The Irish!

Today was another busy day!

Friendship:

I gave a friend a ride from the dentist back to work in exchange for 45 tennis balls for my classroom. Lol she had given me some last year but it wasn’t enough for my entire class so I asked for more and just by luck she had gotten some yesterday. I picked them up and had a tour of her new school. We’ll have to eat together soon when we can actually catch up!

Classroom:

I was all for going shopping to finish my mom’s list but she said I had to go in and finish putting sliders in the dollhouse and tennis balls on the chair legs. These things got done and I am as ready as I’m going to get!

Shopping:

I picked up some dolls for my classroom centers. We found a black cardigan, running shoes, socks and black capris for my mom. Not everything accomplished but a good job overall!

Socializing:

I was off this afternoon to visit the PNE fair with a couple of friends. It is one of our summer traditions. I carpooled with a friend and I now have a secret parking place that doesn’t cost $25! I’m so glad as that was one of my least favourite parts of the PNE- paying too much for parking!!

We were laughing when we met up as there must have been a subliminal memo go out!

Jean capris and Skechers for the win!

We went and lined up to see the show house right away.

I wasn’t impressed as it has a very weird layout! The two guest rooms, a bath and the laundry room are on the ground floor and then you go upstairs for your kitchen, dining room and master suite. It also seemed like there was a ton of wasted space!

We also did the farm country, the dragon exhibit, the classic cars,My favourite from my childhood! I was determined to have a 1956 Chevy Belair when I was a kid! Now I don’t want to pay the fuel bill for that!

We also saw the superdogs show which is always cute and the new jousting show which I found boring as there was too much talking and not enough action!

My friends ate a ton of food. I think that might be part of the experience for them, but I didn’t find much I could eat:(

These tacos were good, but extremely small and overpriced!

The final thing of the evening was that an Irishman got me. At the start of summer Gus and I were at an event and he was super interested in this paintball company. I said no, but this time the gorgeous Irishman with the amazing accent got me.🤷🏼‍♀️

I just hope it wasn’t a scam! I already almost regret this purchase, but maybe Gus (and Dawson cause I’m not going paintballing) and I will get one good outing out of it! Though I already know they’ll make their money off the purchase of paintballs:(. Why is taking kids out always so expensive?!?!

Well I have come home to remember that I had ripped my bed apart so now I have to go make it so I can crawl in!

Have fun!

AJ

Overindulgence?

Another lovely day spent with my mom. Can’t believe I only have four days left of her company and my holiday!

Exercise:

I knew I had to get my run done early or it wouldn’t get done, so I went out the door this morning for my 6km. It again, wasn’t pretty, but it’s done!

This evening I thought about skipping my workout, but didn’t want to admit to doing that so I did a ladder workout.

Six exercises: burpees, mountain climbers, jump squats, bridge with toe taps, plank shoulder taps and alternating side lunges.

Round 1: 20 seconds, 10 second test

Round 2: 30 seconds, 10 seconds rest

Round 3: 40 seconds, 10 seconds rest

Round 4: 60 seconds, 10 seconds rest

Round 5: 40 seconds, 10 seconds rest

Round 6: 30 seconds, 10 seconds rest

Round 7: 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest

I was sweaty by the end which of course was the goal. My arm didn’t like the planks, but I survived and moved slightly closer to my goal:)

Teaching:

I met my parents at my classroom as my dad delivered my chair back. It works so well now!!!! My mom and I tackled the containers so they are done and look so much better!! I actually managed to get rid of a few and the rest got organized and colour coded, of course 🤣

Shopping:

We managed to only spend 45 minutes in my classroom and then it was off for some shopping. My mom likes to shop when it’s for me ( I seem to be her Barbie doll), but she hates it when it’s for her and today was for her. She needs clothes for her trip!!! Amazingly we both found a lot of stuff! I probably didn’t need anything, but I bought it anyways. More than half was new workout gear which always inspires me to get active so that’s good!

I have my mom’s stuff all washed (she would have to pay to do it, but I don’t), and I will tackle my stuff this weekend as I don’t have the time crunch she does. I did get all the tags cut off and all of it entered into my Stylebook app:)

Eating:

After all that shopping, my mom and I were starving. We hit the Coquitlam Grill for lunch. It’s not fancy at all, but boy is it good, fast and cheap! I had the jambalaya rice bowl that was so good! I still couldn’t finish it though!

House:

I’ve lived in my place for ten years and for ten years my bedroom has been driving me crazy! My place was built during the time that overhead lights weren’t popular so my light switch turns on a little lamp in the corner. Grrr I just want to be able to see something!!! A while back I had bought a hanging fixture and asked my brother to wire it to a plug in for me. Well actually, I just left it on his dining room table🤣. I will now do this with everything I want done as my sister in law was after him and today he came and put up the light for me! I love it😍😍😍😍😍😍. Let there be light!

Knitting/ Crafting:

I promised you a picture of the scarf I made for my friend Kari. Here it is and I just hope she likes it and it’s long enough!

I have gone back to working on my rug as I am just 1.5 squares away from being done. I would still like to be done before school starts, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen:(.

I’ll get to it or it really won’t happen.

Have fun!

AJ

Another Day of Fun

It was a lovely day with my mom. We didn’t do anything super exciting, but it’s just so nice to have company!

Exercise:

This morning I managed to get up another fifteen minutes earlier. One more roll back and then I just need to maintain the time to get used to work. I had to head straight out this morning to get my run in. It was lovely to be able to get out in the cool, fresh air. I did my usual 6.3km route, but cut it a little shorter as I didn’t have to do that much to finish the Squad Runner mission. I did manage to pick it up a couple of times in the speed department. I’d like to blame the lack of speed on my five pounds, but I think it’s more the lack of weight training:(

Teaching:

I ran through the shower, grabbed a carrot muffin and met my parents at my school. My dad took my chair away to attach the new wheels and my mom and I tackled the last few tasks. I’m happy with my classroom but the one thing left to do is to go through my container stash. I seem to find it very difficult to get rid of containers, but now they don’t all fit. I really don’t want to spend more time in my classroom this week, but I also know that if I don’t do it this week while my mom is here to help (they are all well above my head, even on a ladder) then it will have to wait until November:(. Oh well, that’s not the worst thing in the world!

Eating:

At noon we knocked off for lunch at the pub. Today we got to go to the good pub! My mom and I split the nachos. We get all the toppings on the side and my mom gets the cheese and sour cream and I get the guacamole and salsa:)

We didn’t even manage to finish the half order!!!

Shopping:

I ran down to the teacher store in Vancouver. I needed my bee labels and picked up some desk plates for two other teachers. After making that trek I have decided that if my local teacher store doesn’t have the supply I need, I’ll be ordering it online. I just don’t need enough after sixteen years of teaching to make the trip worthwhile.

Knitting:

I have spent the evening finishing up the scarf I am making for my friend Kari. I am much happier with this one than the other. It is done in Loops and Threads: Charisma Heather in purple. The pattern is double seed which I always love. It is nice and soft so it will hopefully be what she wanted:)

I will grab a photo tomorrow in the sunshine.

Well, I guess I’m back to working on the rug from now on.

Have fun!

AJ

This or That?

Wow was it hot today!!!!

Teaching:

I actually managed to get a TOC today for a remedy day. I was kind of surprised since they often pull them to cover illness. My TOC was great though which left me with the question, was I going to do this or that?

I ended up getting my classroom library completely tidied, the field trip materials organized for Wednesday, and my PR cards done. It sure doesn’t sound like a lot when I write it down, but I really didn’t stop much today😏

After school I got to have a long talk with a little boy in my class who has been taking things that aren’t his! Ugh he even went into my desk and took stuff. I told him that since he had hurt our classroom community he now needed to help it. He’ll be staying in to do class jobs for the next three recesses and tomorrow I’m making him return all he took and apologize. It is going to be uncomfortable for him, but hopefully just enough to make him think before he takes what is not his!

The curriculum is such a tiny part of what I do everyday!

Shopping:

I went this evening to buy my students year end gifts. It was so difficult to decide between these two options!

I ended up going with the first option as it is similar to what my co teacher is giving her class. I have some items at school I can add to it.

Reading:

I’m only about 2/3 of the way through my book today, so no review yet on Lost In You by Jules Bennett. It’s the last book in a series I’m reading and so far, it’s not what I expected. I’ll let you know if that’s good or not once I finish!

I had a few moments at lunch to check NetGalley and I requested a few more books. It will be nice when I’m not so overwhelmed with books to read and can try out some new authors on there!

Well I’d better get reading!

Have fun!

AJ

One Step and Another

There was a definite lack of energy in my day!

Teaching:

We did our usual printing and phonics this morning. Followed it up with some art this afternoon. We finished our Father’s Day gift by making the buttons. Tomorrow we will decorate an envelope to put them all in. I was happy with how they turned out and only two children had to remake them because they didn’t listen and did them upside down.

After school my mom came up and gave me an honest review of my classroom. It needs work! Lately my house, my car and my classroom all seem to be a wreck:(. At least tonight we got a few things tidied up and better organized! I always love decluttering and organizing- maybe that’s the job I should have gotten:)

Exercise:

I was supposed to run this morning, but yet again I slept instead so I had to go out tonight for my 6km run. It started out slow and painful, but I got faster, though it didn’t feel that way!

At the end I ran into an old running buddy. It was nice to see her, I had forgotten how much I always enjoyed running with her!

Well I have to go read Lyndsay’s report cards as we switched today, then I can go back to sleeping, which seems to be all I do lately!

Have fun!

AJ

Continuously Busy

I’ve enjoyed my day, even though I was busy continuously!

Eating:

I’ve had a good eating day though it’s tough recalibrating for less food! I took this picture just for Maureen so she could look at someone else’s eggs for a change:) I’ll be eating them again tomorrow!I also thought I had better talk about the cookie I had today for my afternoon tea -as I don’t think I ever have.

A student brought me one of these cookies last year and they are actually very tasty for being free of the top eight allergens. They happened to be on sale the last time I went shopping. I have the ginger flavour this time, but I’ve liked the other flavours as well. Just beware that they are dense cookies, not light and fluffy.

It was interesting that the little girl who is going to be a food blogger when she grows up brought me a big bag of the bacon crisps she so liked last week. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I can’t eat them so I just took them to the staffroom.

Teaching:

We had a good day and I enjoyed my students today. I wonder why? We spent this morning doing a sharing circle about our weekend. I was shocked to learn that only four children and myself spent time outside this weekend. 😳I understand it was raining, but it’s always raining here! We also wrote in our journals about animals that hibernate. I had wanted it to be a bit of assessment, but my students seemed to need a little prompting, so I left off with that idea and let them share ideas. The best thing was that my little boy who is very low (doesn’t know all his sounds yet) managed to write a sentence by himself. Yes two of the three words were on the board, but he did it, which with his low self-esteem, was amazing. I had helped him with “A bear hibernates.” And by the time I got back to him he had done, “A frog hibernates.” Score 🎉🎊

We reviewed our addition strategies and also brainstormed with the other grade one class how we can help the community. It wasn’t as great a brainstorming as the others we’ve had about community, but I have to admit I don’t have a ton of ideas either about what five/six year olds can do.

Last thing, we taught all the grade ones a clapping game we learned at our in-service yesterday. I have to admit I loved doing this as I never got to play these games as a kid so it was neat to do it now. I definitely understand how you could spend hours doing this. The kids were having a blast and kept at it much longer than we were expecting them to. I’ll have to see if I can get a video of it tomorrow to show you all:)

After school we had the fun of putting the gymnastics equipment away🙄. After that I was super happy to get my addition file finally organized into the different adding strategies I teach. Hopefully it will be much easier to find appropriate practice pages and games now!

Tea:

My tea today was David’s Tea: Organic Jessi’s Tea. It was actually quite tasty:). I only have one more day out of this box of tea so tomorrow I get the fun of recycling another box. I can’t decide if I’m going to choose the next box based on size or age🤣

Exercise:

I got home by 4:30 so that I could have dinner before my run clinic at 6:30. I was halfway through my bowl of oatmeal when my running buddy texted to say she wasn’t going tonight. I figured I had the option of running in the cold, dark and wet with strangers or just in the cold and wet by myself. I hustled out the door and got my run done before dark. It was a little tough tonight as I literally finished eating as I was going out the door and I wore the wrong pants. They soaked up about ten pounds of water and were dragging behind me by the end, but I went😀. I also pushed myself to keep a steady, faster pace which felt good. A guy on a bike went by and said hi with a smile- makes me wonder what I looked like from behind out there with my pants trailing and splashing through the puddles🤣

Knitting:

I haven’t knitted anything today, though I have found my next project which will be a quick baby sweater out of chunky wool. It will fulfill a HPKCHC challenge and hopefully will suit my friend’s baby to come. I can’t wait to find out what she’s having so I can knit in girl or boy colours rather than white, yellow and green.

Several of you asked for a picture of me in my new sweater( yes I’m like a little kid and had to wear it today). I don’t know if it’s mental or not, but I swear it kept me warmer than any store bought sweater does! Please just remember I’m not photogenic! I swear I gain ten pounds just turning the camera on!

I’ve been tidying at home tonight as knit night is at my place tomorrow.

Photo Project:

I got one box of the developed photos labelled and erased off my phone. I really thought it would free up more space than it did. Of course, I seriously don’t understand my phone as this morning I did nothing and watched the memory decrease by 0.3😏

Reading:

I took another page from Maureen’s book and spent some time this evening on the couch enjoying my book, Ready Player One by Ernest Clive. So far so good, but I better get going on it as I think book club is approaching rapidly! I had really better look that up!

I have also spent some time reading blogs tonight. I’ve been trying to go and read the latest post of whoever has liked or commented on my posts. It’s a different approach, but I’ll give it a shot and see how it works.

Well, I’m going to try for one more chapter of my book before I head for bed.

Have fun!

AJ

One Foot in Front of the Other

It’s been a good day, just wish I felt better to enjoy it!

Exercise:

I was almost glad to wake up with a sore throat this morning as it explains my lack of energy and vigor lately. I did Bea Free‘a Tuesday workout. This was another deck of cards workout that was all ab exercises. I don’t think my abs have ever had twenty five minutes spent just on them. I’ll make sure they do again though! This week’s exercises by Bea Free are perfect for when you can’t be noisy!

I also got out for an easy going thirty minute run after work today. I was going to go to clinic and do hills tonight but I’ve had this sore throat all day and I can’t miss work tomorrow so I decided not to do a gruelling workout tonight, but I didn’t want to do nothing! It was a great afternoon for a run as I caught a break when the sun was actually out. Glad for my wool though as it’s cold already!

I need to remember how well self- massage works to relieve pain and tightness in my legs during the weeks I don’t go for a massage. I’m finding my legs are feeling tired everyday, so I had better dig out the lotion (something I always have too much of) and dig in to loosen up those tight muscles! I don’t do anything special, but it really seems to help, just try to cover each major muscle group in the leg- quads, hamstrings, shins and calves. I obviously can’t dig my elbow in like my RMT does, but my thumbs are pretty good at digging in 😀

Teaching:

Miss crier had a great day. I’ve noticed that she’s smiling more these days which is good. I’ll take whatever I can get!

I had one little guy who went home after he started crying for the third time and complaining that his throat hurt. He’s not going to learn anything when he’s laying on the floor crying so he might as well go home. If I lay on the floor crying multiple times, will they let me go home, cause my throat hurts too!!??

I got my bottom desk drawer tidied and organized on my prep today. I know this is not exciting for anyone else, but this drawer has been driving me nuts and has been on my to-do list since the beginning of school in September so to have it done feels wonderful!😀

We even managed to get outside for some play time this afternoon as the sun came out. It’s been super windy here yesterday and today. When I opened the door to let the children out the sound of the wind rushing through the trees was amazing! It was so cute to see the children running around trying to catch leaves that the wind was tossing around!

I played a “game” with my anxious little guy first thing this morning. Flip an alphabet card and the first to say the letter name gets the card. I gave him a five second head start each time. He managed to get ten cards which is an improvement from the five letters he knew at the start of the year:) Im hoping that by Christmas we are playing using the sounds, as he’ll know the letter names!

Some of the leaf rubbings I’ve been talking about. Definitely turned out better than the other class’. I should have taken photographic evidence to submit, but didn’t think about it until just now:(

Eating:

I mainly stick to the plan so I’m happy with myself:). Feel so much better!

Family & Friends:

I picked my friend Lyndsay and her son up this morning as her car was broken and she got in with a Starbucks drink for me.  It was totally not necessary, but oh so sweet of her. I don’t know what she got me, but boy did it taste good! Or maybe the taste was enhanced by the kind act!

I also went to let Wilson and Kula out for my friends who were working tonight. Wilson heard the wind and refused to step a paw out the door, but Kula happily played in the yard for a bit before collapsing on my lap.   Awwwww!

I also dropped by to visit my aunt and uncle quickly to get them to take my birthday gift to my nephew over to the Island for me. It was great to see them as it seems like it’s been forever! My uncle of course, asked if I was dating anyone. Sorry to disappoint you uncle, but no one in this town wants to date me, lol. He says I’m too strong and I intimidate guys. I really don’t think that’s possible at 4’7″!🤣
Blogging:

I read about so many good books and ideas and I don’t want to come across as someone who doesn’t follow through so today I started a page for two of the reading challenges that Abbey at Three Cats and a Girl has started. I’ve had to alter the classics challenge a bit as fifty classics in five years was just overwhelming to me when added to all the other reading I do, so I’m aiming for ten:) I know, with my personality, I’ll try to do all ten right away to get the job done. Lol. I did download the Librivox app today which Abbey had suggested. It’s free classic audiobooks. I think I might try listening to them on my longer runs. I’ve been listening to Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott as I knitted today. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to follow it and would lose track of what was happening, but so far so good:)

Reading:

I am still making my way through The Shadow of the Wind. I have twenty more chapters to go before Sunday, but I think I’ll make it as it’s more interesting now. That’s only four chapters a day:) I can do that!

Knitting:

I have finally finished the doll blanket I am making for my secretary’s granddaughter. It is just blocking, but will hopefully be dry by morning! It really is a pretty cream colour, it’s just the lights in my condo that make it look yellow:( Now I need to figure out what to do next. The last class on Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup that I’m interested in this month is learning a new technique. Maybe I’ll look for an entrelac pattern.  Oh as I write this I realize I should cast on the 98-33 handwarmers pattern so that I have them to keep me warm at work!

Well I’m going back to knitting, reading and drinking hot tea with lemon. If anyone has a way to cure a cold (I’ve been taking ColdFX and Emergen-C), I’d love to hear it as I really don’t have time for this right now!

Have fun!

AJ

Fabulous and Fit😀

Today was 99.9% fabulous:)

Exercise:

I started the day by heading out for a run, which almost always guarantees a better day ( as long as I stay away from English muffins, haha)! I decided to be lazy and not cross any streets so I headed out along Ioco Road. This decision was the last of my laziness as this Street is all up and down:( I seem to be choosing hilly runs lately, my butt better look amazing😜!  I got as far as Barber Street so I was happy. It wasn’t bad going into Ioco as there wasn’t much traffic and what there was, was on the opposite side of the street, but coming back was another story, so I cut down to the trail at Old Orchard Park and enjoyed the fabulous trail and morning the rest of the way.

A cute painting on the old fireball that I passed on my run.

I got my walk in by walking to and from school, and then after school was the first boot camp of the year. I work with an amazing woman who used to be an Olympic wrestler. She very kindly agreed to lead a boot camp class, Wednesday after schools for any staff who are interested. It was a tabata style workout and it was great! I was very sweaty by the end of it and felt fabulous for having completed all of my exercise for the day by 5pm:)

Teaching:

My to-do list at work seems to grow by five things each day and I only cross off one if I’m lucky. I decided that I needed to make some progress because this phenomenon was starting to get to me mentally:( I worked at all quiet times today and managed to get all of the children’s duo-tangs labelled. My colleague and I who both teach grade one are doing something g different this year- monthly duo-tangs. The vision teacher told me about them last year when she walked into a catastrophic mess in my classroom ( all revolving around the math duo tangs).  The concept seems simple- every month students start a new duo-tang and they place all work completed that month into that one duo-tang, regardless of which subject the work is.  We liked the idea because sometimes our duo tangs get too full, they often fall apart before the end of the year and we have to store all these subject duo tangs in bins the children can access. With monthly duo tangs, the ones for future months are just stored in the cupboard. Here’s hoping this process works well! It did feel fabulous to get all the books ready and to cross them off my list!

Eating:

I’m having an interesting eating week as I’m trying to go as long as possible without going grocery shopping. Tonight I decided to reach into the back of my cupboard and pull out my 9 Bean Soup Mix and throw it in the crockpot. It can soak tonight and I’ll turn it on in the morning so hopefully it will be ready by the time I get home. It probably won’t be as good as my colleague’s smelled at lunch today, but it’s worth a shot:)

The 0.1% unfabulous is that all I seemed to do when I got home was eat:( Maybe it’s not good that I don’t have my exercising to do when I get home? Just hope I didn’t undo all the fabulous exercise!!!

Knitting:

I found today that as long as I had a bsndaid over my cut, I could knit normally so I got an entire pattern repeat done tonight. So far my afghan is 34 inches long with a border and four pattern repeats. By my calculations, I need six more pattern repeats and then the border. I have five and a half balls of wool left and am thinking I should go pick up some more balls of the wool. I just really don’t want to buy too much as I dislike having wool leftover after a project, especially a big project like an afghan. I’m usually pretty tired of the wool by the time I get to the end. So do I buy more wool or hold off?? 🤔The afghan is fabulously warm and cozy so far and I’m loving the pattern!

Well, I’m going to end my fabulous day with a little bit of reading.

Have fun!

AJ

You win some, you lose some…

Not exciting day, but a productive one:)

Running:

I just got my usual inlet run over to Rocky Point park in this morning. I was frustrated because it took until 25 minutes for me to get into a good rhythm and the run is only 30 minutes! Grrr😖 At one point I thought that after I had been running for a while I wouldn’t have bad or weird runs anymore, but I’ve come to the realization that those odd runs are always going to crop up no matter how often, how far or how well I run normally. I guess I might as well just embrace them. Lol but I do hope I go back to normal soon!

I also got a walk in, shorter than normal and no workout as my legs are feeling achy. I figured a little rest was better than an overuse injury. Tomorrow is another day:)

Back to School:

My mom and I worked all day in my classroom today. I got the major project of my classroom library completed so I’m happy! My books for older kids are all stored and the easy books look enticing:) My mom even got my centres tidied up as well so that they look more inviting to the children. I have a couple big organization projects left, but nothing that can’t be done after the children come back.

Eating:

In June I received a gift certificate to go for high tea at the Cakes and Sweets Bakery in Coquitlam. I called yesterday and made a reservation for today at noon for my mom and I. I was so looking forward to it! I didn’t pack a morning snack as I know that I’m usually so full after high teas ( they are one of my favourite events to go out for)! This morning I received a phone call saying that while they could accommodate gluten free, they couldn’t deal with dairy free. I ended up cancelling my reservation:( Have they never heard of vegan butter or oil??? If I can bake delicious gluten free, dairy free sweets ( that the skeptical men in my family will eat), then they should be able to as well! I was really disappointed and am thinking of stopping in and seeing what they can do for me since I now have an unusable gift certificate:(

With the tea disappointment, my mom did exuded to go to Pasta Polo in Coquitlam for lunch as we needed to get blue painters tape at Rona down the street from there. It was obviously not my day for eating out. I was so hungry that I couldn’t make a decision by the time our waitress got to us, so I ended up with gluten free fusilli with a bolognese sauce. I always get seafood when I go out and I should have stuck with that trend. The food was fine, but it really tasted like something that I could have made at home.😞 The horrible part was the service! I actually had to go looking for someone so that I could pay the bill!  This isn’t my normal experience here so I’ll give it another shot.

Reading:

I finally got to the Burnaby Public Library, McGill Beanch who have a great selection of trashy romance novels:) They even had the book I’ve been looking for! So glad as I refuse to spend money on trashy novels!

Knitting:

I only got eight rows of my afghan done tonight ( I wanted to get my kitchen floor washed in case my mom sees here tomorrow), but it’s fun to do more than just knit one, purl one. This pattern even has a cable.  I will appreciate when I get to know the pattern better though as right now, I’m just following the pattern very carefully!!

Well tomorrow will be another busy day with going to the Fair, so I’m off to bed.

Have fun!

AJ

Phewf!

Have I stopped today??

Running:

I set my alarm this morning after yesterday’s fiasco, but of course it wasn’t necessary as I was wide awake at 6:20am😫  It did mean I got out for a run. I love the start of Fall for running! It’s so crisp out! I had fun with my running app, Runkeeper, this morning as I changed its voice. Now I get my timing cues and a little humor with a Boston accent. It seemed appropriate after my recent vacation:). It was just a half hour but made all the difference! Phewf, I won’t be a monster with a bad attitude like I was yesterday!

I walked to and from work and got out for half of my normal walk today.

Blogging is obviously good for me as I got my workout squeezed in at the end of the day here. I didn’t want to have to admit that I hadn’t done it! I did the ” More than a Minute” workout which is actually twenty minutes of heart pounding cardio. Phewf, I completed all my exercise today.

Teaching:

I went to school today but didn’t see my classroom much:( I met with my co-teacher and we planned and prepped next week ( tough to do but I know I’ll appreciate it next week!). We also got a good start on a year plan. It’s difficult to do and not laid in stone, but the plan definitely helps keep us focused and so that we don’t spend two months on place value🤣

I also had a Department Head meeting today. It looks like I’ll be doing the scheduling and the assemblies this year. A little daunting as the previous teacher was really good at them. I have a tendency to be very blunt so these assemblies might be quite short. I’m going to try and get as much done in advance as I can!!!

Hopefully tomorrow I will get back into my classroom as there is still stuff everywhere!

Eating:

I was good until I came home from school. I had no snack prepared so I ate everything I could find:(

Socializing:

I ended up going to Earls in Port Coquitlam with a couple of friends for happy hour. We do this sometimes and it often makes me feel like I’m actually an adult, lol. All I need now is to come home with leftovers to complete the picture I have in my in head of being an adult. Lol my life is definitely not as exciting as I obviously thought it would be.  I had tea really looking forward to having a fish taco butter then r waitress didn’t seem too sure it could be gluten free and dairy free so I just went with garlic fries that are done in their own fryer. For three dollars you would think I could have stopped eating when I was full, but no I kept going and ate them all. By the end I felt completely sick! Thankfully it seems to have been a case of eating too much, not an allergic reaction, phewf! I’m just so mad at myself because I was already up in weight this morning and now this afternoon and evening I’ve let my eating get out of control😞 I think the timing was the biggest problem for me. I am hungry when I get home from school and usually have dinner right away, so I ate too much before going out. Next time, I should take a small snack and just stay at school until it’s time to leave for the restaurant. I also had a gin and sprite to drink and didn’t mind it. I’ll have to remember that one as $7.50 for a night out seems pretty good!

Happy hour wasalso beneficial as my friend’s calmed me down about my classroom by reminding me that all the stuff I’m seeing on Pinterest and Instagram is stuff we used to do, but now my district takes a much more calm and natural approach to our classrooms. Phewf, I’m not a screwup, I’m just keeping my surroundings calm so we all remain calm!

Shopping:

I decided to share my garlic breath with everyone and stopped in the way home at Chapters to get a birthday gift for my friend’s son who turned one earlier in August. I bought him three Robert Munsch books and I’ve de used that this will be the beginning of a collection for him. They are a lot of fun to read and he’ll enjoy them for many years.  Now I just have to find a safe spot for a list keeping track of which ones I’ve bought him.

I was obviously meant to go to Chapters today as they had a gluten free, dairy free cookbookSweet Eats For All I’ve borrowed from the library before on sale for $5!!! And they only had one left so it was meant to be!  As I write this I realize I probably should have been looking for a birthday present for my friend as well! I’ll have to think of something bird related for her.

Projects:

I really wanted to start my next knitting project but figured I should finish something already started instead, so I finished my photo album for my trip to Montreal three years ago ( can you tell I’m behind lol). I’m happy it’s done, but mainly because it means tomorrow I can start a new knitting project! Now just to pick one….

Well I want to get up for a run in the morning so I’m off to sleep.

Have fun!

AJ