Discombobulated...

What a great word eh? Discombobulated. I don't know if I spelled it correctly or not because I am IT....that is to say I'm discombobulated. It's a fun word to type too!

So I killed some time today in a thrift shop - finally found a great rain jacket with hood for my trip to the Cotswolds. And a few other things - yoga pants, T-shirts, sports wear tops and a gorgeous ceramic bird feeder for $3. (for PEI, not the Cotswolds!)

Then I had a bit more time so stopped at Chapters, Canada's premiere book store (actually our only book store chain). I browsed the travel section and found a great book called "World's Greatest Walks" or something like that. Due to the generosity of staff and a parent I have a nice sum of $$ to spend at Chapters. I didn't have the gift cards with me today however so I'll make that purchase another day.

At that point it was time to drive to my graduating student Alex's house for dinner at 5pm. Sophia (mom) opened the door with a strange look on her face...yup, you guessed it (or not), dinner is tomorrow night, not tonight....sigh....discombobulated.

She had a great laugh, at my expense, and invited me in for a drink. Bless her. She was still laughing 1/2 an hour later when I left. I'm sure when I go there tomorrow she'll still be laughing!

One more dinner...I can do this...one more dinner...

Otherwise it was a pretty good day. My students, staff and I walked downtown and had breakfast at Billy's Deli, a famous spot in London renowned for their deli meats and their pies! After a yummy and very filling breakfast we walked to the forks of the Thames (London's famous river named after the even more famous London and their river-we Canadians are so UNoriginal) where there was a playground and splash pad. As if that wasn't enough FUN for one day we hopped on a city bus and rode the entire bus route which eventually went by our school.

And then - my LAST MEETING!! As my dep't head read a prayer to begin the meeting she got a bit teary as it's her LAST MEETING too!! Strange how my reaction is more in the line of EUPHORIA!! My eyes were dry! How can you be sad about NO MORE MEETINGS??

So, other than getting my days mixed up it was a good day. Tomorrow is my last day with the students (sniff sniff), then I'm getting my truck in for maintenance and spending some time with Kazi as she leaves for a 5 day concert in the forest event in Michigan and when she gets back I'll be GONE!! She won't see me for 5 months - I wonder if she'll miss me at all?

 Finally, I leave with you a couple pictures of my principal and me at my open house. I just realized I have about 200 photos from that day and haven't really shared any yet. Finally, someone my own size!

I love a good quickie, don't you?

Especially when it's full of good things...let's see...good things...

• the shingles on my right hand haven't improved too much visually but they don't itch hardly at all - so THAT'S an improvement right?
• yesterday after school I fell asleep in my chair out on the patio...there was the sound of someone mowing their lawn, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, it was idyllic really....then Kazi came to the back door and started telling me her plans for the next few days - I don't remember a damn thing she said!! I pretended to listen as I wavered between consciousness and total zonked-outness. Yes, that's a word, just ask Sonya Ann....or Sluggy...
• today I almost fell asleep again outside (must be a side effect of shingles or something - take your pick - I have a few diseases!) but then I roused myself and got  a second wind (wind, not gas!) and got busy inside. Boxes upstairs went downstairs, bins in the dining room went into the living room, boxes in the crawl space went upstairs and various other permutations of constant movement of belongings - some are for the yard sale on Saturday, some are going east with me in a month...a MONTH!!! some are being donated and a bunch of stuff I took to the garbage bin - I feel much more organized now. Shuffle shuffle...
• my replacement came and spent the day today! It's true - someone is actually taking my job...good luck! She's young, very sweet and quiet - they'll EAT HER ALIVE!! I wasn't going to tell her anything bad but then it all spilled out, my bad! I hope she'll be ok, perhaps her sweetness will work in her favour - I'm anything but sweet - I'm jaded, cynical, sarcastic, caustic - but not sweet :) 
• tomorrow night is the first of a couple of retirement dinners. I don't usually go to the union dinners but I got two free tickets since I'm being booted out of the union :) Kazi is my date but she's not pleased we don't get free cocktails!! 
• I probably won't be able to write again til Sunday as tomorrow's the dinner, Friday night I'll be pricing everything for the sale and loading it all in the back of my truck, Saturday's the sale, Saturday night is a BBQ with my brother which makes Sunday a DAY OF REST!!! PHEW!!
• Sunday is also JUNE 1ST!!! I'm planning a dedicated nutrition/exercise month to get myself ready for riding my bike to the beach in PEI!! 
• Oh yes, don't let me forget, I have to take whatever I need for my England trip to PEI with me as I'm leaving from Halifax. OK? I'm counting on you all!!

Are you as busy as I am?? 

59!

59 days to go!

Things are rolling right along in the countdown to retirement.  I spent some time after school yesterday cleaning out my office. I'm going to attack one shelf at a time in order to make space for the new tenant and clear out old materials. I'm enjoying the process finding hidden treasures that I had forgotten about.

 I found a large folder full of notes from students, one from Kazi and several from staff - I thought I would photograph them so I can "keep" them forever :)

 A  nice stack of memories!

 I found some CDs with student photos from over the years - glad I kept them!

 some CD sleeves...

 a flash drive I never got around to using - no excuse not to back up my photos now!

 I ADORE CLIPBOARDS! Must be a teacher thing, I don't know. I use one every single day at school and I can think of many uses for it once I retire...

A nice package of folders...

 and a "desk free" hanging organizer with case -  I think this will help me keep all of my genealogy materials organized...

 I always kept a few lighters at school for lighting candles on the dozens of birthday cakes I've made over the years. I found several so thought I could bring one home..

 Have I ever told you that Staples is one of my favourite stores?? Love these jazzy binder clips..

 and these colourful ones...

Two locks that strangely still have keys intact! You can't imagine how many locks I've gone through over the years. Instead of combination locks I provide my students with key locks. That way they can be independent using their lockers. However, many times the key gets locked inside the locker :( so that means snipping the lock off and replacing it with a new one.

That's it for today - tomorrow is Friday and you know what that means - IT'S FUN DAY!! I rented a movie, we're making popcorn and our Best Buddies are coming to visit us.

I think I might miss Fridays...

Tuesday's Treats and Treasures

Yesterday I didn't manage to put a post together as I went to the 6:45pm showing of:

oh please please please go and see this movie!! Visually it's a feast for the eyes. It's hilarious and quirky, eccentric and silly and we (friends from work) laughed until our sides hurt! The only problem is it was so fast paced that I missed a lot because I was shrieking with utter glee! Which means, of course, that I'll have to go see it again...and again!! This is a movie I would buy.

So on to the treats and treasures of yore (yesterday)! My ID cards from the past 5 years!

I'm not getting older, I'm getting better! Not much change that I  can see - perhaps my face is fuller in the last one - that helps to plump out the wrinkles so I'm told...I've also started to use coconut oil (the new super food, well one of them anyways) and hope to see the clock turn back and me starting to look younger and younger...yes, I'm dreaming :)

Addendum: I know what the difference is now with the last picture - my smile is starting to slip and I look tired. I picked the right year to go.

As you may have guessed yesterday was "photo day" so let's have a look at the photos I kept close to me over the past 800 14 years that I taught at CCH...look at my sweet little puddin'pop :) I bet every one of you moms out there have a macaroni picture frame of your little cutie pies...

she was such a happy little scamp...who knew she'd grow into a surly teen?? Hah, just kidding...sort of...

one of my most favourite (and challenging) students - she used to call me "Spicy Eyes" because that was written on one arm of my glasses! She kept me hopping with her daily ritual of questions that HAD to be answered: can I break your glasses...(me - NO), did they cost $534?...(yes)...can I look down your top...(NO)...what colour camisole are you wearing?...at this point I'm trying unsuccessfully to redirect her...can you call Ed Roland?...no..(lead singer of her favourite band "Collective Soul") and on and on. Eventually I wrote down a list of her questions and my answers and put it on the side of the fridge and I'd just point at it when the questions started. Gave me a bit of a breather.

 Bad photo but I have a little hamster peeking out from inside my jacket - we had one for a classroom pet for a few years.

 What form...what grace...what?? It was "Share your Talent" day and I just had to clown around :)

What a happy crew! This was the first year that we went to the Special Olympics. A number of football players volunteered to coach the kids. They ALL had a blast!

Pre makeup, pre blonde hair extensions, pre eyelash curler, pre hair straightener, pre everthing but total CUTENESS!! Ah, Kazibelle, I do miss those innocent days...

 But whoa!! Look at those dimples would ya!! This is one of her "casual" Gr. 12 graduation pictures - what a beauty!

 A conglomeration of photos: 4 generations of Harrison men in the bottom photo - my nephew David, his son Jack, my brother Gord and my dad Doug.

Me, with darker hair, in front of the Montmorency Falls near Quebec City. And I'm thinking "braless"! Brazen hussy!

What more can I say about my one and only - she'll always be #1 in my heart!

One of my valentine cards from a student...am I the worm or the apple?

 A plaque to keep me motivated...

 At least 6-8 years ago - a wonderful group of students and staff...

Yup, I was still really enjoying my job back in those days - life was darn good. Sometimes I look at old photos and wonder to myself - "why did I get rid of that top? I love that top!! Drat!"

Now THAT top I only wore a couple of times and then donated it - you win some you lose some!

OK, this is from the middle ages...24 years ago this July. I'm graduating from UWO with my parents to support me. My dad before cancer got him in 2002 and my mom before Parkinson's took her in 2000. Kazi is there too - I was 7 months pregnant!!  I remember how brutally hot it was that day and she kicked up a storm ALL day!

Finally a pink candle (because I go through a LOT of candles) and my little "blessings" stones that got me through a lot of rough moments...

Today being Wednesday I brought home a new batch of stuff but will post about that tomorrow. Its getting past time I was on my bike pedalling fiercely through an episode of "House of Cards"!

I wish you a wonderful evening and thank you for joining me as I wandered down Memory Lane!

What did I bring home today....

Well, now you know I'm really me! My nameplate dates back to when I started working for the Royal Bank of Canada - so it's about 38 years old - YIKES!!  I'm as old as the hills! And don't I just hang on to things for a very looooooooooong time?! I think I should keep hanging onto it - I mean what if I end up not remembering who I am some day when I'm 95 years old?? It could happen...

I also brought home an old file box which I'm going to use for my monthly files...bills, receipts, insurance etc. I used to have a large cabinet with 2 lower drawers for filing and it was FULL!  See?
Proof that I am indeed downsizing!

I don't have any more dental appointments before my retirement date so brought home my extra toothbrush and toothpaste....hmmmmm, I guess that means NO garlicky food for lunch!

 And finally my lint brush...I'm hoping I won't need to de-fuzz again before the end of June - I'm so optimistic! Well if I do need to get rid of any lint I can always use my old standby - wrap masking tape around my hand sticky-side out. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures!

And that's a wrap for yet another Manic Monday. We had a really good day at school - everyone was super tired for some reason - they were too tired to misbehave :)  One EA went home sick and we managed just fine being 1 short. Another hmmmmmmm moment!

Well off I go to exercise and eat dinner. Not at the same time mind you. Last night I made some jerk chicken and a pot of leek and potato soup which turned out even better than I thought it would.

Hope your Monday was a  good one!!

April Challenge

This challenge is perfect! There are 30 days in April and I've been challenged by a reader, Kim, to bring home 3 items from school each day to help reduce the amount of packing up I'll have to do at the end of June which is the end of my teaching career.

Ok students - put up your hand if you know the answer to this mental math question!!

3 x 30 = __________

Yes, you're right!! That works out to 90 things out of my desk drawers, my office, my filing cabinet, my craft cupboards...oh and I can't forget the picture books that belong to Kazi from when she was a teeny tiny little thing. (some things don't change! She's still teeny tiny...especially when she's standing next to me!)

But I digress...OK, next math question - how many days left in my career?? Look down my sidebar...or I  could just tell you and save time - 90!! Coincidence?? I think not!! So I guess that means I can retire at the end of April instead of June right??....No? Well, I tried.

So I said yesterday I'd post pics of what I've brought home already however some has been packed away or assimilated into the general clutter of the house but I found these things that I brought home last week:

 No teacher could exist without post-it notes in every design, size and colour! I have tons left because I won a draw a couple of years ago at Staples - it was my most thrilling win ever!! And coloured file cards, a To-Do list book from Dollarama - that turned out to be my best organizing strategy of all the various thousands of strategies I tried over the years...a wee tube of super glue just in case the post-its don't stick!

 a pink box that used to hold Kazi's beanie babies long ago...couldn't leave it at school. A handmade wooden cross that I made with my youth group at Sunday school eons ago. It fits perfectly in the palm of my hand - that's a keeper. Oodles of ear phones I've taken in to school over the years but most of my students preferred head sets instead. I'll use them on my many gadgets.

And finally two boxes of All Occasion cards. I had more than the two boxes over the years - they come in handy for...well...all occasions!! My plan is to start sending snail mail again when I retire because the odd time I ever get something - a card, invitation, whatever - in the mail I get so excited! So I may be collecting your addresses soon :)

So my challenge begins officially tomorrow - I wonder what I'll bring home...