Workin' Girl

I have now officially been a real live teacher for one week. I'm teaching grade 1-2 at a nice little elementary school not too far from home. So far it has been really really hard. But also fairly enjoyable. The first few days were pretty much just terrifying, but now that I'm starting to get my head around the grade, the kids, and the school it is becoming more and more fun each day. YAY!

Books!

One of the best blogs out there is becoming a book!

Book deal

The Ants Are Back. It Must Be Spring.

Well, Brinks is shedding like crazy, the days are getting longer, and the hoards of teenagers (aka the Ants) have returned to Riley Park. It must be spring!
For those of you who live near Riley Park you will know exactly what I mean. There are groups of teenagers (mostly smoker-goth-wastoid types) who congregate in the park during the spring and summer. Mostly they just sit around and smoke, swear and adjust their various piercings. I'm not sure what it is about Riley Park that attracts them in such large numbers? Perhaps us Kensington folk are just so cool that all of these teenagers can't help but want to join in!

Miss Boyer

As some of you have already heard I will officially be "Miss Boyer" beginning in May. I will be a substitute teacher for May and June and then I will have my very own classroom in September. I am excited about having my very own group of kiddies for the fall but of course I am also somewhat terrified. Introducing a whole group of kids to school and helping them to like it is a big responsibility and I am still wrapping my head around the idea that they are counting on me to do it!

For those of you who live in Calgary it won't be long before I begin pestering you for art materials, ideas, and likely your expertise at some point. Start saving your egg cartons.

Miss Boyer

Dog Sitting

Jon is dog sitting Brinkley while I am on vacation. As you will read, its going quite well. Jon is an excellent dog sitter.

Hey mer,
Just writing to let you know that brinkley is doing well. He came up with a new game yesterday that I REALLY enjoyed. Its called "keep the dead bird away from Jon". He was very good at it.

So....I let him out in the yard and he found a dead frozen bird. I thought at first i would leave him and at first it worked, he just wanted the attention for having it, but then it kind of looked like he was nibbling on it, so i thought i should take it away from him b/c i wouldn't want him to get sick. So I started chasing him. He really liked this part. I was able to get him cornered in the yard, but then at the last second he would get away. My first attempt to catch him didn't work, i lunged and touched his hips, but he was able to get away. So I worked at cornering him some more. AND THEN, I was able to dive at him and catch his back legs, only he didn't stop moving, he ran and dragged me through the snow while I hung on. he came to a stop and then we started a new game. Who can wait the longest. I didn't really want to touch the dead bird so i held his collar fairly tight and told him every command i could think of to get him to drop it. I think it took at least 15 minutes. I think the whole neighbourhood heard me. But he let go and the game was over. How disappointing for brinkley. We made up that afternoon though, I think we both just needed to cool off.


Hope you are having a great time in san fran .

See you soon,
Jon :)

Travel Karma

I must have done something to improve my travel karma. I was supposed to leave last night for San Francisco but my flight was overbooked. I volunteered to give up my seat so they gave me $600 in travel vouchers. It is especially funny because my seat to SF was purchased with travel vouchers! United Airlines is officially losing money on me.

Now I just have to figure out where I am going to go next! With a $600 discount my options increase substantially! YAY!

P.S I realized I forgot to write on the 14th, so happy belated Singles Awareness Day. Love you all!*

* amount of love may vary

A bit depressing

15,051

THANKS TO BRINKLEY

Photoshop

I'm learning to use photoshop. In case my skillz are so good you can't tell this is a photoshopped image Brinkley doesn't actually have that crown....it belongs to the Queen.

2008 resolutions

I'm thinking of making some new years resolutions. Luckily, I didn't complete any of my resolutions from last year so I figure I can just roll them over to this year like unused cell phone minutes.
Here are my resolutions from last year:

1. Do 1 chin-up. Currently I can do 0 chin-ups.
   
2. Knit something other than a scarf
3. Run faster
4. Drink champagne for a whole night to see if i have a hangover the next day. (there is a rumor that you won't get a hangover from champagne if that is all you drink...I'm intrigued)
5. Read the Economist every week

Here are the resolutions that I will be rolling over to this year:

1. Do 1 chin-up. Currently I can do 0 chin-ups.
   
2. Run faster

I didn't actually accomplish the other resolutions. I've just decided I don't really care about them. In addition to these 2 resolutions I would like to add:

1. Learn to play the guitar
2. Develop a more exciting social life

So in conclusion here are my new years resolutions:

1. Do 1 chin-up.
   
2. Run faster
3. Learn to play the guitar
4. Develop a more exciting social life

On a lighter note I found my dancing twin. Sad but true.

I've created a monster

My dad and brother in-law played Wii golf for 4 hours today. I don't think my mom is very happy that I took the Wii up to their house for the holidays. Whoopsies!

A poll

I really like receiving christmas cards, but I have no desire to send out my own. Does this make me a bad person?

Brinkley's Latest Adventure aka my most recent embarrassment

I'm still working on getting Brinkley to stop stealing things from the kitchen counter (I realize I've been working on this for over a year). This morning he decided to steal the dish scrubber so I kicked him out on to the porch. My mom built me a gate for the stairs so he is confined to the deck...or so I thought.
Just as I was about to let him back in the house he must have seen something really exciting (I suspect a rabbit) and he jumped over the gate and ran down the stairs. To make a long story short I found him in a house down the street. Needless to say the people who live there were a little shocked when he ran in the door but at least he didn't run on to 14th street and get hit by a car. My neighbors were also very understanding.

Video Games

My housemate Sheena bought a Nintendo Wii and I've been having a lot of fun learning how to play. I wasn't allowed to play video games when I was a kid so in addition to my natural lack of hand-eye coordination I also have almost no practice.
As a fun little perk on top of the games designed especially for the Wii you can also download old Nintendo games like the Super Mario games. So far I've made it to game #5 in the first level of Super Mario 3. Apparently that's not good. I'm way better at the Wii specific games...not as many buttons, a lot more spastic moving around...much more my speed.
Inspite of my lack of skills I'm still managing to waste a lot of my time playing the Wii. I now understand how you can end up spending an entire afternoon playing a video game and not really realize it. Its just so much fun! So far my favourite time wasters are fishing, shooting, and cow racing. Classy, I know.

Trips

I'm starting to think about what I am going to do after I finish school. I think I should go on a trip to celebrate, but I'm still trying to figure out where to go and for how long. A lot of my travel plans are dependent on how much money I can save up. I'm hoping to get a part time job next semester and then hopefully I'll be able to substitute teach in May and June as well. If that all goes as planned I'm currently considering the following destinations:

• Australia: Not the most adventurous, but there are a lot of opportunities for fun activities and it would be a good introduction to solo travel.
• Central America: A bit more adventure with the option of a side trip to the Caymans to visit my friend Nicole.
• The Trans-Siberian Railway: Currently at the top of my list. Big adventure, but also big cost considering I'd be flying to Beijing and then home from somewhere in Europe.

Unfortunately all of this is purely fiction at this point until I know how things are going to work out in terms of jobs etc. but its always fun to plan! If you have any other suggestions send them along!

Soap

I've decided to give bar soap another chance. I'm not sure exactly when it happened but at some point I started using bodywash and gave up on bar soap. So far the bar soap is working out pretty well. It is a lot cheaper and has way less packaging than bodywash which are both great features. The only problem so far is that the first bar went missing after about a week...I'm pretty sure the dog ate it. Whoops!

Back to School

Well, it's that time of year and I'm back at Elementary school for one more practicum before they hopefully give me a degree. I'm at my old elementary school which is fun and a little bit weird all at the same time. I teach Kindergarten in the mornings and grade 2 in the afternoon. So far it is a pretty good mix. Here are a few things that have happened so far:

• One girl cut her hair today while she was at the art center...I had to break the news to her mom. Luckily her mom wasn't mad. I swear it wasn't my fault...she knew better.
  
• Three of my students asked me if they could join lawn bowling after I told them about winning the trophy this year.
  
• I learned that duck, duck, goose is still a cool game if you're 5.
  

Lawn Bowling Champs!

Last Sunday was our wrap up party for lawn bowling for the year. We had beautiful weather and everyone had a great time playing a few final games. Unfortunately the Cupcakes didn't make it to the final round of the tournament but it turns out we did win the league play for the year! London 2012 here we come! I'll post a photo of our trophy as soon as I take one. Stay tuned!

Stop Drinking!

I think our obsession with hydration has gone too far. On the way to frisbee today I saw a woman wearing a fuel belt while walking her dog. Slowly. I cannot for the life of me imagine a scenario where she really needed to be wearing a fuel belt. Why did we become so obsessed with carry water? Are we becoming camels? Is the next step excessive spitting?

My new goals

Now that we're getting to the end of the summer I've decided it's time to set some new goals. I guess I've decided that I need goals in order to keep myself from spending all of my time napping. So, here it goes:

1. Learn how to play the guitar. I think this is an important skill for an elementary school teacher. My playschool teacher, Brenda, played the guitar and I still remember that.
   
2. Get better at frisbee. If I'm going to keep playing this game I need to be better at it...it's starting to become embarrassing.
   
3. Be more organized. I'm basically a complete disaster. It is a complete miracle that I am able to pay my bills on time.
   
4. Learn about moderation. I need to learn how to buy a box of fudgsicles and not eat them all in three days.
   

I think I better stop there. That seems like a lot of stuff to accomplish. I think I need a nap.

Oh Brinkley! What a star. My housemate's super computer is awesome...I wish I was fancy enough for a Macbook Pro! Make sure your sound is turned on, it makes the video way funner.