Thoughts On The Last Day of School

Today marked the end of my 13th year of teaching.  Thirteen years.  Wow.
I graduated university in April of 1996, spent April, May and June of that year driving from school to school supply teaching for various teachers on leave.  I was offered my first full-time job in September and the rest is history.  One thing I can say for myself is that, throughout the years, I have never rested on my laurels.  Gaining experiences only moved me to strive for new ones.  I have taught grades one, two, six, seven, eight, eleven and twelve.  All by choice and some more enjoyable than others.  For example, after teaching grade seven for a couple of years, I opted to teach a one/two split class and thought I was going to die.  That year, I realized that I am much more comfortable with older students.  The young ones will hunt you down and make you suffer.  The snot, the never-ending stories, the unsolicited hugging...it was all just too much for me.  Yes, I'm definitely more comfortable in the upper grades.

Today also marks the end of my second year of teaching in high school.  Has it been difficult?  Yes.  Would I ever go back to teaching elementary.  No. I do like high school and have found my groove.  Other teachers are now coming to me for lesson plan advice and for resources and this tells me that I am in the right place for now.  That said, I can only sit back and wonder what my next move will be.  I don't like to stay in one place for too long.  Life moves too quickly and there are too many experiences to be had.

For tonight, though, I am happy to take a break from school, to unwind the stresses of the year and contemplate warm summer days spent doing anything I like.  It doesn't get much better than today.

Spoke Too Soon

About an hour after I posted last night's statement, "We haven't had any lost lunches around here in a week and that is a VERY good thing." Bear lost his lunch in a projectile kind of way.  Sigh...

I picked up some more sensitive tummy food today.  Hope this helps him.

Update

Aside from a very chilly bare bum, the Blueberry Bear is A-Okay.  All of his blood work came back normal and his urinalysis was perfect.  So, we are switching him to a diet that is exclusively for "sensitive tummies" with the hope that he will be able to keep his food down.  We have also been instructed to feed him more, so he's very happy about that.  We haven't had any lost lunches around here in a week and that is a VERY good thing.

Update on my mom will come within the next few weeks.  Keep thinking good thoughts!

P.S.  One more exam to go!!!

Bliss, Bare Bums and Biopsies

K2 and I live in a very small town in the Greater Toronto Area. We have everything we need here, but for the good stuff, we head to the city.  Sushi is one of those things for which we have to travel into the city.  We absolutely don't mind doing it (especially for sushi) but we have often thought about what life would be like with a sushi restaurant just down the road. 

On my way home from work last night and just down the street from our house, my eyes fixated on something I have only ever seen in my dreams:  a SUSHI RESTAURANT!  You have no idea the thrill that ran through me as I drove past, rubbernecking to see if it had opened yet (it has not).  I know it won't be better than "our place", but to have an actual sushi restaurant a minute down the road is going to be VERY dangerous.  I like danger.

On another note, we had to take Bear into the cat hospital this afternooon to have him checked out.  He's been having some tummy issues, so the doctor took some blood, some urine and *gasp* shaved his furry bum (he had some tangles there).  Oh, the humanity.  He has dropped a whole pound and a half since last summer (which is a lot for a kitty) so I'm a little worried.  We'll get results tomorrow.

As if my mom hasn't been through enough.  She found out last week that she may have endometrial cancer.  She had a biopsy this afternoon and will get the results in a couple of weeks.  The good news is that if it comes back positive for cancer, it is known for having the lowest death rate of any of the cancers.  The only concern is that surgery is challenging with her heart/blood issues.  Send good thoughts!

P.S.  ONE more teaching day left until exams!!!

Bad Blogger

I know I've been absent from this blog.  Every day I try to think of something...anything to write about, but other than the following random list of thoughts, I struggle.  So, here are some random things I have been thinking about lately.

• I wonder if the cows I pass on my way to work in the mornings abhor being rained on.  I mean, they don't look upset by any means, but if I had to stand out in a mud field and be rained on first thing in the morning, I would be mooing angrily.  I bet I could pull off a really good angry cow.
  

• Birds start chirping outside our bedroom window at 4:30am.  I am one of those people who loves to hear birds chirp..even at 4:30am.  We have a lot of Robins and Red Winged Black Birds around our house.  Bear loves them and wants to be their friends, but they won't have it.
  

•  There are 8 teaching days left until exams begin.  I am a little stressed about how much I have left to teach before I can begin my exam review with my classes, but it will be okay, right?

• One of my students bought me a can of Alpha-getti last week.  Whatever happened to apples?  Is Alpha-getti a Canadian thing or are people in the States as lucky as we are?  I personally love dipping a piece of buttered bread into my Alpha-getti.
  

•  K2 and I are ecstatic that So You Think You Can Dance has begun its new season.  Thrilled is more like it.

• I have become woefully addicted to The Real Housewives of Orange County.  I watch New York as well, but I don't like the women on that one as much as l like the OC women.  Shameful, really.

• We haven't planned a summer trip for 2009.  This will be the first summer in a couple of years that we won't travel anywhere out of country.  In 2007, we went to San Francisco and last summer we went to Barbados.   It might be time to plan a winter trip to somewhere warm.  This past winter knocked us on our behinds with how cold and miserable it was.  I think the Mayan Riviera might be the ticket!

• How excited was I to hear about my friend's referral news?!?  Good things come to those who wait.

• Was I the only person who didn't watch American Idol this season?

• I was talking to my dad this week and was saying that I think some people really enjoy worrying.  I think they get a payoff for seeming so preoccupied with worry in the attention they get.  I believe the same is true for people who I deem to be "complain-i-acs".  You know, they're the people who complain about EVERYTHING and nothing makes them happy.  There has to be a payoff for being that miserable.

• Perhaps we should put the worriers and the complain-i-acs in the mud fields with the cows.  Maybe they would learn some gratitude?  Nah, the cows don't deserve that.