmas shopping for the kids, which is excellent. We have a closet now, a large closet under the stairs, that very much resembles Santa's freaking workshop, but it's all good. We went down with friends of ours, and took their van, and every inch of non-seating space was absolutely filled with stuff on the drive back. It was like a game of tetris trying to get everything in there, and in such a way that any abrupt stops or turns would not lead to someone's untimely demise. Death by play kitchen. Tragic. I have to stop buying things though. Having started so early is great, but now I keep seeing things and being like, one more thing, one more little toy, oh, look at that! wouldn't the baby / the boy just LOVE that? le sigh.

As a sidebar, I'm looking for a good book to tell the boy the story of why we actually have Christmas in the first place. We've told him, but he loves to read books, so if we had a good book that would be even better.

I bought the new mario Wii game, and should really either be playing that or going to bed, so I'm going to go maybe flip a coin and decide.

back by popular demand

here you go folks, the fall tv premieres! I know, it's exciting, right? It's my list, so I'll keep everyithing on it, but I'm crossing shit out and bolding the good stuff.

also, some stuff has already premiered, like Mad Men, so this is just the stuff that's starting after today. apparently nothing for a whole week, gasp! I do apologize that the channels are US, you'll have to do a little digging on your own to find out exactly where they'll be.

Tuesday, Sept. 8

90210, 8 p.m. (CW)
Melrose Place, 9 p.m. (CW)
Sons of Anarchy, 10 p.m. (FX)


Wednesday, Sept. 9

America's Next Top Model, 8 p.m. (CW) (I don't like reality shows. Sorry.)
Glee, 9 p.m. (Fox)
So You Think You Can Dance, 8 p.m. (Fox)


Thursday, Sept. 10

Supernatural, 9 p.m. (CW)
The Vampire Diaries, 8 p.m. (CW)


Friday, Sept. 11

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, 8 p.m. (Fox)


Saturday, Sept. 12

America's Most Wanted, 9 p.m. (Fox)
Cops, 8 p.m. (Fox)


Monday, Sept. 14

Gossip Girl, 9 p.m. (CW)
The Jay Leno Show, 10 p.m. (NBC)
Lincoln Heights, 8 p.m. (ABC Family)
One Tree Hill, 8 p.m. (CW)


Tuesday, Sept. 15

The Biggest Loser, 8 p.m. (NBC)


Wednesday, Sept. 16

The Beautiful Life, 9 p.m. (CW)


Thursday, Sept. 17

Bones, 8 p.m. (Fox)
Community, 9:30 p.m. (NBC)
Fringe, 9 p.m. (Fox)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 10 p.m. (FX)
The Office, 9 p.m. (NBC)
Parks and Recreation, 8:30 p.m. (NBC)
Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday, 8 p.m. (NBC)
Survivor: Samoa, 8 p.m. (CBS)


Friday, Sept. 18

Crash, 10 p.m. (Starz)


Sunday, Sept. 20

Curb Your Enthusiasm, 9 p.m. (HBO)
Bored to Death, 9:30 p.m. (HBO)


Monday, Sept. 21

Accidentally on Purpose, 8:30 p.m. (CBS)
The Big Bang Theory, 9:30 p.m. (CBS)
Castle, 10 p.m. (ABC)
CSI: Miami, 10 p.m. (CBS) (for Jenn. xo)
Dancing With the Stars, 8 p.m. (ABC)
Heroes, 8 p.m. (NBC)
House, 8 p.m. (Fox)
How I Met Your Mother, 8 p.m. (CBS)
Two and a Half Men, 9 p.m. (CBS)


Tuesday, Sept. 22

The Forgotten, 10 p.m. (ABC)
The Good Wife, 10 p.m. (CBS)
NCIS, 8 p.m. (CBS)
NCIS: Los Angeles, 9 p.m. (CBS)


Wednesday, Sept. 23

Cougar Town, 9:30 p.m. (ABC) (seriously, this looks terrible)
Criminal Minds, 9 p.m. (CBS)
CSI: NY, 10 p.m. (CBS)
Eastwick, 10 p.m. (ABC)
Gary Unmarried, 8:30 p.m. (CBS)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 9 p.m. (NBC)
Mercy, 8 p.m. (NBC)
Modern Family, 9 p.m. (ABC)
The New Adventures of Old Christine, 8 p.m. (CBS)


Thursday, Sept. 24

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, 9 p.m. (CBS)
Flash Forward, 8 p.m. (ABC)
Grey's Anatomy, 9 p.m. (ABC)(though I may not watch without George...)
The Mentalist, 10 p.m. (CBS)


Friday, Sept. 25

Brothers, 8 p.m. (Fox)
Dollhouse, 9 p.m. (Fox)
Ghost Whisperer, 8 p.m. (CBS)
Law & Order, 8 p.m. (NBC)
Medium, 9 p.m. (CBS)
Numb3rs, 10 p.m. (CBS)
Smallville, 8 p.m. (CW)


Saturday, Sept. 26

Saturday Night Live, 11:30 p.m. (NBC)


Sunday, Sept. 27

60 Minutes, 7 p.m. (CBS)
The Amazing Race, 8 p.m. (CBS)
American Dad, 9:30 p.m. (Fox)
Brothers & Sisters, 10 p.m. (ABC)
Californication, 10 p.m. (HBO)
The Cleveland Show, 8:30 p.m. (Fox)
Cold Case, 10 p.m. (CBS)
Desperate Housewives, 9 p.m. (ABC)
Dexter, 9 p.m. (HBO)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 7 p.m. (ABC)
Family Guy, 9 p.m. (Fox)
The Simpsons, 8 p.m. (Fox)


Monday, Sept. 28

Lie to Me, 9 p.m. (Fox)
Trauma, 9 p.m. (NBC) (going to give this one a try, because I miss ER)


Tuesday, Sept. 29

Hell's Kitchen, 8 p.m. (Fox)
Shark Tank, 8 p.m. (ABC)


Wednesday, Sept. 30

Hank, 8 p.m. (ABC)
The Middle, 8:30 pm. (ABC)


Thursday, Oct. 1

Private Practice, 10 p.m. (ABC) (gotta see how they get Violet out of that sticky situation)


Friday, Oct. 2

'Til Death, 8:30 p.m. (Fox)
Stargate Universe, 9 p.m. (Syfy)


Sunday, Oct. 4

America's Funniest Home Videos, 7 p.m (ABC) (this is still on? really?)
Three Rivers, 9 p.m. (CBS)


Monday, Oct. 5

Rita Rocks, 7:30 p.m. (Lifetime)
Sherri, 7 p.m. (Lifetime)


Tuesday, Oct. 6

Scare Tactics, 9 p.m. (Syfy)


Friday, Oct. 9

Sanctuary, 10 p.m. (Syfy)
Ugly Betty, 8 p.m. (ABC)


Thursday, Oct. 15

30 Rock, 9:30 p.m. (NBC)


Friday, Oct. 16

Supernanny, 8 p.m. (ABC)


Friday, Oct. 23

Southland, 9 p.m. (NBC)
White Collar, 10 p.m. (USA)


Tuesday, Nov. 3

V, 8 p.m. (ABC)


Saturday, Nov. 7

Legend of the Seeker (syndication)
The Wanda Sykes Show, 11 p.m. (Fox)

at the beach

at the cottage. Everyone was here yesterday, but Dad had to go back into town today for the night, so it's a girls (plus the boy) night, wooh! Right now though, the girl is napping, the boy is down at the beach with his grannie, my sister and her wee lass have gone for a drive to get some air conditioning and see if that makes wee lass feel a bit better, and I'm up here, all by myself. It's quite lovely. Quiet, breezy, nice. I'm going to lounge around and read a book I think. Should last at least another 5 minutes, I better take advantage!

quite something, really

I've been posting for 7 years on this site. It's moved around a bit, had different names, but 7 years nonetheless. And in that entire time, I've posted at least once a month save for 3 months. I find that very impressive. And I am not easily impressed.

That's not true, I'm actually really easily impressed. And amused. But I like that about myself, it keeps things interesting.

then again, maybe 4 is too young for team sports

I knew 3 was, which is why we didn't put the boy in soccer last summer, but all of his friends had played, so we decided he could this year. Or should, whatever. Anyway, he mostly had a great time running around "playing soccer", but the last few games he would get really sour when he didn't get the ball or didn't score a goal. We tried explaining to him that everybody is trying to get the ball, and it wouldn't be fun for anybody else if he always had the ball, that you have to take turns, blah blah blah, like reasoning with a piece of bacon, but to no avail. To the point last night, his last game of the season, which I had to bring little girl to because the man had to work late, where he got so upset about not having sole custody of the soccer ball that we got to the "either stop crying and go play with your friends, or we're going home to bed (a good hour earlier than usual)" stage. He opted to not go back out and play, so we did indeed come home and go to bed. He fell asleep almost immediately, as, thankfully, did the little lady, who almost always has a very hard time falling to sleep if we keep her up past 6-6:30. We're discovering, to no great surprise, that there is no reasoning with upset 4-year olds. It doesn't matter what you bribe or threaten him with, he just is upset and will continue to be that way generally until you just leave him alone and he calms down on his own. We're hoping this is a phase. It's a phase, right?

good heavens

June? Really? I'm sorry. It's not like I've been busy working or anything. The minutae of my daily grind just haven't inspired me to keep a journal, you know? July was absolutely gross, as far as "summer" weather goes. I don't think we had more than an hour of sunshine the whole month. The first day of summer was decidedly un-summery, and it continued from there. We've had a few nice days so far this month though, so hopefully it will keep up. Having said that though, the nights are quite cool already, and although the boy likes to keep us guessing as to what he'll be wearing to bed, going to bed in one set of jammies and getting up the next morning in another, or in underwear...the girl has made the move to long sleeves and legs. Not of her own wishes, clearly, she still doesn't have much say in the matter. I tried to let her pick out of the drawer a few times, but she really doesn't have a firm grasp on the type of jammies vs type of weather correlation, so it doesn't generally go well. We're not to the flannels yet, but we're out of the cute little shorts and t-shirts. Silly girl won't wear a blanket, so we have to dress her a little warmly.

We've been to the cottage a couple of times, the man has been quite busy with his course and with work, so we took off for the better part of a week and left him here. I think he didn't really mind too much, and despite the weather not being terribly welcoming, we had a lovely time. We all went for the long weekend, as did my sister and her man and their new sweet baby girl, and it was LOVELY weather, and the baby was relatively cooperative, as far as 4 week old babies go, and we got some very nice family pics taken by our cottage neighbour. All in all a good time! We made ice cream for mom's birthday (belated) but our technique was not well thought out, so we ended up with nice chocolate ice cream with great giant gobs of (natural) peanut butter, rendering it slightly inedible. Tasty, but difficult to manage. We'll try again, I'm sure. I actually haven't made ice cream since the delish peanut butter stuff, and that was probably 2 months ago, so I'm due for some new I'd say. The man and the boy only ever want mint chocolate chip, the boy actually prefering his without the chips, so that gets a bit boring. I like mine with about as much excitement as possible, but then I'm the only one who will eat it.

Hmm. I can't even remember, did I tell you about my job for the fall? Yes, I did. Ok. I just finised up the training for the French part, and was quite impressed with how well I was able to understand and speak the language, having been quite out of practise these past 5 years or so. Like riding a bike! I think teaching French this new way is going to be really good, much easier than drilling lists of vocab and grammar, and probably more enjoyable for the kids. People who have been teaching for years though are having a bit of a time adjusting to the new way. It's very logical, did you learn your first language with grammar drills and vocabulary lists? Likely no. But you learned, and learned pretty well. So why not apply that same learning style to 2nd languages? It seems to work. People hate change though, is the thing. Not change for me, I've never taught that way, so I'm a happy camper! I've also found someone to look after my sweet offspring, which is nice, but I'm still not at all looking forward to that part. She's a lovely woman, she came recommended by several people I work with, she even has kids the same age as mine, and a swingset, but the boy at first refused to get out of the car the first time we went, and the girl cries just about every time I leave the room, if there's anyone in that room who she's not intimately acquainted with, so the first couple of weeks should be just wonderful. I'm going to bring them for a couple of hours here and there before I go back full time, hopefully that will help. I know we've done it before, and at least the kids will get to be together, but it just still really sucks.

The man is taking vacation the last week of August, he'll be finished his course and I won't be back to work yet, so we'll try to make some great plans for that time. Camping, maybe? I think that would be better for the men / boy folk than for me / the girl, but we'll see what happens. Maybe we'll drop the kids off somewhere and have a night to ourselves for the first time in...a really long time. Endless possibilities. Endless.

I painted a mural from the Curious George movie on the playroom wall. It's pretty cute, it's from the part where George gets into the lady's apartment and she's having it painted, so there are all these open cans of paint lying around. That's just asking for trouble, if you ask me. Anyway, George takes it as an invitation, and paints a jungle scene with palm trees and giraffes and whatnot all over the walls. He also paints himself and the man in the yellow hat, but I didn't do that part. The boy likes the mural, but did point out that we were missing those 2 key things. I told him we didn't do the *whole* thing, just a part, so hopefully he'll let me not paint that part. Memory like a steel trap, that one. It's going to serve him well I'm sure, but for now it's a pain, because you can't get away with anything. My memory is terrible, so he definitely got that from the man.

As usually happens when I sit down to do something, the little lady is waking up, so I should probably go get her. She's likely soiled herself, it seems to be her favourite way to wake herself up from naps. I'd choose something else, but to each her own.

just the one time, ha

yeah, so I haven't been running since then. Whatter ya gonna do, hey? It just isn't meant to be. Or I hate waking up early, and just don't have time to go in the evenings, since the man is much more committed to his workout routines, and that's when he goes. I did get a really good start with the wii Active, which I do recommend, I think. I got about halfway through the 30 day challenge, and was doing well. It's a good little workout, and you can personalise it to be low, medium, or high intensity. Anyway. My knees started giving me grief. I'm not sure if it was because of the running on the spot or the masses of lunges and squats (all of which is being done in my basement, which is carpeted but not so much padded over the concrete floor), but something was causing my knees to object rather forcefully. So I took a break, and now I have a wicked cold / flu, and now it's been...I think 5 days since I worked out last. I did buy some big foam mats though, and I think I'll skip the running on the spot parts (you can do that, it shows you what your workout consists of, and if there's something really objectionable there you can say hells no) and see how that goes when I do the rest on some padding. I'll let you know. Maybe I'll actually start going for real runs! My sister gave me 2 mp3 players, so I don't have to share with the man anymore, which will be lovely because our tastes in music are...different. Especially for working out. He's all like, heavy, hockey warm up AC/DC type stuff, and I'm more like Fergilicious / Mariah Carey / I know it's terrible but it's peppy type stuff.

Anyway. I have a job for next year, teaching mostly French, English, and Math. They are all new programs, and all likely require a lot of prep, so that should be fun! I have to go for training for the French, it's the (relatively) new Post-Intensive French, so these 7s will be the first to have this grade 7 portion of it. They'll be my homeroom, and they're the bunch that were in the classroom beside mine when I was teaching last year, so that's fun. I'm looking forward to all of it though, I'm theoretically an English teacher, so it's nice to be getting back to that. I was always actually better at math than English, I just couldn't see myself doing math for the rest of my life (a la the man and sister) so I opted for English teacher instead. The French, will be kind of an adventure, I think. 4 days of training, here in town, which is excellent because the initial Intensive French program training was in Shippegan. I've never been there, but...yeah. I'm glad it's here. I also could have gone to Moncton, which is more fun and better shopping, but that would have required nights away from both kids and way more planning.

Apparently we're going to watch a movie, one of 3 very manly ones that the man has picked out. I told him I don't want to watch any of them so I don't know which one we're getting.

adventures in family bike riding

The boy is now officially proficient in riding his bicycle without training wheels.  of course, the 3 times he's fallen off, he's cried like a wee lass and protested that he needs his training wheels back on, but I just remind him that he sometimes falls down when standing still, so putting the training wheels back on may or may not be the solution.  Anyway.  This theoretically allows us more biking freedom, he can go faster, and more quietly, and can now go on the walking trails, where the extra wheels before might have made it tricky with the gravel and whatnot.  Anyway.  There is a school about 2.5km from our house which has a playground.  I'm thinking it's a bit far, but we'll take our time.  I have to convince myself of this, because I mentioned it offhand to the boy and he was like, let's do it, whee, park!  So we start out, I was planning to be out for maybe half an hour, but then the idea of the park came up, so he wouldn't turn back.  Let me tell you, it was a lesson in patience.  And balance.  The baby in the seat on the back of my bike sort of throws off the centre of gravity, and adds a new element to the bike ride.  Along with the new element of biking with a 4 year old who needs to stop for rests roughly every 30 feet.  I tried to explain to him that it's probably harder to stop and start and stop and start up again than it is to just keep going for a bit longer, but he's got the logic of...well...a 4 year old, so that didn't really jive with him.  Anyway.  We made it to the park, but it took us forEVer to get home.  The baby needed a nap, so she got pretty angry at the playground when I wouldn't let her go down the slides headfirst by herself.  I know, I'm no fun.  She's quite independent when it comes to everything but walking, so it was sort of her way or the highway.  The only time she gets angry is when she's tired, so we had to pack it all in and come home for a nap.  We were gone over 2 hours, and we were probably at the park for about 15 minutes.  That's a lot of biking.  And stopping and starting.  And "come on buddy, let's see if we can make it to the bench / garbage can / stop sign / dead tree without stopping!"ing.  I'm on kijiji right now to see about one of those wee ride back of your bike attachment things for longer bike rides.  I'd hook that on the man's bike, of course.  

Anyway.  Damn, I'm tired.  

Also, I went for about a 2k run last night, without stopping.  When I figured out how far I had gone, I was really impressed with myself.  I credit the rower, it must actually be doing something for me.  I had to stop for the painful breathing before I had to stop for the cramp in my side, so that was good too, I think.  I'll keep trying it.  I heard a rumour too that I may be inheriting an mp3 player, and not have to share with the man and get the odd like, Cyprus Hill song in the middle of my Mariah Carey / Fergie / Joel Plaskett / Rihanna mix.  Anyway, on the way back I mostly walked but did run some.  I should have just turned around and not stopped, because it was only after I got going again that I had a cramp.  Live and learn.  I'm going to bring the man's watch next time too and try to do that run 9 walk 1 or something.   

Wish me luck!

good day

The man has been away this week, but should be home around 3am. Awesome! Anyway, hanging out with 2 kids all day with no grown-up time at the end of the day for conversation or help with the aforementioned kids is...tiring. Makes days long. But today, day 4 of just us, was a really good day. Started out ominously, with the little one pooping herself awake after only about 20 minutes of nap, after having been awake since 5am. We went for a bike ride, but didn't get far, as I was biking with the babe on my bike, and the boy was biking in front of me, stopping or slowing down every 32 seconds for one reason or another. For example:
- why did you stop?

- I drove through a puddle.

- so did I.  why did you stop?

- I got mud on my tire.  see?  there.

- it's a tire.  it's allowed to have mud on it. let's go.

- my legs are sore though. (this after roughly 0.02km of biking)

- turn around.  turn around now, we're going home.

We made it through lunch, and a trip to Superstore.  We went for a wagon ride (that thing is HEAVY to pull up hill when full of kid, FYI) and then the baby ate some sidewalk chalk while the boy and I scribbled.  She finally got cranky and agreed to go for a nap.  This allowed the boy and I to hang out one-on-one, which we don't really get to do much of.  We took the training wheels off his bike and I chased him around for an hour.   He had so much fun; it was great.  Quite tiring, but great.   He then helped me write his name on the sidewalk, and then every other name of family members he knows.  No big fights, everyone ate supper without complaining.  The girl actualy, possibly, ate as much as I did.  Definitely more than the boy. Now I'm just hanging out, waiting for the Office to start, debating how much snacking my mom-workout entitles me to. Thursdays are my snacking night, moreso than others, because usually the best tv is on. Since the ER finale though, there's been not much going on. I may just go play mariokart, who knows. 

I've only got 3 grand prix races left that I haven't won gold in.  You're impressed, I can tell.  I haven't gotten the requisite 1 gold star ranking which unlocks all kinds of goodies, but I have gotten some new characters and vehicles for winning trophies, so that's something.

either way, I'm out.