catchy

I still don't have much of a voice- it's a strain to talk.

My mother asked about the number of people on the bus to the OUF. On the way up Friday morning we had about 54 people- most would stay for the whole 3 days. That's what I was supposed to do, if my voice had held up. Maybe a dozen or so of us went back Friday evening. The bus would go again on Sat morning with another 50 participants- mainly students I think. How all those people would fit on the Queen's display floor space I don't know. But as there are about 200,000 visitors to the OUF you do need that big a team to answer all the questions.

So today James started his Sunday 7am hockey practices. That meant him getting up at 5:45am. He was really good about it though!

At Rustle was Tanksgiving- Baptism Sunday. They are always so great I had been quite sad when I thought I was going to be away. So glad to have been there.

James' friend Basil came over in the afternoon. He was still pretty shell shocked from the early wake-up as he is on the same hockey team as James. James was pretty perky the whole day- the early wake up didn't phase him ... yet!

I got some work done during the day. My email is full of students who want to leave early for Thanksgiving. I'll deal with them tomorrow. Friday is a valid workday, people. I'll be working!

No voice

I bought James some new socks today. They were pretty brightly coloured so I liked them but I was unsure of the appeal to a 10 year old boy. However, he loved them and named them all after Pokemen. Who knew?

Yesterday I left my house at 5:45am and trekked through the dark to find the bus to TO at 6:15. Of course, others were late so we didn't leave until 6:45. But we made good time and arrived at the Royal York at 9:45am. Right on time. At that point I was ready to head to the Convention Center but some others were interested in checking into their rooms etc. They had real flowers at the Royal York. I was impressed with the ambiance. We were to go as a group to the convention center. I left with the first group. We were moving fast as they had to drop us off and then head back for the next group. But there were seriously masses of people everywhere and it didn't take long for our group to get broken up. The guy who was leading us didn't notice. I just kept marching in the direction of the masses of people. There were escalators and more escalators. Security guards everywhere. When I got off the last escalator, there were people handing out maps. I took one and headed off to find my booth. I did well with the map and dropped my stuff off at the back of the booth. Then went out and talked to prospective students for 4 hours. It was a lot of fun as they were all really nice and appreciative of our time.

At 2pm I got a lunch.
I find it hard to eat in new locations but I did look at all the food stands. There was one stand that did crepes that looked good but I wasn't sure how much my stomach could handle so I decided to try a smoothie. I generally find they fill me up. The place a went to had super healthy smoothies- they put the fruit in the cup and a wee bit of liquid that thickens it but no sugar. So healthy yes. But the strawberries they were using were pretty sour so it was harder to drink than I thought. But I sat there and got through it.

Then I went and talked more until 4:30pm when it was time to leave for the bus. I knew that my voice was close to gone and I had been battling a cold for the week and my voice wouldn't make another day. The bus left at 5pm (15 minutes early as we had everyone on in time) and took 2 hours to get out of Toronto due to high volume of traffic. We were supposed to stop for dinner once we had cleared Toronto but by the time we made it past we were running so late and the bus driver was worried that we wouldn't make it back to Kingston before he needed to stop driving (you can only work so long under regulations) so we didn't stop at all and we made it back in time for the driver to be ok. So at 9pm I trekked back through the dark. Came back to 40 emails! That is about my daily volume of email.

And indeed I woke up this morning with no voice so I had made the right decision.

thor

fighting a cold = not fun

work is better- still a lot of email and things to do, but looking better overall.
students seem to have figured out they know nothing about matlab. a good realization early on, i guess.

James has some dancing skills he is working on - if you see him ask him to dance- it's pretty funny!

2 days of Jillian's level 2 workout pretty much made me sore all over so I skipped yesterday. today I was fighting the cold so I skipped today (i was going to do level 1)
hopefully sleep is healing tonight.

mephistopheles

I asked James today if he might like his name changed to Mephistopheles. He declined the offer. Baby name idea Nat and Karrie!

I finished the first 3 weeks of the Jillian video so I moved on to workout #2 that you are supposed to do for the next 3 weeks. And then I will have a 6 pack. Theoretically. I still have a 0 pack and I'm halfway through. Can the dvd give ANYONE a 6 pack in 6 weeks? Wouldn't it matter what your starting point was. I did workout 2 and it was more intense than the last and worked different muscles I think. Because I'm pretty sore. Going to give it another go after AJ heads home.

I should have thought more about colour in my dinner. White meat chicken, basmati rice and cauliflower. All white dinner!

James went to Louie's house today. It was the first time he had been invited over. Louie only lives a block away so James walked home on his own. He is 10. I was so proud. When he got home he was a bit anxious but it didn't blow up to a full anxiety attack. So, new things- check!

Wedding daleks

Yesterday was a very difficult day functioning on very little sleep. Last night I got some sleep! Yay! That made getting through today better.
It was a very long day with a couple of studios and heaps of work. I didn't get through my emails or really anything I planned to do today. It was just busy busy all the time.

My course website for the matlab course is almost ready for next week, I just have to build the quiz.

Next week we have training sessions and I am away at the university fair. After THAT, things start to get better.

Hello 3am, no need to wake me

Well, I got a lunch today which means that things are work must be getting better.
I woke up at 3am though and couldn't get back to sleep so I just dragged through the day.

Poda

Today's studios went much better but were still very long. Improvement is always good though!

I was up at 3am because the wind was strong and bonking things. Then around 5am James got up because he dreamt about aliens taking over the world. They had blown up Toronto and Belleville and Napanee but the kicking it stars stepped in an stopped them blowing up kingston. The aliens sounded pretty cute though but James was still worried.

I thought today was Wednesday when I got home and thought I would get to see Survivor and bb until james set me straight!

Score 0 for the racoon

I woke up around 5 in the morning. Shortly after I heard something knock over the green bin. I decided to get up and switch on the light. The racoon screamed and ran away without breaking into the green bin. Score 1 for me. I do give 0's - to the racoon!

Today was super bust with technical issues and people not reading my email. First week in the lab is always a challenge!

no zeros

Story on the cbc about a teacher fired because he gave zeros.

It's one thing to say not to give zeros on something that students have put some effort into. Like you can give some pity marks. But the students didn't hand anything in. No effort whatsoever.
"Supporters of the no-zero policy say failing to complete assignments is a behavioural issue and marks should reflect ability, not behaviour."
Now in real life people are hired to do jobs based on both ability AND behaviour. I wouldn't hire someone that I knew had the ability to do the job but wouldn't have the behaviour to perform the job. I vote that is a silly policy!

A star is born. This video is just adorably unexpected. Worth a watch.

red yellow and blue

Today was a queens football game so everyone was wearing red yellow and blue. We are quite spirited in our attire.

I woke up at 5am this morning. It will be useful if I could wake up at this time on my OUF morning but you know when you WANT to wake up that early it will be difficult.
I did my Jillian workout and got ready for work. I accomplished quite a bit at work as there weren't many interruptions. I had an exam running and first aid training but that was it.

As soon as the week starts I'll start to fall behind though! I'm sure :) But for right now I'm on top of it all.

Whomever made that movie that got people so upset is a real silly- there is enough negativity in the world- why sow more?

The rain poured down yesterday- it turned the newly made made parking lot to mud and our building leaked a bit. The house is good though!

Have to go work on some more laundry!

countdown

Yesterday James did like being able to express his anxiety level in numbers. It's hard to tell this early if things have improved. He seems to have liked the counsellor a lot and can't wait to go back, so we'll see.

I just found out that Ross M. was killed in a car accident. He was the relative of some friends of mine. Story in Gospel Herald link.Story in Watertown Daily.

Also found out about one of our first year students who was in a nasty car accident on his way to come to queen's. Not good.

Work is super busy as you would expect in the first week. Next week is also busy but after that things should get better. Maybe? I'm working tomorrow as we have a first aid training session for our project managers and I'm running an exam.

7

The first year class has an assignment due tomorrow = panic in the streets!

Speaking of panic, James had his first meeting with the counsellor today. He came down dancing after it was done because he was so proud of the whiteboard they had made. He was sure that this was going to help a lot. When I got home from work, however, he was at a '7'. The counsellor told him to communicate the level of the panic attack by numbers. Then he was at a '9'. But then he got better and ate dinner. I wonder if I can use this with students as well. What level of panic are you at?

I was so beat after work yesterday I went to bed at 10pm. This meant that I was awake at 4am. I got my Jill workout done which was good because I had 3 days off due to work craziness.

I'm going to the OUF in toronto at the end of the month. I found out that the bus leaves Kingston at 6:30 so probably arrives in TO right about in rush hour- should be fun!

anxiety update

The last few days have been superr busy at work. I'm hoping we're over the peak though!

James had a number of 'good anxiety' days. Meaning not much in the panic attack area. After he got into the routine of school things got better. However, the English teacher on Tuesday read some book about bombs and Japan and a little girl who gets leukemia. And Bam it all started up again. He had a panic attack in gym afterward. A panic attack when he went to bed. A panic attack when he woke up.

Yesterday, I got to meet with his counsellor-to-be. She likes to meet with a parent before meeting with a child. Incidentally, she knew that the book was called "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes". I mentioned this to Sarah and she's like - the counsellor is probably like- yep another one from that book.
But seriously, the counsellor was really great and let me know the strategies that she thought would work with James. Mainly about getting him to think critically about his thoughts. Anyway she agreed to see him TODAY! Which is totally incredible and James is looking forward to it!

We'll see how it goes!

Moving tip for Nat and Karrie:

James applauds Nick

It was a super long day, Fun but tiring.

Got home in time to watch Bachelor Pad. James stayed home from school because he had some stomach buggy thing- I had it over the weekend. Because he'd been in bed all day I let him stay up to watch B.P.. He was clapping and cheering when Nick chose "Keep" - he thought it was a really good move. In fact, he knew Nick chose keep when he saw Rachel choose "Share". He said "look at how he smiled- he chose Keep" and he did. James thought it was a great game move. Apparently so did the audience. Rachel disagreed. Poor Rachel got played in the relationship area and in the game area. BP may not have been the game show for you.

tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow is going to be the longest day of the week for me.

We have orientation sessions in the morning and evening. Still have to prepare the materials for the evening one tomorrow.

I'll pack my bag now as I need to leave the house early!

Kim is here having a sleep. I need to pack up some things to give to her as well.

and the rain came down

You may ask if it was so windy the picnic table blew over? No. It was set up that way deliberately so that James has a backstop when practicing shooting (he puts the net in front of it). Of course I don't have a normal backyard!

I woke to a thunderstorm at 4am. Then it has been rainy and super windy on and off during today. Amherst Island has lost power but we have so far been ok here.

James came shopping with me in the morning which was pretty funny because he was reading all the nutritional information.

Doing lots of laundry and dishes. Cleaning the bathrooms are high on the priority list too!

turn of events

Yesterday there were 2 surprising turns of events

1. The grease pole was postponed due to weather! I've never heard of this happening before. It is the highlight of the Engineering orientation week. It was odd to go shopping today and not hear the school buses rumbling by with the load chanting. Loblaws is en route to the pole location apparently. Will have to wait until the 22nd or so now.

2. James came home saying his health teacher had "inspired him to try new things". That's what he said! So he went through my cookbooks and asked me to make chicken noodle soup for dinner. Luckily, I had all of the ingredients so I made it and he ate it! This morning he did request that next time I not put celery in because he doesn't like the heated up celery (he prefers it raw). Not bad though- I thought we made great strides!

thunder

I woke up to thunder. No rain. The clouds were very interesting. Thunder is getting louder. I'm going to take a shower now but wonder why I bother!

podcast

Apparently I am going to be on a podcast tomorrow for the course I am working on. I am not a big fan of this as I don't feel like I am a media friendly personality but I'll do what I need to do.

Karrie (or Louis? lol) suggested that James bring something from home to school to hang on to if he has an anxiety issue there. I mentioned this to him when I got home from work. I thought it was a good idea but didn't know what to bring. Before he went to bed (without me mentioning it to him) he went and got a couple of hockey cards and packed them in his backpack. Guess he thought it was a good idea!

Grade 5

First day of Grade 5. He woke up with a panic attack. When that was over he happily watched his tv show and got ready. He was a bit anxious on the way to school but when he saw his friends he seemed to be doing well. I thought with the panic attack out of the way things would be ok. They found out about their class. James was in the class with almost all his friends. One of the group was in a different class and he broke down in tears but James was doing well from that respect. But when the class mobilized to go up to their classroom the next panic attack mobilized. I asked him if he wanted me to tell the teacher. He said yes, so I took him over to her and explained what was going on. She was cool about it and told him to take the time he needed. But he didn't really want to be left behind so he moved with his class. I told him to put his head down on his desk and wait until it passed. He seemed to like that as it was something he could "do". But as for how long it took for him to be ok, I don't know. The rest of the day went ok after he got over that first hump.

Tomorrow he has a dentist appointment so now he is worried about that!

He has been running a "Big Brother" game for his cats. They have been doing challenges all night!

move-in day

The "tails with faces" cracked me up!

The population of Kingston will increase this week by about 14,000. Today was the residence move-in day. Southbound traffic was pretty heavy when I walked home from Rustle. I liked looking at the cars- seeing the young people peering out. Another exciting year.

Jordin asked if the 'rescue remedy' was helping. Well, not in the way it was intended but in a way it is helping. He has so far refused to take it on his tongue when he is having anxiety. However, generally I race around the house with it trying to get him to stick out his tongue. THAT he likes no end. Reduces the anxiety anyway.

I went to Loblaws this morning and there were students there at 7am.

I got a bunch of work done today- I'll work on my course website tomorrow.

I didn't get a chance to watch my movie last night so I'll try again tonight.

Also, am thinking of what to wear on the first day of school. I want to make a good first impression on James' teacher! James, of course, doesn't care what he wears!

error

I woke up at 5am and listened to the Friday night bat party. Yes, there seems to be more bat activity. They always seem to like Friday night the best. Guess I'll have to call the batman this week. Bats 1. Batman 0.

Read some internet stuff during breakfast. Did the Jill workout. James got up. I hung out the laundry. James had a panic attack so I read a chapter of 'how to parent anxious children' to him. Helpful I am! Went to the library to pick up a video I wanted. I'll watch that tonight when I iron. Today though I have lots of housework and work work- I'll have to balance it out!