The "Real" party

Check out the pictures AND video of Aaron's "Real" birthday party on Wednesday night here.

AND....bonus for this blog...here's a video of all of us girls doing the Macarena. It might be cheesy and corny, but it gets people moving!

Aaron's 30!

There was a "pre-Birthday" party here tonight, and the last guest left 6 minutes before midnight. Here are the pictures: (Is there any way to upload more than one picture at a time?)




Aaron's gift TO us was his stupendous rendition of "Business Time" by Flight of the Conchords...I'm thinking maybe it was a hint...for me...


Aaron in his last moments of his 20's


Aaron in his first moments of his 30's


Oops...how did that get in here??

Renovation Update (Bee-beep)

Aaron has been working hard (with the help of several amazing friends) to jackhammer and remove the concrete from the basement floor. He got a crew together on one of the days I was in Olds, and they got a LOT done. When he started jackhammering again today, I noticed that Suki was really restless, trying to find a place that was a bit quieter, and not vibrating, I imagine. I'm sure she was left to endure it last week, so I thought I would take her outside, where it was a bit quieter, today. It soon started to rain, and she started to howl, so I moved the round patio table onto the lawn to make an umbrella for her, put "her" towel underneath, and there she stayed.

After the all the hard work today (thank-you Ryan, Glen, Philip and Udo!),the end is in sight! Here's where we're at:

South-West side of the basement:

I got a large chunk of it all raked and cleared...Aaron still has a little jackhammering to do along the footings.



South-East side of the basement:

Lots of raking left to do in the middle, and the whole far end of the room is still the big pieces of broken up concrete...plus a couple feet of un-jackhammered concrete on the far wall.




North-West side of the basement:

Just a little raking left in here, level things out a bit.



North-West side of the basement:

Not much left to do here! Ryan cleared most of it for us today!




Here's the pile of concrete in the front lawn BEFORE we went on holidays (July 27):





Here's the pile of concrete as of 9:30 this evening:


And we ain't even finished yet! Having this part done will be one HUGE check mark on the giant list of things to do.

My favourite thing of the day

When Aaron's flip flops broke on our bike trip in BC (more on that story to come), he had to go get new ones. Sadly enough (ha), there was a "Buy One Get One Half Off" sale at the store where he found the ones he liked. I was poking around, waiting for him to make up his mind, and I found the BEST shoes EVER!!

SHOES WITH FROGS!!!



Our new shoes:

Living my life 5 things at a time...

I have been avoiding posting the last week or so mostly because I just feel too mentally exhausted and overwhelmed to muster up the energy it takes to think of something to write, or even just to write.

Tonight, I was browsing through my usual blogs, and came across Zaak's new idea (which came from Petra, which came from Adam)...So, I started a NEW blog here, where you can see my list of the Next 5 Things, and read about my courageous feats of goal completion (or just kick my butt if I'm not doing anything...).

Here I go!

Maybe....

...what bothers me the most about the prospect of not teaching is that I feel like it wouldn't really be my decision, in that the retardedness of other people is going to keep me from doing what I am passionate about. Yet another thing that I feel completely out of control over. My own career. Ridiculous.

I know I have control issues, but not in a "bad" way...in that I feel like I'm either a doormat or a ()itch. I'm a doormat until I finally have had enough, or the odd, strange time when I actually stick up for myself right away, and then it's ALWAYS (yes, a big word, but really, it's quite true) perceived that I'm being ()itchy, self-serving, controlling, etc., etc., etc....I feel like giving up.

Workin' 9-5.....

If you've known me for any time at all, you know all about my employment woes. A teacher by profession, I love kids. I love teaching them, I love playing with them, I love telling them stories, I love listening to their stories. What I DON'T like about teaching is the HUGE lack of support I have found from most of the administration and a very painful minority of parents. Strangely enough, for me, however, I am not going to spend this blog entry complaining about it, though. Really, what I'm trying to figure out is "Where do I go from here?"

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and really, I have come to no conclusions. Here are some things I DO know, however.

1)I NEED to bring in an income.
2)I love teaching kids.
3)There are few to no teaching jobs available for me right now.
4)When I get into teaching jobs where I don't have supportive admin, it becomes VERY stressful, to the point of being mentally unhealthy for me.
5)I have my permanent teaching certificate
6)There are people all over the place making money doing random things.
7)I could make money doing something different.
8)I don't want to do anything that would be intricate and complicated, or involve a lot of investment or inventory
9)It's scary...not knowing if I'll get a teaching job, or even if I WILL teach. Either way.


Here are the questions:
1)Do I WANT to pursue something outside of teaching?
2)If I do pursue something outside of teaching, will I be stuck with it?
3)What would I do?
4)Is doing something I like even slightly less than teaching, but brings in a good income going to be satisfying for me?

So. Anyone have any suggestions for me? Answers to my questions? Simple business ideas?