Little Alberta Spruce

Last year I could find no mini-trees so we didn't have a Christmas tree. But I found one this year! A dwarf Alberta spruce. It looks out on the giant tree in the front yard. Maybe to give it some inspiration to grow. I like buying live trees more than dead ones. Then I can plant it in the yard in the summer. If an Alberta spruce would grow in Ontario?

My house is filled with royalty I realized. King James still needs me to wash his hair and cut up his meat. Queen Kassandra refuses to fly anywhere despite her wings not being clipped so I have to carry her wherever she wants to go.

Black Friday

I had completely missed that Black Friday came to Canada. But apparently while it was -20 out Corrine was at home depot at 5:45am. Hardcore she is. She told me it was a national shopping holiday, but I still went to work.

I did have a tiring day, though not shopping. I would go to bed now if not for James. I hope to head to Loblaws in the morning. I wonder if they have put Palace Road back together or not. It causes me a large detour due to construction. The roads here are in ok shape but the sidewalks are still pretty slippery.

James had a knee injury on Monday as some guys stick got in his skate and he slammed into the boards so he limped for a couple of days but seems good again today.

I'll be working on cleaning this weekend. Others say they are decorating but I won't get to that... probably ever. Might work on Christmas cards though!

The big three

In the last 3 days I have worked about 30 hours. I knew they were going to be the big three, so am glad that they are behind me.

As the pictures indicate it was very snowy yesterday. Very pretty. Now it is cold and icy. And very dry- my hands are chapped. Winter is here.

snowy!

Injury list

James' knee took a bashing in hockey practice today so he's limping now. He has to climb a lot of stairs to get to his classroom so hopefully it will be doing better tomorrow! He wouldn't let me take a picture though.

James' class went to see Beauty and the Beast today at a local high school and this was his summary to me- "the Beast gets stabbed. Then he dies. Then he comes back as a prince. Then he gets married. It was pretty weird, actually."

What the fox actually does

I thought this was pretty neat

Overheard at Rustle

Christina: (seriously) I love the wicker furniture. Where do you get furniture like that?
Ron: (not so seriously) The Golden Girls

shorthills

The hunt is on at Shorthills this weekend and apparently they are having some success with their traditional methods that include ATVs and crossbows. Poor deer.

It snows and everyone forgets how to drive

James was sooo happy to see the snow. I was not equally impressed. Apparently lots of car accidents as is always the case with the first snowfall.

Santa Claus parade is currently on so our street is parked to the gills. The only day of the year that we get a heap of cars parking on our street. And traffic is being diverted down Park St. so it's the only day of the year that Park St. gets a workout. Funny odd day that way.

Another odd phenomenon that I've heard a lot of this week is students telling me they should get a better grade because their friends thought their work was good. Interesting that peers who have not been trained to grade should be given more credence than trained graders.

Today the Google doodle is Dr. Who games- check it out!

Green pepper, banana and raisins

James expanded his diet this week to include green pepper, banana and raisins. I'm so proud!

We spent most of the week studying for his math test this week. The test took 2.5 hours for the kids to complete, so a pretty serious test.

Things were pretty busy this week trying to get on top of things from this term as well as planning toward next term. Next week I'll be working on the final exams most of the time so I have tried to get ahead on things for next week. I managed to break the photocopier. (which happens pretty much every time I print exams- our photocopier is not very robust)

leaf moving

I transported a lot of the leaves from the driveway where they were piling under the dryer vent. Now there is a giant pile at the end of the backyard.

I have a lot of work planned for tomorrow. I think there are also a lot of interruptions planned for tomorrow as well. I meant to bring a donation by Megan's office for Ben's Face but without it being scheduled in my calendar I forget. I have scheduled it in my calendar now. I am rather dependent on the calendar to make sure I am in the right place at the right time.

It was very windy last night- I've been up since 3am. My eye was hurting a bit when I woke up but it actually was looking a lot better today.

James managed to come home covered in mud. Not just on his coat and pants but on his shirt that would have been under his coat.

the leaves

As we saw yesterday the leaves were gaining momentum and trying to take the house. In retaliation I claimed I would but leaf bags and send them all to their demise. Just one problem with that. I can't find any leaf bags. I checked Giant Tiger, Loblaws and Canadian Tire. The closest I got was at Canadian tire in their bag aisle there was a yellow sitcky note that promised that the leaf bags were on a skid at the end of aisle 8. There were no leaf bags there. So I guess I missed the season.

Plan B is to move them all to the end of the garden.

Today I went to Rustle. We have new chairs! Joanne talked about World Relief Canada.

I picked up my Christmas cards from Shoppers.

Then washed dishes, made stew (for dinner and for lunches this week).

Went to Canadian Tire (looking for the aforementioned leaf bags) and found a cool present for Shieleen. Bigger than I hoped as now I will have to lug it on the bus. But it is so cool it is worth it.

Came home, washed dishes again, did laundry, ate stew, tried to convince Al that the peanut butter and chocolate PC ice cream really is on sale at Loblaws for 2.50 a tub.

I didn't get to do the cleaning I hoped to do this weekend. Not that that's always a bad thing!

Kim smells like a horse

This is actually a compliment. Kim loves horses and spends most of her days with them. She likes smelling like a horse. Her car also smells like a horse. So she can pretend she is riding instead of driving.

The leaf invasion is growing. In the past I could curtail it using the green bin but this year it looks like I need to buy leaf bags.


The Japanese maple - not quite at the flame red it was last week but still a beauty:

not good

I tried to hide the black eye under some make-up but at various times it would wear off and scare people.

Yesterday right as we had to leave for school, James had to go to the bathroom. This was not good. He was late and we had to do the sign in of shame. Not that anyone else felt it was shameful- there were many late sign ins listed. I don't remember people being late when I went to school. If it happened it was pretty unusual. Is being late commonplace now?

The day at work went rather well to start with. Everything was on track, so I thought, to release the project grades in the afternoon. I did a test around 4pm and there was a problem with the permissions. Stephen fixed that. He left right after so I was lucky to have caught him. Then I was working on getting all the grades ready to release and I found a problem. I was missing a set of revised grades. So I emailed some people and finished getting the rest of the grades ready (mind you this is now after 4pm on a Friday)Yazan called me around 5pm. He asked me how I was- "Not good" was the response. He didn't have the file I was looking for. At that point I realized that the file that I needed was not done. And everything came to a skidding halt. Like a aircraft that misses the runway and bounces off the underbrush. Not good.

The "not good" phrase comes from the mayor of Kingston.

This morning I emailed off a potential resolution, well see if that will fix things. Or at least fix some things.

Black eye

I could tell I was a year older when I woke up- apparently I burst a blood vessel under my eye so it looks like a black eye. How special! Did I just get a black eye for my birthday? I think I did.

Today I went to a workshop on conflict resolution and time management. I found it pretty draining and out of my comfort zone but I'm sure the info I learned will be useful when I've processed it all.

There has been a lot of conflict going on this week so I'm sure it won't take long to be able to put into practice what I've learned! There was some conflict even in the workshop.

I'm feeling pretty silly with a black eye but at least I didn't get it through conflict!

Celebrating achievements

I went to a ceremony for athletes who had an A average last year. I'm not one for ceremonies in general but this was really well done and they students were well celebrated.

Thanks to Sam, I woke up with this song in my head:


I knew if I wrote I was sleeping well something would go wrong. James got up at 3am, saying he had a bad dream but I think he was just cold because he wasn't wearing his socks.

Today I got Darbar for dinner, yum. Tomorrow I am in a workshop all day. Have to go in early to get some things sorted out in the office first.

Anna

Almost all James' friends are boys. I know all the boys and they all know me. He has one friend who is a girl and though he has been in the same class with her for most of his school time I didn't recall ever meeting her. But today I did. She knew who I was right away and told me that James was on his way when I went to pick him up at school. I was glad to meet her as she has made an impact on James' life. She got him reading by her book report on the Warriors- it's about cats that form a society or something. And he goes to her youth group at Bethel. Thanks Anna, for giving this:

I never thought I would see him so engrossed in a book!

Here's another cute pic I took today after his bath:


I am continuing the apple cider vinegar experiment. I drink a cup a day- others do 2-3 cups but I can manage a cup so far. The taste isn't so bad anymore. The initial shock of adding it to my diet seems to have died down. My stomach grumbled like crazy for a while. Maybe because I'm only doing 1 cup a day, or maybe it is too early to tell but I haven't noticed any real change in the digestive system (other than the stomach grumbling) that I was hoping for. Not that there is anything really wrong with my digestive system, but I do HAVE to have a bowl of yogurt first thing in the morning, otherwise it all starts to fall apart. What I do notice is different so far (though maybe due to the time change) is that I actually SLEEP quite solidly. Anyway, still in the experimental stages yet!

Day off

I took a day off today for my semi-annual trip to Walmart. I don't like to go there too close to Christmas as it gets hairy. But today was good. No lineup at the cashier and not too busy in the aisles.

I really wanted to get some more pants for james as he has been wearing through his pants faster than Oma can patch them.

I managed to fine one pair that were his size and he might wear. In all of Walmart. That was it! There was one lonely pair made for him. I thought I would have more luck there, but no. Maybe I'll find something in the after Christmas sales at Sears.

The Kingston police have posted a link to an article about Google using you profile pic and name in its advertising. You can opt out (and the link tells you how) BUT this only applies if you have "upgraded" to Google+. I have carefully avoided this.

Some airlines have a sense of humour:


Mady posted this last week and I have been listening to it ever since.


Going to make some homemade pizza now.

stopping

I saw this photo on cheeseburger and had to get it for Kim. She's fallen off horses too many times.
She also has a bunch of friends in the Philippians so she must be quite worried.

I am taking the day off tomorrow- I need to buy pants for James. And I worked on Saturday which took a good chunk out of the weekend.

Now when the phone rings and there is silence I have to try to figure out if it is an 11 year old boy calling for James or a telemarketer.

It rained quite a bit today. When I went to leave the office though I said "It is so dark, I can't see if it is raining". Melanie instantly replied "I'd go with a YES". It was raining a bit but not too bad for the walk. I was glad I had wrapped up. Think I'll be going with the winter coat now.

leaves

My dryer had been cutting out before the clothes were dry the last couple of times I used it. I found a massive pile of leaves obscuring the vent. That explained that. I filled a green bin with them and didn't really make a dent in the pile.

The leaves of the Japanese maple have gone a fire-y red- it always makes me smile when I see it through the basement window. I'll take a pic if we ever get some sun.

Here's a video of Archer that Katie and Matt put online:

first flurry

We had a brief flurry yesterday (you can see the slight accumulation on the picnic table in the picture). James was VERY excited! Guess he likes snow.

Today seemed like a pretty long day. I went grocery shopping at 7am, then got ready for the day and put dinner in the slow cooker because I had to go to an open house at work. It's a chicken stew that I've been quite pleased with. I use:
leftover (cooked) chicken
Chicken broth- 2 cups (or more if you want it more soup-y)
Tomatoes- cut up (I tried using canned tomatoes once, but it wasn't good- use real ones)
Pepper (good to use up peppers if you have some and aren't sure what to do)
Can white kidney beans (rinsed)
Can corn (drained)
Taco sauce (2 packages)- When I buy the "meal" taco packages that include shells, seasoning and taco sauce I never use the sauce as it makes the tacos too runny, so I use it instead in my chicken stew.

Cook on low for 5 or more hours. It is great with tostito chips or bread. So yummy. I made such a big pot it will cover a few days.

On another note- after all that marketing of gardasil this comes out:
http://www.feelguide.com/2013/07/16/lead-developer-of-hpv-vaccines-comes-clean-warns-parents-young-girls-its-all-a-giant-deadly-scam/

Today I got on top of Christmas- made travel plans and ordered James the gingerbread man cards.

Happy Anniversary!

to my parents:)

Today I thought I could get though my email by lunchtime and start into one of my projects, but no, my email took me to the end of the day.

James has to give his "wingman on ice" presentation tomorrow. The teacher thinks it is best if it is 5-6 minutes, but James' is maybe 1-2 minutes. We don't even ask our students in first year to present for 5-6 minutes! I think James' is age appropriate. (The ministry guidelines are to present 15 sentences or something like that at his age)

We have an open house on Saturday so I'll be working then. I have lots of meetings tomorrow but hopefully I can still accomplish some things!

ACV experiment

I started the Apple Cider Vinegar experiment a couple of days ago. The first cup I tried was just awful. (diluted) My mother suggested drinking it hot so I boiled water and added that, but that was much much worse. Far more kick to it! So I'm back to the cold water diluting. I only drink a cup a day but it is already starting to taste not as bad. I mean it's not a NICE drink but it is becoming quite tolerable.
It is supposed to be good for the digestive system and apparently your skin. We'll see how it goes.
Work is still very busy but I got through quite a lot of the emails and hope to be more on top of things by tomorrow.

Switch

James' flashlight fell out of his bed at 4:30am. He's a very squirmy sleeper.
He got up at 7am (8am old time) so the time change didn't affect him very much. It will be interesting to see how they fare at school tomorrow as I think the kids will probably be hungry early.

I popped over to Giant Tiger when they opened as I needed some things for my chicken stew. Made the chicken stew and got out to head to Rustle. The singing and Al's sermon were particularly good. At one part when we were signing John handed out his homemade beef jerky. Only at our Church would this happen. The humour of this welled up in me and I could not contain it, I was laughing so hard I was crying. I leaned over to Mady and said "Praise and jerky" and she started laughing too.

In the afternoon James and I worked on his presentation and things went a lot better this time and he does have a presentation now. He just needs to practice it. A lot.

Jonathan is over now. He'll be picked up at 8:30. I've told James he needs to be in bed by 9pm (it IS 10pm old time) mainly because I am tired. (Normally he only starts getting ready for bed at 9)

Upon waking, grump

I can't think when the last time was that James had a nap, but he slept from 5:00-6:30. He was pretty grumpy when he got up. He had some dinner and that improved his mood.
We are still nowhere on the presentation.
I did lots of dishes and laundry but didn't tackle the cleaning I had planned. I have things to wear now though! Good start!

When children stay up until 1:30am, they get grumpy

Stating the obvious, I suppose. The party took a lot out of him.

We worked for over an hour on his book report presentation and got nowhere, other than a panic attack and lots of tears. So I sent him to bed to improve his attitude and he promptly fell asleep.

His book report is on "Wingman on ice" and has to be a lot longer than this:

He lost the grading criteria though so we're having to guess at a lot of things. (Which makes it even harder)

I have no idea when he'll wake up- I'm wondering if I should do the time change now and then he'll be on track early?

Al introduced me to Presidents choice Peanutbutter and chocolate ice cream at the Rustle meeting at Joanne's and today it was on sale for $3 so I have a tub of the yummy stuff. I normally don't like peanut butter but this stuff is really good!

The land of wind and more wind

Yesterday the wind woke me at 5am as it blew something around outside. When I got to work I could hear the wind all day blowing over. And I work in the center of the building. When I walked home University was closed at Princess as tree crews were working. It was dark so I couldn't see but I guess a tree went down. When I got home the recycling and recycling bins were all scattered about.

Yesterday was the big finale in my work peak- I managed to scan and return 250 assignments and organize a whole bunch of other people to get working on other things. So I worked until about midnight. James was at Duncan's birthday party sleepover. He didn't get to sleep until 1:30am he tells me. I woke up at 5am, for no particular reason. No wind or anything!

Because I worked crazy hours all week marking the house is a disaster zone. I'll have to start cleaning one room at a time as if I think of the whole I will never get started!