I love meeces to pieces!

Does anyone remember what cartoon that quote is from? In the cartoon, I think he says that he 'hates those meeces to pieces'. I have no idea what it's from...
Man, keeping a blog is hard when you have to work full-time...didn't know how good I had it! Actually, I did, I savoured my last weeks of leisure before my teaching contract, I knew that I wouldn't be getting much sleep for the term. And I'm not.
I have (almost) completed my first week of term 3. Monday was a student free day, and tomorrow (Friday) we're going on an excursion, so it's not been a bad first week. I am still doing my planning for the term, so that has taken up a lot of my time, and it still is. I have to plan for maths, english, science and history, and since I have a composite class, I have to write a plan for both grades, hence doubling my workload. Being a rookie at this whole 'planning' thing does not help my cause either, but I'm getting there. The principal told us today that he wants as much detail as possible on our assessments for the term in the next week or two. I have scheduled assessments, but I have no idea what I'm going to do for them. Ok, I'll stop carrying on. I should just be thankful that I have full-time work, albeit temporary.
You may remember from earlier posts, that I have a mouse friend/s that like to hang out in my room while I'm not here. Well, I mentioned it to the admin at school before the end of last term, and I was informed that it would be dealt with while I was away. It wasn't. Yesterday I was handed a mouse trap, and today I was handed a teeny container or peanut butter for said mouse trap. This is just what I didn't want to happen. I wanted to come back from holidays, in the delusion that the mouse/mice had moved on, and were now living in a big field somewhere, with plenty of food and friends to play with. I didn't want to have a trap set, and for it to go off while I'm in the room. It's too traumatic for me. This particular trap is called a 'revolver' for crying out loud! How dreadful does that sound??

 

Maybe a door shuts gently behind the mouse when it walks in there? Then I would be able to take it and release it somewhere nice. Somehow, I don't think this is the case. It makes a really loud 'snap' sound when it goes off, which is sure to wake me up if it goes off during the night...and if I so much as hear a little mouse scream, I think I'll cry! :(
I think I need to move on.

This morning, as I was pouring my cereal, one of the other teachers that lives here came walking into the kitchen. Not an odd scenario, but usually she doesn't stay at the accommodation on Wednesday nights, so in my mind, when the other teacher left for work this morning, I figured I was in the place alone. So, when she walked down the hall, and I saw her in my peripheral, I jumped and said "Man! You scared the life outta me!". She didn't though. As soon as I said it, I thought 'that's a really odd expression'. If she had 'scared the life outta me', that would mean I would be slumped on the ground, and really, I probably wouldn't have said anything, because if the life has 'gone outta you', past tense, I presume it doesn't hang around for a few seconds so you can get out a final sentence. Know what I mean? I guess expressions like that don't really mean anything though. They're just that. Expressions. So I shouldn't over think them :)
I should leave my computer for a while, and look at something other than the venetian blinds in my room :)
I hope you are all having a spectacular week!

Peace out! (I never say that in real life, but in a blog, I can pretend to be able to pull a farewell such as this off) :P

The Fortnight That Was...

Man, it's been a while!

I have had a busy (kind of) couple of weeks!

School finished for the term on the 22nd of June. We did have our movie/fun day, I even provided snack bags! On the Thursday I went to the video shop to hire some movies for the kids to choose from. I picked 2 movies: 'Hop' and 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'. I thought they were both winners and thought the kids would be stoked. Little did I know. The next day, 3 of my kids also brought movies for the class to choose from, including my 2, we had a total of 20 movies (or something ridiculous like that). We wrote the names of all of them on the board, and through a few rounds of 'blind voting' they decided on 'Chipwrecked'. Just in case you were wondering, both my movies were voted out by the second round. What a waste of $7. The kids did enjoy 'Chipwrecked', even if they didn't get to finish watching it cause I made them pause it to clean the classroom and sort out their tidy trays. 'Tidy trays' are the little trays in each of their desks where they keep everything from books and worksheets, to dead fruit and rocks. How they managed to avoid sticking their fingers through the semi-rotted fruit each time they opened their tidy tray is a mystery. In fact, I think I might have to think of another name, 'tidy' tray is entirely misleading.

Anyway, once school was finished, and I had tidied up my desk, I headed back to Brissie. On the Saturday, I went to Movieworld with (most of) my small group (Bible study, growth group...whatever you like to call it). I absolutely LOVE theme parks!
When I first moved to Brisbane, I bought a 'world pass' to Dreamworld (and White Water World, but who would visit there over Dreamworld??). I drive past 'the worlds' on my way to and from Lismore, so I would often drop in to Dreamworld on my way past, go on a ride, and then continue my journey. It was the best! Especially if I happened to pass by in the last half hour or so before the park closed, cause I could squeeze in 2 rides then (usually) cause the lines were heaps shorter.
So, 2 of my friends that came to Movieworld the day after school finished were 'not rides people'. In fact, I went to dinner with one of the aforementioned friends a week before we went, and just showing her a picture of one of the rides made her palms clammy. Well, fast forward to a week later and I was so incredibly proud of her, and my other friend too, cause they both went on all the 'scary' rides! What champions! It was a really fun day!
After Movieworld, I headed down to Byron, to meet my friend Amanda for dinner. We had a fantastic dinner! Then we went to watch a band (Amanda knew the drummer) and I sat on the couch, as far away as I could get from the stage, and listened from there. Amanda went to dance for a bit (with a few other friends we knew that had come to watch the band too), and I sat on the couch. I did recross my legs a few times. The rest of the time I spent commenting on how loud the band was. When did I become so old??

For the next few days, I hung out with one of my old Lismore housemates, and her husband, and their 7 week old baby girl. I had not met her before, but I had seen lots of pictures. Talk about a cute baby! She is even cuter in real life! I got lots and lots of cuddles, and we got to have lots of 'chats' too...her little gurgles, goos, and smiles just melted my heart! I caught up with a few other friends too.

Such a sweet little girl! I just love her so much!

Then, I was off to Tamvegas! I made the stupid decision to leave at 10:30pm, not sure what I was thinking! I didn't get to Tamworth til 8:30 the next morning, it's usually a 5.5 hour trip! I had to make lots of stops to sleep cause I was so tired. Learnt my lesson on that one.
I spent just over a week there, it was so nice to relax and just be with my family. One of my sisters lives with my mum, and two of my sisters and my little brother visited while I was there too.
I caught up with my friend Bec while I was there, which was really fun! She came over to watch the end of the state of origin with my sister, nephew and me. Yep. That is definitely why she came over. To watch the state of origin....Anyway, when it was over, we played 'Monopoly Deal' (I won, hands down), and then we slept. In the morning, we went to breakfast at 'The Bell Tower'. I highly recommend that place! I loved it! Heaps of cool antique-y stuff, and the Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and baby spinach was amazing!

Now, I am back in Lismore, to get some more school work done, before heading back to Brissie on Wednesday or Thursday (depending on how long it takes me to finish my planning).

I guess I had better get some planning done tonight, so I should stop rambling on here! :)

See ya!

PS Just purchased 'Speak Now (Extended Version)' on iTunes. The love of her music still remains. I wish I was 10 years younger, then this 'love' wouldn't be so misplaced...