No Mosquitoes This Year?!

It is tradition for me to be scared of the Spring/Summer months. There reason being: mosquitoes!

Normally, mosquitoes LOVE me! I don’t know what it is. Of course, I always go behind the excuse that I’m so sweet, but seriously, it’s not an enjoyable thing.

However, I have only seen one mosquito this summer, between Alberta and New Brunswick. I have not even had a mosquito touch me! What’s going on?!

Have you seen mosquitoes this year? Do you have any insight as to what is going on? I know I saw one article that mosquitoes are on the decline, and as much as that kind of makes me happy, I know it’s bad for the ecosystem. Somebody fill me in!

In Memory of Dolce, My Baby

As I mentioned in my Spring Break post, one of the occurrences was that my little Dolce passed away. So in memory of him, I thought I would share his story.

Originally, I had fallen in love with a different skinny pig. I had gone to the pet store so many times over problems with my fish that eventually my perspective turned from “That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen!” to “I absolutely love him!”. The unfortunate part was that as I walked into the pet store just as this little girl was walking out with my skinny pig. I was devastated. My boyfriend (future husband) at the time was able to send me a list of other pet stores because my heart was too broken to go home without this skinny pig.

I made it to another pet store, and thankfully, there was one skinny pig. I picked him up happily and took him home. This became my Armani.

Armani was an amazing pet, got along well with my dog and everything, but he started screaming at night. Upon some research, I found out they were companion animals and so the reason for his screams was loneliness. Thus began the hunt for another skinny pig.

We just happened to find this “werewolf” skinny pig, about an hour’s drive away. We made that drive. Dolce was a pure black skinny pig. He was less friendly than Armani, but the two got along well. However, it wasn’t more than a few months, and suddenly, we came home and Armani was dead. There weren’t any fight marks or anything, and of course, the pet stores do not record the age of small animals, so I do not know the cause of his death. We watched closely to see if Dolce would be as lonely as Armani was, but he seemed to be fine on his own.

Through our remaining time with Dolce – 4 years – we moved twice, travelled with him to the states several times, and just had such fun with him through everything. He was our little buddy. But as he aged, and as his last week of life came (unknowingly), I was thankful to get to spend some extra time with him before he passed. He will always be my little buddy and I will miss him incredibly.

My little Dolce’s last bath, drying under a nice towel with his most favourite food in the world: carrots!

The Most Emotional Spring Break

Wow. Where do I even begin…

This year I was actually looking forward to my Spring Break (for the first time since I’ve started teaching). I had the new passion planner my parents got me, I booked my days full of cleaning and catching up on life… and grading too.

On Friday, the very first thing that happened was my washing machine broke. I had so much laundry to catch-up on, but that was going to have to wait. Not a good beginning sign…

The next few days went rather well. Starting Monday, I found myself sticking to my schedules I had created, and conquering so much of the work that had been put off for way too long. I cleaned my basement, my kitchen, my entry, my stairs, my bedroom, part of my office, most of my bathroom, and even categorized some items I have to sell! It was so productive. And yes, I got quite a bit of grading done as well. I even spent excess time with my dogs and my skinny pig. I was so happy.

First, I got news that my sister was pregnant. Normally, this would be exciting news, except my sister’s life has been very rocky the last few years. She was currently with a not-so-good boyfriend, a not-so-good job, and renting a bedroom from a house – definitely not a place or situation to raise a child! She also has not had healthcare for years, and is not consistent with taking care of herself – not good for the baby, let alone her!

This turned into a very rocky situation of my step-father taking her to his hotel with him, her leaving behind his back, him buying her a plane ticket and her never returning to the hotel like she said she would. It turned into many phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages, few and far between responses from my sister, and potentially very bad situations that I cannot elaborate on at this time. What resulted of the situation was that my sister promised to be back in time for our day together on Friday which never happened. My step-father ended up picking her up on Sunday, keeping her with him Sunday night, and flying out with her on Monday. I was worried she would even refuse to get on the plane, but for some reason, she did it. Now she is home with my family who will help her get back on her feet and hopefully be able to handle her emotions at this time. It’s going to be a long road for her.

Amidst those difficulties, worrying and stress, my skinny pig died. After having an awesome week, being able to spend all that extra time with him, we noticed he was acting strange on Friday morning. So we went to the pet store, bought liquid vitamins to put in his water, and by the time we came home, he was dead. Mind you, he was at least 4 years old, if not more than that. So for a skinny/guinea pig, he was in the upper range of their age. It is just incredibly sad that he has been with us for 4 years and we have bonded with him so much. Our little guy’s passing was incredibly hard to take amidst everything else on this break.

As the title of this blog speaks, this was probably the most emotional Spring Break I’ve ever had. I hope it’s the last one like this I ever have. But from here, we can only move on and hope for better.

Passion Planner

Hello,

It was a little bit ago that someone had shown me this kickstarter for a passion planner. I love the idea of scheduling and planning, so I took a deeper look at it.

This planner is supposed to be the planner of all planners. Not only can you schedule every day (by the 1/2 hour), but it also is designed to help you reach goals in life. Awesome!

So I told my mom it would be a good idea for Christmas, as well as a few other options so I wouldn’t know what exactly she was getting me. When Christmas came, I got my gifts, opened them, and thought that was it. I did not get the passion planner which was ok.

A couple months later, my mom mentions my planner is coming soon. Woah. I didn’t even know she had ordered it! I guess they were very much on backorder and so it had been my gift all along.

I didn’t use much of it the first week, but since this week is Spring Break, I am using it and being amazed. I plan out my day the night before, and I have been accomplishing so much! I would say that on the first two week days of my break, my house is half cleaned, Spring sorting 1/4 done (we have way too much stuff) and I don’t seem to be forgetting anything, I’m in love. ❤

Have you heard of the passion planner? Do you own one? I’d love to hear what it is doing to help you!

Spring Break – Teacher’s Humour

This is a very short post, but I had to share this chuckle!

As all teacher’s know, Spring Break is a much awaited time! Finally we get a few days to just relax!

Yesterday, I had a grade 5 student come into my classroom and say: “Ahhh…. Mrs. D, this week is killing me!” When I asked the student: “Why?”, the student replied: “Because I am done with school. It’s almost Spring Break!”

Oh hunny, if only you knew…. if only you knew…

Time Change: I Thought I Was Prepared!

For the previous week, before Daylight Savings Time, I had been waking up at 5:00-5:30 a.m. without an alarm clock. I have no idea why, I just had. I of course took advantage of the opportunity to get some laundry, dishes, and house cleaning done before going to work. The more things I can get done in the morning, the better.

I was also under the impression that it would make Daylight Savings Time easier because I was already waking up for what would be the new “on time”. Well, that didn’t work.

This morning, I had that all-too-familiar feeling of being so dreaded tired and really feeling the loss of that hour. I really thought I could do it easily this time!

What are your thoughts about Daylight Savings Time… or “Spring Ahead”. Do you have any tips for making that loss of an hour easier?

Week 7 Day 4

You would think that I’d be more rested today, but that wasn’t the case. I’m so tired and worn out. I’m not getting the rest and the sleep that I need. My body is not recovering.

Somehow I made it out of bed and got to work barely on time. It was another odd day as we had another presenter come for our grades 5-8 assembly. He spoke about his career in acting, his involvement in the music industry, and the things he’d learned about the devil’s involvement and God’s leading. It was an incredible, immaculate presentation which of course left the students with a million questions, and yet again, we had another day where I feel like very little curriculum was actually taught. But when it comes to important questions, I am always game.

This afternoon was bad though. I hit a low. I was tired. I just wanted to put my head down on my desk and sleep. Thankfully, today was my recess duties and the air outside helped me to wake up some.

Today’s workout was mainly three circuits based on back and biceps with a few extra thrown in there. But I noticed that I really struggled with one particular exercise tonight: Box Jumps.

I’m not a jumper. Never have been. I was on the starting line-up the one year I played basketball because I was tall, not because I would jump. They would make me spend so much time jumping against the brick wall, trying to get me to jump higher and higher. But I’m not a jumper. There is no spring in my jump. That being said, I was scared of box jumps for the longest time. I envisioned falling and crashing my knees into the box. And so when our coach started using box jumps, I was hesitant. Instead of going directly to a “box”, I began with the step-up steps so that I could start very small and add levels as I went.

My first set tonight had 4 levels up and I was fine. My second set had 5 levels up and I was fine. But when I got to that 6th level, I freaked. Normally, to beat my mind, I stand on the top and jump down first so that my body realizes the distance between the top and the floor. But even though I could do this many times in a row, my body at some points refused to complete the jump. I found myself several times with my right foot on the top of the jump, and my left foot landing on the floor. My own brain was ceasing my body’s progress!

I can’t deny it was a struggle. It wasn’t that I was incapable, but simply that my brain was telling me that I couldn’t. But I knew better. It may have taken me twice to three times as long as any other set, but I got it done. I beat my brain. I was capable and I showed myself that.

My bed was very welcoming tonight and after both the mental and physical battles in the gym, I was ever so ready to go to sleep.