RIP Mary

Well, I have some sad news.  Our beloved class pet Mary passed away what I can only hope was peacefully in the night on Saturday. 

**BEFORE I CONTINUE** if there are any parents of students in my class reading this, please DO NOT tell your child that Mary died.  When they notice she is missing, I have planned an elaborate lie to cover her death that includes many educational opportunities, that and I don't want to have to explain death to my kids right now.  So I am going with: She ran away to Mexico because it was too cold here.  Pretty believable if you ask me.

Anyways back to the story. I arose Sunday morning like any other.  Tired-eyed and groggy I made my way through my morning not suspecting a thing was amiss in the harmonious land of hamsters.  As afternoon rolled around I began my weekly cleaning of the hamster cages.  I grabbed the two-story cage Nick and Mary resided in and began to open the top penthouse that Mary occupied.  I opened up the penthouse.  Mary was not moving.  Mary was not breathing.  Mary... was DEAD.  I poked her hoping that she was a shallow breather and perhaps in a deeeeeeep sleep.  No luck.  Stiff as a board, I picked her up and shouted "OH JEEZE", more or less lamenting on the fact that now we had one less hamster in the classroom than expressing actual grief.  As one quite observant student pointed out recently, I don't really seem to LOVE my hamsters all that much.  He was right.  While they provide our classroom with endless entertainment and a reason to come to school on Fridays (hamster party days), the carting back and forth, traveling to Ontario and back and sometimes distraction in the classroom had me at times a little resentful of their presence.  So anyways, now I was left to pick up the pieces. 

I quickly alerted the group iMessage chat of the passing of our dear Mary.  Most were heartbroken, how did this happen? Was Nick to blame?  What will I do with the body?  Well, I think Nick probably WAS to blame and I will let your imaginations fill in those blanks.  As for her earthly remains, I quickly put them into a recycled cottage cheese container and texted a friend with a hungry snake.  It seems morbid and barbaric I know, but this is the Great White North and believe it or not, food for snakes is hard to come by, especially in winter!  So I did what any good environmentalist would do and handed Mary over to become sustenance for another one of Earth's creatures.  It's the circle of life people!!  That and the ground is covered by a at least 6 inches of permafrost right now and I don't particularly feel like keeping a dead hamster in my freezer until I can break ground for a June burial. 

Anyways, so now that Mary is dead I am anxiously awaiting the moment that the students realize she is gone.  1 day down and no one has raised an eyebrow.  I feverishly avoid hamster talk and hope that my re-directions will last me until they forget we even had a second hamster.... yeah right.

Rest in peace sweet Mary.

Fantastic February!

Well January is in the bag and besides the odd fire and frosty morning, not much has happened. Its the first month of four without major breaks until the sweet beloved Goose Break, so to have made the headway in the classroom that we have has been rewarding!! School is carrying along as fast as ever and the month of February is looking just as BUSY. However, February is packed with PED days and parties so who am I really to complain!!

With our 100th day of school coming up a bunch of us teachers in primary and elementary have a day filled with fun activities to celebrate our hard work in 100 days of school with all things 100! One of my personal favorites: "Draw yourself as a 100 year old Goo Goo (grandma) or 100 year old Joomshoom (grandpa)." It'll be nice to split up a month heavy with school board-ordered testing and assessing with some fun!  Following 100th Day we have the ever exciting Valentine's Day celebration and swimming at the end of the month! The kids LIVE for our monthly swimming trips and being able to have great incentives (aka bribes) can magically inspire some reluctant and uninspired students! Who knew!

Last night I spent the evening baking up a storm for the second "MES Goes to Nicaragua" spaghetti fundraiser! 88 banana chocolate chip muffins and a double chocolate cake later I was pooped but hopefully contributed something useful to a great cause!! 

Things are going well with my mom next door teaching the other grade 2 class! We are still doing lots of team teaching, planning and of course the ever entertaining marking together. With report cards just around the corner we are working hard to get some marks in!

On a side note, I have seemed to have either pinched a nerve or done something to my sciatic nerve or have advanced stage leg cancer because I am currently experiencing the most excruciating pain known to man. A week of this and I am ready to go '127 Hours' on this mother (Cred to Eryl). Anyways if anyone knows a cure for deep, excruciating pain whenever I do ANYTHING that isn't what I've already tried (heat, stretching, staying off it, staying on it, heavy doses of painkiller) I'm ALLL ears!! 

So I've noticed that Carmonika never really regained her girlish figure after becoming Wemindji's Octo-Mom and birthing 8 inconvenient children. This led me to realize that she doesn't get much exercise and perhaps that was because she lacked the space (and wheel) necessary to get in some true calisthenics.  Her ball would suffice but since Bobo seems to think she is some kind of mini puppy that wants to be tasted constantly, letting her roll around in a clear treat ball didn't seem like such a great idea. So I did some online pet store shopping and got the best multi-leveled home for a hammy that money could buy, complete with a wheel! Carmonika, you will be bikini ready in no time! This new home will also free up a new apartment for Nick, one of Carmonika's offspring. Nick is...well Nick is determined. He is in sweet sick love with his own sister and recently I found them....together. Their cages are connected but separated and they can't usually get together but as I mentioned, Nick is determined and well bingo bango and the time has come to provide them with their own solitary, fully detached homes. 

Happy February!!

Mummy and I on Jersey Day! Represent!!

Thanks Oprah. 

Week One NDE (Near Death Experience) Free

Well folks, I made it. One whole week where I burned down nothing, kept my car on the road and managed to avoid dangerous situations by rarely leaving my classroom and/or home. While some may think that this form of hermitism borders on insane, it's the only thing that is keeping me from near death experiences so I'm cool with it!

Okay actually I did tempt the gods this weekend by setting, lighting and enjoying a fire in my wood-burning stove!! Yes! An actual on-purpose fire that stayed contained in its intended place, locked safely behind a door where smoke could exit out the appropriate path (the chimney) Ladies and gents, I had my first fire! No adults, children, pets or woks were damaged in the process. 

It has gotten EXTREMELY cold here this week with temperatures (with windchill, and oh what a windchill there is) dipping below -40 regularly. This means that my car GROANS at start up in the mornings and the windshield is in a permanent state of frost. I have developed super-human abilities that allow me to see and drive through a variety of frosts and manage to make it to school without incident! Most would just let their cars warm up for 20 mins but at -40 and gas at $1.66/L I'd rather just put my 20/20 vision to good use. 

On the health front there are some new developments. It seems that I may be getting sick AGAIN *cough I blame Monika cough* as with every breath I take I hear a teeny whistle. So either I'm getting another chest cold or my last flu was so epic I blew a hole in my lung from coughing and am in fact dying a slow and painful death. I'm going with the latter. 

School is going well, we are powering through math and doing some fun reading comprehension activities for language arts. We have a ton of standardized testing as well as report cards coming down the tube so it'll be crunch time to get as much curriculum covered as possible. Sadly the tests and the curriculum do not coordinate so there are concepts and topics on the tests that the kids simply haven't learned or been exposed to in depth so that disappoints me. As much as I'd like to be able to cover all the material they will be tested on, I don't like the idea of "teaching to the test" and I simply don't have enough hours in a day to cover in the months preceding a test what I need an entire year to take to ensure they learn. So it's a hard one. 

Otherwise teaching with Mama is going well, we are doing a lot of planning and team teaching which we and the kids are really enjoying! We are working on probability right now which is a lot fun, tons of predicting and experimenting an testing predictions with hands on materials. 

Anyways I have to nurse my dying lungs and take an Advil for my leg which has been bothering me the last couple of days (may also be related to my impending death). Until next time! 

Mama's first trip to the Maquatua Inn - the finest in Wemindji's culinary offerings!

 Captured: Bobo's sick obsession with Carmonika. 

There she is that gorgeous girl. 

A sweet kiss or a tasty sniff??

Mama building the fire like a regular old Girl Scout. 

Beautiful!

Skype date with the whole gang!

My mom's first watercolor!

Well said. 

Twisted Fire Starter

Once, just once I would like to complete a week without a near-death experience. 

I try and live my life by a few basic principles. Treat others how you would like to be treated, sharing is caring, to each his own, yadda yadda. I am a realist but also a closet optimist and used to think that perhaps if I live my life trying to be a good person, I would recieve the same kind of karma in return in one form or another. I have given up all hope. 

On Friday I helped celebrate Marsha's birthday with an evening of my specialty, Pad Thai.  I had asked the ladies over for 6pm. I was using my prized electric wok - a beautiful piece of culinary equipment that was integral to my Pad Thai creation. I placed my wok on the stovetop to make use of the space and outlet. Well take a wild guess at what I did next!!! Yes ladies and gents, I then turned on the burner beneath the plastic wok base and burn baby burn it did! While I was rifling through my cupboards looking for essential ingredients, I suddenly smelled and saw thick black smoke clinging to the ceiling pouring from the HUGE FIRE on my stove. 

I grabbed the wok with a tea towel as it quickly separated from the melting base, I had to save the chicken!! Chicken rescued, I turned my attention to the tall flames still bursting from the remaining plastic base and burner. I reached around and turned off the burner, ran to the cupboard for some tea towels and smothered the flames with the cloth. I would have used salt but that is expensive up here and I use it for homemade playdoh - clearly I have priorities. 

It was once I smothered the flames that my guests arrived! Marsha was the first on the scene, running right into the kitchen, ready to fight fire! Carmen and Monika were quick to follow, all with mixed looks of horror and slight amusement on their faces. After we opened some windows, cleared out some smoke and dismantled all blaring fire alarms,  I resumed cooking and managed to turn out a not-half-bad meal!

My dearest mother returned later that night after a social invitation of her own and saw the damage left behind by my careless actions! She rolled up her sleeves, asked for a butter knife, vim and whatever hardcore cleaning tools I owned. 3 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers later, my stovetop was as good as new! As Monika pointed out, mothers possess some kind of elbow grease that we mere mortals will never posses until we pop out a few of our own. 

So after that jolly start to the weekend, I was busy with dinners and social events, leaving little time for prep but I managed to get some work done in the classroom! The weather was positively balmy hovering between -5 and -9 degrees. Today we had freezing rain which was a lovely departure from the FEET AND FEET of snow we have been receiving lately (did I mention someone stole my shovel?)

Aaaaaannnyywaaayyyyyyssss, a new week has begun and things are looking good productivity-wise. We are getting lots of practice writing short stories and doing tons of fun hands-on data management activities! The next few weeks are going to be busy with learning challenging concepts like inferencing and probability but I think my guys can handle it! 

Stay tuned for tales of my next deadly adventure! 

The Road to Hell is Paved with ICE AND SNOW.

I am seriously considering never leaving my sweet little home in Wemindji ever again.  I don't care that I can't go to Costco or Dollarama (my two favorite places on the entire planet) or go to movies, the mall or restaurants.  I don't care!  All I care about is avoiding hitting caribou and making sure my van stays on the road.  More to follow.

Christmas break was lovely.  The way back, not so lovely.  My mom and I left mid day on Friday with a van over packed with goodies and treasures (avocados, Tassimo discs and lemon juice).  We had to ship a few bulky items due to our extreme over-packing skills, but once that was taken care of we were on the road... after returning for my mother's forgotten pillow - an essential item! 

Pulling out of the Tim Horton's in Oakville, I was surprised when checking my blind spot to see dear sweet Carmonika at my shoulder!  The darling babe had escaped from her cage (a event that would repeat many times over the course of the trip) and was eager to share in the driving! Well thanks Carmonika but you need to at least have your learner's permit before I can let you take the wheel of my white dude magnet.

So we were off - a beautiful day for a drive, clear skies and clear roads - even after a snowstorm the day before.  My mom and I shared the driving up to Amos and overall it was a pretty nice day.  Bobo was an excellent passenger, making himself comfortable on my mother's memory foam pillow and yoga back support pillow.  Most humans don't know this kind of luxury! So anyways we made it to Amos around 9pm, filled up the car with gas, found the hotel and hit the hay!

The next morning we were up bright and early and hit the road after meeting up with our convoy buddies Carmen and Brandi, Shauna and Marsha and her kids!  Timmies in the cup holders (my last giant hot chocolate for 4 months in hand) and we were off!  Traveling in a convoy this big presented a few issues such as communication and snow blow back.  I was at the back of this convoy and was surprised and scared by all the snow blown back by the 3 cars I was following which made visibility nil.  I tried not to follow too close but to put enough distance between myself and Marsha (who I was following) to be able to see clearly meant losing sight of her all together, so I drove as safely and cautiously as I could.

We had been hearing reports of very low temperatures in our area which had shut down the power at KM381 which meant no gas from Matagami to home.  Most cars wouldn't make it that far without getting very close to empty (600+km) so we were worried that we'd have to fill up jerry cans and refill on the road somewhere.  Luckily, power was back at 381 by the time we reached it but something had happened to the plumbing so that meant no indoor bathrooms.  I say that like there were outdoor bathrooms we could use as an alternative. How silly.  There were no outdoor bathrooms either!  So I resorted to grabbing a handful of napkins from the cafeteria, getting a quick "how to" on outdoor peeing from Shauna and headed to the nearest area of privacy.  A snowplow.  So there I was, squatting in the shovel of a snowplow in frigid -40 temperatures, high winds - all modesty and humility erased with each gust of cold wind upon my exposed lady parts.

The skies were darkening at around 4pm and we needed to hustle if we wanted to spend the least amount of time on the access road and James Bay Highway in the dark as possible.  We drove for about an hour before the scariest moment of my life happened.  Get your Depends on people.  This is one for the record books. Driving no faster than 75km/hr on a road usually traveled at minimum 120km/hr I suddenly spun out and found myself with my back end hanging off the edge of a steep embankment.  Some quick maneuvering on my part saved us from sliding full on over the edge but we were definitely stuck.  We tried in vain for a few minutes to drive out but the back passenger tire was so deep in the snow at a weird angle I was going nowhere, even with all-wheel drive.  At this point the convoy hadn't noticed that I was missing and I was just a LITTLE worried.  We got out of the car and stood there assessing the event and what to do next.  The roads were pretty quiet that day so I wasn't too hopeful that we would be rescued quickly, but I knew that eventually the convoy would notice I was no longer in back and turn around to find me.  Perhaps 5-10 minutes after going off the road, a pair of Cree hunters from Ouje Bougoumou (a Cree community about 9 hours south east from Wemindji) saw us and pulled over.  I have to tell you, there is nothing like the feeling of having two capable people with the tools and know-how coming to your rescue.  They at first tried to push my van out, but with the amount of crap I had in there, that was impossible.  So, they unhitched their caribou- and ptarmigan-loaded trailer and attached ropes to the undercarriage of my van and PULLED ME OUT OF THE DITCH!  My mom and I literally jumped for joy and sang these gentlemen (Ron and Emanuel) their praises and we were off!!! Honestly, we couldn't have had better luck in that situation.  It was cold, dark and we were of course out of cell phone range.  If it were not for these guys, who knows how long we could have been out there without the tools or manpower necessary to pull us out of the ditch.  I have never been so scared in my entire life as I was when we were sliding off the road but we were certainly extremely lucky to escape unharmed and with my van in perfect condition.  Some of my colleagues were not so lucky and it is safe to say that Christmas is a terrible time to drive and I may never do it again haha!

So anyways, we were on our way and about 5 minutes later ran into a herd of caribou and almost hit one.  If I didn't have high blood pressure and white hair before, I sure did now!  So that was that and again we drove on.  About 20 minutes after that we ran into our convoy who had turned around in search of us!  When they heard about what happened, my friends were visibly shaken and we all agreed to drive no faster than 50 km/hr on the access road which was A-OK with me.  We made it home after about 12 total hours of driving (usually the drive from Amos to Wemindji takes about 8-9) and I was POOPED.  We unpacked the car, built some Ikea furniture and hit the sack. 

My mom and I spent the next day (Sunday) getting organized and familiarizing her with her new classroom.  If you don't already know, my mom is joining me in Wemindji to teach Grade 2 as my teaching partner Stacy recovers on medical leave for the next 3 months.  So far the kids have been as expected for her, testing the waters and whatnot, but my mom has been a real trooper and is learning as much as she can as quickly as she can as she is thrown into teaching without experience.  I have to say I am very proud of her so far and I know things will only continue to improve! I know we are going to have a lot of fun together over the next few months. 

Anyways, even though I spent my entire Christmas break sleeping off sickness, I still manage to feel extremely exhausted upon arrival.  I am not quite back into my normal routine but am looking forward to that too.  For now I am busy helping my mom become familiar with her classroom and routine and trying to give her teaching and classroom management tips that hopefully will ease the transition for both her and the kids.  Wish us luck as we embark on this journey! Ps did I mention I am never leaving Wemindji again?

I have about 10 inches of clear window space all around.  Oh and a faulty hamster cage. 

Little Prince ready for his big adventure!

Beautiful day to start our trip!

My mom's second-last Timmies! 

Keys to the classroom!

My mom at her/Stacy's desk getting ready for the big day!

Bobes and I sharing the passenger seat.

Mummy and Bobo selfies!

CRAPPY WEATHER

Building Ikea furniture after driving for 12 hours - we must be masochists.

Womp womp :(

Bobo right at home.

The convoy!

Loving the freedom!

Welcome to the worst ride of your life!

An excellent co-pilot.

Bonnie and Clyde - up to no good!

Back to the Grind

My Christmas vacation this year was a short one, not that I am complaining so much as just remarking! I spent the first week and a bit pretty sick with the flu but still managed to fit in tons of time with friends and family and lots of catch up on sleep!  Christmas was quiet and lovely and I was spoiled by friends and family. It was nice to sit around the dinner table with those I love and laugh and share stories. Being so far away for long periods makes you really value the short time you do get to spend with family so for that I am grateful!

I've gotten almost all my shopping done, Costco was yesterday and I can't even whisper how much I spent or it becomes a real number and I have to acknowledge it. When it comes to shopping and preparing, its hard to explain to people why you need so much of this or that, I think most have a hard time understanding that when you say "I can't get it up there," you really mean "I can't get it up there!!!"  In an age of easy accessibility and a 2 minute drive to the nearest store and being able to buy whatever it is your heart (or classroom) desires or needs, it's hard for most to imagine why it is necessary to stock up on 3 containers of Ring Pops because you can't buy them in the grocery store and they are your student's favorite prize to pick from the treasure chest! 

My mom is gearing up for the trip, packing all sorts of things. I now see where I might have inherited my ability to collect, pack and overpack. I used to think it was a highly sought-after skill, honed through years of moving from one place to another, but now seeing my van packed up and we still haven't put in clothes, regular grocery store items OR Bobo, I'm beginning to see it more as a bit of a curse. 

Tonight I have some plans for a quiet New Years with good old friends. I feel lucky to have a core group of childhood friends that I can rely on and always come back to. You don't need to explain yourself to these friends, they have seen you at your best and worst, know most of your secrets and still accept you for who you are. I feel lucky that even though I made the choice to go so far away for a career, they still welcome me back with open arms as if no time has passed!

Anyways, this new year is going to be an interesting one! I don't necessarily want to set "New Years Resolutions" but I do want to set some goals for myself this new year. I hope to spend more time in the classroom working on more effective differentiation, coming up with some neat and expressive creative arts experiences for my students and getting better at detailed long-range planning. I want to try and become a more patient and positive person (although I've always said gossip, complaining and spite are the rich spices of life so we'll see how far I get with that). Of course there are the typical health and fitness goals so wish me luck on that too!

So my mom, Bobo, Carmonika, Nick and Mary and I will be taking off on Friday morning and heading back to Wemindji to start a new year and a new adventure! There is no possible way I will slide off the icy roads on this trip due to the intense amount of crap I have currently in my van. I may explode all my tires with the sheer weight of all the toilet paper and lemon juice I have acquired and in that case I will be quietly murdering my mother and collecting my inheritance early to cover the cost of repairs. 

So Happy New Year to you and yours and thank you for indulging my ego and reading faithfully!

My Mom has a blog!

http://pipinwemindji.blogspot.ca/2013/12/preparations-for-road-trip-to-wemindji.html

Enjoy!