Day 152 Choices (pt 2)

On the college exploration trail again this evening. Tonight's focus was Lake Tuggeranong College. There was not as much confusion and crush at this college and 'I' thought is was laid out better. 

Declan thought the facilities at Canberra College were better, however, I thought that the people were nicer at Lake Tuggeranong. 

One thing that bothered me was the principal made his address to prospective students and said in his talk that he is retiring at the end of the term. I think it would have been appropriate at that point to introduce, or even name, the incoming principal. I know that at Stromlo they knew in advance who the incoming principal was and therefore I assume Lake Tuggeranong would know who their incoming principal will be. 

I would still like to know how subject choices need to be structured for yr 11/12 as this may make a difference what school we choose. At this point, I have a feeling Declan will just choose whatever his friends choose. But whatever happens, he better get on with making the choice as applications have to be in by 15 June!

Day 151 Caramel and chocolate don't go together.

 When I got home this afternoon, Declan told me that Caramel was not allowed to be fed as he had already eaten. Then he explained further.

On the weekend, I bought a pack of assorted muffins from the supermarket. As the week had gone on, some of them had been taken to work/school and the others remained in the pack on the bench. 

When Declan got home, there was a muffin on the floor with a very sheepish Caramel cat standing over it! Declan picked the muffin up and as far as I can see, Caramel only tasted the choc chip muffin but was not overly impressed by it! 

It seems that as the colder weather has set in, the cats are hungrier and if not fed, they will seek out food on their own. Looks like they might need to be fed more often-but not chocolate, Caramel doesn't like it!

Day 150 The key to my....

I got a text from Illi today saying she had left her keys at home. I told her to see if Declan had his. The answer was negative.

This came about as Sean was the last out of the house today and locked the door, therefore the kids didn't need a key in the morning and neither thought to pick up their key for the afternoon! 

As I am traveling with someone else at the moment (allowed to drive again on Friday YAY!) I had no control over when I got home. I told Illi to let themselves onto the back verandah and play with the cats and do homework until I got home.

When I got home I didn't see the kids and thought they must still have been on the back verandah. I turned the key in the front door (but it was already unlocked) and found the kids inside! They had Macgyvered themselves in using a cat toy, a mop, a piece of cardboard and some long skinny limbs! 

Amazing the ingenuity they have when they need it! In an academic educational setting, this would be described as an open ended problem showing real-world application of problem solving abilities and lateral thinking!
Should I fear for their possible future careers?

Day 149 Score!

Flicking around looking for some entertaining tv to watch tonight and found the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. 

I found out that Denise Scott used to be a teacher. I cacked myself at Hughesy and quite a few others, then to top it off, got to experience Paul McDermott singing! 

What a great end to the evening! Sigh...I love Paul!

Day 148 I love you Daddy!

Sean apparently has a very comfy lap. 

Either of the cats can often be found curled up on his lap and they often disturb his work flow. 

Being the patient man he is, if he doesn't want to be nursing a cat, he will still surrender an arm, to ensure the cat does not fall/is comfortable. He will even type an assignment one handed rather than upset whichever lap-warmer happens to be in residence! 

I think the above pic looked really cute, as it looks as if Caramel is cuddling Sean's arm with a look of "MY Daddy" on his face. Who knows what he may have been dreaming of but it looks sweet.

Day 147 A girl's night in

This evening Sean went to the Brumbies game with Trevor and Declan went to Ray's, so Illi and I were having a girl's night in.

 So what do you do? Well, we had an oven dinner (salt and pepper chicken fingers, sweet potato gems and curly fries), then we dyed Illi's hair a plum kind of colour and then planned to watch dvds...unfortunately the latter never eventuated as Illi got too involved with whatever she was doing on the computer!

Day 146 Leaving them behind

 On our way home from Sydney this afternoon, we were lucky enough to miss most of the Friday afternoon traffic as we left North Rocks at a little after 4. 

We jumped on the M2 and encountered a bit of traffic but after about 10mins it was fairly plain sailing. 

As we neared Campbelltown, there seemed to be a bit of traffic in the left lane and as we went around it, it became apparent that the issue was for those turning off to Campbelltown. 

So as we blew raspberries at those in the long line of brake lights, we were on our way home with a good run all the way to Canberra!

Day 145 A pea souper!

What was a lovely clear day this morning turned into a yukky looking day, which I am sure would have contributed to a large number of rear-enders in traffic. It looks like a cold horrible day, although coming from a late autumn Canberra, it was not as bad as it looks.

This pic was taken on my walk from my accommodation across the road to Westfield (a small one) for a browse before a lovely dinner at Little Rock Cafe with some of the other course attendees. 

The day has been very info filled and I am worried my brain might burst, so the downtime this evening was much appreciated!

Day 144 On the road.

This afternoon at the end of the school day, Caroline and I headed off to Sydney to the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children for a course over the next 2 days. 

We have to register between 8.30 and 9am and we would have had to leave home around 5-5.30 to get there on time after having had to contend with Sydney peak hour traffic as we got closer. 

I stayed on campus at RIDBC whereas Caroline went to her sister's house to stay. 

I must say, knowing I only have to walk about 50-100 m to get to 'work' in the morning is strange yet satisfying!

Day 143 Choices

In the ACT, high school finishes at year 10 and year 11 and 12 is undertaken at college. 

This evening, we went to one of the 2 colleges we are zoned for to check it out so we can help Declan make an informed decision about where to go for school next year. 

The evening was due to start at 6pm however when we arrived at about 10 to 6 there were already so many people there that the talk by the principal was closed and we were directed to attend the 7.15pm talk! 

There were a lot of stairs and a lot of people and as I am still not very steady on my feet (got jostled by 2 teachers on the stairs and thought I was a goner!) Sean and the kids explored and were fairly impressed with the facilities. 

At the end of the night, I had the opportunity to talk to the principal though and found out that one of the strands of study that I had discussed with Declan is no longer offered at the school due to lack of staff to teach it. On the up side though, Declan is now less sure about his chosen strand of study and it is not so important that that option is not available! 

Oh well, I guess we will go check out the other option next week to help with the decision....Ugh!! SOO confusing!

Day 142 Morning Tea

 Tomorrow at work we are having our Australia's Biggest Morning Tea in support of the Cancer Council. So this evening, I got my cook on! 

When I contribute to morning tea, I try to take a sweet and a savoury contribution. This evening I made a nut, dairy and gluten free chocolate mud cake and was inspired by Sue to just dust with icing sugar to finish it off. 

I WAS going to stop there, but as Sean was still working on an assignment so I decided to do my pizza offering. As I didn't have the sun dried veges that I normally use on pizza, I decided to just make scrolls as they use less toppings. So having done the cooking and cleaning up, it's finally time for bed!

Day 141 All the way from India.

A few weeks ago, a lady I work with went to India. I had been lamenting that I had to wear skirts over my leg brace and couldn't find may to suit. Caroline decided that she would buy me a skirt in India. 

When she returned last weekend, she gave me 2 skirts, one of which was wrap-around. Unfortunately, it didn't fit me but Caroline suggested it might fit Illi as a dress. Today (despite the temperature) Illi decided to wear it with her black shrug. 

The above is a pic of Illi wearing her Indian wrap-around...and looking quite stylish too, I believe.

Day 140 What social life?

 What to do on a Saturday night? Well as can be seen by the above pic, not much!

 Although Declan's social  life has picked up this weekend (2 sleepovers at 2 different friends houses Fri and Sat nights) mine is pretty much shriveled up! 

So Saturday night finds me watching the Moto GP qualifying on TV and discussing Casey Stoner's future with Sean. I also watched M*A*S*H, and COPS (tv show not movie). 

Oh dear, maybe I should just make it is REALLY interesting night and take myself off to bed...a good idea I think! G'night!

Day 139 Where is my pretty portal?

Recently, the DEC changed the portal where you login to their computer system. It used to be very text based in appearance, but it now looks quite schmick (see above). You can add icons to your home page and it just looks prettier.
When I go to work and use my laptop, my home page is still the old text based version. I would have thought that using the Dept's server that it would default to the new version but alas, it seems not. 

I will just have to figure out how to prompt it to use the new pretty version of the portal rather than the old text based one!

Day 138 Thanks Mum!

A couple of weeks ago, Mum showed me some pics of some beanies she made, I was pretty impressed and asked her to crochet me one in grey/blue. 

Today, I received a parcel from Mum in the mail. When I opened it, I found that she had sent me a heap of the beanies! 

The above pic is of me wearing the white one. She also sent a brown one with a visor, a green/red one, a purple/yellow one and my requested grey/blue one! Illi and I love our new beanies! THANKS MUM!

Day 137 Who's got the power?

 Interestingly, I took this pic in the hope that I would remember to buy a battery. It was sort of a visual prompt for a shopping list. 

It is the battery out of the Dolphin torch. I can't remember the last time I replaced this battery. 

When I went to buy a battery in Kmart, I found that it was more cost effective to buy a torch and 2 batteries, than a battery by itself. That was until I found a generic brand of battery. 

The eveready was about $10, 2 evereadies and a torch were about $19 but the generic Kmart brand was $5 for 2! 

I went for the cheaper option as the torch is not used THAT often!

Day 136 All is good!

I had a follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon today. When I arrived, they sent me for an x-ray to see if the bone was healing. 

Thankfully I got the OK and am allowed to start walking without my brace on. When I asked when/how, the reply was that if I really wanted to I could walk out of the appointment without it! I wasn't quite that brave (still a bit wobbly without it) but am aiming at being brace free by this time next week. 

In other news, he said I can drive again from 1 June! 

The above pic is of the x-ray they took today showing the 2 screws in my leg holding the bone in place! 

Oh and more news, I don't have the screws removed as they are new technology and don't have protruding heads and therefore are screwed in flush with the surrounding ligaments!

Day 135 Ooooeeerrrr!

Today was my first day back at work. For one reason and another, it was a big day. I was meant to ease back into it, but by the time I got home, cooked dinner and finally got to bed, I took a deep breath and realised I was aching all over! 

So glad I don't have to get up quite so early tomorrow! 

(Oh and today's pic is the front lawn at work on my way out the gate to come home today)

Day 134 I let her...

Today was Mother's Day. If anyone asks my kids what they gave me for Mother's Day, the response is
"We LET her take us shopping for new clothes for us" (That's right, they put themselves out and only complained a little bit).
I convinced the kids that as shopping is dear to me, that going shopping with me would be a lovely present. I  bought clothes for both of them (part of being a mum, is having children...and children grow, thus needing new clothes!)
After we finished shopping though, we went to Max Brenner's for a treat. The above pic is of MY dish. We started taking pics of the food as it came out, we took one of Sean's one of Illi's, One of mine, but then I got sidetracked and forgot to take a pic of Declan's! Ooops, but MMMMmmmmm...yummy!

Day 133 Shenanigans...

Apparently this evening, while I was on the phone to a friend, there were some shenanigans going on elsewhere in the house.

Sean came in with the sticky roller (one of those lint removal rollers) and showed it to me. It was covered in long white fur. I asked did you sticky roll the cat? Sean said yes, and look how much fur came off! OMG!

Then, a few minutes later, he was holding Caramel and I said:Why is the cat's paw green?
Sean said:It isn't, it's blue.
I said:Why is the cat's paw blue?
Sean said:Maybe because that's what colour his signature is!

Mother's Day is tomorrow and Sean's hands and the cat's paw are suspiciously similarly coloured! 

Shenanigans I tell you!

Day 132 Mint Patties

Just recently, a facebook friend posted a link to a recipe on facebook for Mint Patties (from here). This afternoon, I checked the cupboards and found that I had the necessary ingredients, so I gave them a go. Instead of using a mix master and the mixing by hand, I used the food processor like you do with pastry. Also, I used milk chocolate to coat them instead of dark choc at Sean's suggestion.

On reflection these are the changes I would make:

*Go back to dark chocolate, they are so sweet that the bitterness of the dark choc would be a better combination than the sweetness of the milk choc.

*Make them smaller. They weren't as big as real mint patties but they are much richer.

*Experiment with how to coat them in chocolate-maybe the consistency of the dark choc would cover them better. I put them in the fridge to harden before coating them which made the chocolate harden before it was properly spread.

Day 131 Found it!

Back when I did my 3rd year prac, the class had been looking at the book "The Floods" by Colin Thompson. As it was a 3-6 class, the teacher read the book to the class, and they loved it. 

I didn't get to read the whole book with the class so I bought it and read it. The story is hilarious and written by an Aussie. It rips off people/situations that are familiar. That was book 1...The series is now up to book 11.

Last year when book 10 came out, I missed buying it and therefore asked for it for my birthday as it was hard to find. In the meantime, I bought book 11 and put it aside (so I could read them in order). 

I finally read 10 a few days ago and went to start on 11 but couldn't find it. I searched for 2 days and finally found it today. It was sitting next to the printer (half underneath) with the phone on top of it! Everyone in the family was most relieved!

If you get the chance I recommend the series, as they are kids chapter books, they are fairly light reading but really hilarious! (Things to watch for...Dead Grandmother; Witch/Wizard college; How they have children; The donkey; familiar TV shows)

Day 130 Shhh...

When we went to Newcastle in March, Sean bought me a pair of earrings for my birthday. 

As I don't believe in giving presents early, and I was in hospital for my birthday, I didn't get the earrings until 16 April. 

Unfortunately a few days later, one of the earrings fell out of my ear broken. It took me about a week to get around to calling the store and they said I could post them back and they would decide what to do about the problem. 

Yesterday I got a call from the store advising they had received the earrings and they were sending me a new pair! Amazingly, I received them today! 

Now, I'm not silly enough to post a pic of them, but above is the box they came in..now you can check them out when I am wearing them...or you can use your imagination :P

Day 129 Laying Foundations

Despite being off work, I have been thinking about going back and how my calendar will be organised. 

We have been trying to plan a picnic since March but have been unable to agree on a date. Every time someone has a new idea or objection to a date, an email is sent but there were so many emails that we were beginning to go over dates already discounted. So I have made a calendar and crossed out all of the unavailable dates, at the moment we are looking like aiming for mid June...I just hope it is not so cold that the jumping castle shatters in the cold winter weather!

Day 128 Brrr!!!

One of the downsides of being a teacher-especially in this region- is playground duty in winter. 

Thankfully my current job doesn't require me to do duties, but I do tend to venture into the playground to track kids down or chat to other teachers when they are on duty. Furthermore, being laid up means I don't have to venture out at all if I don't want to! 

Today, I was hard pressed to want to go out-I did though. Most of the day I was indoors and even kept my slippers on. The top temp got to 11 at around 3pm and it isn't even winter yet! 

The above pic is of my soft slippers, I have looked around and can't find these anymore, the only ones I can find have nonslip stuff on the soles which I don't like, therefore these slippers are quite dear to me.

Day 127 Super?

Today there was a huge media focus on the impending 'super moon' (like here). I went to school with a guy who now works as an astronomer with NASA who directed me to here. 

I still took some pics though...and found out that a camera phone is NOT ideal to capture such spectacles with. The above is what I consider my best pic of the moon-which I really didn't think was THAT super (not any more than normal anyway).

Day 126 Glow-in-the-dark.

When we renovated the house in Gateshead, I found a VERY cool toilet seat at Bunnings. It glowed in the dark! There was a choice of glowing green or glowing blue (guess what I chose! ;D), but in the light, it was white. 

When we left, I wasn't weird enough to take the toilet seat with me, but in hindsight I wish I had. Bunnings no longer keeps them and when I searched online tonight, a new seat is approx $100 (here)! 

Why a glow in the dark toilet seat, you may ask. Well, I found it particularly handy as I don't switch the lights on when I go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Rather than wake other members of the household, I prefer to sneak in and out. I also find if I switch the light on, I wake myself up more as well! 

With a glow in the dark seat, you could see a) where the toilet is; b) if the seat is up or down; and c) if the lid is up or down. These are important pieces of information when you stumble in in the depths of night, only just conscious from a deep sleep with a full to bursting bladder. Many is the time that I have stumbled in and plonked on the loo to find the seat is up and I have landed on the cold porcelain!! OOHHHH!!! 

When we had the exhaust fan installed, we got a glowing switch for the fan so that you don't need to turn the light on to find the fan switch, but now I am striving to get my beloved glow in the dark toilet seat!

BTW the above pic is of the toilet with the light off, the glowing red dot in the top right corner is the exhaust fan switch glowing!

Day 125 Accredited...in ACT.

Part of being a teacher is being accredited. It is a fairly involved process to get accredited in NSW, but I am accredited in ACT. According to the NSW Institute of Teachers,

 *  if you are already provisionally accredited in NSW, forward a certified copy of your current interstate registration to the NSW Institute Teachers so your status can be updated

AND

*  if you are a teacher who lives in a border area and teaches in both states you will be required to meet the maintenance of registration/accreditation requirements in the state in which you live. 

HOWEVER as the ACT Teacher Quality Institute is relatively new, the NSW Institute are unsure of how to proceed with teachers who have ACT accreditation. I was also told by the NSW Institute that as they hadn't done anything with my request...and my ACT registration expired at the end of March, that they would not look at it until I provided proof that I have current registration. 

Today I received my 2012 certificate of registration. Now I have to get a certified copy and send it off to the NSW Institute and cross my fingers!

Day 124 Tucked up and warm.

With temperatures dropping, sometimes you need a little more than just a heater running.
As I am at home alone during the day atm, I have been using a gorgeous fluffy blanket to keep warm.
This evening, while I had the blanket over my legs, Sean sat at the other end of the lounge and snuggled into it with a glass of wine while we watched tv.
With the overnight low expected to be down to zero for the next few nights, it looks like the loungeroom blanket will be well used!

Day 123 Feeding children.

I walked into the kitchen this evening to get started on dinner and found Declan making himself a snack. He had homemade bread with margarine, then sprinkles it with seasoned salt, spread on sour cream and sprinkled with shredded cheese. I asked what he was up to and his reply was "I was hungry!"

It reminded me of a time when he was little and he wouldn't eat the meals I gave him. I was concerned as he only wanted particular food which wasn't providing much variety or balance in his diet (can't remember what it was...but guaranteed it wasn't fruit or veges). I was talking to my sister Chris and voiced my concerns and her reply was "he won't starve, if he is hungry enough he will eat the food you give him."

Also when my kids were younger, I often said to my sister Wendi (whose children are more than 10 years older than my kids) I can't wait until my kids are more self sufficient and I don't have to do everything for them.

Now at the ripe old age of 15, it is amazing what concoctions Declan will come up with when he is hungry enough!

Day 122 1/3 of the way...reflection #1

 Being that today is day 122 of the 366 of the year, I thought it would be a good opportunity for a reflection on the year so far. 

Often, the things I blog about are not necessarily 'big picture' issues, so I thought it would be good to reflect on some things that have happened this year.

I had a shaky start to the year with potential surgery date/s affecting potential employment, however, it seems that things have fallen in to place for the most part. I worked fulltime for term 1, had surgery in the school holidays, and hope to return to work in wk4 of term 2 in a 3 day per week part-time position, which leaves me free to do casual work on the other 2 days (or in the immediate future for medical appointments). 

I was quite unsure about the ISTH job (though glad for the work) in the beginning. I have also been told by my boss, that he was unsure about me taking on the job in the beginning. As I have relaxed into it, I have found it quite interesting and maybe even something I would like to pursue. My boss also has said that my approach and performance has surpassed what he had hoped/imagined of me!

In the first part of the year, we also updated our car. This only happened a couple of weeks before my surgery so we are yet to sell the commodore. It is in quite good condition so we are hopeful that when we start to actively advertise it that it will sell quickly.

All of the birthdays for the family have been celebrated in the first half of the year, hard to believe that those 2 gorgeous babies are now teenagers, one who is taller than me and one who is within centimetres of my height!

We did manage to get away a couple of times in the first part of the year. In January, we went to Sydney and in March we went to Newcastle. Maybe we should look at extending our travels each trip...funny as we have been invited to be at Wendi's on the Gold Coast for Christmas! 

So that is the first 122 days from the big picture, now to strap myself in for the next 122!