What a Champion!

Well once again I am blogging about DANCING!! Friday, Saturday and Sunday - What a very long weekend. We had dancers in every single session, every day!

Friday morning Tara wakes up sick and didn't wan't to dance. I left it up to her! She did dance and even got a recall. She came 11th. Then she slept for the next 4 hours. I had to wake her to watch her brother as I knew she wouldn't want to miss him.

Dan danced amazingly. He pulled out the big guns. I questioned him as to how he thought he went and he responded "I danced my best!". He sure did! He said his dream result would be if Marcus came 4th, Nick  came 3rd and Jay and Him tied for first! But ties at States is rare. Now to put you in the picture, at the Australians last year when Dan came 6th, Marcus (2009 Qld State Champion) instead of congratulating Daniel said "Just remember I'm still the State Champion and my trophey is bigger than yours." Hence why Daniel wanted him to come last.

Well the results were in, Nick 4th, Marcus 3rd, and Jay and Daniel tied for 1st!!!!!! Amazing.

Ardal came 2nd and Emilee came 10th. Well done Guys - You make your mother very proud.

I'll add some photos when I have them. Emilee doesn't know how to download them from her iphone yet.

Teams are wonderful, from 2 to 8 children dancing together. We did really well.  Some highlights = Daniel danced in 7 teams on Sunday and got 3 firsts, 1 second and  3 thirds. Tara and Dan with their friend Kirri came 1st in a 3 hand that means 3 dancers. Ardal danced a 2 hand with his friend Lisa and came 2nd, Emilee only dance in one team and came 5th, Cherree was in that team too.

But the highlight of the weekend was watching Daniel dance in the "Dance of Champions". This is where all the champions from all the age groups dance together then they all do a solo part as the crowd cheers!

I can't wait to show you the video of it. I'm going to check out u-tube now!

New Car!

I'm soooooo excited! Tomorrow I get to pick up my new car! O.K well it is a novated lease, but still.... It is a new car. WOW!!!! I went for a test drive last Saturday and took Declan with me. He was so excited that  it had drink holders for everyone. I was excited that it had sensor lights when I pulled into the garage.

The good thing about it is that because it is Turbo Deisel my children can't drive it when they get their P's. They can drive it with their L's. Crazy but I don't mind.

I'll post some photos tomorrow after I pick it up. I have saved myself just over $8000, but purchasing the demo model. Worth it I think, only 1000 km on the clock.

IT is a Holden Captiva 7 seater 4WD! Watch out beach, here we come!

Bunting prize

Yes Thanks to Deb, and the fact that I would like to win the bunting I too am letting you know that half pint honey is giving away some gorgous bunting. I think it would look great in my classroom. Just click on the red highlighted words above and you will be taken to the the half pint honey blog.

In the Navy!!!!

OMG! My young lady Emilee, has made it into the Navy. Emilee applied for the Gap Year along with 11000 other people. There are only 250 positions. She was short listed!

Today she had to go for specialist testing. She has just text me to say, she has made it! I'm so proud of her! Emilee is the sort of person who when has a dream, just goes for it. My only trouble now will be to convince her to keep working at school for the next 4 months.

Emilee's dream now is to be an electircal weapons Engineer in a submarine! I expected her to be the first lady P.M. Since that has already been fulfilled, my aspiration for her now is to be the first female commander (or what ever you call them) of the entire Australian Navy!

Great Work Emilee!!! I'm so proud of you!!!!

Poor little Creatures!

For many years, we have lived surrounded by bush. However progress happens, and this week has seen our beloved secluded house become overexpossed!

From this

To this

I'm really do feel sad for all the little creatures that would have had their homes within the trees and bushes.

The land is for sale for $3M. There is 5 blocks of about 1/3 acre.

I hope no one buys it!

Enjoying my last day!

Like most of you, I spent today wishing I had longer before heading back to school. I started by heading to the market to visit Deb and Toni and bring Toni a coffee. (Did offer a diet coke to Deb, but she already had one). I bought one of Deb's water bottle covers, as my water bottle was wetting my bag and I really loved the owl material she had made it out of.

I then wandered around for about 1 1/2 hours with Cherree. Lovely time together, as I don't spend enough time with her now that I have to share her with Joe.  I picked up a few good buys in my eyes anyway.

My beautiful owl necklace only $8.

I also found these little green plastic gem like things. I thought they would be great for a maths activity or for my numeracy boxes to match concrete, numerals and number words. I got all these for $4.

I also went to the antique shop and bought my husband would you beleive it an old cast iron mincer, complete with extra blade. It has a vice that attaches it to the bench. Needs a good clean, but was only $35. We buy our meat in bulk of course, unsliced to save money. So now Ardal can mince the meat too. I'm looking forward to fresh mince minus most of the fat.

We then went looking for some desperately needed beds for the boys. We found exactly what we wanted at harvey normans.  The bed is on top and under it is a desk, bookshelf, 4 drawers and a cupboard with hanging space. It has steps up to the top and each step is a drawer. I really wanted them but am unable to come up with the $4400 needed. So I'm considering buying one and using it as a template to make the others out of sturdier timber. I'll keep you posted or blogged!

The new me!

This morning I spent a lovely few hours at the pirate park by the beach on Bribie with two of my wonderful friends, Deb and Toni. Thanks Girls, I had a great time.

Then off to the hairdressers for a desperately needed haircut. Working with young children always freaks me out when I think of going to the hairdressers and them finding head lice. Well, no need to worry - all clear! (Well, she didn't say anything if she found any. Either way I'm happy)

I wasn't sure what I wanted but I knew I wanted to be able to wear it down more often and up for school. I also wanted some highlights. The rest was in the hairdresser's scissors.

Well here is the new me....

Can you beleive how curly it is, by just adding a few layers? I really like it. I wonder for how long.

Obsessed or just pride!!!

Today I went into school to ensure my room was ready for the next term. I needed to change things around and make sure everything was in the right place to at least start the term off. Peta joined me, so we probably did more talking than working.

Peta kept asking what I wanted her to do so I just gave some jobs like putting names on my drawers, arranging my sight word wall and checking that there was 2 of each letter card for a game I had made. Everything was fine until Peta was checking the letter cards. She pointed out to me that they had been cut terribly. Not paying to much attention I said I’d take them home to recut.

Well, OMG! Tonight I went to recut them. I was nearly in tears as I looked at cards where the laminate had been cut right back to the card in some places and a centimetre away on the other side, corners cut on an angle instead of rounded, jaggered cuts instead of straight sides. I do know that I am obsessed with things being cut straight but this was like torture for me.

I remembered clearly who I had asked to cut them out (not my usual aide) and I know that I made it clear that I was extremely fussy so please cut straight about 5 mm from each card, and round the corners. It was as if the person involved had done it on purpose just to piss me off, well it worked!!!!!

I just take pride in what I produce. It takes a lot of time and I want it to look good. I don’t think I’m asking too much for people to respect my attitude.

Maybe I’m just too hard to work with, I mean to say rumours have it that one of my teacher aides stopped working on Wednesdays because I put too much pressure on her when I asked that things be cut straight and no black areas on photocopying.

I guess I should do things myself and then I can only blame me if things aren’t up to my expectations.

Now I better get on with enjoying what’s left with our short holiday. Enjoy your family everyone!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful day, celebrating with family. I had a very enjoyable day with my family including Aunty Peta! We enjoyed a nice chicken and salad for lunch. Once again Peta missed the entire family as Tara went out with her friend Grace for the day to celebrate their birthdays from 2 weeks ago. Cherree and Joe were there so we had 10 around the table. We are so noisy when we are all together.

We enjoyed a day of cards, game (Panic), DVD's and just chatting! I am really blessed to have such a large family and wonderful friends.

Coffee....

This aftenoon I went to the coffee club with my dear friend Peta and Mandy, Pam and Leonie. It was great to catch up with Peta, and to hear her tell the girls what she has been up to over her first 5 weeks with Cath. Ed. I can't beleive she still hasn't worked with any children yet! Of course it wasn't very long before we started talking school... What's happening with.... Is .... The questions went on and on. Why is it we can never stop talking school. I'm making a promise to myself that the next time we go for coffee in about a month's time I am not going to even mention school. Do you think I'll be able to do this?????

Any way thanks for a lovely afternoon tea girls! My class is very challenging and I miss working with you Peta... Working so closely with you was definately a highlight in my career. Cath Ed is so lucky to have gained such a wonderful, caring person!

6 days away from home!

For those of you who don't already know, I have been stuck in the hospital with my very sick child Tara. Just look at her -

And this is 3 days after her operation. Tara was sick on Thursday night, with the same sort of pain she has been exhibiting for the last few months where she would wake in the middle of the night with a belly ache and the feeling that she was going to vomit. Considering her age I put it down to maybe the beginning stages of getting her period. However when the pain didn't go away Ardal took her to the hospital. They did a urine sample and dicovered she had blood and protein in her urine. They did blood tests and gave her pain relief. By morning she was feeling sick but o.k. so was sent home. She didn't want to go home she wanted to go to school sooff to school goes Tara. By 10am she was ill again and came to my room and feel asleep under my desk. It was Liam's birthday so we had our family dinner, but Tara slept through it. She woke at 8pm and asked for a cheese sandwich. She only managed a bite of the crust before she started vomiting. Ardal insisted that I take her back to the hospital but I was reluctant as  Ardal had been the night before. So when she continued vomiting and crying and the time was 1am I thought I better take her.

As soon as we saw the doctor the surgeon was called and preparation started for Tara's appendicectomy. She was tortured as they put 2 drips in, and a cathetar (excrutiating to watch my baby girl having this done after all our talks about private parts). Tara was screaming in pain despite the morphine.

After the operation Tara has taken a very long time to recover. Temps still happening now 6 days later despite 3 different antibiotics. Today she was discharged and I have a discharge summary that states she had a 3mm perforation in her appendix and that she had acute gangrenous appendicitis. They had told me they were bad but that they didn't perforate, but now I have the results to see for myself.

I need to say a special thank you to AUNTY PETA! Peta sat with me each night and made sure Tara had everything she needed including some beautiful new p.j's. She also made sure that I was eating and drinking. She also took Declan out with her for a whole day. Declan loved it.Thanks Peta!

The most devastating news for Tara is that she can't dance for 6 weeks!!!! She will miss two competitions and grade exams. However I have already seen her dancing with her hands.

Tara's war wounds!

I'm so tired and feeling so alone!

I have never felt so worn out as I am at the moment. I come home and all I want to do is sleep. Tonight is dancing night and I opted not to go (so I really am tired).
The majority of my class is wonderful while there are a few that really need some moulding. Here I am at the same school as my friend Kristie, yet I never get the chance to talk with her. The fact that I'm teaching year 1 but am not in the same block as the other year 1 teachers is another isolation. I stood on parade this morning and reflected on the fact that I am one of the long timers now left at Caboolture East. This is my 8th year there. I am now being asked to present info for the initiation of the new teachers. I miss all of you, probably way more than you guys miss me.

I look at my class and Peta comes straight to mind. I look into the faces of some of my precious little students and know that they were placed in my class so that Peta and I could spend another year together. Oh, how I miss my dear friend Peta!

I hope I never have to use it!

Second day of PFD was definately a worthwhile Agenda. After a brief meeting, teachers were able to work in their classrooms until 12.30pm. Andrea, Peta, Jessica (Peta's replacement) and I sat down to decide on when we wanted Jessica to work in our rooms and when we would have our teacher aide (Pam). We also have a special ed teacher named Gaye. She is deaf and has an interpreter. She will be working with us as an extra teacher for 5 weeks. So once again that means lots of people in and out of my room, at least for the first 5 weeks.

While we had that time in our rooms I didn't get much in setup done because there was always someone that needed some information from me. I mean to say it is like over 1/2 the early phase teachers are  new. We have 2 new teachers in Prep, and new teacher in year 1 and one in year 2, 1 in year 3. We also have 2 new special ed teachers. But you all know how much I love being helpful, so I have been sharing planning, resources, smartboard activities, offering to help people set up virtual classrooms. So feel free to ask me for anything that you think I could help you with!

I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon session. We were trained in CPR. The presenter was very funny and entertaining. I found it very easy to remember with lots of acronyms. DRABCD - Danger, response, airways, breathing, compressions, defibulator. Easy 2 breaths, 30 compressions for any size person, no more different rates and ratios for different sized/aged people. Makes it so easy - But I really hope I never have to use it. However I would if someone needed my help!

Take care everyone. I'm looking forward to a day of FIRST STEPS IN MATHS - NUMBER tomorrow.

The end is in sight

Once again I headed into my classroom. When I arrived I couldn't beleive that the vinyl was down but the carpet was still pulled back. I thought that another day was wasted. Then the carpet guy turned up and fixed my end of the block. Followed by Dave coming in. He couldn't believe that the concertina doors were lying in the middle of my room. He promptly moved them out and then offered to move my furniture to where I wanted it. Thanks Dave!

My room is beginning to look like a classroom. I went to Kim and asked her if I could do some photocopying. She said yes, so I copied all of the pages for my sight word booklets, my first 3 sight word lists (flashcards -ready to perforate) and my homework for the first term. I feel so organised. Then Kim came and told me that the carpet in my block will be cleaned on Friday! Oh no, I just set up. Now I need to move everything except the big things back off the carpet. But it is worth the clean carpet as it is pretty filthy.

Here are my sight word booklets all bound and the back page in the school colours!

Our little friend was back again tonight. Very friendly and even does my headlice check for me! He is so young, his fur is fluffy and soft!

Surprise Visitor

Wow, what is all that commotion? Tara screaming and Liam yelling and running to try to get into the house. What on earth is going on? Then I see this baby possum trying to grab onto Liam's leg. Liam had long pants on and this little possum was determined  to climb Liam's legs.

We managed to convince Liam to stand still. The little possum climbed up his leg and tried to wrap his arms around Liam bottom. Liam freaked and the possum jumped over to Ardal and nibbled on a carrot until Tara the big brave girl, grabbed a towel and covered the possum. She picked him up and carried him out to a tree.

Now, I can come out of my room. I was hiding behind the door watching from a safe distance. I grabbed my camera and took some photos of our cute visitor.

What do you think? Is he cute?

Here he is hanging by his tail enjoying the carrot we used to coax him, so Tara could carry him outside.

Sea of purple!

Today Jessica was laid to rest. It was an absolutely beautiful service. We were asked to wear something purple as that is Jessica's favourite colour. There were well over a 1000 people present so the chapel was overflowing and as we walked to the gravesite, there was a beautiful sea of purple. My heart goes out to Janelle and Greg and I know I can not fathom the pain they must be experiencing. I know that losing one of my precious children would be unbearable. Butterflies were released as Jess was lowered into the ground.

May you rest in peace Jess!

Cherish the time you have with your family!

Yesterday I received news that my friend Jenelle Roberts had lost her precious dughter Jessica. She died on Saturday night/Sunday morning while sleeping at Jenelle's house with her husband Chris. Apparently it was very sudden, after waking up struggling to breathe she collapsed and died. How tragic to lose your child. My heart goes out to all of Jenelle and Jess's family and friends.

I keep telling my children, my family and my friends - so that means you - that I love you very much and I cherish the time I have spent with you over the years. You just never know when a life may be taken.

Today I spent the morning and a little of the afternoon, helping Peta pack up all her belongings as she departs Caboolture East. She has so much... that I'm grateful she is my friend and is loaning me resources she won't need at the moment and she knows where they are when she needs them. Including her table and chairs. It's easy storgae in my classroom. Thanks Peta!

And the afternoon I spent cutting up cardboard for my sight word flashcards while Daniel and Tara made things out of the scraps. It was time well spent. Sorry no photos today!

Hot Chocolate anyone????

On Friday night I saw on BHG, cute little hot chocolate tea cup biscuits and thought I would try it out. Well, What do you think?

Unfortunately, Tara got empty teacups! At least she got a teacup.

I have also been busy making some resources for homework, so I can have the term's worth already. I decided to make individual flashcards for every child. I know what your thinking - I'm crazy! But look what I did. Each list of my sight words is a set of 10 words. I have printed them with 2 columns and 5 rows. Then I just perforated them. I will start with giving a strip of 5 and the parents can tear them into cards. Then each week after testing, new words will be added by just tearing off the next words.

This matches the sight word booklets I have made and bound with my Christmas present I bought for myself from WOW. This is a photo of my prototype that Declan has loved practicing from.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I'm going to go and clean my mess in the kitchen.

Da..Da..Look what Liam can do!

Just thought I would show off a pair of shorts Liam has made at school. He did a very good job and got a B. Liam is also a very good at cooking. I often wake up to find a mess in the kitchen where he has made chocolate brownies (his speciality) or anzac biscuits. Today I'm going to teach him how to make shortbread. Tune in again later to see our creations.

Hangin with my friend!

What a day! Very productive and rewarding. Thanks to Peta's expertise, Kristie's Inspiration and my Competitive nature, I set out to make some durable pockets for the children's newsletters. I arrived at Peta's at 8.30am and we headed to J.J's at Redcliffe. I managed to purchase 2.5 m of green curtain material, 2.5 m of pink and green material, 2 m of green ribbon, 10 m of stretchy wire, 10 hooks and a reel of pink cotton for less than $50. Very impressed with this.

We decided to do the pockets back to back with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. I intend to hang the pockets on a portable hanger so I can move it out and in each day. (Some of you would have seen what we used last year). It was quite funny to hear Peta saying "I don't think my machine has ever gone so slow". But slow and steady wins the race and look at the pockets! Great team work. Peta pins and lines up and just tells me where to sew. Just like a personalised tutorial only better.

We also made Name tags. Not that I'll need them as I know all the children in my class. But a supply teacher and of course Peta's replacement will need them. I'm very happy with my peg labels too. Thanks to Peta for letting me use her cropadile and eyelet gadgets so the laminate won't tear.

Thanks Again, Peta! Your an awesome friend!

"I need to go to the toilet!"

Well to my surprise I actually enjoyed watching Avatar 3D. Was a bit too violent for Declan, but he enjoyed trying to catch the 3D items that came close to him. I took Declan and Tara to the toilet just prior to the movie, within 1/2 an hour Tara decided she needed to go again. 1/2 hour later Declan needed to go, I managed to get him to hold on a little longer and he managed about 20 minutes before crying out that he was busting. So off to the toilet again. Thank Goodness we took up the entire row and I didn't have to get past other people.

TOTAL AMOUNT FOR A MOVIE OUTING WITH OUR FAMILY - $141.50

Thanks Aunty Virginia!

We're off to see the ...Movies!

Today we are all going to the movies as a family. I can not remember the last time we all went to the movies at the same time. For Christmas, Ardal's sister, Virginia, gave everyone in our family a movie pass. We decided to use them all together so the movie chosen is  Avatar 3D. I would have rather seen The princess and the frog, but majority rules! I'll let you know what it was like.
Enjoy your Thursday!

No internet for a whole week!!!!

So now I'm back home, I can finally get on the net. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

So where do I begin - Christmas Day was spent at home playing on the wii. Challenge after challenge - Declan is definately talented at playing on the wii. We enjoyed Christmas lunch before takng the Liam, Daniel, Declan and Tara fishing. After fishing we packed our bags to head on our annual trip to my brother's farm just out of Pottsville at Round Mountain.

Dave and Kim had warned us that they were extremely low on water and that we would be bathing in the river. However, we brought the rains with us. Our first night in our tent was fine, but the second we got flooded. On our third day, one of the tent poles snapped and as the boys tried to fix it they put it through the roof. Well, 12 years with all of us and quite a battering our poor tent was laid to rest! And we moved into the lounge room of the farm house.

Tuesday night was a night my children will never forget. Time with their older cousins led Ardal and Liam astray. Emilee too buckled to the influenced of her cousins. But I won't blog about what they did, ask  me when you see me next! They are soooooo lucky I love them heaps. However, their cousins Kendall (19)and Joshua (25) are still grovelling to me!

Wednesday 30th December, saw Ardal's mum remarry. We prepared to leave the farm to travel back to Brisbane in plenty of time, but as per usual our car wouldn't start. We were taking two cars anyway so I headed on, as Daniel needed to be there to give Grandma away. Eventually Ardal got the car going and we arrived just in time.

I tried hard to get  a photo of all my children dressed up but there was always one of them not looking or doing something silly so this is the best one (Sorry Declan! And I'm so glad you can't see that Tara had no shoes!)

The rest of our holiday was very relaxing. We celebrated Cherree's 18th Birthday at the farm as she didn't want a party, but did want to go on her annual hoilday.I can't believe I have an adult now! She is definately planning for the future - Uni, Marriage and Children. Looking at buying a house with her boyfriend Joe. Joe came on holidays with us, so really got to mingle with the family. Spending time with family is soooo nice when you all get on.

I really like these photos of my children.

Oh, by the way I spent an hour today carefully going through Woolworths online, sticking to my budget. When I checked out the check out I was told they don't service my area!!! Aghhhhh!!! They could have said that when I logged in with my postcode. Looks like I'll be hitting the shops once again tomorrow.