Sick!

It isn't often that I just want to stay in bed. This morning though, I did want to. It must have been a premonition. At school the first thing that happened was one of my students came to my and asked what all the gross stuff was on his binder. Another teacher, a mom, and I were standing there. The mom touched the gross stuff and gave it a whiff....right away we knew. BARF! I sent him to the office to get some help cleaning it up. All the kids were coming in and they kept asking what the horrid smell was. I finally realized that the backpack he had taken the binder out if is full off barf!! SICK!! Sent him to the office with his backpack. The ladies in the office said no way they were cleaning that up....they called the parents. Dad came to try to solve the mystery. No one knows how the barf got in the backpack! It wasn't my student. No one was sick on the bus. No one was sick at home. It is a total mystery!

Sure is a nasty way to start the day though.
I should have stayed in bed!

Steal of a deal!

I have been wanting some new chairs for my living room. What I really want I can't quite afford. So I stop by second hand stores, I check out kijiji, but kept not having any luck. Today I totally lucked out! Someone posted these on free cycle! It was so fun to go pick them up. They came from a BEAUTIFUL house in Mount Royal. The arms have been clawed by a cat, so my plan is to recover them. They are really heavy chairs, and look to be really good quality. And the price sure was right!!

Winter Cup

Peirce was racing today. He had a great day! The meet was at the Winter Club....not my favorite place for meets, but today ended up pretty good.

200 Free - Man that is a long race! He was quite worn out by the end, but he did a great job. He did it in 4:15....not bad formhis first 200 Free. The race didn't look nice because he was last in his heat, but he was with a bunch of other kids without a seed time and I think he got in with some older kids. It feels a little discouraging in the middle of the race when that happens - but he did great looking at the numbers.

100 Back was beautiful! Peirce is a great back stroker. He beat his time by 14 seconds! As Jill says, Peirce is a backstroking beast!

100 free was next. I forgot to time him so I will have tp update when the official stats are posted.

50 breast was a tense one because he has been DQd in the past - but it looks like he is getting the technique figured out. No DQ and a great time today!

Then last of all he swam in the relay. They didn't win but they had fun.

Looks like we have another swimmer on our hands!

He was one super tired boy tonight. That is just how I like 'em to be at the end of the day! :)

Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an awesome book. I've read it with my kids. I've read it with the book club we had at Jill's school. I've also read it to my students. Today the movie based on the book came out! We decided to go to it and invited the kids from my class last year to come along with our family. It was so fun!

The movie is called Hugo.

Peirce said it was the best movie he's ever seen. It was great to have Jill and Peirce turn to me and whisper all through the movie that this scene was so perfect, or that scene was all wrong. The movie was pretty true to the book.

It was also really fun to be there with my students from last year. About half a dozen of them came, along with their parents. The funny thing was the preview was for Save the Whales, which is also a story we read in Grade Two! The other preview was for Beauty and the Best, which the high school came and did a little assembly to tell our school about the play today so that kids would come to it. Too funny!

It was really a great night. Loved it!

Romance!

My dear husband brought me flowers at work today. Why? Just because!

He's a keeper :)

Anne with an 'e'

Tonight the kids and I volunteered at Storybook Theatre. I am not sure how many years we have been doing this, but it has been a while. The kids LOVE it. Yesterday the guy who was Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last year was there. He was the choreographer for Anne. He came and chatted with us for quite a while. I guess Peirce had gone up to him when we first saw him and told him how much he loved that play, and he was kind enough to have a long and meaningful conversation with us about theatre, performing, and life in general. It was really great and Peirce felt very validated as a theatre aficionado. It was great.

The play was also terrific. I have always loved the Anne of Green Gables story. Jill, not so much. I think she is converted now though! She kept saying last night, "She is just like me!"

Love it. :)

Peirce

My mom found some pictures of her grandkids in some of Aunt Marvelle's stuff. Here's one of my darling boy, Peirce.

Just love that little face. Oh to go back to the days of dressing him in OshKosh overalls!

Being a Working Mom

Truth is, I've always been a working mom. For the first 12 years though I worked at home. It was a little crazy. Now, changing to teaching, it's a little crazy in a different way. I don't have the same flexibility with my schedule that I used to - but I definitely work less hours. Some would be surprised at that. Working from home seems like a dream. But the truth was I got up early and worked, worked all day, and worked late into the night. When we would go somewhere I'd bring my computer with me and work along the way. It worked at the time - but now I'm grateful to be back in the world of teaching.


Teaching is a crazy life too - and I work lots of hours....but I really love it. This is report card season so I've been especially busy lately. Still, we've had real meals, I've gone to bed at a reasonable hour, and my kids have still got to the activities they need to get to. We can call it a success! I am amazed at how much I have accomplished in the last seven days. It seems like every waking minute I'm busy busy busy. Hopefully by Monday I'll be finished report cards though and will be able to get back to regular life. Here's hoping!

So Blessed

Today one of my co-workers brought me a flower. She said it was so I could look it and think of my little Destiny.

Brought a tear to my eye!

I'm seriously so blessed. I work with some amazing, kind, creative, fun and thoughtful people.

Released!

I'm actually writing this on Wednesday evening, but I couldn't publish it until Sunday. The Bishop came to visit and released me as Primary President. I pretty much expected it. It's been just over 2 years. I sure have enjoyed it. I felt kind of tossed about getting released. In some ways I feel like it's time for a change. But then again, I'd be happy to stay in primary for a long time. I guess a change is good so that the kids in primary get some fresh ideas and new enthusiasm. I will miss them!

No new calling yet. I guess I get a vacation!

Book Club Night

Tonight was the night I wait for! Book Club! Peirce and I joined a book club at the library and this month we read The Magic Half....well, I read it. I read the first part with Peirce and one Sunday afternoon read the rest of it, and then forgot about reading it with him. Oops! He really isn't much into reading chapter books on his own. Hopefully the book club will help create more joy in reading. Right now he likes books like Geronimo Stilton and Garfield comic books...which is okay...but I sure would love to see him learn to love regular chapter books. We'll work on it.

So we had a great night at book club. On the way home we made a stop. When we went to get back in the van poor Peirce got his hand slammed in the door. Poor little guy! Now that isn't going to create good book club feelings!

Four Years Later

We have a little girl in our ward that was born the week that our Destiny was stillborn. We sang happy birthday to her in primary today at church. I often look at her and wonder what it would be like to have a little girl that age running around our house. Our life sure would have been different than it is right now. Time does heal wounds though. My time with Destiny changed my life for the better. Today is the day she was delivered (I never know if I should say it was the day she was born - or the day she died)

All I know is it is possible to love someone you haven't spent time with. She is a gentle soul whose presence I often feel.

Thank you for all you have done for me, my little Destiny Dawn Ackroyd.

I have have grown and changed through all this. I contemplated whether I should post anything. Sometimes I think people think I should move on. I know some people are uncomfortable with the topic. I guess the big reason for me is that I never want her to be forgotten.

Fall Fling

Today was another swim meet day. NCSA hosted and so parents have to volunteer at two sessions. Since my kids swim in different sessions I ended up volunteering all day. I was there from 8 am until 7 pm. Ugh! Talk about a long day. I sure have soft moist skin now though. :)

In the morning I was a timer. Easy peasy. In the afternoon I marshalled. Oh the pain! I did it at the last meet too and I had resolved that if things got too crazy I was going to call in the coaches to come help...and when things got really crazy I forgot. I'm tossed about whether I should volunteer to do it again so I can remember to do that - or hope I never have to do it again.

Decisions. Decisions.

The meet went well for Jill. She improved in one race and did about the same in the other three. This was Peirce's second meet. We'll just say he is on a steep learning curve. He is enjoying it, but has a few more things to learn about technique so he has fewer DQ's. He did have one race though where he didn't get DQd. I was proud of him for pushing on despite the disappointments. At one point, in his 3rd race, the starter asked the boys to step down (which they often do if someone is on the blocks too soon or doing something they shouldn't). Peirce got confused and ended up falling off the block into the water. Poor kid. He was embarrassed. He didn't get DQd for that though!

All in all, I'm glad we have swimming in our lives. Although it seems to make my life a little crazy, our kids are sure getting in good shape and learning a lot. Life is good.

Daily Blogging

I'm recommitting to daily blogging. It's my way of journaling, and I am sorry to miss things. I resolve to do better!