Blank slate

Yesterday in the grocery store I passed by a guy and I could tell that he hated women and had been very hurt. Sometimes pain shows on the outside.

I just read an article about privacy on Facebook. One of the things they quote in this article:

"I have seen some people losing jobs or high school students being expelled as a result of something they put on Facebook," Trottier said.

However, if the people who lost their job or were expelled were doing nothing wrong, they would not have experienced the bad consequences! I thought that was a bit silly- it was their actions that caused that, not Facebook. Though Facebook just may have made it easier to catch them!

frosty

James is quite keen on the snow. I am not so enamoured of the cold. It was sunny today, so I didn't wear my boots. I should have- my feet are feet-sicles.

This morning I was planning on making mexican minestrone soup for dinner but in mid-recipe, I changed it to mexican minestrone chili. We'll see how it works out.

Tonight there's a WITH meeting at Rustle, Tomorrow there's a missionary night at James' pioneers and Friday there is a dinner at his Pioneers, so that makes the next 3 evenings pretty busy!

Technological failures

Hmmm. Well, my copycheck for my course is not functioning properly so the work that goes along with that will probably all be *saved* until next term unless they fix it very soon.

I'm at RMC today and at 10:30am the main computer that I work on lost it's internet connection. As most of my work is located there, that sets me back. I'm on our backup computer now. As the connection doesn't seem to be coming back (I've just shut down the main computer in hope that a restart may help) I am going to try to transfer some files to this computer and work that way. For some reason, though I seemed to have no connection, the computer still allowed me to telnet into my queen's email. So I sorted that from 500 messages down to 100 or so. I'm pretty pleased with that.

The weather here has warmed up since the weekend- it was really nice to walk in this morning. Now it looks all rainy, threateningly. Still, better than snowy in my books. James does not agree. He wants snow and lots of it!

We're planning on travelling to Clara's on the 22nd and to St.C on the 23rd. Then James says after his sleep (on the 23rd), he will decorate Oma's Christmas tree on the 24th. Because, apprently, he thinks he will need some downtime from the trip! (He is normally pretty excited when he arrives, so I don't blame him)

Knowing someone

Today I was thinking of how well you know someone as a function of if there are things that they could say or do that would surprise you. I thought of this after having a discussion with a woman who I am just starting to be friends with and some of the stuff she told me surprised me. But then I don't know her very well, so it didn't surprise me that it surprised me- if that makes sense!
Using that criteria on myself, I think the person who wouldn't be surprised by me would be Barbara. She's a good friend to me :)
Sometimes we don't want to know people because it takes too much energy and we look past what they are trying to tell us.

After Church, AJ came over for a bit. He and James had a few altercations but both emerged alive, so it's all good :) I made M&M cookies (but they burnt) and spanish enchiladas for dinner. They were good but they seem kind of heavy. It's taking my body a bit of effort to digest.

Exam - free!

I finished the exams yesterday and today has been my first exam-free day! I cleaned the kitchen in the morning. Then James and I went for a super awesome lunch at Sandy G.'s. Then we came home and I had an hour nap while James and Myron played some sort of hockey. Couldn't believe I slept for an hour. Then Clara called and we talked for an hour. Then I made dinner, turkey sausages. But it only hit the table at 7pm (napping makes me so not hungry, evidently) when hockey night in Canada started. So it feels like it has been a pretty lazy day, but I'll probably stay up for a while now and get some things accomplished!

Missing

Kim couldn't find Zully so she called me to ask me to try to track him down (she was at work). I tracked him down to his hotel in Smith Falls. Apparently he was in the restaurant with his boss. I called Kim back. I said to her- isn't today his birthday? She had totally forgotten! The woman is way overworked. I told her I'd make her lunch tomorrow (Friday) as she's working until 11pm tonight and then working 8-12:30 tomorrow! So I'll have to do some dishes and think up a lunch before she comes!

I also have plans on making some more M&M cookies. I made some a couple of weeks ago and they were sooo good. The key seemed to be using milk chocolate baking m&m's. I bough the last 3 bags of them from S&R today. Even though the cost of the M&M's is more than a box of cookies (they are 3.49!) it is well worth it for the awesomeness of the cookies :)

Myron had a work dinner tonight. I hope it's good for him to connect back up.

I think it looks like the snow is still falling?

North wind

Biking home yesterday was into the north wind. It was a hard bike home. The 4x4 truck that cut me off in the bike lane didn't help much either!
They said there would be freezing rain overnight and I heard the neighbours scraping out their cars in the morning. The school buses were cancelled. I left at 7:30 to walk in. It wasn't really precipitating and wasn't too slippery so I made it in in good time.
Myron walked James to school around 9. He said about 1/2 his class was there. But his teacher was and that was the most important!
I walked over to RMC around 10 and it was a cross between rain and freezing rain- kinda like spiky rain. Enviro canada has a big red freezing rain warning still. We'll see how it is getting home!
We're supposed to get 5-10cm of snow, presumably after the freezing rain.
ETA @2pm The red freezing raining flag has been lifted and it now says it is snowing. I haven't actually looked out the window. A couple of hours ago RMC sent out a message saying that we could go home if we wanted, but I didn't go as the message isn't really for contract employees I don't think AND I had just arrived!

Bogged down

I am 75% done marking my exams! I am steeped in marking.

It had been a bad few weeks for some of my friends. One lost a full term baby, one is burying her husband today and one had his wife leave him. They are steeped in grief.

On a different note, last night I was reading James from a devotional book and he suddenly stopped me and asked (and this had nothing to do with the devotion) "How old is God?". The questions one gets from 5 year olds. My answer "I don't know". James said he would ask Him and proceeded to ask "God, how old are you?". We waited in silence for maybe 10 seconds and then James keeled over laughing while saying "Infinity, God is infinity years old"
I don't remember at all what the devotion was about, but I'll remember that if you don't know the answer to a question about God, you should ask him yourself.

Substitute

Today James' teacher was sick (lost her voice) and he had a substitute. I was supposed to have a parent-teacher interview today but that was cancelled. So the substitute called to inform me of this. Then things got complicated. Because if I wasn't coming for the interview, he should take the bus. But that was not the plan and then she told him he was very upset and so she called me again. And I went to pick him up.
When I got to his class, they were coming out of their class and James got his coat and backpack on before he acknowledged me. He has his routines that must be completed!
I didn't sleep well last night, but I'm hoping for better tonight!
My exams aren't as bad as I thought, but they are pretty slow going. I'm not letting them take over my life this year though.

36-240-fish

Yes, the age of 36 has been turned. I got a beautiful blue sweater from my mom, an eyeless angel from myron and James and 240 exams from Boris. BORIS. AAAggh. I do not like your gifts, Boris! The questions are pretty vague so it will be hard to mark. Sigh.

The most exciting part of the day came from James reading the Dr. Suess book "One Fish.." to me. He did REALLY well. He really is reading and trying to sound out the words. It's so exciting. I have a parent-teacher interview on Thursday and we'll find out if James' teacher is as excited about him as I am. Ha ha. His teacher is not really excitable.

Surprises

I know for your birthday you are supposed to get surprises, but the last 24 hours seem to have been filled with surprises that I don't really want!

Boris called to tell me he had 220 exams for me to mark. I had not planned on this. I will have to rearrange my schedule to try to fit this in.

Yesterday in church, Maddie had a prayer request for a lady that I had been getting to know and something bad had happened to her and I didn't know, so I was very shocked and I started to cry and I don't think anyone would have noticed, except Al happened to call on me and I happened to be quite a mess at the particular time he called on me. Sorry Al!

Then after Church someone told me about something bad going on in their house, which they were trying to make seem that it is not so bad, but I think it is quite serious and I am pretty worried.

Anyway, tomorrow is my actual birthday. I hope to bake M&M cookies to bring to work with me tomorrow.

Party

My hockey cake, designed for me by James:
Some of my friends:

The kiddies:


James declared this party the 'best party ever' and I am inclined to agree. I wasn't sure how we would fit so many people in my little house, but it really worked out. Luckily, I invited different people than Joel, as his party was on the same night. A unique feature of the party that I really enjoyed was at the end when everyone prayed for me. That was pretty neat.
After the party I took a bubble bath in the new chamomile bath that Jasmine gave me.
James absolutely loved the party. The pizza and the cake and Tara to play with- 5 year old heaven!
And he had a good time at basketball today even though his team lost. I was pretty pleased with that.

Preparation

Tomorrow I'm having a little pizza party for my birthday. So I took today off from RMC so I could clean the place as it was livable clean but not nice clean. But then I ended up having to work at Q. because some people copied on Mon. and we let them try again today. Too nice we are under my new boss' rule. The 'any evidence of copying reducing your mark to zero in the course' was not applied a number of times this week. This can be frustrating when you have rules but don't apply them. But relatively nice for the students. Very relatively speaking.
Anyway, I walked James to school. Biked back and did what I could at the house. Biked to Q., ran the lab, biked home. We has leftover lasagne for dinner.(the one from Karrie's recipe book- I love it! It's (as most lasagne's are) pretty rich so I have to keep myself from making it too often!
Then we played soccer until I was worn out. Myron went to poker with the boys. I read some books with James and then he went to bed and I started cleaning again. The front room, hall and bathroom look pretty good now. I just need to work on the kitchen tomorrow!

Complicated Thursday

I finally get a chance to breathe for a few moments. It has been a whirlwind week. I keep saying it will get better. One day it must!
This was my day so far:
6am:up and into the shower, eat some yogurt for breakfast
6:30am: James is up. Get his breakfast ready. Help him get dressed. Make his lunch. Put bread in breadmaker on timer. Pack James' backpack. Leave his water on the counter. Whoops. I remembered the water after we had been walking for about 10 mins. No going back.
7:25 Leave house with James for Karen's. Realize he has no mitts. (Apparently Myron put them somewhere, but we had no time to figure it out) Tell him to put his hands in his pockets. They are still frozen by the time we get to Karen's.
8am: Get to Karen's. Tell her about the water and mitt situation. Leave her to deal with it. Thank her and head out into the cold.
8:15: at work. I look pretty cold, evidently. People find me amusing. Get labs up and running. Hand back work. Talk to students about what project they will be doing next week.
10: update course website. Send lots of emails to make sure people know what's going on next week.
11:30 head over to dupuis to drop off the chem eng reports
11:45 head to A&P to buy fruit + juice. Luckily, it's warmer now.
12:30 start work at home. difficult cheating email. making up new sheets for the guys who copied on monday and I have to run a lab on friday for them, even though i took the day off.
2:30 i get to blog! and hopefully bake something fruity for dessert.
4 pick up james from the bus.
4:45 head over to gerald + annette's for dinner. I'm bringing the bread + dessert. They are making chili.
6 leave g&a's to take james to pioneers
6:30 pioneers
8 pick up james from pioneers + survivor starts!

Going to try to make a dessert now!

Good

I read Brandon's blog this week and so I was already thinking about some of this stuff before his sermon. The direction my brain went with this was different than his sermon focus (you had to be there for that!). He talked about how when God made creation he said it was 'good' and I got to thinking about how we see ourselves in a different perspective than God sees us. He still sees us as 'good' through the blood of His son. But how do we see ourselves? Do we see ourselves as broken, as failures, as not good enough? Don't we do a disservice to God when we don't see ourselves as He sees us?

One example Brandon used was that of Gideon, and though he was using the example for something else, it also fits this point as well. Gideon saw himself as young and weak and afraid, but something happened to him as he amassed an army and went on to defeat the Midianites through trust in God. He had an encounter with God and it seems to have changed the way he saw himself. Maybe it's more important than we think.

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This morning Myron woke up not feeling well, so I took James to Church (after I made the pear bread, which was really quite good!). We came home and had lunch. Myron was feeling well enough to make scrambled eggs, which James loves. So they had that and I had garlic bread! Then James watched some sports, then took me outside to play sports with him for an hour, then he came in to watch the football. I made plain pasta for me and alphaghetti type for James. I need to plan our meals for the week but I'm not sure what Myron will be up for. After dinner, I gave James a bath and then did some work checking files. Now I should go to bed as it's 11pm, which was midnight last night! Hello, time change.

Fruity

Today started with basketball. I am having to work very hard with James on sportsmanship. He thinks it's all about the winning. I'm trying to stress that it's about the fun, but I don't think my message is getting through yet.

Then we headed over to Karen's where James watched some soccer and I read a book while karen was on the phone (for an hour!) Then Karen and Bob and James and I went apple picking. Stan joined us as well. And we saw Jasmine. And lots of people looked at us funny. Not so many people apple pick in the middle of the city. But the result was lots of apple cookies! Very good!



While I was baking the cookies Annette called and asked if I wanted to go and take the boys to feed the ducks. We went to the Portsmouth harbour and they fed the ducks and then we took a lovely walk along a path by the water.

So now it's 9pm and I haven't done my weekend cleaning yet! It has been a busy but fun day. James is still up watching Hockey night in Canada. I'm going to go and do some cleaning and get prepared for the pear bread I'm going to bake tomorrow to use up the rest of the pears we picked when we went pear picking with Robert and Karen a couple of weeks ago. I found a recipe that looks really good.

Jay Bay Today

Jay (green jacket) and some others from RMC swam across Navy Bay today. I was really impressed at how quickly they crossed. I guess they really wanted to get out! I was also impressed that noone passed out from hypothermia! Yay! (Maybe I should add they were doing this as a fundraiser for the united way) I also met up with Kristine who I TAed many years ago. Turns out her office is now across the hall from mine. I thought it was really neat. We walked back to the office with Mike, another guy I used to TA. I realize now that I have TAed a lot of people in the scientific circle here!
Thomas and Jordin were also there supporting Jay. Jay did have quite a bit of support which was very nice to see.
On another note- I received notification that the student who I had been having problems with has withdrawn from Queen's. I really hope he gets the help he needs.
Tomorrow- basketball and hopefully fixing the draft from the attic.
Jay swimming:

I took these on the way in to work in the morning. It was a bit chilly but beautiful. In some you can see the new LVEC roof.

Best Interest

The trigger that set the student off yesterday was about best interests. The reason he went off is likely his troubled past, but the trigger was that he wanted more time to do his lab (than the allotted 3 hours) and that is generally not allowed. My perception of the situation was that it would be in his best interest to hand the lab in as is. He disagreed. (thus the fit) When he went to see my supervisor, I'm not quite sure what story he gave her, but she agreed to give him his paper back and he could complete the lab at home. Which in my opinion, he can't do because there was still data he needed to take, but hey- I'm guessing he told her that he only had a couple more questions to answer. In reality he probably has at least 2 hours work there for maybe a grade change of 1%. My view, for him it wasn't worth the effort. For him, he saw his best interest differently.
We live in a get-what-you-want society, but sometimes getting what you want is not really in your best interest.