Oh My Oscars!

Well it's been a while and that is really only because I am lazy. But really, school has been trucking along and we are as busy as ever, writing, reading, graphing and having tons of fun!

Valentine's Day was a blast and we had a ton of love-themed activities on the go. The kids seriously enjoyed the day (even more than Christmas!) and it was so sweet watching them hand out their valentines cards to each other. No one was left out and you could definitely feel the love!

This past week our position intentions were due and I requested a second year of grade 1. As exhausted as I am, I have never had more fun teaching in Grade 1 and I am really hoping I get my first choice! I have worked very hard to build an incredible repertoire of fun activities, lessons and centers and I would love to take another year to perfect it all. 

My van is still in the shop sadly. I am hoping it will be ready by tomorrow and then I will be laughing!! It has been a tricky couple of weeks but Marsha has been more than generous in lending me her vehicle while she was off work. Now, living in a very small and condensed town of just over 1200, getting from point A to point B isn't technically that difficult. However, when you have entered the coldest part of the year (mid January to March) not having a vehicle and living the distance I do from school, things get chilly. The average morning temperatures hover around -36 to -40, warming up a little over the day. I'm eternally grateful to Marsha and her incredible generosity and I hope one day to be able to return the favor!!

Right now I am enjoying the pre-Oscar award red carpet festivities! I look forward to the Oscars all year and have managed to watch all of the best picture nominated  films and I was impressed! The Theory of Everything was incredible and I loved Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking. Soooo well done! I am really enjoying the Oscar fashions so far but none of the big stars have arrived yet so I am still waiting for some gorgeous looks. I've made my picks and can't wait for the awards! It'll be a late night as usual but I'll manage. 

Anyways back to the van. My sweet dear mother ordered and express posted the part (a new return hose for the power steering get up) and when it arrived I swear I had a new lease on life. I've never felt so happy to have a means to an end in my hands!! So I pranced to the garage, joyfully handed over my keys and am eagerly awaiting the call tomorrow telling me I can come pick up my van!  

Well I am getting distracted so I'm signing off. Happy Oscars!

The snow build up outside my classroom window. It's about 8 feet high!

No heels at this Wemindji party!

I tried to make heart bacon for Valentine's Dinner lol

#teacherlife

Vowel Bats!!

LOL

Hokey Hose and Hundreds Day

Well it appears my being kryptonite for cars not only affects my own!! Stay away if you want your vehicle to stay in it's current condition!! After Marsha so graciously lent me her car to use while mine was incapacitated, hers died in my driveway. I want to laugh but all that comes out is tears!!! Jk. So I'm vehicle-less once again. Marsha did eventually get hers working again but I have such fears of somehow destroying her car that I am hesitant to take it. It has however been extremely cold lately so I may bite the bullet. We'll see. 

Marsha's dead car. 

Update on the van sitch. So after spending a few days at the garage my van was finally diagnosed with a cracked power steering hose thing. Apparently too damaged to temporarily patch or seal, I was told to order the part I needed and come back for repairs when it arrived. So I quickly got my wonderful mother to order me the part from the dealership and sent it through express mail yesterday. Until it arrives, I am bundled up in my most chic of winter wear and trucking it to school and back LIKE A PEASANT. Hahah. 

This was me on my walk to school Wednesday morning. 

So stylish. 

So this last Friday was 100's Day at school! We celebrated the 100th day of school as expected, in style!! We in Grade 1 had a ton of awesome fun activities planned and of course we dressed to the nines! It was really fun to dress as 100-year old Googoos (grandmas) and a 100-year old Joomshoom (grandpa) and the kids were ecstatic!! 

100 years young!!

We so fancy. Me and my side pieces. 

Yay!

Guess what!!!

Take a wiiiiiiiild guess what has happened now. Just take a seat, turn off all distractions and close your eyes. Put your phone on silent and shut off the lights. Let your imagination run wild!!! What could possibly have happened to dear old Aidan now?? 

Well let me tell you what. 

My car leaked all of it's power steering fluid like it's on a 3-day juice cleanse and I am without working vehicle ONCE AGAIN. 

There are few words I have left that I can say in a public forum and still hope to keep my a) dignity, b) job, c) squeaky clean professional profile - that would adequately describe the level of stress and frustration I have felt in the last 24 hours. I literally felt it in my heart today. 

I shall start from the beginning. Basically it has been cold lately. Typically cold for this time of year but really cold nonetheless. So when my steering wheel felt a little stiff and my engine a little noisy Monday morning (-40ish) I didn't really think anything of it. I haven't been able to plug my block heater in recently because the plug has somehow become almost completely severed from the cord leading to the engine. But that's another story. So I thought a cold engine might have something to do with it. 

Monday must have been a holy day for Satan because he chose that day to curse me with YET ANOTHER car problem. Beelzebub himself did something to the tube connected to my power steering fluid container thingy in my van thus pouring raspberry smoothie-like liquid all around town. I came home Monday night to a puddle of red crap in my driveway from it being parked there a few hours earlier before I went out. 

I immediately called upon any person I knew with a male companion who might know what it was. General consensus was: power steering fluid leak. It explained the "hard to handle" steering wheel and questionable noise coming from my car. So upon hearing this I was terrifed!! Nowhere near a dealership or parts store I was beginning to panic. I, along with several other teachers go to school at 7:30 every morning to prepare breakfast for the students as members of the school's breakfast program. No busses, taxis or other methods of transportation, or hope of rides from any teachers who go in nearly that early, I was worried about walking from my house (I'd say a 20-25 minute walk) in -40 morning conditions. I was, however, prepared to don my sexy neon orange hunting skipants, 1980's purple ski gloves and balaclava if necessary!!

Luckily by testing the steering at 6:00am this morning I was able to confidently say I could get myself at least to school and figure out the rest from there. So off I went and at the first opportunity today I took my car to the town garage. I dropped my keys and begged them to look at it the first chance they had. So Thursday at the earliest :/ I'm optimistic though. 

The shining light at the end of this dark and unholy tunnel is Marsha. Marsha is truly a saint. Marsha has graciously and selflessly lent me her vehicle to use. I am so incredibly grateful to her I can't even start to describe all the ways I owe her. Not having to walk in horrible, terrible, frighteningly cold weather to school to serve breakfast in the morning means more to me than I think most people understand. I hate the cold. I hate the cold combined with the outdoors and Marsha simply said "take my car" without the bat of an eyelash. A true and genuine friend. 

So I will wait until Thursday to see if they need to order a part. If they do, I will see if the garage can temporarily patch the leak while I wait, refill my fluid as needed to get by and try and get Marsha's car back to her ASAP. Talking to Dodge customer service this morning, this kind of repair will likely be covered by my warranty (for once) and since I live remotely and cannot get to the nearest dealership reasonably (minimum 9 hours to Amos), I will be reimbursed for costs of repair. So there is a positive!!

As for my mental health, that is not covered by warranty and I am still waiting for a refund. 

30 Thoughts Every Teacher Has While Sick

The night before taking a sick day:

1. Oh this isn't so bad. Cold schmold. 

2. I can make it tomorrow, no problem. I've been doing it for weeks now. What's another week with this stinkin cold?

3. You've got plenty of cold meds, just take a million and pull your socks up! 

4. Cough, sneeze, groan. 

5. Should I take a sick day? No, I can't. I won't. Haven't taken one in forever. No need to start now!

6. Maybe I should... NO! Think of the children! 

7. Take a sick day! Bite the bullet. There is no sense in going to work sick and getting worse! You've got your substitute plans ready to go. It'll be fine. 

8. One day won't stop the earth from spinning....

9. NO! I won't. Early to bed and pump yourself full of medicine. 

...The next morning....

10. Ughhhhhh

11. Ooohhhhhhh

12. Get up. Get out of bed, you can do it! 

13. There's one leg on the floor, now the other. 

14. Watch out for all that Kleenex on the floor! Don't trip!

15. One foot infront of the other, get yourself down to the bathroom. 

16. Okay start the shower. That will help. Mmm warm shower. Zzzzzzzzz. WAKE UP. 

17. Lights on - NO WAIT - scratch that, lights off. Best not to see what I look like right now. 

18. Oh my head. Who put a fishbowl on my head? 

19.  Oh my nose. Did someone poor quick dry cement in my sinuses?

20. My mouth tastes like gasoline. Gasoline, hmm. Gasoline goes in cars. I have to go outside soon and start my car... Ohhhh...

21. Maybe it's not too late to call in sick. 

22. People have climbed Mount Everest with toes and noses fallen off, I can handle a day with 16 7 year olds! 

23. No, I can't. 

24. It's too late. 

25. It's not too late. Do it. Make. The. Call. 

26. It's so much work to be away! 

27. Okay. I'll do it. 

28. It's done. Back to bed. Turn off brain!

29. What's going on in my classroom right now....

30. Maybe I should have just gone in...

Some pictures that accurately describe how I feel at the moment 

Fantastic Flat Tire

Another week has come and gone in the wilds of Wemindji. Temperatures hovered around -20 (not taking into consideration the windchill) and so we made it out for recess a few times this week! Things have been as busy as ever at school and now that we have mastered the alphabet names and sounds, we are really gearing up with learning our sight words (high frequency words such as "the, I, look, at, in, etc.) and how to break down small words into parts and then putting them back together to make them easier to read (blending and segmenting). The kids had a blast learning about 2D and 3D shapes and we will be moving on to subtraction soon (AHH!). 

I'm having a lot of fun using centers as reinforcing tools in the classroom. For some reason (perhaps to maintain classroom control) I gravitate towards the old school style of teaching and planning. Working over the last few years with some inspiring educators, I have learned to embrace the "play based" side of learning and how much fun reinforcing skills through center work can be! I have finally given in and embraced Pinterest and have found so many awesome ideas for teaching tools and way to make learning fun. Disguising learning as fun games and activities has made a huge difference in my practice and teaching style and while I still consider myself a work in progress (as in trying to get away from the old school style) I am fully embracing the fun in learning. I just wish I had full access to Dollarama so I could make all my center dreams come true!!!,

On a personal note, last night I went out and celebrated a couple of friend's birthdays at a pub night! I tried for the first time to make loaded potato skins and I can't say they were all that good. They tasted like nothing. So I probably won't do that again. It was, however, really nice to see friends outside of school and hang out! I'm looking forward to throwing another social event of my own soon as we have now entered the looooooong 4 month stretch of winter with only really Goose Break to look forward to in May. Getting friends together and out of the house is a great way to break up the monotony of winter and Wemindji is famous for it's theme parties so I am sure there will be some good ones coming up soon. 

I also spent a good 3 hours working on my driveway today. The snowblower, while powerful, has a flat tire I have discovered today. So tomorrow I will have to get someone with a portable pump over here to fill it up. I was having a lot of trouble maneuvering it and I think that's why. While it hasn't snowed an incredible amount, the wind has been INSANE the last couple of days. If you know anything about my house by now, you know that I am cursed with the worst drifts of all time. Overnight my driveway can easily go from clear to a mystical winter ski mountain resort. I don't ski. So I had to bite the bullet and shovel like a peasant today in very high winds and bitter cold. I was adequately dressed to the nines in my neon orange hunting overall skipants, my lovely teal winter jacket, my dad's 25 year old purple ski gloves and my balaclava who's face hole is uncomfortably small and tends to shift to the right rendering me partially blind. I also managed to chip away at a lot of the permafrost on my driveway so I could give my snowblower a nice smooth base! I got about halfway done before I threw in the towel and submitted to the wind gods and retreated inside. So while there is still work to be done, I feel like I accomplished a lot today. 

Anyways I'm going to go contemplate the fact that after this post it is apparent that I really have no life and see what hobbies I can pick up!! Ta ta for now. 

Had to take a break to remove the iceberg that sank the Titanic from my eyebrow. 

My front steps. Or, what used to be my front steps. 

Really missing this right now!!

Sadly he has no arms and is therefore useless to me. But thanks anyways Meghan. 

Gross. 

My new weather app which I will promptly be deleting. 

Yep. 

My first attempt last week! Not bad!

Story of my life!

Back to the Grind

Well, I'm back! 

To be home in Wemindji is bittersweet. The nights leading up to and including my travel days I began to get misty eyed at the thought of leaving home in Oakville. I had a great time catching up with friends and visiting with family. Two weeks never seems long enough but I am happy to be back in my home, sleeping in my own bed and back into somewhat of a routine!

I was a little surprised at how much I missed the kids and I was happy to see them Tuesday morning. They seemed to be happy to be back at school and were very excited to tell me about all the things they got for Christmas (basically everyone got an iPad what the heck!) 

The drive back was ACCIDENT FREE. WHAT.  Yep. Accident free. Can you believe it?! I hardly can!!! I left later than planned Saturday morning (I accidentally slept in an hour and a half) after a nice Friday evening with my mom and family.  My mom and I spent the day shopping, hanging out, eating a delicious roast dinner, watching tv and packing up my car. I saw my Nana with my sisters which was really nice and even got to say a quick hello and goodbye to Katherine's family.

As for packing my van, I managed to fit my snowblower (which I found out weighs approximately 3000lbs), a mini fridge (not too mini, think of it more as a medium sized cold storage unit, a full-sized spare winter tire on a rim, 2 hamsters and their crap, all my luggage and dollarstore booty, a dog (Samantha's), a cooler, a fake Christmas tree, a Rubbermaid container full of mega blocks, my bench seat (yay!), all my Costco loot and a partridge in a pear tree.

 

So I drove off Saturday morning feeling a little nervous but overall confident! The weather had been forecast as quite snowy in an area I was driving into but I was prepared to take it slow and be cautious. I also bought new winter tires and got some amazing service at a local tire shop (see pic) as well as a brand new windsheild!!! On my way up in the summer I got twin stonechips from an oncoming vehicle on the JBHWY which then split right across my windsheild on a particularly frosty morning. I got a truly incredible deal on a full replacement and given typical driving conditions, I'm sure I will be back and until then I will wholeheartedly pimp these establishments! 

Anyways the drive was pretty good once I cleared the snowy parts of Ontario. The roads weren't too bad and were actively being maintained by fleets of plows. It was a slower drive than usual but slow and steady wins the race! After meeting up with my friend and coworker Meredith in North Bay, we convoyed together to Amos which was pretty nice! We left Amos not-so-bright but definitely early and after a blissfully uneventful drive I made it through my front door at 4:30pm! Joy!!  I spent that night freezing my buns off as I unpacked my van and got settled. 

This week was uneventful and went by at a usual week's pace. I'm looking forward to locking myself in the classroom tomorrow and taking care of a lot of business. My classroom is so cluttered and full of so much junk, I really want to purge, clean and reorganize - oh and plan of course. 

Other than that, this weekend I am going to clean my whole dusty gross house and test out the new snowblower (with the helpful guidance of a fellow teacher) oh, and SLEEEEEEEEP!

Ta ta for now!

It's pretty cold in my house. 

I miss this lover boy. 

I. Just. Miss. Him. So. Much. 

2014 - A Year in Review

Don't worry, this post won't be one of those long, drawn out ramblings - reminiscing on the events of the past year in detail.  Honestly that's because I really only have so much room in my brain and I have forgotten much of the past year.

What I do remember (or have chosen to retain) is that 2014 was a fairly successful year.  I may not have achieved many hard lined goals, but then again I didn't really set any for myself HA.  I suppose my main focus was to stay alive and functioning in a career that tests my very limits and makes me reach into the far corners of my mind to stay afloat and energized.  I feel like I have definitely done that over the past year and learned a lot about myself in the process.

2014 started off with a bang.  Literally.  Driving off the James Bay Highway on a dark and snowy night on the return after Christmas, the year began with stress but also a hint of adventure.  Teaching alongside my mother for a few months in the North showed me that I have some work to do on myself, and while this is no reflection on my mother's abilities, I needed, and still need to work on patience.  Watching my mother teach gave me a real sense of pride, a feeling that has become more and more prevalent as she has taken great strides this year to further her education and train for a new career.  I hope I can harness that kind of perseverance and determination in 2015!!

My beloved Grandfather died in 2014.  A constant male figure in my life, he was the backbone to our very small family.  My Grandad was a kind, generous and reliable man.  Someone I could look up to, joke around with and listen to for hours (he loved a captive audience ha). He left a legacy among my friends and family that makes me proud to have been his granddaughter!

In 2014 I had a lot of car troubles.  A LOT.  These experiences have taught me to expect and plan for the worst and try and be as prepared for anything as possible.  These experiences have also taught me to keep calm, call my mother and be grateful for the incredible generosity and helpfulness of both family and complete strangers!  While there seems to be so much evil in the world, there are still good people willing to help out complete strangers.  I hope to be able to return the favor some day.

In 2014 I started a new grade with new teaching partners.  This has been one of the craziest, most fun, most exhausting and most challenging things I have done this past year and while I have let it take president over all other parts of my life, I am having a blast.  I really couldn't have asked for a more amazing group of people to work with and I really feel like we are a team!! I love my coworkers, I consider them my friends and family and they make the whole experience of living in the north something really special.

I want 2015 to be a year of change.  I have a lot I want to accomplish this year and I am going to have to be very disciplined and focused.  I don't really like setting public goals per say because I am notorious for giving up.  I will however, outline some vague goals for the new year and see how it goes.

I would like to strike a better balance between personal life and work life.  While at this point in my career I am still finding my way, refining my practice and building my skills - all of which require a lot of time and energy, I find I leave little time for personal endeavours.  I want to work hard but also reserve time for me.  That applies to social life and personal health! I would also like to pick up a hobby.  There is nothing like being asked "What do you do for fun?" and not have much to answer with.  Apparently "sleep" is not a hobby.  Coulda fooled me.

So that's one.

While I am still in a considerable amount of debt (car and OSAP), I would like to start saving for things such as car repairs and  holidays.  My car repairs seem to come at the worst times and I need to have an emergency cushion that isn't a credit card.  Debt is one of the main reasons I moved to the north and to continue to get into it for things like tires and repairs seems detrimental to success.  So I want to save a little every week and see where that gets me! I haven't been on a legit holiday in quite a few years and I would like to see more of the world before I am old and haggard so saving for a trip of some kind has become important to me.  When you work for months straight with 2 hours of sunlight, dreaming of something exotic and faraway can have the most surprising and motivating effect!

While I still want to slow the roll for work, I also want to finish up some professional qualifications for teaching.  Knowing what I am up against with my crazy class this year I knew it would be impossible to take a course and finish with any degree of success so I think I will wait until the summer to tackle that.  Next year I will hopefully be teaching Grade 1 again if I am lucky and then will have a little breathing room and time to do some more professional development.

Anyways, I would love to list all the little things I have accomplished in 2014 but you would seriously think there was something wrong with me.  So I will just say this: 2014 it has been a slice and I am really looking forward to all the excitement and changes that will take place in 2015!!