2009

January:

Started a three week substitute postition in my practicum class that turned into a six month temporary contract that bumped me a category. I got to teach the same students for two years in a row and got pretty teary at the grade seven grad.

February:

Really can't remember. Probably lost my mind. Oh right.... I think I was doing report cards.
Spike napped.

March:

Had lots of visitors, including this awesome little guy.
April:

Stressful month. I think I cried in public a lot that month. Very thankful for my friends and family helping me get through a lot of scary things going on around me.

May:

One of my best friends got married. It was an awesome awesome awesome day.

I knit on 9" circulars for the first time and made a non-matching pair of cabled socks in record time. Never looked back.

June:

Knit in public day! Got rather sunburned but met tonnes and tonnes of people.
Had another visitor! We managed to get some alone time so we could eat sushi without plates and rock out to Lady Gaga.
My teaching position ended on a great note and lots of fieldtrips.
I sewed on my new sewing machine.
Julia and Jason moved into an awesome new place with their adorable kitties.
July:

Went to Victoria for the first time with my Mom and came back with some pretty spiffy yarn.
Got to visit the farmers market a lot~ often with friends.
The heat here was so bad I occasionally dipped the cat. He didn't enjoy it.
August:

Knit the first edition of my cardigan idea.
Crossed my second suspension bridge. Freaked the hell right out.
Gibsons! And a fun traveling day all by myself! So grownup I tell you.
Drunk online yarn purchase. No regrets.
Quickie tattoo.
September:

Finished the Beast. Still haven't finished the finishing. Sigh.
Started two new temporary teaching positions~ one in a kindergarten room!
October:

More lovely visitors! Jodi and Spike chilling.
Drinking with Sheena...
on Halloween.
November:

Completely reorganized my bedroom. Spike approved.
Used my turkish drop spindle. I just broke that. Did I tell you that? Yeah. It's dead.
December:

My Mom being climbed by her cat and me petting and taking pictures of Jamieson instead of helping her.

Got another xmas with my whole family around me. We lost a dear family friend this year so it was especially important to be able to have everyone there to love.
Happy New Year Everyone!

Too much content!!!

So much to tell... rather overwhelming. Should I start with the holidays and catch up? Or should I tell you about my roller coaster day? Do I stick to knitting or only talk about Mal? How many photos are too many? (There were 151 pictures and 1 video on my camera) When does the reader feel overwhelmed too? When does this just get tooooo scattered?

Breathing.

So pictures of Mal it is!!! And I also want to post theses cause I know the family would like to see the pictures too and I can't do a facebook xmas album until a piece of commissioned knitting goodness is delivered. This will be part one of the three part xmas SPECIAL!!! Part two will be food cause... wow. Let alone the feasts that Mom and Jim and Jenn made and the scones~ I got 10 boxes of chocolate this year from students. Eeeeeekkkkk! Part three will be present time. Wait till you see the books and yarn I got. Fabulous. OH! Then I have to tell you about my suprise birthday party!!! Haven't had a birthday party for, like, ten years and never a surprise! And I was SO surprised!

See... lots to talk about.

MAL!!!!

Mal and Grandpa amazed at the Christmas eve dinner.

Great Grandma attacking the boy while Julia watches passively on. Unfortunately I don't have any 'Julia-as-Jungle-Gym' photos.
That phase did start out innocently enough. Here Malcolm is really really not tired. Not tired at all! (this was late on the 25th post presents)
Christmas day. He's super stoked about that piece of wrapping paper.
Eating rice cakes with Grandma.
Mwahaha! A Pirate Boy he be!
Apparently the Olympics haz a flavor.
Watching Grandpa's train set with Dad. Set a theme for the whole holidays. Trains. Trains. And more trains.
Watching trains with Grandma.
He's got words down but not the whole 'I use them to commicate to you' part. He 'hoooo-hooooo's trains, and seems to have a 'Idunknow' catchphrase. Adorable as ever. Nineteen months fyi. Running around like the dickens. And I think 90% of the presents under the tree were his. Muffin butt.

The Day Before Report Cards Go Out...

The poor mini hedgehogs never stood a chance.

Well earned

So. Last night. At a dinner. Had my phone handy in case I get called for a job, since Wednesday was the last day I could sub before the end of the year. Since I work Thursday and Friday~ which was just turned into a contract so is no longer 'subbing'. The change happened last week. So yeah, Wed was my last day to sub. I get a phone call and accept the job for a school I really like. Woo! Leave the dinner early so I could get to bed in order to get up early.

This morning get up at six, shower, look purty, grab a lunch, and I'm out the door. Arrive at the school. They tell me the teacher I'm in for doesn't work on Wednesdays. Confusion.

I check the job again. It's for Friday. Despite the fact THAT I ALREADY HAVE A JOB ON FRIDAY!!! I didn't pay any attention to the day when they called because I only had ONE day I could possibly work! Augh! They still have taken the contract into effect so I'm getting calls for days that I already work~ all this despite that whole not getting calls for days I don't work. I haven't subbed for three weeks!

Least to say, I had no idea what to do with myself at 8:20 am in East Van. I ran some errands for me and for my poor sick sister and then went home because I was drenched in this fun December rain. All the lovely snow is gone :(

Once I got home I had a Purdy's peanut butter bar and went back to bed. Sheesh. That was my only sugar today and I have no regrets.

Day Three of the thing you don't know about

Last Saturday night, as I lay near dead in bed dying from insane amounts of sugar consumed in the past 48 hours (and a weeeee bit of amaretto), I decided things needed to change or I'd actually just be one big zit by Christmas.

The Goal: Seven days of the most minimum of white sugar and the maximum of water.

Of course there were stipends. Is that the right usage of that word? I hear it all the time but I'm like 'what the hell does that mean?' and I've decided it means exceptions to silly things I make up that aren't concrete anywhere or that I ever have to take responsibility for doing.

I understand that it is the last week of school before/during the holidays and that I teach 56 students between the ages of 4 and 11.

I understand that teaching does not lend itself to being having something (ie. a mug) and knowing where that is once you put it down. I have a mug of tea. I take attendance. The tea is gone. I get a new one at recess. Read a book. New tea is gone. Stations. Find old mug of really cold super strong tea. Lunch. Leave tea in bathroom. Etc. Etc. Or have that weird situation where because I have a team teacher and an aide in the classroom who both also drink tea where I have a mug of tea and no where to put it. Anyhoo...

I also really really like chocolate. And cookies. And more chocolate.

I am out every single night for the next four days for festivities.

/skeptical

Sunday~ Day One: Avoided all sugar. Didn't drink as much water as I could have. Meh.

Monday~ Day Two: Had one hersey kiss and one small cookie (both tokens of niceness from other teachers) and lots and lots of hot water and tea. Only lost two mugs (but found three).

Tuesday~ Day Three: Lots of tea (green!) and am in charge of dessert tonight so I just made the most awesome fruit salad. Mandrin slices, pineapple, apple, cantalope, honeydew, and grapes. I rule!

In other news I think I love Camera Obscura.

I cleaned the bathroom.

Some people clean their house, like, daily. And not the crazy people. Normal people. They wash dishes, put dirty clothing in the hamper, etc etc. Me? I unloaded the dishwasher today AND cleaned the bathroom and I'm all like~ I AM BLOGGING THIS!!!

Makes me worry about myself at times. I have to clean the bathroom more often now because of this.

There's more now but not a lot. It's so pretty. But cold toes and snowflakes on eyelashes means lots and lots of bubble baths. Mmmm... bubbles.
That's my new yarn. Sweet Georgia yarn. And Jason the pirate.

Yummy.

Not much besides CLEANING THE BATHROOM to write about. Finished my dishclothes for the neighbours. Bought some kids books to go with them and hoping to get some nice jelly or something for the whole gift. I have cool neighbours. One time when I was at work the fire alarm went off and they were figuring out how to rescue Spike if indeed the fire was real. I guess they also pestered the firemen when they got there. I love them for that.

Just finished season five of Project Runway. I didn't enjoy season six so I was happy to see that season five was up on Megavideo. I wanted the 1st runner up to win but I was still happy with the winner. Tralala. I'm going to bed.

Awesome

Took a step class today. Was in the front row. Missed the step. Totally fell on my ass. Didn't really hurt but I was so embarrassed I nearly started to cry. Just kinda stepped and kicked for a bit till I calmed down. And it was the cool instructor's last class too. Glad I could make it memorable for her.

Came home. Spike started doing his frantic crazy running thing. Ran to his scratching post to jump onto it. His tissue paper bed (a big sheet of tissue paper that he pulled out of a gift bag) was in front of the scratching post. He skids out and kinda half jumps only to hit the *post* part with his head.

Yeah we're here all week!

Cooking... eh?

This would be easier if I, you know, followed recipes. Which I would! It's not a 'I'm-too-good-for-recipes-oh-ain't-I-special' thing (though sometimes I do think I'm pretty special). It's more of a 'I-never-have-what-the-recipe-is-asking-for' thing. And with not having a car. Anyhoo.

Apparently today's post is also brought to you by sentence fragments. Moving on.

Tiger Butter tarts!
I love tiger butter. Kipper and I use to buy it all the time from Purdys. I can't remember who or where I got the recipe from but it's easy to make. You just melt white chocolate, stir in peanut butter, lay out on a pan, and drizzle melted dark chocolate over top. Voila. People LOVE it. My grandfather never sends emails but he sent me one telling me how much he enjoys tiger butter. Woo!

My first desire was to make tiger butter cookies, which I hope to still. This relates back to a sugar crazed weekend in PG where Jim and I made a batch of cookies he saw on a TV show. They were mint cookies wrapped in sugar cookie dough (the roll out stuff you buy from the frozen section) which we then frosted. Jenn looked on with much scorn in her eyes. So I wanted to get the frozen sugar douch and layer white chocolate and peanut butter, fold them up, then frost them with dark chocolate, but of course, Safeway is a bastard and had no sugar cookie dough. So I got all this instead:

Mini tart shells
White baking chocolate
Dark baking chocolate
Peanut butter (smooth)
Margerine (already at home)

Preheat oven to 375 and cook tarts for ~2/3 of the time. For these tarts it was like 10 minutes or so? Tart tart tart.
Add peanut butter and melted white chocolate to tarts. Burn finger significantly on bowl.
Swirl.
Bake for the rest of the recommended tart time. About another 5 or so minutes for these guys.
Melt chocolate and add spoonful of margarine. This makes the chocolate really weird and you may have to microwave it some more. If you are one of those fancy people who have a double boiler ~whatever.
See how the chocolate on top is all clumpy?
Goodness I'm trying to find a way of saying the next step without being dirty. I originally wrote 'bang the tarts'. But it's true! I took each one and.... banged it on the counter... oh god... how did this go so wrong?
Moving along! Today I also made my own version of a stew/chili/soup with apples as a base. I had dinner at my sisters the other day and her husband made a chili with fruit as a base. Now, he actually knows how to cook so I'm not thinking this will be anything like that but still, worth a try.

Mmmmm.... I started off with apples and mushrooms
Then added everything from my cupboard. Yams, kidney beans, black beans, tomatoes, corn(freezer)... it's simmering right now. I'll let you know.

And while waiting for that I've been eating the most AWESOME banana bread in the world. It is soooo good. I want more and I've already eaten a fourth of it at least. I kinda like days where I realize both the bananas and the apples are going.

Now I think I may go run out for wine because don't you *need* wine with chili/soup/stew?