The Long Awaited Day!

I’ve been waiting for this day since April and it finally got here:)

Exercise:

Absolutely none:( I walked across the street to the drug store today, that’s it. An epic fail! It all started when I woke up at 7:52 this morning when my friend texted to say she was picking me up earlier than 8:30 so we could stop for coffee/tea! I can’t remember the last time I slept that late, but I guess I needed it. I think I’ll try to make tomorrow’s run longer to make up for today.

Work:

I got two activities cut out of the laminating. It’s a start and I’ll try for one more tonight and then some more tomorrow. I’m trying to sneak it in between knitting and reading so that my brain doesn’t realize I’m working on the weekend, 😂.

Reading:

I finally finished the book, Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan today.

It’s the third book in this author’s From Manhattan with Love series. I devoured the first two books really quickly, but this one took longer. I don’t know if it’s because there was such a long gap between reading the first two and this one that I wasn’t as  connected to the series or if it was just the characters I couldn’t get into. It was still a good read. The book is about Eva who is the third friend in a company called Urban Genie- a concierge company in New York. Lucas’ grandmother hires Eva to decorate his condo and fill his freezer with food while he is supposedly in Vermont. Of course, he’s not in Vermont and a relationship ensues. I love reading series, and I love Sarah Morgan’s books, but I just found these two characters hard to relate to.  I liked the relationship between them and the fact that the friendship still played a role in the book.  If you like New York romance books, you’ll like this one. I would suggest reading the other two books first though.

Now that I’m done that book, I have three “good for me” books that I need to get going on!! Plus all the ones I’ve read reviews of on here lately.

Knitting:

Since I did a knitting store shop hop (Woolith Fair) in April, I have been waiting for Knit City. Supposedly this is the third year this event has been held, but I had only heard about it last year and missed it:(

My friend picked me up at 8:15, and we arrived at the venue at 8:45, only to find a ten minute line up of cars and a line up of people that went around the building!! Supposedly people started lining up at 6:30 this morning! Why can’t I find anyone to knit with if there are this many knitters in the Vancouver area?!?!  Thankfully the line up moved quickly and we were in shortly after 9am. We saw lots of people wearing knitted garments. I had thought about doing this but then decided I didn’t need to show off my wares, but maybe I should have, (perhaps I would have been warmer!)

We decided to work out way around the outside and then do the middle vendors, this plan fell through though as the rows don’t line up and there seems to be booths everywhere:( Both myself and my friend were immediately overwhelmed, but we forged ahead 🤣.  We did one whole loop of every booth in about two and a half hours. We were both hungry by this time and had read that there were supposed to be food trucks so we decided to take a break and then go for a second round to make sure we hadn’t missed anything:)

There were about six or seven food trucks – Reel Mac n Cheese, Serious Sausage, Varinicey Pakoras, C’est Ci Bon Pastries, Namachickpea, and Melt City grilled cheese. I ended up with a small pakora and a chai tea, but really wish I had walked one more truck over as they had gluten free, dairy free grilled cheese sandwiches at the Melt City truck:( We got out there at just the right time as by the time we were done eating there were lineups everywhere!  The thing I noticed most at lunch was how friendly everyone was- two ladies joined us at our table and we had an awesome conversation with them (thankfully my friend is good at talking to strangers), and another woman overheard me talking about my purchases and gave me an awesome Ravelry tip- there’s a Harry Potter themed group!!! I friended her and joined the group immediately and a new project starts tomorrow so I’ll tell you more about it after I do some reading:)

Our second round was faster, but we realized we had missed a lot on the first round, though I think this is an instance where you would never be able to see “everything”!

We ended up visiting two booths multiple times as they both had sale bins that they kept adding things to!!! I love a good sale bin and these two were definitely my downfall!

Mini skeins were everywhere! I didn’t know what you could do with them until a woman suggested a sweater using them for stripes. It sounds really cute, unfortunately the box of minis I liked, I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the money on:( The colours were amazing and there were twelve of them, but they seemd smaller than all the other mini skeins- only about 50 yards each. I just can’t figure out a project for them and without one in mind, I guess I had better leave them:(. They look like a jewel box!

So cute- a rainbow of minis, but so expensive:(

I also discovered that I absolutely love yarn that has silk in it. There was a booth where all the yarn featured silk and if you bought the yarn, you got a free pattern. I loved two of the patterns! I just wish I remembered the name of the booth as I’d look online and get them when my Visa recovers!

My suggestions or changes if I was in charge of this event would be:

1) a grid layout to the booths so that it was easy to navigate and keep track of what you had seen or not seen.

2) more space between the booths. We found it very crowded, especially after lunch!

3) a bigger variety of vendors. There was some variety but most vendors were predominantly yarn or patterns. I was looking more for the accessories, tools and some cool knitting jewelry and clothing. There was a bit of this stuff (though no clothing whatsoever), but not much and most was crazy prices!  I had really wanted a few project bags but they started at $45 and went to $130. I guess I’ll be sewing my own!

4) Have more skeins of the custom show yarn as it was gone in the first half hour:(

Ok so what did I buy?? I had pretty good control until the last stop, though I still came home with way more yarn than I should have and I think my Visa card is still smouldering🤣. Thankfully I have a plan for most of what I bought:) Here’s an overview:

The Woolith Fair pamphlet at the bottom is to remind me of the dates for my next shopping extravaganza. I will try to behave myself until then!

I bought Harry Potter themed stitch and progress markers. I just couldn’t resist as I love Harry Potter and I don’t own a progress marker or very many stitch markers! 

I bought the two tote bags as I am forever putting my projects into reuseable shopping bags and every time I do, I wonder what I had in them before that is going to get all over my yarn.  They were both so cute, I just couldn’t decide between them!  These aren’t project bags, but they will have to do until I can make myself some. One is going to hold a simple project in the staff room at lunch so I can quit taking my current project back and forth!  

The Vancouver Canucks skein doesn’t count against me because it is going to be used to make a birthday and perhaps Christmas present for my eight year old nephew who is crazy about the Canucks. It was also in the sale bin! I’ll now be on the hunt for a child’s toque pattern in medium.

The black and gray variegated wo that I managed to find two skeins of in a sale bin will become a wrap that I got the pattern for a few weeks ago.

I found some cool sparkle neutral variegated wool which I think would make a very cool entrelac project and I’ve been wanting to try that for a while, so now I just need to find a pattern I like (and that is simple enough for a begginer entrelacer).

The pretty blue lace weight yarn will become a Purl Soho pattern for a shell I printed the other day.

I should probably get this yarn entered into Ravelry and put the projects in the queue that nothingbutknit2 introduced me to:) A new project for tomorrow!

The other six balls of yarn, I have to admit I don’t have a plan for yet, though these ones have enough meterage for me to get a sweater out of them:)

The other three balls were just too pretty and too good of a deal to leave there!  I’d love some suggestions on what to do with them:)

Lastly, I got a free pin that was made for me!

Overall, the day was very fun though I didn’t come home with what I thought I would! 🤣

I spent this afternoon mainly knitting on my razor cami so I can get it done and be onto the next project as I now have several more!

I hope your day was as good as mine:)

Have fun!

AJ

Crazy, but Fun!

It was busy, but it turned out to be fun:)

Exercise:

I ran this morning, that’s probably the best that can be said for it. I find it amazing how powerful the brain is and the fact that running for me is way more mental than physical. I ran almost exactly the same speed as I did yesterday and yet yesterday I had a good run and today I didn’t. My brain just wasn’t in it:( It was raining, I was tired, I was running too slow, everything was a hill, my brain found every excuse in the book to have a bad run. Grrrr! It better not continue!

I walked to work and also walked and ran with the kids today. That was the sum total of my exercise though as I am just getting home now.

Teaching:

Today was the Terry Fox run at school. It was very cool as we had the niece of Terry Fox come talk as we are in close proximity to his family home.  My students were very well behaved and I think they had a lot of fun. It was neat that I had three dads join our class. With only eighteen students today, it felt like such a small class! I ran with another teacher for three laps of the field so I got a bit of extra exercise:)

The rest of the day with the children was pretty good. They got to do puzzles at the end of the day as it was too wet to go outside and we spent a lot of the afternoon doing math (not the best idea for Friday afternoon, but they had started tally graphs yesterday and I didn’t want to leave it until Monday!).

I ended up bringing home all my laminating to cut this weekend which goes against my goal to not being work home, but I think it will be a good thing in the long run! I’ll be much calmer next week if I’m not scrambling to cut out laminating on top of getting ready for the assembly and having to present at the staff meeting and having meetings all Tuesday afternoon. It will also hopefully allow me to get some other programs set up and running quicker!

Socializing:

Tonight was a big night for me. I ran home after school (quite literally, while carrying a big roll of laminating), and changed. Why does everything in my closet say teacher???? I need to go shopping! I met up with two colleagues at Oktoberfest which is being held across the street from my house. It was supposed to be a staff social but no one else was there. We are thinking of meeting up on Sunday to check it out instead.

I then ran home so I could be picked up by my friend as we were headed downtown to the Miranda Lambert concert. A few weeks ago, Michelle had called me up to see if I’d use the extra ticket she had. I said yes as I try to say yes to as many social occasions as I can, though I didn’t know a ton of her songs or anything by the opening act, Brandy Clark.  It always seems like when I have zero expectations, the experience is fabulous! This was only the third concert I have ever been to and the first one I have been to with a friend. I loved it! It was a great time. Michelle didn’t mind my quiet concert behaviour ( I scream minimally and just like to move), and she wasn’t in your face or obnoxious, just a great concert buddy. We had fabulous seats as we were upgraded from the third section to the 6th row of the second section. I could actually see, and at 4’7″ that’s almost a miracle!The girls in front of me weren’t as obnoxious as I feared they might be when they first showed up. I think we both had a good time! It was even worth the packed skytrain ride on the way home!!

I owe Michelle an amazing dinner for giving me this awesome experience! I’ll keep nagging her to make sure it happens:) Michelle took all the selfies so if I get some good pictures I’ll post them in a different post:)

It’s been a fabulous day, but I so need to go to sleep as I’m being picked up at 8:30am for Knit City tomorrow!

Have fun!

AJ

Proud!

Not an exciting day, but a few surprises.

Exercise:

I had a good run this morning of my usual morning loop. I again felt like I did this summer and I really hope this feeling continues. It’s so much easier to run when you’re having a good run! I’m worried that this is going to get boring really quickly, but I don’t seem to have a lot of choices for lit areas in my neighbourhood.  Actually, now that I think about it there are other lit areas, but they’re very hilly or short.  When I finished my run and was stretching I looked over and saw people in the gym running on the treadmill and I just know I can’t do that! Every time I try to run on the treadmill I end up bored out of my mind and quitting after twenty minutes. If anyone has ideas on how to make an old runner by toute feel new again, I’d love to hear them!

I walked to and from school so I got my walk in, and my proudest moment for the day was when I came home late from work (7pm so an 11 hour work day) and worked out!!  I did the Super sweaty tabata workout which alternates between a tabata and 3 minutes of weights. I did burpees, walking lunges, push-ups, high knees, skaters, squat jumps, planks, reverse lunges,  squat with overhead press, bent over dumbbell rows, mountain climbers… pretty good for the end of the day and I was super sweaty!

A successful exercise day😀

Teaching:

I didn’t actually teach today. I met my students at the door as I knew some of my anxious ones would be upset if I wasn’t there as I’d forgotten to warn them yesterday, but then I went into a meeting and spent the rest of the day planning and prepping two training sessions on the new report card for our teaching staff. There were some hair pulling moments, but the exercise definitely helped me to better understand this new report card.  I was just so thankful I was working with my co- department head who is super organized, a joy to work with as we’re similar, and a friend. It definitely made the best of what could have been a torturous day!

We even had an hour at the end when I got to plan the next assembly I have to run, which turns out to be next Thursday!!!! That came as a major shock this morning, and not a good one!!!  Thankfully, with help, I now have a plan:)

I wasn’t planning on quite that long a day ( I do t think I even make minimum wage after eleven hours), but it did feel good to make some progress on a few projects. Unfortunately, I yet again have a pile of laminating to cut out:(  The long day was definitely made better by watching a Hallmark movie while I cut, pasted, organized, prepped, planned, explained and generally went crazy. 😜

Knitting:

Thankfully I got two rows done before I went to work this morning as I haven’t had any more time today since we had a meeting at lunch as well:( I’m thinking I should find a small, simple project to leave in the staff room that I could work on just at lunchtime. My school has a Holiday Market that I usually try to contribute some knit goods to, so perhaps it could be for that.  🤔 I’ll have to try to find an appropriate pattern- something simple do I can still visit.

Blogging:

With my crazy day of meetings I have to admit I didn’t get the chance to look at WordPress until just now. Boy did I get a great surprise- a lot more views today! Seems like a positive note to go to end the day on:)

Well after that work day  I’m ready for bed!!

The couch I wish I was falling asleep on right now! Some friends broke my couch at book club this summer so I’m on the hunt for a new one. Unfortunately at $4700 this one is still living at the store!😳

Have fun!

AJ

Happy, Frustrated, Happy…

It has been an emotional roller coaster of a day!

Exercise:

I got out for my usual loop run this morning and it felt really good. This morning was the first time since going back to school that I had as good a run as I had this summer. All of my splits were below 7 min. which is good for me. I actually physically could feel myself pushing and I was running with the right muscles and it didn’t feel like a slog! I felt like I could push myself to run faster and it was a beautiful morning for a run. I knew that I put my tracking at risk, but I had to stop and take this photo because it was just so beautiful!

While I didn’t walk to school today, I did have an awesome tabata boot camp workout after school. It was leg heavy again so I’m probably going to hurt for another three days, but I was totally into it and actually having fun! I felt a pep in my step and still had energy at the end. We did: jumping jacks, curtsy lunges, bird dogs, sit ups with punches, squat with overhead press, side shuffles, skaters, one legged hip raises, running, pop jacks, step ups, one legged squats, plank jacks, and two others that I just can’t remember.

It was a fabulous exercise day for me today as even at Workout Wednesday which we do first thing with the children, I felt like I had springs in my feet:) Can I please keep this feeling?

Teaching:

This was the frustrating part of the day for me. I had to speak to two boys who have been hitting each other. I had gotten an email from a parent, but it’s never one sided and sure enough both boys were guilty so I spoke to them, made them explain and apologize and told them what the consequences would be if it happened again.  Then I had a boy after recess who was pulling his pants down in the lineup (just a bit). When I asked him why he couldn’t tell me, but after a little thought he said, “well David did it”.  We had read the book, No David by David Shannon and the kids all love the page where David runs down the road naked. We then had to have a discussion about how even though this was funny in the book, it was not to happen at school!!! (Head shake, is there any other job that deals with this type of imitation? Lol).  Lunch was frustrating because we are trying to plan a field trip (what the children will really remember about their grade one year), but it just seems impossible to get a program and a bus on the same day:( Grrrr! If they want field trips, why don’t they make it easy to do then???? (And no I don’t know who “they” are.  Everyone!). The frustration continued after lunch when I felt like I spent all of silent reading nagging children to be quiet, not how I like to spend the time!  I finally thought for a moment and figured it was the children who aren’t reading yet so we discussed some strategies they could use during this time if they can’t read books yet.  This seems to have been where my day finally turned as our time outside drawing our adopted tree in Fall went really well:)

Shopping:

I managed to get almost everything I need for the STEM bins I want to make, including the bins this time!  I’m only missing the lego at this time.  It’s nice to see this project coming together quickly so I can get it going in the classroom!  Maybe I’ll stay late at work tomorrow night and get the materials laminated and the boxes assembled.

I stopped into Costco to pick up pictures I had ordered online through the app this morning (another frustrating experience), but it turned out they won’t be ready until tomorrow. Good thing I got vitamins and some cute new sheets or that would have been a complete waste of a trip!

Eating:

I had my mom with me while I was shopping and I had suggested we try out Orrange, which is a restaurant right by Costco that I have heard good things about from three different people- two teachers and my nephew.

The parking was horrible, the decor was cute and the food was okay. I guess they have different standards or they ate something different from me. They had quite a few options on their gluten free menu.  I had the aloha tuna salad. It was six slices of sashimi tuna, a quarter of an avocado and a few pieces of mango on top of mixed greens. I found it to be very tasteless:(. I love mango and avocado and those parts were good, but the tuna and dressing were meh. Unfortunately, I was so hungry that I didn’t get a picture of my salad:( I wouldn’t recommend this place:(

The other Eating I’ve done lately was to try out a new gluten free, dairy free product from my local grocery store.  I tried the Ciabatta buns from Schar Foods. It was the first time I had seen them in the grocery store by me. They are quite small, but have a good taste. They are not dry and crumbly and do not need to be kept frozen. All bonuses and not typical of the gluten free products I know. I would recommend them, though they are not cheap at more than $2 a bun.  They are quite small so while one is fine for me, most people would probably want two which would be quite expensive for a lunch! I may use them as a treat on occasion, but I think I’ll stick with my breadmaker for everyday.

Knitting:

I got a couple of rows done on my cami at lunch, and I’ll go back to it once I’m done this post.

I’m absolutely loving the colour gradation in the wool! So pretty!  At least I am finally working on thee main body which is a very simple two row pattern repeat. I’m not even keeping track of my rows! Probably the first time in my life I haven’t!

Otherwise I sat down tonight to read up on the vendors who will be at Knit City this weekend. Lol I only found four that I don’t need to visit.  I think we’d better plan on being there all day.  Planning is definitely part of the fun though. At some point I think I’d like to try a knitting retreat. I just need to find one that won’t cost my arm and my leg. I’m sure I’ll find one one day.

Family:

I think the best part of my day was spending time with my mom! We are quite similar and have a good laugh over it regularly. Tonight we ended up buying the same sheet set from Costco as we both thought it was cute. I always find my mom easy to spend time with and uplifting to my mood.  My mood was definitely lifted when I came home tonight to find she had ironed and put back on my couch cover. So inviting that I now need to sit on it and do some knitting!

Have fun!

AJ

Just when you think you’re organized…

I try to be as organized as possible, but sometimes life just laughs in your face!

Exercise:

I did 28 minutes of weights from my old Shape magazine this morning. All of it was groan worthy as I’m suffering from the swing lunges I did yesterday morning. Note to self: do a lot more swing lunges!!

I walked to work, but this ended up being my only other exercise for the day.

Teaching:

Today started off fabulous! The little girl who cries every morning didn’t cry this morning (yes! With a fist pump). The anxious little guy was special helper and he did a fabulous job at calendar. He actually provided the awe moment of the day. The children were asking their five questions to try and figure out what his sharing object was ( a great way to practice questioning). The last question was, ” what shape is it?”  Answer: “the shape of a dog”.  When it came time for the three quesses as to what the object was, “is it a dog?” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

This afternoon was a little tougher as one little guy had to go without any books during silent reading as he wasted all of the choosing time talking! I’m trying really hard this year to use natural consequences with the children, but it’s always a catch 22. I want him to spend time with books, but I also want him to learn not to waste time! Grrrr😖

We went on a nature walk today, but I think all the nature took off when they heard 38 children coming along the path. Quiet does not seem to mean much yet, lol.

Surprise:

I wanted to go to the dollar store after school to get some supplies to start setting up some STEM bins for my classroom and my mom had some shopping to do as well so I got to do both:) What a treat to get to spend time with my mom!  We hit the dollar store and I got a few things, but as usual I wasn’t as organized as I should have been and forgot to look at the package I have to see what quantity I need of each thing:( We also hit the Superstore where I finally got some of the delicious beer hummus that a friend had introduced me to. Yum! In addition, I had time to look at some knitting magazines and this gluten free recipe book. 

I decided that I should not impulse buy and should think about whether I really wanted and needed it. Maybe I’ll see if I can find some reviews.

Baking/Eating:

Late last night I had made my first loaf of gluten free bread in the breadmaker I was given. It wasn’t a new breadmaker with a gluten free setting so I wasn’t sure that it would turn out, but it did! I had a slice for breakfast with peanut butter and jam on it and it was so good!!! I got the recipe here:

http://www.namastefoods.com/recipes/cgi-bin/recipes.cgi?Function=show&Id=138
It was so great to have homemade bread without all the work. I got to knit and have homemade bread. I was worried it wouldn’t turn out as everything seemed to say you needed either a gluten free setting or to override your machine’s settings ( like I have any idea how to do that!!). I am happy with this result and will definitely try it again.  Of course, now I’m going to eat way too much bread!

I learned something else while making this bread as well. On Saturday my mom had helped me move some furniture around so I could try out having more counter space in my kitchen. I’ve been thinking I want to do an island type counter at one end of my kitchen, but I like to try things out first so I moved my desk into the kitchen to give it a try. Well, during the bread experiment, I really liked having another sturdy surface to work on. Hmmm now I need to start looking at pictures to figure out what kind of island counter I want.

My mom and I decided to hit Roos Public House for dinner tonight as my dad was otherwise occupied. I had a pear Magners cider which was different, not bad, just different. We shared the spicy chicken street tacos which they did in lettuce wraps and the salt and pepper chicken wings (yup really healthy😳). All the food was really good, I just wish I had taken a picture of it! The chicken street tacos were really pretty in the lettuce wrap! The bartender who was our server was also awesome:)

Knitting:

I got a couple of rows down on my razor cami at lunch today, but that’s it so far. I have been taking my knitting to work to help use up the time after I finish eating. I feel very pudgy lately:( but am not hungry, just eating because I’m in the staff room. It’s been working great. I really only have two project bags though 

So I will be looking for some more this weekend at Knit City. The beige one I’ve had since I was a little kid- nothing very interesting. The other was my Grandma’s so it has sentimental value. It is better for larger projects however so I think I’ll look for a more interesting small project bag! I also, of course, need to stock these bags with the basics. Hmmm I think my Visa card is shuddering already, 🤣.

I’m only just finishing the bottom rubbing so I want to go get that finished before bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Well it was supposed to be busy…

When I looked at my phone calendar yesterday for what was happening today, it was so chock-a-block full it made me tired just looking at it, but it sure didn’t turn out that way.

Exercise:

I got over to the gym for a workout with my friend Lyndsay this morning. I love working out with her because she is in better shape than I am, but she always just assumes I can do any exercise she can. I don’t want to tell her I can’t so I end up pushing and challenging myself:) I could feel the swing lines holding a ten pound weight in each hand by lunch today!It’s a fabulous way to start the week!

It was the only exercise for the day however because I had a massage after school. I always try not to workout on the days I have a massage so that I get to enjoy my loose body for at least 24 hours🤣

Teaching:

Well we had tears again this morning, but at least I didn’t have to physically move anyone! My little boy with high anxiety is progressing so well! I think tomorrow he will actually be able to just line up with the class outside, like everyone else:)

I got my FreshGrade up and running today which makes me super happy. I’ve used this app the past two years but have never given parents access before. I just hope I don’t end up regretting that!!😳. I recorded the children at the end of the day saying what the best part of their day was. I hope parents want to see this stuff and don’t just find it annoying. In the past I’ve used it mainly just for assessment, but I want to provide information that parents can use to have a conversation with their children too! Wish me luck, technology is not always my friend😫

Baking:

A colleague gave me her breadmaker today and I couldn’t resist trying it out. It is an older machine so it doesn’t have a gluten free setting, but I found a recipe online that didn’t seem to require that so we’ll see if it works. I will either have a loaf of bread or I’ll have the start of bread pudding and my mom will have a breadmachine for each one of her homes 🤣

It came out ok, can’t wait to try it!

Knitting:

I missed knitting at lunch today. All I managed to do was print off the marketplace map for Knit City that is happening this weekend. I absolutely can’t wait!! The friend I am going with was supposed to come over tonight so we could plan but she has a cold so she’s home resting to ensure she’ll be better by Sunday!! Instead I have managed to wind my Indigo Moon yarn ( yay me as last time it took me and my parents to untangle the mess I made. I decided to try out the Razor Cami pattern that a couple of people have used Indigo Moon to make. I didn’t want socks this colour and I don’t think I need another shawl right now so hopefully this will work! I’m just at the ribbing so I’ll take a photo when it’s more interesting.

My mom came up with a great idea for my New Hampshire yarn- a v-neck, sleeveless, front buttoning vest. Now I just need to find a pattern, anyone know of one?????

Goals:

For me, September is more a time for goal setting than January. My job influences so much of my life that a new school year seems like the time to set some goals. I’ve talked about a few, Such as getting up early to exercise and trying to work just 8am to 4pm this year. Well another goal I had was to try to wear something I’ve made at least once a week. So far, four weeks and I’ve worn four of my handmade items. It makes me happy and piques the interest of the children so that when I start knitting club as the weather gets nasty, they’ll be interested. I figured I should share with you what I’ve worn as well:) Most things are slightly big on me now, but I’m just not willing to rip out yet!

Well, I’m off to try my bread and finish the ribbing on the razor cami.

Have fun!

AJ

Catch 22

It’s been a tough day, but also a wonderful day.

Exercise:

My run this morning turned into a walk:( as both my running buddies are sick. Unfortunately it was also my only exercise for the day:(

Family:

Today we had my grandma’s celebration of life. We went out on a boat as a family and spread her ashes on the waterway we all live on. My mom and aunt did an awesome job of organizing the day. My uncle said a bit about my grandma’s life and then we all said something we liked that Nan did or thanked her for something as we threw a flower into the water. At the end we tossed in her ashes which were placed in a special paper container that sinks after ten minutes and starts to biodegrade after four hours. We toasted Nan with champagne and then had a lunch. It was a tough occasion and yet also a beautiful day as my brothers, parents, aunt, uncle, cousin and I were all together on a boat on a beautiful day.  My Nan would have hated the money we spent on champagne etc, but I hope that it brings closure for my mom. If it does, it was worth it!

Knitting:

My grandma always had her knitting with her and she was the one who taught me to knit so it seemed appropriate to throw my project in her project bag and take it along. I accomplished a pair of slippers over the course of the afternoon. The pattern is called Rapunzel by Drops. It calls for chunky wool so I used some random taupe chunky yarn I had in my stash. It was an incredibly easy pattern and they knit up very quickly, probably even more so because I have such small feet. It would definitely be a pattern suitable for a beginner as you knit, Purl and the decreases are done by yarn overs. I made no changes to the pattern other than to add a pompon to the front of each afterwards to add interest. If you had more interesting yarn than I used, that wouldn’t be necessary.

Well I’m now going to go read a chick lit book and hopefully snap out of the weird feeling today produced.

Have fun!

AJ

Busy Little B

Wow, what a day!

Exercise:

My brother stayed the night at my place (Well from 3:30am on) since he was in town for his twenty year reunion. I had been worried u wouldn’t get my crunch run in, but I figured I’d be able to when he got in so late:) I had a worse time which bugged me until I realized I stopped for traffic at one of the road crossings and I tried going up the hill beside the stairs.  At least I did it, especially since it turned out to be my only exercise today:(

Family:

I was a super duper nice sister and stopped at Starbucks for black coffee and a greasy egg, bacon and cheese on croissant sandwich for my brother on the way home. I don’t think I’ve ever bought this much at Starbucks at one time before!! It was nice to get to visit with him a bit before the day got busy. I enjoyed my tea and cinnamon bun during this time:)

The rest of the day I spent with my mom which was a lovely treat! I actually just got home now and we’ve been gone since 10am this morning. I think I’ll do this on list form.

1) Fabricland for fabric and batting to make the mug rests which will be my friend gifts this Christmas.

2) Lee Valley- for a look, got a new locksac for my phone as we’re coming into the rainy season and a mini liquid measure

3) Gilnetter Pub- shared a super yummy seafood clubhouse sandwich and fries, still ate too much!

4) Home Depot- had no lighting fixtures I liked for my kitchen and the woman told me I couldn’t use dimmavle LED light bulbs in a non dimmer fixture. Need to go home and investigate. I’ve been waiting for my mom to come home as I have six light bulbs burned out in my kitchen, but I can’t reach them even on a ladder:( One of the prices my mom pays for wanting a petite daughter🤣

5) Costco – for flowers for my Grandma’s celebration of life tomorrow and a shrimp salad- didn’t find either:(

6) My brother’s house to see him and his wife and son. I’m having Gus withdrawal. I got a cool globe light for my classroom at his neighbour’s garage sale. My ten year old nephew Gus bought it for me as I had no change. He’s getting so grown up. I’ll have to make sure to pay him back:)

7) Port Moody Flowers- finally found right beautiful flowers for tomorrow. The woman was extremely helpful!

8) Runner’s Den- picked up the running shoes that I had ordered and then forgotten about. It will be great to have new shoes, but I think I’ll wait until October 1st to break them out.

9) Mom’s apartment to drop off flowers

10) My apartment for tea and to have a look at lighting fixture and my broken kitchen shelf. Also helped me move furniture around. I put my desk in my kitchen so I could see what it’s like to have a counter at the end of my kitchen as I’m thinking of putting an island there. It puts my table and chairs in my brighter living room which may be nice for eating my breakfast! (Also unfortunately puts more stores “junk” in my spare room:()

11)Rona for light bulbs and shelf pins- got some light bulbs but not the LEDs still:(

12) Samz Neighbourhood Pub in Port Coquitlam for dinner. Shared a seafood sandwich- my mom ate the fries and I ate half the sandwich. We weren’t impressed:(. I was all ready to eat very little today and start the crackdown so I’ll lose these four pounds, but I don’t think my eating today is going to help with that goal at all:(

13) Matteo’s Gelato- I swear it was my mom’s idea! I had the dairy free chocolate hazelnut and the vegan salted caramel which we’re both wonderful!

14) Home Depot- to buy the dimmable LED light bulbs because just as I suspected, it will be fine to use them!

15) My house to replace light bulbs and pick up my mom’s phone and glasses which she forgot on my coffee table. It’s definitely time to start deciding on new kitchen lighting. The bulbs were difficult to replace, grrr!

16) My mom’s apartment to drop her off.

17) Home again and into bed! My eyes do not want to stay open anymore as 6:15 was a very long time ago!

It was a super busy day, but also wonderful as I got to spend it with my mom. We never do anything very exciting, but always manage to have a good time no matter what. I guess good company is just like that:)

Have fun!

AJ

Overwhelmed

The saying if it rains it pours was true for me today.

Exercise:

My run this morning was awful:( I felt nauseous the whole time and then the route I picked turned out to only take 24 minutes and had too many stop lights. Both of these were good today, but wouldn’t be usually! I sure hope tomorrow’s run is better!

I walked to and from work and then also walked up the crunch after work with a friend. We needed it after our day. Fresh air and exercise seems to solve all manner of problems:)

I didn’t get the chance to stretch though:( Since I got knocked over by an SUV several years ago, recovery has become a big part of my life. I was always battling stretching and rolling because it seemed to take so much time! Lately I have been stopping at a picnic bench on my way home and doing four simple stretches and it’s been working amazingly well! I’ve noticed that not only do I stretch further, but I’m not in as much pain or becoming a “rusty robot” as often:)

I wish I had gotten an actual workout in, but maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t.

Eating:

I’ve been so discouraged lately as my scale hasn’t been as nice a number as I want it to be, but then I realized tonight that I’ve been eating way too much. The school ordered in Indian food for lunch. I got lamb curry with no naan bread. Paying $12 and then being sick didn’t seem like the best value:( I was stuffed all afternoon and I didn’t even eat all the rice, but when I ate all the lamb, I realized at one point that would have been three meals for me. I need to go back to that! I wasn’t planning on having anything more, but then my parents called and invited me to meet them at St. James Well for dinner. It’s always great food there and I try to see my parents as much as possible when they’re in town ( so I’m tired of them and don’t miss them as much when they leave again), so I met up with them. I shared the nachos ( with no cheese or sour cream for me) and had a glass of sangria. Both were excellent as the chips were homemade and were like potato chips, but I still feel stuffed and sick:( I just seem to do better when I stick to homemade food.

I did stop at the grocery store to get food in case my brother gets hungry. He’s staying here tonight as he’s at his 20 year high school reunion. It wasn’t the healthiest food, but hopefully it will give me the chance to eat less!

Teaching:

It was a ProD day today and while it’s great to learn new things, I prefer having students over having ProD! Both presenters overwhelmed me as they gave too much detail and didn’t really give it in small, easy to digest steps. I think ProD would be more successful for me if a presenter was incredibly explicit about their lessons and timing and then gave the materials so I’d be able to implement it immediately. I need some spoon feeding, but while these ladies were doing amazing things, by the time I figure out how to apply it to my age group and gather all the materials, the year will be over and it will be forgotten:(   We did some very cool activities in both seminars, but none were really appropriate for my grade ones:( A friend I work with probably gave me the best ProD today when she was telling me about and showed me these STEM (it’s called ADST here) boxes the children use. I want to make them immediately as they are just using dollar store materials and she has all the components necessary to get started!  Even if my ProD had just been one presenter and then getting the afternoon to implement what I had learned, it probably would have been more valuable. Instead I come home overwhelmed and discouraged:(

Baking:

I made up a packaged brownie mix this evening. Mostly just to make my place smell good for my brother, but of course this time it turned out well! I’ll need to find somewhere to take it so that I don’t eat it! The mix was from Xena’s Gluten Free Bakery in Maple Ridge. It was incredibly easy to make up and it turned out great! I’m not even sure I can call it baking as all I had to do was add fake butter and warm water, stir and put it in the pan to bake.  I’ll distribute it among the family tomorrow or maybe take it to the family gathering on Sunday.

Knitting:

I have spent this evening looking at patterns. I had bought Madeline Tosh Merino light in Granite State when I was in New Hampshire this summer along with two deer horn buttons and I had thought I would make slippers out of it, but it turns out I have way too much yarn for slippers. I will need to come up with a different plan for this yarn so instead I am using some random stash wool to try a pair of slippers, called Rapunzel by Drops.  I’ve never made slippers before so  we’ll see how it goes:)

Well I’m exhausted and am still hoping to run tomorrow even with my brother here so I’m heading to bed ( at a completely pathetic time for a Friday night)!

Have fun!

AJ

Dog tired

Sorry for no post yesterday. I got home last night and just went straight to bed!

Exercising:

Yesterday’s run was slightly better, not in speed, but in feeling. About halfway through I got into a rhythm. The new music suggestions from thedancingrunner really helped to get me going and keep me moving:)

My plan had been to come home from work and get a workout in, but my mom arrived home so we visited instead. It made the run my only exercise of the day though:(

Teaching:

It was not a stellar morning ( and I hope I don’t hear from parents), but the afternoon improved.  I’ve decided that I will only worry about this until Tuesday.

It was Meet the Creature, oops Teacher night tonight so I had to be back at work for 6pm and dressed up. In fact, I had to be back by 5pm to try and get a parking spot:(. It is not my favourite night as I’m not great at small talk, but it’s always interesting to see how the parents act with their parents. I had the brainstorm just before it started to put out puzzle pieces and have the parents write a note to their child for a class “quilt”. I’m hoping it will help with the separation anxiety some of my students are having. Overall, the night was pretty successful, if only because I got the laminating all cut out, sorted and stored:).

Knitting:

I finished the teacozy!  It was super easy ( with being a basketweave pattern) and seemed so quick after the afghan. The pattern is from KnitOneBrewOne and is called “David the basketweave tea cosy”. The only change I made to the pattern was to do six repeats of the basketweave pattern before decreasing, instead of just four repeats. I also did not do the pompon on top as my mom didn’t want one.  I am very happy with it because the colour is gorgeous! Sorry, my teapot isn’t the same size so it’s not a great photo.

The yarn just a random ball I had in my stash with no label on it. I’m given yarn sometimes for the knitting group I run with the kids at school, so I do have some yarn I know nothing about.  This yarn though has such a pretty pearlescent sheen to it!  It really helped to make a pretty boring teacozy a little bit cuter:). Now I just have to hope it fits my mom’s new teapot as I didn’t have it to try on as I went and my teapot is a weird shape.

Well, I’m off for another day of work, so I’ll be back tonight hopefully to tell you about my day.

Have fun!

AJ